Wall Street was generally higher on Thursday, with only the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagging behind much stronger performances from other major benchmarks. Favorable readings on retail sales helped give market participants confidence that there's still more opportunity for gains from an economic perspective, and investors were willing to shrug off continuing pressure on the trade front from China and U.S. allies in Western Europe. Yet some individual companies had bad news that caused their shares to lose ground. Oracle (ORCL +4.75%), Mylan (MYL +0.00%), and Tailored Brands (TLRD +0.00%) were among the worst performers on the day. Here's why they did so poorly.
Oracle gets a downgrade
Shares of Oracle fell 5% after Wall Street analysts cut their views on the database software giant. Analysts at J.P. Morgan reduced their rating on Oracle stock from overweight to neutral and cut their price target slightly to $53 per share, citing a survey of chief information officers that showed Oracle was one of the most likely companies to see reductions in planned spending on their products from clients. In the past, views on purchasing decisions have had a great deal of value in projecting what the immediate future would bring from a sales perspective, and after spending years to adapt to a new competitive field, Oracle will still have to work hard to avoid slipping backward.
Image source: Oracle.
Mylan hopes third time will be the charm
Mylan stock sank 5% in the wake of the company getting another complete response letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a key treatment. The generic-drug maker said that its version of lung treatment Advair from GlaxoSmithKline still had what it called "minor deficiencies," even after the FDA had rejected the generic once before last year. Investors had hoped that Mylan would be able to remedy the problems, but now, it's unclear the extent to which the FDA has concerns or whether Mylan will be able to fix them quickly enough to release its generic version before the end of 2018. Mylan isn't the only victim of the FDA with respect to seeking to sell generic versions of Advair, but investors aren't likely to put up with a third failure for the treatment.
If the suit doesn't fit...
Finally, shares of Tailored Brands plunged nearly 22%. The company behind the Men's Wearhouse brand reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results late Wednesday, which included a 4% rise in revenue that sent adjusted earnings up sharply from year-ago levels. Yet investors were troubled by continued weakness in the company's Jos. A. Bank store chain, which lagged Men's Wearhouse badly and posted only a 1.2% gain in comparable sales. Even with solid bottom-line performance, Tailored Brands also didn't upgrade its guidance for the full year, and that might have disappointed shareholders who had hoped that the business apparel specialist would mount a stronger recovery from its recent challenges.
