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5 of Last Week's Biggest Losers

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz | More Articles
March 14, 2011 | Comments (4)

There are always red arrows pointing down.

The losers are even easier to stop on crummy weeks, and that's just what we had last week with the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq tumbling 1%, 1.3%, and 2.5%, respectively.

Let's take a closer look at five of this past week's biggest sinkers.

Company

Week End March 11

Weekly Loss

My Watchlist
Finisar (Nasdaq: FNSR  )

$23.21

(46%)

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FX Energy (Nasdaq: FXEN  )

$7.46

(34%)

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Opnext (Nasdaq: OPXT  )

$2.63

(30%)

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Fabrinet (NYSE: FN  )

$20.09

(31%)

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Cheniere Energy (AMEX: LNG  )

$7.25

(27%)

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Source: Barron's.

Finisar shares lost nearly half of their value after the optical networking company delivered a disappointing financial report. Finisar's latest quarter was solid, but ho-hum near-term guidance sent longs scrambling for the now former high flier.

FX Energy ran out of power after a few unwelcome developments. FX Energy announced uninspiring discovery well data, completed a dilutive secondary offering, and posted a slightly wider than expected quarterly deficit.

Opnext was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Finisar's peer didn't have anything negative to announce last week, but Finisar's gloomy outlook was enough to send the optical networking sector sharply lower. Other optical networking bystanders including Oclaro (Nasdaq: OCLR  ) and NeoPhotonics (Nasdaq: NPTN  ) also lost nearly a third of their value. See what you've done, Finisar?

A larger than expected secondary offering scared away Fabrinet shareholders. The 7.2 million shares being sold off by insiders won't be dilutive, but it will fatten the float as insider stakes hit the open market. Cynical market watchers have a right to wonder why so many early investors are bailing.

Finally, we have Cheniere Energy trying to defend its good name by filing a lawsuit against hedge fund Centerbridge Partners. The hedge fund claims that a Cheniere subsidiary is in default on its debt. It's obviously a meaty allegation, so the uncertainty bogged down Cheniere even if the claim ultimately proves hollow.

It was a rough week for these five stocks. Let's see which ones bounce back this week.

Which of these five stocks do you think bottomed out last week? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.

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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz enjoys cheering on winners and whispering words of encouragement to the losers. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.


Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

  • Report this Comment On March 14, 2011, at 12:48 PM, Arctus wrote:

    Disclaimer: I have been long FXEN for several years. "Uninspiring well data." Well was commercial and decreases risk of twin/triplet prospects. Increases prospectivity of Lisewo SE - 1 TCF field?

    Secondary offering increased float but cash for shares did not dilute equity value. FXEN now in an improved position to drill multiple wells - less debt. Less risk long-term.

    Quarterly deficit (one cent/share) is an artifact of a zloty-dollar value flunctuation accounting entry, not a loss from operations. This quarterly accounting entry has nothing to do with any cash transactions, just currency fluctuations. The company was otherwise profitable.

    Once PPS approached the secondary offering price ($7.00/share), huge volume traded but price remained above $7. About 10% of shareholders capitulated. Bottomfeeders feasted. Look for stablization and then a substantial improvement in PPS during the coming summer/drilling season.

    I'm long and bullish on FXEN.

  • Report this Comment On March 14, 2011, at 2:30 PM, TCock2 wrote:

    NIce soft touch on Cheniere. If the accusations or "allegations" as you call them, are hollow like you suggest then Cheniere will be a huge winner.

    And, since where there is a winner, there must be a looser, and in this case that will be Centerbridge and unfortunately Centerbridge's stock holders.

    I can see Centerbridge being hit from both sides. Bammm!

    Of course, it could be that Cheniere/Sabine is in the wrong. It could be that Ernst & Young are also wrong. It could be that Citibank and Bloomberg and, and, and, are all also wrong.

    But I don't think so.

  • Report this Comment On March 14, 2011, at 8:02 PM, markzzzzzz wrote:

    I think oclr will bounce back.Look at the ride it took

    today.Unbelievable! All over the map.Up to 13.33 i believe and as low after that at 12.25.

    That's obsurd.Only to close at 12.57.

    This all after a week or so when Crammer mad money himself,said it looks like up from here with

    oclr taking off to over 18 a share.

    Seems to me that if Crammer was even remotely right about this stock it should go back up close to where he spammed it on his show which was 15.65 or so.

    We will see won't we.Besides oclr was positive on their forcast last month when they gave their forcast.

  • Report this Comment On March 23, 2011, at 4:39 AM, JPGINVESTMENTS wrote:

    I watched Cramers show as well. I was interested in OCLR and watch this stock rise after the show. I decided to wait and see where this stock will fall. I waited until OCLR fell below the 10% and bought OCLR at 13.48 and 11.55 . I hope this wasn't a big mistake. The stock is now around 10.41 and I am starting to worry. I had high hopes for this stock and Cramer gave it a good rating. Does anyone have any news more on OCLR? I need help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Related Tickers

5/25/2012 4:00 PM
FNSR $14.59 Up +0.24 +1.67%
Finisar Corp CAPS Rating: ***
OCLR $2.45 Up +0.08 +3.38%
Oclaro, Inc. CAPS Rating: **
OPXT $1.01 Up +0.04 +4.01%
Opnext, Inc. CAPS Rating: ***
LNG $15.01 Down -0.01 -0.07%
Cheniere Energy, I… CAPS Rating: ***
FN $11.44 Up +0.05 +0.44%
Fabrinet CAPS Rating: **
FXEN $4.86 Down -0.09 -1.82%
FX Energy, Inc. CAPS Rating: ****

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