Investors lost confidence in the stock market on Thursday, as many market commentators started to consider the possibility that the long-awaited correction in the major market benchmarks could finally be happening. With small-cap stocks having already fallen substantially from their highs earlier this year, those bearish arguments took on more weight. But company-specific issues weighed on E-Commerce China Dangdang (DANG), ExOne (XONE), and Arctic Cat (ACAT) today, leading to much more dramatic losses for those stocks.
Source: Arctic Cat.
Dangdang dropped 14% as the Chinese e-commerce specialist failed to deliver the strong revenue growth that investors wanted to see. First-quarter sales jumped more than 30% from the year-ago quarter, yet Dangdang just barely turned a profit and reversed its loss during the same quarter last year. Active and new customer counts climbed 16% to 17%, but projections for 30% growth in the current quarter seemed to leave growth investors looking for more. The stock was also downgraded after the report. At this critical time for the Chinese Internet space, Dangdang needs to capitalize as quickly and efficiently as possible in order to hold its own against increasingly strong competition.
Source: ExOne.
ExOne fell 17% after the 3-D printing specialist reported earnings last night. Revenue dropped 8% from year-ago levels, and ExOne's net loss was fully triple what investors had expected from the company. Moreover, ExOne reduced its guidance for the remainder of the year, cutting margin expectations by three percentage points and expecting continued losses at least through the end of the year. Given the poor results, investors are now looking at ExOne's cash-burn rate as they consider whether the company will have to do another dilutive secondary stock offering at some point in the future.
Arctic Cat declined 13% as the maker of snowmobiles and other off-road vehicles dramatically reduced its forward earnings guidance. Revenue jumped 28%, but Arctic Cat was probably one of the only companies in the U.S. economy that can claim that the cold winter benefited its business. Yet even though Arctic Cat raised its dividend by 25%, the company said that adverse currency-exchange considerations in Canada will dramatically hurt its fiscal 2015 results in the coming year, and cut earnings per share expectations by roughly 25%. If the Canadian dollar strengthens, then Arctic Cat could be in an even better position by this time next year.
