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.

Star Scientific's emphasis on smokeless cigarette alternatives may be a sound strategy, but it was the butt of Wall Street's joke after losing a patent infringement battle against Reynolds American (NYS: RAI) . The court upheld some of Star's patents, but didn't feel compelled to revisit a 2009 infringement case where Star came up short.

Teen apparel retailer Pacific Sunwear washed ashore after providing a gloomy outlook for its back-to-school quarter. PacSun sees negative same-store sales and a much larger loss than the pros were expecting for the current quarter.

OmniVision had investors rubbing their eyes after the image sensor giant warned of a soft quarter. OmniVision's been a winner in the past as a popular choice in powering smartphone cameras for handset makers, but some are now wondering what OmniVision's role will be with Apple (NAS: AAPL) on the upcoming iPhone 5.

Camelot Information Systems continues to lose ground after an uninspiring quarterly report posted a week earlier. The Chinese provider of IT and enterprise application services had seen its revenue and adjusted earnings climb 35% and 22%, respectively. Investors don't like to see the top line growing faster than the bottom line.

Then there's Motricity. The mobile phone software provider cut its CEO loose without an immediate replacement. Normally, investors cheer a change at the top after a brutal performance, but the sense of being rudderless isn't always pretty.

It was a rough week for these five stocks; let's see if they bounce back.

At the time thisarticle was published The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Sina and Apple as well as creating a bull call spread position in Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. 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 has a disclosure policy.Longtime Fool contributorRick Munarrizenjoys cheering on winners and whispering words of encouragement to the losers. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story, except for Motricity. He is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.

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