Week in Communications stocks: Snap leads gainers, as Meta sinks
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An unusual week for Communications Services stocks wrapped up with the group falling as a whole - but weighed down mainly by one major stock collapse, and with far more large-cap advancers than decliners.
The sector dropped just 0.2% for the week. Meanwhile, the market-cap-weighted XLC Select Sector SPDR fund tracking Communications Services declined 1.62%, largely due to the stumbling giant at the top of the group. And the week's advancers and decliners really were a tale of two stocks.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) led all large-cap losers, falling 21.4% for the week (and pulling down XLC and countless other indexes and trackers) after investors sold off on some light guidance and a disappointing quarterly profit miss that resulted in the biggest single-day equity wipeout ever.
Meta was joined in the penalty box this week by AT&T (NYSE:T), down 4.5% for the period almost entirely on Tuesday's confirmation that it would execute the WarnerMedia-Discovery combination via a share spin and formally cut its dividend by nearly half. The company's investors can take solace that the stock hasn't gone much lower from there.
Meanwhile, only eight large-cap Communications stocks even finished the week lower than where they started, and six of them declined less than 2% for the period. Behind Meta and AT&T on that list were Telkom Indonesia (NYSE:TLK), down 1.7% for the week; Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH), down 1.1%; and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), down just 0.8%.
On the gainers side, Friday meant that one stock stood out there as well, and that was Snap (NYSE:SNAP) which closed the day with a stellar 58.8% gain after its strong earnings countered Meta-induced doldrums that weighed on social-media names the day before. Snap led the week's large-cap gainers with price improvement of 27.9%.
Videogame makers also had a strong presence among top gainers, as another merger Monday set up more acquisition talk in the space, notably Sony's $3.6 billion deal to acquire Bungie. Sea Limited (NYSE:SE) was the second-best gainer, up 13.5%, and Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO, working its own pursuit of Zynga) was fourth-best with a 10.2% gain.
The week's top five gainers among large-cap Communications Services stocks and larger ($10B market cap or more):
Snap (SNAP), +27.9%;Sea Limited (SE), +13.5%;T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS), +11.3%;Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ:TTWO), +10.2%;Liberty Sirius XM Group Series C (NASDAQ:LSXMK), +9.8%.
The week's top five decliners among large-cap Communications Services stocks and larger ($10B market cap or more):
Meta Platforms (FB), -21.4%;AT&T (T), -4.5%;Telkom Indonesia (TLK), -1.7%;Dish Network (DISH), -1.1%;Comcast (CMCSA), -0.8%.