A humorous look at the companies that caught our eye, for better or worse, this week
Bombardier Inc. (DOG)
Things that give Canadians déja vu: 1) The Leafs lose to the Bruins in the first round of the playoffs; 2) Tim Hortons introduces yet another breakfast wrap and/or grilled panini sandwich; 3) Bombardier releases more depressing financial news. Shares of the plane and train maker tumbled after the company slashed its 2019 revenue forecast by US$1-billion and cut its profit outlook, citing production delays and higher costs in its struggling rail unit. Investors have seen this movie before.
World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (DOG)
If you thought the backbreaker, the brainbuster and the piledriver looked painful, they’re nothing compared with World Wrestling Entertainment’s newest move: the portfolio annihilator. Shares of the company behind Wrestlemania and Smackdown plunged after it reported lower first-quarter revenue and swung to an operating loss of US$6.8-million from a profit of US$21.8-million a year earlier. With TV ratings and attendance both falling in the quarter, investors are yelling uncle.
Harley-Davidson Inc. (DOG)
A year ago, Donald Trump called for a boycott of Harley-Davidson after the company, caught in a tariff war that the U.S. President started, said it would move some production overseas. Now, he’s coming to Harley’s defence, and – surprise – it isn’t helping. Even as Mr. Trump vowed that the United States will retaliate against EU tariffs that are hammering Harley, the shares skidded after the motorcycle maker announced lower first-quarter revenues and earnings. Maybe he should stick to golf?
Intel Corp. (DOG)
Just to clarify: When computer companies talk about “moving to the cloud," they aren’t actually building vast data centres up in the sky inside masses of condensed water vapour. Still, even the computer business here on Earth is subject to gravity. Shares of Intel plummeted after the company slashed its second-quarter and full-year revenue forecasts, hurt by weaker sales of high-end chips to cloud-computing providers following explosive growth last year. When Intel investors look up at the clouds, they see a person crying.
Twitter Inc. (STAR)
How tweet it is. Shares of Twitter rallied after the social network posted better-than-expected revenue growth in the first quarter, driven by an 11-per-cent jump in daily active users and a strong performance from video advertising. With Twitter also announcing steps to curb abusive posts, including a system that uses machine learning to remove offending tweets automatically, the only people complaining are Twitter trolls.
John Heinzl