10 of Wall Street's Biggest Losers This Week

It's been a volatile week for investors, but some stocks suffered far more than others. Here's a look at some of this week's biggest losers -- where they were on Monday and what they cost as of Friday's closing bell.

The details behind the dive
Primo Water put the "Oh" in H2O after posting dry quarterly results. The distributor of purified multi-gallon bottled water through 15,900 retail locations is growing, but it surprised the market with a loss in its latest period. Primo Water is also forecasting red ink during the next two quarters. Purified water doesn't always translate into purified results on the bottom line.
Let's get one thing straight: Stereotaxis doesn't make audio systems for cabbies. Stereotaxis sells cardiology instrument control systems, which basically means that it realizes that shareholder hearts skipped a beat when the stock surrendered more than half of its value on Tuesday. A widening quarterly deficit and the abrupt departure of its CFO find the company scrambling to cost cuts to avoid burning through its cash. Maybe making radios for taxi drivers isn't such a bad idea anymore.

Investors hung up on Motricity after it posted unimpressive quarterly results. The worst part is that its guidance calls for sequential revenue to dip during the current period. Oh, and Motricity will be lucky if it merely breaks even. The company provides mobile data services to wireless carriers that give traditional feature phones some smartphone functionality. This would be a reasonable niche if folks simply weren't trading in their feature phones for smartphones altogether.

Alliance HealthCare Services is in a bind. When a CEO is using phrases like "challenging phase," "difficult economic environment", and "pricing pressure" in discussing his business, it's usually not good. The provider of outpatient diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy services announced a major organizational restructuring and lowered its earlier guidance for all of 2011.

IntraLinks had a double dose of bad news for shareholders. An SEC subpoena asking the secure-content specialist for "certain documents" related to its business casts a cloud over its past. Weak guidance for the current quarter casts a cloud over its present. When it's stormy on both fronts, investors prefer to pull up their galoshes and walk away.

Limelight Networks isn't ready for the limelight. Running a content-delivery network has become a cutthroat business, as rivals sacrifice margins to keep their servers busy providing quick-loading website pages and secure file deliveries for third-party clients. Even though Limelight grew its revenue by 20% in its latest quarter, it reversed a year-ago profit by posting a larger-than-expected loss.

There is no such thing as an Epocratic Oath in medicine, but perhaps there should be. Epocrates -- a provider of mobile drug-reference tools and other interactive services for health-care professionals -- came in a little light on revenue in its latest quarter. Delays in launching its DocAlert messaging system played a part in the shortfall, and Epocrates tweaked its guidance for the year accordingly.

Beef jerky and fruity slushies aren't what they used to be. Convenience-store operator The Pantry rang up a weak quarter, as in-store traffic and the number of drivers fueling up their cars slipped. The Pantry's updated guidance wasn't all that encouraging, either.

SodaStream's stock was feeling more flat than fizzy after failing to follow up a blowout quarter with a bump in guidance. The market interprets this move as an admission of weakness during the second half of the year. SodaStream makes a home-based water-carbonation system that turns tap water into fizzy soft drinks.

Beazer Homes fell to a two-year low after the homebuilder posted uninspiring results. It's not pretty when a quarterly deficit more than doubles and revenue is nearly cut in half. The market knows that this was going to be a tough quarter for residential developers. The homebuyer tax credits dried up during last year's second quarter. However, Beazer's iffy past and iffier financials are leading some to wonder whether it will be one of the few homebuilders left standing by the time folks are interested in buying newly constructed homesteads again.

Cheer up
If you own one or more of these stocks, my condolences. Some of these companies should bounce back, though. If you were looking to buy into any of these stocks, the fundamentals behind the sharp declines will probably temper your enthusiasm -- but congratulations on the opportunity to get in at a more attractive price.

Hold your head up either way. The new trading week awaits at the other end of the weekend.

Longtime Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Motricity. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended shares of SodaStream.