Another week of 2014 is in the books, and for these three companies trading at 52-week lows, it was a week to forget.
Argonaut Gold (TSX: AR)
Argonaut Gold hit a 52-week low on January 27 falling down to $4.76. While it is far below the $9.27 it was at this time last year, there are many promising aspects about this company. It’s well run and has several mines in service that produced over 100,000 ounces of gold in 2013. The dragnet pulling this company down is the plummeting price of gold, which has fallen over $440 per ounce in the last year. Despite the drop in the price of gold, analysts have set an expected target for the Argonaut Gold of $8.00.
Reitmans (Canada) (TSX:RET.A)
For Reitmans Canada, Christmas did not come to the rescue this year, with holiday sales falling 5.3%. This contributed to the stock dropping to its 52-week low of $5.56 on January 31. Recently, Reitmans made the difficult choice to cut its dividend by 75% — perhaps it was the cost of its recent investments into several of its 900 stores. With a solid management structure in place backed by a CEO who has been with the company for 40 years, there is still hope that this turnaround can return the stock back to the $11.88 it saw at this time last year.
Rogers Sugar (TSX: RSI)
It was a bitter week for Rogers Sugar, which hit bottom on January 31 with a stock price of $4.49. Rogers Sugar was hit by several analysts and equities researchers who cut their suggested a price from $5.00 to $4.25, and labeled it as “underperform”. This response was sparked by a Q1 report that showed both a 22% drop in earnings, and lower margins in its consumer segment.
Foolish bottom line
The market is full of highs and lows and savvy investors know when to jump on a good deal. For these companies, a week like this could turn into an opportunity for investors, if they can ride out the waves of the market.
