The stock market finished a strong month on a relatively quiet note on Friday, with mixed performance for major benchmarks still making most investors satisfied with August's excellent results. Most U.S. markets remain near record levels, and that's helping to create an optimistic attitude among market participants amid upbeat forecasts for corporate earnings and healthy levels of business activity on the consumer front. Yet not every stock has been able to participate in the broad-based gains that we've seen lately. Big Lots (BIG -0.58%), Nutanix (NTNX -0.29%), and Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT -1.00%) were among the worst performers on the day. Here's why they did so poorly.
Big Lots looks a little small
Shares of Big Lots gave up 10% after the discount retailer reported its second-quarter financial results. Revenue for the company was higher by only a fraction of a percentage point compared to year-earlier figures, and despite reasonably good comparable-store sales gains of 1.6% for the quarter, net income was down by 17% from the second quarter of 2017. Big Lots tried to give positive news about the future, suggesting that comparable-store sales could accelerate to growth rates of 2% to 4% this quarter, but projections for a slowdown back to low-single-digit percentages for the holiday quarter make it clear that Big Lots isn't 100% confident in its ability to keep executing its turnaround efforts effectively.
Image source: Big Lots.
Nutanix sinks after earnings
Nutanix stock fell 7% in the wake of the cloud computing specialist's release of its fiscal fourth-quarter report. Investors weren't satisfied with the numbers in the report despite some impressive performance, including a 20% rise in revenue on a 15-percentage-point surge in adjusted gross margin figures. Nutanix is still losing money, posting an adjusted loss of $0.11 per share during the quarter, and investors seem to be a bit impatient to see the cloud specialist turn a profit. The long-term story favoring the company appears to be intact, but CEO Dheeraj Pandey and the entire corporate executive team will have to work harder to capitalize on all the opportunities Nutanix has in a fast-growing business.
Goodyear rolls backward
Finally, shares of Goodyear Tire & Rubber finished down 4%. The poor-performing tire maker had to deal with downbeat comments from analysts at Berenberg, who reduced their rating on Goodyear from buy to hold. Berenberg believes that the tire industry is going through a supply glut right now, and it'll take time for dealers to reduce their inventory levels enough to put Goodyear in a position to see extensive reorders to replenish ample supplies. With analysts also cutting their price target by $10 per share to a new price of $23, today's drop leaves Goodyear shares just about exactly where Berenberg expected they might go.
