5 of Last Week's Biggest Losers

There's never a shortage of losers in the stock market.

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

Source: Barron's.

Chinese probiotics maker China-Biotics took a hit after a scathing TheStreet.com report. The bearish piece -- penned by a guest contributor -- detailed an unimpressive tour of the company's facilities relative to its productivity claims. Raising doubts about a smallish Chinese company has been a popular attack strategy by shorts, but now it's time for China-Biotics to respond.

Talbots took a hit after the frumpy retailer offered up a disappointing quarterly report. Some analysts have had enough. Oppenheimer slashed its price target on the apparel chain from $11 to $4. The shares did make up some of its lost ground after a Bloomberg article pitched Talbots as a buyout candidate, but the stock still closed 36% lower on the week.

Neoprobe took a hit on concerns that Lymphoseek -- part of a test to detect the spread of certain tumors -- won't cut it with the Food and Drug Administration. The company fired back on Wednesday, accusing a petitioned attempt to block Lymphoseek as the handiwork of a short-seller.

A123 lost its spark after Pacific Crest Securities downgraded the maker of lithium-ion batteries that are popular with electric cars. The analyst argues that A123's lack of profitability will likely force it into a secondary offering by early 2013.

Finally, we have Hovnanian crumbling like moldy drywall. The homebuilder posted a wider than expected quarterly loss on a 20% dip in revenue. Shrinking gross margins, higher cancellations, and a dip in its order backlog didn't give investors any reasons to stick around.

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.