Monster Worldwide Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know (MWW)

Monster Worldwide Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of online job-search maven Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW ) plunged to new 52-week lows, as far as 12.2% below Wednesday's closing price, before bouncing back to a less terrifying 8% fall.

So what: The Fed just reported another rise in unemployment claims, which is horrible news for placement services in this ultra-tight job market. The pain is shared with other job finders -- both LinkedIn (Nasdaq: LNKD ) and Robert Half International (NYSE: RHI ) dropped as much as 7%, and Dice (NYSE: DHX ) rolled to a 9.3% value loss.

Now what: Sector-wide effects notwithstanding, Monster has suffered more than anyone else in the sector -- so far in 2011, the stock is down by more than 67% and still trades at 170 times trailing earnings. If the company can turn things around before this job market kills it, Monster becomes a very exciting bounce play -- and the balance sheet is still in decent shape. But maybe we should wait before taking the Monster plunge, lest we'd catch a falling knife long before hitting the ground floor.

Interested in more info on Monster Worldwide? Add it to your watchlist.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies discussed here. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool is investors writing for investors.

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 icon found on every comment.