Dian's Column
Dian's Archive



Lipper


Some of earnings season’s top and bottom stocks



By Dian Vujovich

Seems like there’s always a season of one kind or another going on whether you’re an investor or not. The holiday season is right around the corner for everybody. The social season is a big to-do for socialites. But for investors– no matter what level of wealth they enjoy—there’s the season that happens not one, two, three but four times a year: Earnings season.

 

Following the calendar’s clue, earnings season typically happens right after a quarter ends. Since it’s October, this year’s third-quarter earnings season began  October 8.

 

Even though the market indices are reaching new highs, 2013 hasn’t turned out to be the year some analysts had hoped for. Nonetheless, there’s been plenty of money made in equities for those who have invested wisely and luckily.

 

As an aside, given that the government is up and running again, any corporate residue from the 16-day closure won’t show up until this year’s 4th quarter earnings results are in. That will be in January 2014. Once source reports that the shutdown took $24 billion out of our economy and reduced our fourth-quarter GDP by more than one-half of one percent.  How any of that plays into fourth-quarter  corporate earnings reports could be a surprise.

 

Back to now.

 

According to data from the Bespoke Investment Group, stocks that have already reported their earnings have moved up on average 0.45 percent on the day earnings were reported. While not bad for a 1-day move, there have been many companies with price moves far exceeding that.

 

For instance,  Allign Techn (ALGN) and Athena Health (ATHN) both saw 1-day price surges of 23.58 percent and 21.35 percent respectively.  MGIC Investments (MTG) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) saw fourteen-plus percent gains. And then there’s the $1000 plus per share price on Google (GOOG), up 13.16 percent after earnings were reported.

 

Three companies with the biggest 1-day percentage losses included Acacia Research (ACTG), off 21.71 percent, Select Comfort (SCSS), down 21.53 percent, and Ruby Tuesday (RT) down 17.09 percent.

 

To learn more from Bespoke about some of stocks that have already reported their earnings visit: http://tinyurl.com/q8kdbxm.


To read more articles, please visit the column archive.




[ top ]