Pilgrim's Pride Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Investors in chicken wrangler Pilgrim's Pride (NYS: PPC) are running around like headless birds today as shares plunged as much as 15.5% on above-average volume.

So what: The general market is burning today, but Pilgrim's Pride doesn't seem to have any particular reason to suffer more than anyone else. The stock jumped two weeks ago on management's graceful handling of a listeria infestation and held up fairly well after reporting second-quarter results Friday. This news-less day did what those potentially hurtful trading sessions couldn't.

Now what: That terrible fall was only temporary, though: Pilgrim's Pride recovered to a more reasonable single-digit drop later in the day, right alongside rivals Tyson Foods (NYS: TSN) and Sanderson Farms (NAS: SAFM) . It's not like we'll stop eating chicken just because the economy is unpredictable, you know -- if anything, these companies might lose some higher-margin sales of fresh meat but gain volume in the frozen segment as we retrench with cheaper fare for a while.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies discussed here. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool is investors writing for investors.

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