5 of Last Week's Biggest Losers

There's never a shortage of losers in the stock market. Let's take a closer look at five of this past week's biggest sinkers.

Source: Barron's.

Let's start with RadioShack. The small-box retailer had a bad week after revealing that it's about to get even smaller. The chain that sells wireless products and other consumer electronics posted a larger-than-expected loss for its holiday quarter on a brutal 19% drop in comparable-store sales. RadioShack also went public with plans to close as many as 1,100 stores. An earlier report had indicated that the chain would close less than half as many locations. 

Homebuilders have been big winners during the real estate market's recovery, but that doesn't mean every developer is rocking these days. Hovnanian Enterprises slipped after posting a larger-than-expected loss, with revenue climbing a mere 1.6% for the quarter. The culprit here is that it delivered 50 fewer homes than it did during the prior year's holiday quarter. 

Staples brags about stocking a wide variety of office products, but it, too, will follow RadioShack by shrinking in size. The country's largest office-supply superstore company announced plans to close as many as 225 of its locations. With half of its sales now being generated online, the company feels that it no longer needs such a wide physical footprint. 

Yandex slumped on geopolitical factors. Yandex is Russia's largest search engine, and Russia's moves to step up its military initiatives in Ukraine sent investors scurrying to the sidelines. Whether it's the fear that Russia will try to clamp down on cyberspace or just the economic impact on advertisers if Russia is mired in a prolonged and polarizing conflict, investors no longer felt like paying a premium for Yandex.

Piper Jaffray kicked off the week by boosting its price target on 3D Systems from $69 to $82, but it was still a bad week for investors in the poster child of 3-D printing. Zacks Investment Research downgraded 3D Systems -- from "hold" to "strong sell" -- after digesting the company's latest quarterly report. Profitability is going the wrong way as 3D invests in the future, and coming up short on the bottom line in three of the past four quarters isn't going to impress Zacks.

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