The Bot Brief

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

- Victor Hugo

Bots in The News:

For the second week in a row the Bot Index and the S & P 500 ended the month of November in a performance doze. The Bots lost a mere 2 basis points that slipped a bit below the 21 basis points of the broader market. The indifferent approach by investors was in spite of a reasonably good employment number, the increasingly benign energy picture and weakening interest rates.

The drone maker AeroVironment collapsed 10.68% following its powerful earnings report. The company announced that year-over-year sales and earnings surged 62% and 366% respectively. Management increased guidance for the fiscal year to come in between $2.46 to $2.70. However, you can’t fool Wall Street’s sharp analysts that noted there was a negative swing in cash flow from +$24.1 million -$35.7.

This deviation in free cash flow was a serious red flag to investors, prompting a selloff on Wednesday of 15 million shares which is three times the normal volume. Only a slight recovery on Friday kept the destruction from being worse.

Oceaneering International gave up 6.20% after Argus Research reduced its target price to $21 and recently sliding oil prices.

The Japanese stocks within the Bot Index continued their weakness. The poorest performer within the sector was Yaskawa Electric whose stock fell 3.83%.

There was only one stock that performed reasonably well during the week. iRobot gained 7.64% as the sentiment of speculators on the potential Amazon takeover continues to vacillate. The original offer by Amazon was to buy the company at a price of $61 per share. The offer was later rescinded to a value of $51.75. As regulatory concerns over antitrust violations have arisen, the stock has been at the whim of investors’ interpretation of the legislative environment. With the current price at $39.70 and the company still losing money, there is much to be gained or lost until the regulators make a final decision.