GENERAL ELECTRIC (DOG)
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I must be a GE investor. Less than nine years after the industrial conglomerate slashed its dividend by more than two-thirds during the financial crisis, the company hauled out the axe again this week and chopped its payout in half as part of a broad restructuring under new chief executive John Flannery. With GE's stock suffering its biggest single-day decline since April, 2009, investors who stuck with the company are feeling foolish all right.
GE (NYSE), $18.21 (U.S.) down $2.28 or 11.1% over week
BOARDWALK REIT (DOG)
Rental apartments are a stable, reliable investment – unless they're located in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Shares of Boardwalk REIT – which has more than two-thirds of its portfolio in those two energy-dependent provinces – skidded after the trust posted a 27-per-cent drop in funds from operations per unit for the third quarter and slashed its distribution by 56 per cent. Boardwalk is vowing to improve its geographic diversification, but some investors are packing up and moving out.
BEI.UN (TSX), $38.57 down $3.66 or 8.7% over week
BUFFALO WILD WINGS (STAR)
It isn't just the wings that are blazing hot at Buffalo Wild Wings – so is the stock price. Even as the casual dining and sports bar chain has posted lower same-store sales for seven of the last eight quarters, the company reportedly received a takeover bid of $2.3-billion (U.S.) – or more than $150 a share – from private-equity firm Roark Capital Group, which owns Arby's and Carl's Jr. Let's hope the lawyers and investment bankers wipe all the grease and wing sauce off their hands before they sign the takeover documents, or it's going to be a big mess.
BWLD (Nasdaq), $138.25 (U.S.) up $19.40 or 16.3% over week
WAL-MART STORES (STAR)
Bricks-and-mortar stores are dead, right? Um, not so fast. Wal-Mart's stock surged to a record high after the world's biggest retailer reported a quarterly revenue of $123.18-billion (U.S.), topping Wall Street's forecast of $121.05-billion, as sales at U.S. stores open for at least a year rose 2.7 per cent – the biggest increase since the first quarter of 2009. With Wal-Mart's online sales also revving up and the company raising its full-year earnings forecast, this traditional retailer appears to have plenty of life left.
WMT (NYSE), $97.47 (U.S.) up $6.55 or 7.2% over week