Shares of U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Inc. (USX, Financial) fell about 13% on Friday after the company lowered its guidance and Bank of America Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock to neutral from buy.
The company now expects a full-year 2019 operating ratio of 95.5% to 97.5%, compared to the prior guidance of 93%.
“The change in our guidance is based primarily on the change in freight market dynamics," President and CEO Eric Fuller, said. "Importantly, our internal initiatives continue to generate revenue and cost improvement, and we see much room for further operational gains."
Moreover, it is lowering its capital expenditure plan for 2019 to range from $110 million to $130 million from the previous range of $170 million to $190 million.
During the quarter ended March 31, Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio)' Renaissance Technologies sold out of the stock.
Shares of Illumina Inc. (ILMN, Financial) dropped more than 15% on the back of preliminary second-quarter revenue, which is expected to be $835 million. This is slightly up from $830 million a year ago, but $50 million below what Wall Street anticipated.
The weak growth was a consequence of three factors: a large sequencing system order, persistent weakness in the direct-to-consumer market and weakness in non-high-throughput systems.
The company lowered its 2019 revenue growth guidance to 6% from the previous range of 13% to 14%. Further, sequencing revenue is expected to grow 10%.
At the end of the first quarter, Spiros Segalas (Trades, Portfolio) added 14.61% to his holding, Jeremy Grantham (Trades, Portfolio) boosted his position by 5% and Simons' firm boltstered its investment by 687.66%. Stanley Druckenmiller (Trades, Portfolio), Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) and Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio) also added to their holdings, while Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio) reduced his positoin by 2.86% and PRIMECAP Management (Trades, Portfolio) curbed its stake by 0.77%.
Shares of Hillenbrand Inc. (HI, Financial) fell almost 12% on news that it will acquire Milacron Holdings Corp. (MCRN, Financial) for approximately $2 billion, including $686 million in debt.
Milacron shareholders will receive $11.80 in cash and a fixed exchange ratio of 0.1612 shares of Hillenbrand common stock for each share owned.
In the first full year, the transaction is expected to deliver double-digit earnings accretion and annualized cost synergies of approximately $50 million in the following three years.
During the first quarter, Chuck Royce (Trades, Portfolio) added 42.53% to his positon, while Simons' firm, Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio) and Jones reduced their holdings by 78.04%, 29.55% and 78.86%.
Shares of EMCORE Corp. (EMKR, Financial) fell about 10% after the company lowered its third-quarter revenue outlook to between $17 million and $17.5 million from its previous guidance range of $20 million to $22 million.
"Our chip product sales, and GPON in particular, experienced a significant decline in the third quarter, largely due to additional negative effects of the trade dispute with China," CEO Jeffrey Rittichier said.
John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio) reduced his holding by 8.94% to 1,523,093 shares and Royce curbed his stake by 2.99% to 1,077,483 shares. Simons' firm added 15.59% to its position.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
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