A humorous look at the companies that caught our eye, for better or worse, this week
EMPIRE CO. (DOG)
When the CEO's first words are "Clearly a very disappointing second quarter … ," you know the news isn't going to be good. Empire's botched takeover of Safeway in Western Canada continues to haunt the Stellarton, N.S.-based owner of Sobeys as adjusted net earnings plunged 70 per cent. With Safeway shoppers complaining of high prices and spotty selection, they're taking their business elsewhere – and, judging by Empire's tumbling stock price, so are investors.
EMP.A (TSX), $15.00 down $3.51 or 19% over week
NORTH WEST CO. (STAR)
Business quiz! Shares of North West Company, which operates stores in northern and other rural communities, surged after:
a) Santa Claus announced an exclusive 10-year purchasing deal with the chain;
b) The company discovered a large gold deposit beneath a store in the Northwest Territories;
c) Third-quarter net earnings rose 34 per cent, lifted by higher same-store sales and lower share-based compensation costs.
Answer: c.
NWC (TSX), $27.44 up $1.19 or 4.5% over week
OPHTHOTECH (DOG)
The good news for Ophthotech is that macular degeneration patients given its experimental compound Fovista in combination with Novartis's drug Lucentis had improved eyesight in Phase 3 clinical trials. The bad news? The improvement was virtually the same for patients given Lucentis alone. With Fovista not making a statistically significant difference, investors can't see the point of holding the shares, which promptly collapsed on the news.
OPHT (Nasdaq), $5.19 (U.S.) down $33.58 or 86.6% over week
YAHOO (DOG)
If anyone could keep its information safe from hackers, you'd think it would be an Internet expert such as Yahoo. Nope. The technology giant's shares plunged after it disclosed a newly discovered 2013 security breach affecting more than one billion user accounts. Months after Yahoo disclosed a separate 2014 attack, the news is said to have Verizon looking to slash the price of its planned $4.83-billion purchase of Yahoo. Simple solution: Go back to keeping all records on paper.
YHOO (Nasdaq), $38.61 (U.S.) down $3.15 or 7.5% over week
HERTZ GLOBAL HOLDINGS (DOG)
Bad: Ending up in a scary part of town when your rental car's GPS gives you bad directions.
Worse: Owning shares of rental car giant Hertz Global.
The company – which has missed earnings estimates in every quarter but two since 2013 – replaced its CEO and said its three longest-serving directors will also leave as of Jan. 2. Unfortunately for Carl Icahn – who owns 35 per cent of Hertz – news of the shakeup didn't help the shares.
HTZ (NYSE), $22.67 (U.S.) down $1.51 or 6.2% over week