The iPhone 5 launch on Wednesday, Sept. 12 is sure to be the most important event for tech investors this year. The Motley Fool will be hosting a live chat where our top tech analysts will answer your questions and break down what the announcement means for Apple and tech investors everywhere. Be sure to swing by Fool.com at 12:45 p.m. EDT this Wednesday for all your coverage of Apple's next big announcement.
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.
|
Company |
Sept. 7 Closing Price |
Weekly Loss |
My Watchlist |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Audience |
$6.90 | (62%) | Add |
|
LeapFrog |
$9.15 | (16%) | Add |
|
AuRico Gold |
$5.97 | (14%) | Add |
|
Pandora |
$10.47 | (13%) | Add |
|
Sigma Designs |
$6.09 | (11%) | Add |
Source: Barron's.
Audience was the market's biggest loser, shedding nearly two-thirds of its value after revealing that the audio-signal processor specialist's technology may not be available in the upcoming iPhone 5. The drop may seem severe, but it's more a reaction to Audience's ability to license its technology in the future than the licensing revenue that it will have to live without.
Kindle Fires weren't the only tablets getting cheaper this week. LeapFrog lowered the price of its LeapPad1 by $20 to $79.99. The learning toy was one of last holiday season's biggest winners, but investors don't usually warm up to margin-stinging price cuts.
AuRico Gold wasn't all that golden last week. The gold producer hosed down the production estimates at its flagship Ocampo mine.
Pandora slipped after a report revealed that iTunes was working on a rival service that would be made available for iOS, Mac, and Windows devices. It may be a bit of an overreaction given the fact that many other companies have rolled out similar custom streaming platforms, but iTunes remains the top dog in digital music.
Finally, Sigma Designs may have posted a narrower quarterly loss than the market was expecting, but BWS Financial still downgraded the chip maker after the report.
Ready for a bounce
It was a rough week for these five stocks. If you want to shake yesterday's losers and ride tomorrow's winners, a new special report reveals The Motley Fool's top stock for 2012. It's free, but only for a limited time, so check it out now.
