What: Shares of TimkenSteel Corp. (TMST -0.09%) dropped as much as 29% in trading on Monday before settling to a 21% loss late in trading.
So what: The stock surged 75% on Friday after the company reported earnings that beat expectations. Fourth-quarter revenue fell 49% to $206.6 million and net loss was $25.5 million, or $0.58 per share, but that exceeded expectations by $0.10 and investors were excited that TimkenSteel generated $18 million in free cash flow for the period.
The reaction today was due to investors taking gains off the table, not because of any change in the company's position.
Now what: TimkenSteel may have beaten Wall Street's guess at earnings, but it's still experiencing a massive decline in business and continued losses and demand from energy and heavy machinery customers shows no signs of turning around. An earnings beat is welcome news on Wall Street, but the fundamentals behind TimkenSteel's business are still terrible and that's going to keep me out of the stock today.
