The Bot Brief

"There is no force on earth more powerful than an idea whose time has come."       

- Victor Hugo

Bots in The News:

All it took was the sale of 1,867,715 shares of Tesla by founder Elon Musk to push down the Bot Index by 2.65%. Musk’s gambit of pretending to adhere to a social media challenge forced the automaker’s stock down 15.44% for the week. However, even the severity of that decline was less than the 20.69% tumble experienced by 3D Systems. Inexplicably, despite strong free cash flow and a minimum of existing debt, the company announced it was floating a $350 million convertible debt issue. Investors were concerned that the convertible feature would, ultimately, become dilutive to the company’s earnings. Concurrently, there was some angst over the use of the funds and fear that management might make a non-accretive acquisition.

Both Oceaneering International and Brooks Automation’s weaker than expected sales and earnings pushed shares lower by 8.61% and 6.52% respectively.

Shares of Asian components also experienced across the board weakness during the week. Hiwin Technologies fell 10.88% and Keyence Corp. and OMRON each fell in excess of 5%.

There were only two stocks within the Bot Index that experienced notable increases. Cognex Corp. rose 5.14% and Accuray Inc. jumped another 4.28%. Accuray has been on a five-week incline that has taken the stock from $3.90 to $5.85 during the month.

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The Bot Brief is a weekly newsletter designed for economists, investment specialists, journalists, and academicians. It receives no remuneration from any companies that may from time to time be featured in the brief and its commentaries, analysis, opinions, and research represent the subjective views of Balcones Investment Research, LLC. Due to the complex and rapidly changing nature of the subject matter, the company makes no assurances as to the absolute accuracy of material presented.