Shares in Lamb Weston (LW), Hims & Hers (HIMS), and MicroStrategy Inc. (MSTR) posted significant declines on Thursday, dropping by 20 percent, 8 percent, and 6.6 percent, respectively, and here is why:
On Thursday, Lamb Weston’s shares dropped by as much as 23.3 percent at intraday trading to $60 apiece from its previous close of $78.22, before finishing the day down 20 percent to $62.5 each.
According to analysts, investors resorted to selling after the company dropped a bombshell, reporting a jaw-dropping net loss of $36.1 million in the second quarter of the year, a reversal from the $215 million net income posted in the same period last year.
Revenues also tumbled 8 percent to $1.6 billion, missing Wall Street estimates.
It didn’t add up that Lamb Weston Chief Executive Officer Tom Werner acknowledged that the pain “isn’t going away anytime soon,” as headwinds are expected to continue into 2026.
But the headline grabber is the management shakeup, with Chief Operating Officer Michael J. Smith taking over the reins as CEO by January 3, 2025, replacing Werner, who will remain an advisor to the board until August.
Eli Lilly’s Weight Loss Drug Pulls Down Hims & Hers Shares
Meanwhile, telehealth company Hims & Hers saw its stock price drop by 7.67 percent on Thursday to close at $26.36 apiece on news that Eli Lilly—which sells its infamous weight loss drug Zepbound—is no longer in shortage, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The news was a major blow to compounding pharmaceutical companies–including Hims & Hers–selling knockoff versions of the popular diabetes and weight loss drug.
Hims & Hers makes a compounded version of semaglutide, the active ingredient behind Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic and obesity treatment Wegovy.
According to the FDA, the compounders have until February 18, 2025 to March 19, 2025 to wind down their tirzepatide operations. The wind-down period was to avoid disruption to patient treatment.
MicroStrategy (MSTR) Temporarily Halts Bitcoin Purchases
Shares in MicroStrategy on Thursday tumbled by 6.63 percent to $23.18 apiece on speculations that it may temporarily halt Bitcoin purchases starting next month due to a rumored blackout period affecting the issuance of shares or convertible debt.
Publicly traded companies often self-impose these blackout periods and restrict some financial activities to comply with regulations or avoid attracting regulatory attention.
Vance Spencer, a venture capitalist and the founder of Framework Ventures, claimed in his recent X post that MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor “has a blackout period all of January.”
Spencer claimed that MicroStrategy is unable to issue any new convertible notes to buy more Bitcoin, adding that Saylor sees it like a switch for liquidity to move from Bitcoin to altcoins.
“[MicroStrategy] goes for it through Dec 31 and then alt season,” Spencer claimed.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.