What happened
Shares of Blue Apron Holding Inc (APRN) were losing ground again today as pessimism continued to build about the meal-kit service's second-quarter earnings report out later this week. As of 12:51 p.m. EDT, the stock was down 7.8%.
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So what
Though there was no direct news out on Blue Apron, today's sell-off bore a strong resemblance to the stock's slide on Friday when shares lost 10.4%, tracking with a sharp slide in growth stocks as the Nasdaq fell 1.5%. Today, the tech-heavy index was also down 1.5%, and a number of high-priced growth stocks like Netflix and Shopify dove much further.
Blue Apron shares have now fallen 35% since July 12 as recent news including Chick-Fil-A's test of a meal-kit service and rival Chef'd suspending its business appear to have weighed on the stock as competition in the space continues to increase.
Now what
Looking ahead to the company's earnings report due out Thursday morning, analysts are expecting its bottom-line loss to narrow from -$0.47 a year ago to -$0.18 on a 21% decline in revenue to $188.4 million, as new CEO Brad Dickerson has promised to focus on profitability first before growth.
The stock has been volatile pretty much since it debuted on the market over a year ago, and investors are still trying to figure out where the meal-kit industry is going. Expect more volatility heading into Thursday's earnings report.
