Thursday was a quiet day on Wall Street, with the Dow and S&P 500 giving up small amounts of ground and the Nasdaq Composite bucking the trend with a slight gain. Politics commanded the attention of market participants, with the release of the Senate's bill to repeal and replace Obamacare drawing scrutiny and leading to solid gains for the healthcare sector in general. Yet the news wasn't so compelling that the entire market followed suit, and some individual stocks had challenges that sent their share prices lower. Apogee Enterprises (APOG -0.74%), Weibo (WB 2.40%), and Steelcase (SCS 2.01%) were among the worst performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so poorly.
Apogee can't satisfy investors despite solid report
Shares of Apogee Enterprises fell 4% even though the company reported relatively strong financial performance in its fiscal first-quarter results. The maker of glass products for commercial and architectural applications said that revenue climbed 10% from year-ago levels, and adjusted earnings were up very slightly from the first quarter of last year and were still better than the consensus forecast among those following the stock. Challenging markets in the construction business have had their impacts on Apogee in the past, but the company is more optimistic about the prospects for improved performance in the remainder of the year. Yet investors seemed to want more from Apogee's guidance than the company gave them, and that apparently fueled the decline in the stock.
Image source: Apogee Enterprises.
Weibo deals with Chinese regulation
Weibo stock dropped 6% after regulators in China placed a ban on the microblogging website to stop allowing the showing of political videos. The move was part of a concerted effort by the Chinese government, which also targeted two additional platforms today and had previously clamped down on other media outlets. Smart investors had already anticipated the possibility of Chinese regulation having a downward impact on Weibo and other Chinese internet companies, but China has gotten more sensitive about promotions of critical viewpoints and the streaming of noncompliant videos. Nevertheless, long-term investors in Weibo have always seen periodic clampdowns as a threat, and the bigger question is whether such moves will become so frequent that they adversely affect the usefulness of the site for its active users.
Steelcase's disappointing quarter
Finally, shares of Steelcase declined more than 13%. The office furniture specialist reported fiscal first-quarter results yesterday and said that revenue rose just 2% on a 1% rise in orders, with reduced demand from large customers in the key Americas segment weighing on the company's overall results. Earnings were roughly flat from year-ago levels, and the company's guidance for the fiscal second quarter was tepid at best. CEO Jim Keane noted that "our industry is changing as customers begin to adopt dramatically different spaces that support new ways of working," and Steelcase will have to invest in order to keep up with changing demand and deliver the products that its customers want. Steelcase has made similar transitions in the past, but investors don't seem convinced this time around that it can do so without taking at least a short-term financial hit in the process.
