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 Orion Energy Systems. The provider of energy management systems lost nearly a quarter of its value after posting disappointing quarterly results. Revenue declined slightly, but profitability improved. However, the midpoint of Orion's guidance for the current quarter is short of what analysts had been expecting, as its order backlog has shrunk considerably.

United Online became undone after nixing its distributions. The company behind MyPoints and Classmates.com -- as well as a provider of cheap Internet connectivity -- decided to stop paying its generous quarterly distributions. Income investors were drawn to its 5% yield, but revenue has been falling to the point where it just wasn't sustainable.

Blue Nile started sinking after posting financial results. The online jeweler posted a profit during the holiday quarter that fell short of analyst expectations. It did come as a surprise, since Blue Nile has landed ahead of Wall Street's profit targets consistently in each of the year's three earlier quarters. Net sales grew by just 7%, a far cry from its earlier days as a dot-com speedster.

Roundy's investors checked out after announcing and then pricing a secondary stock offering. The regional grocer is selling 8.8 million shares at $7 apiece. It won't all be dilutive. Just 2.9 million shares will be new. The balance is being unloaded by existing shareholders. However, pricing at a big discount to where the stock was before the offering isn't very comforting.

3D Systems stumbled after announcing uninspiring preliminary financial results. The leading maker of 3-D printers is now expecting to earn no more than $0.87 a share for its most recent quarter. Its earlier outlook had called for $0.93 to $1.03 a share in profitability. 3D Systems' income guidance for 2014 is also off the mark.

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The article 5 of Last Week's Biggest Losers originally appeared on Fool.com.

Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends 3D Systems and Blue Nile and owns shares of 3D Systems and United Online. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't 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.

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