Why Stamps.com, Pacific Biosciences of California, and Frontier Communications Slumped Today
Friday was another solid day for the stock market, and the Nasdaq Composite led most major benchmark indexes higher. Strong performance by the technology sector was a key driving force behind the market's overall gains, but other factors lent momentum to the upward move, including a jump of more than $1 per barrel in crude oil prices, which finished the week just under $56 per barrel.
Some companies, though, couldn't share in the broader positive sentiment. After delivering quarterly reports that dissatisfied investors, Stamps.com (NASDAQ: STMP), Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ: PACB), and Frontier Communications (NASDAQ: FTR) were among the worst performers on Friday. Below, we'll look more closely at the results and news that drove their share prices down.
Stamps.com plunged more than 20% despite what appeared to be an upbeat set of results for its third quarter. Revenue rose by 24% year over year, and net income more than doubled. The online postage service also boosted its guidance for the year, pointing to even more encouraging news about its future. Yet investors weren't satisfied with the results. The stock price had doubled since late April, and at those valuations, the market viewed anything short of perfection as justifying a sell-off. Little appears to be wrong with Stamps.com's fundamental performance, though, so the key question is whether its valuation really had gotten ahead of itself, or whether Friday's drop will in the longer-term prove unjustified.
Source: Fool.com