Zynga Inc (ZNGA), Baidu.com, Inc. (BIDU), NVR, Inc. (NVR) & This Week’s Five Dumbest Stock Moves

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4. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)s attract worms
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) managed to surpass watered-down expectations for its latest quarter, but then it pulled the rug from investors with brutally disappointing guidance.

As if the lack of new product announcements in recent months wasn’t bad enough, now investors are knee-deep in a quarter of flat top-line growth with a sharp decline in profitability.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) posted its first year-over-year decline in profitability since 2003 this week, but the current quarter is even scarier.

The faltering consumer tech giant is eyeing $33.5 billion to $35.5 billion in revenue for the new fiscal third quarter, implying a small dip on the top line at the midpoint. The real horror show here is how contracting margins are eroding earnings growth. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s margin and revenue guidance implies that earnings will be in the ballpark of $7 a share, embarrassingly short of both the $9.08 a share Wall Street thought it would crank out and the $9.32-a-share profit it served up a year earlier.

5. Frank LINN
LINN Energy (NASDAQ:LINE) didn’t get the job done this quarter.

Revenue and earnings fell short of Wall Street expectations for the independent oil and natural gas developer. LINN Energy (NASDAQ:LINE)’s adjusted earnings of $0.16 a share were well shy of the $0.24 a share that analysts were targeting.

LINN Energy (NASDAQ:LINE) also fell short of its production guidance. Weather issues caused shut-ins and drilling delays, leading to a daily average of just 796 million cubic feet, below its original production target of 810 million to 845 million cubic feet.

The article This Week’s 5 Dumbest Stock Moves originally appeared on Fool.com.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Apple and Baidu.

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