Friday was neither a good day nor bad day for stocks, with the indices closing pretty much where they did on Thursday. Friday was a fantastic day for commodities, though. Gold as well as oil both jumped 2%. Retail sales also came in above expectations, and the 0.3% improvement for October bodes well for holiday shopping season as lower energy prices have given consumers more discretionary income.
Not every stock out there managed to at least find mediocrity, however. Indeed, Ocwen Financial Corp (OCN), Movado Group, Inc. (MOV), and Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (HTZ) found more than their fair share of bearishness on Friday.
Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ)
Hertz Global Holdings put the hurt on owners of HTZ stock today, to the tune of 4.6%. The company — which in June reported it would need to restate earnings for 2011 and “revise” its 2012 and 2013 accounting statements — now says it found more accounting problems that will require full-blown restatements for every year all the way back to 2011.
Meanwhile, the search for a new CEO continues. The previous one, Mark Frissora, stepped down in September when the accounting errors first began to surface. The thing about accounting errors that’s so scary for the individual investor is the absolute ignorance anyone outside of the inept accounting department has of the problem at hand. I don’t blame Wall Street from selling off HTZ stock in droves today.
Ocwen Financial (OCN)
Surprise! Ocwen Financial won’t be the servicing rights to a $40 billion mortgage loan portfolio after all, and the market isn’t happy about it.
OCN stock tumbled 8.9% on Friday when it was revealed that a pending deal between Ocwen and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC) wouldn’t be happening after all. Per an announcement made in January, Ocwen Financial was going to secure the rights to service $39 billion worth of loans originated by Wells Fargo, which would generate $2.7 billion worth of servicing fees for Ocwen. By February the New York Department of Financial Services began expressing concerns, and after nine months of little to no forward progress, the two companies decided it would be easier to just nix the deal.
While WFC said it wouldn’t have a material impact on its business, OCN sure didn’t feel the same way.
Movado Group (MOV)
Issuing an earnings warning is usually bad enough for your stock. Issuing such a warning right in front of the all-important holiday shopping season — when you’re a consumer goods company — can be downright horrible for your stock’s price. If you don’t believe it, just ask the folks at watchmaker Movado Group, which just lowered its Q3 and Q4 guidance today… just before Christmas.
Terrible news for MOV stock.
The specifics: For Q3, the Paramus, New Jersey-based watchmaker Movado Group believes it will generate income of 86 to 87 cents per share of MOV stock, versus analyst estimates of $1.13. The official numbers will be out on November 25th, but we know this much: they will be abysmal. For Q4, ending on January 31st, Movado Group expects to earn somewhere between 18 and 23 cents per share. The pros were expecting 50 cents.
MOV stock fell 32% on the news.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
