Stocks fell sharply Wednesday after Fitch Ratings downgraded its rating on U.S. long-term debt one notch to AA+ from AAA. The downgrade, Fitch said, reflects “the expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years, a high and growing general government debt burden and the erosion of governance” following repeated debt limit standoffs and last-minute resolutions.
These stocks made notable moves Wednesday:
Generac
(ticker: GNRC) dropped 24% after the company, which sells generators and other backup power systems, reported second-quarter earnings that missed estimates and Chief Executive Aaron Jagdfeld said that “expectations for the consumer environment are now softer than previously projected.” The stock was the worst performer in the
S&P 500.
SolarEdge Technologies
(SEDG) fell 18% after missing second-quarter revenue expectations and issuing a third-quarter revenue forecast that also was below estimates. The company said the U.S. residential solar market was “currently seeing some headwinds primarily related to higher interest rates.” Other solar stocks also fell, with
Enphase Energy
(ENPH) sliding 6.4%,
Sunrun
(RUN) falling 6.8%, and
SunPower
(SPWR) dropping 8.4%.
Paycom Software
(PAYC) reported better-than-expected earnings but third-quarter revenue guidance from the maker of payroll and human-resources software disappointed and the stock sank 19%.
Freshworks
(FRSH) soared 18% after the software development company received several stock price target hikes from Wall Street after posting better-than-expected second-quarter adjusted earnings and raising its outlook for the year.
Scotts Miracle-Gro
(SMG) fell 19% after the maker of lawn and garden care products reported third-quarter adjusted earnings that were worse than expected.
Shares of
e.l.f. Beauty
(ELF) rose 14% after the maker of beauty products reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and sales that smashed Wall Street expectations and boosted guidance for the fiscal year.
Lumen Technologies
(LUMN) fell 12% after the telecommunications company posted a loss of $8.74 billion for its second quarter.
Dynatrace
(DT) dropped 13% even after the software intelligence company posted better-than-expected third-quarter adjusted earnings and raised fiscal-year guidance.
Electronic Arts
(EA) slumped 7.2% after the videogame publisher forecast fiscal second-quarter earnings of 72 cents a share to 89 cents a share on net revenue of $1.83 billion to $1.93 billion, missing analysts’ expectations. EA also said it expects bookings of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion in the period vs. consensus of $1.82 billion.
Pinterest
(PINS) reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings but the stock declined 3.8%.
Write to Joe Woelfel at [email protected]
Read the full article here