Why ManpowerGroup, U.S. Silica Holdings, and Hibbett Sports Slumped Today
Monday was the sort of day for the stock market that you often see during earnings season. Sectors moved different directions, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gaining nearly half a percentage point but the more diversified Dow Jones Industrials falling ever so slightly. The rising euro played a role in dividing the market, making things better for U.S. exporters but increasing costs for those companies that import more of their goods from Europe. A wide variety of companies also reported earnings today, creating crosscurrents that largely canceled each other out on the major benchmarks. ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), U.S. Silica Holdings (NYSE: SLCA), and Hibbett Sports (NASDAQ: HIBB) were among the worst performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so poorly.
Shares of ManpowerGroup lost 9% after the company performed slightly worse than investors had expected in its second-quarter financial report. The provider of global workforce solutions said that revenue grew 3% from the year-ago quarter, and earnings per share gained a healthier 8% despite the downward impact of restructuring charges on its bottom line. Yet the $1.72-per-share bottom-line figure was $0.01 less than investors had wanted to see, and that was apparently enough to spark a sell-off. Nevertheless, CEO Jonas Prising pointed to better economic prospects throughout many of its regions, saying, "The labor markets continue to improve in Europe and across the globe, which is a good foundation for continued profitable growth." The CEO called out France, Italy, Mexico, and Poland as being particularly favorable. Upbeat guidance for the current quarter should have supported positive investor sentiment, but perhaps because shares aren't quite the bargain they were last fall before the stock's 50% rise, ManpowerGroup was vulnerable to a pullback.
Image source: ManpowerGroup.
Source: Fool.com
