Bear Of The Day: Party City (PRTY)

The rally following Election Day has been nothing short of breathtaking. The rising tide has helped to lift all boats and pretty much every sector of the market is up. However, I’ve been warning people about blinding jumping in and buying any stock. You still have to do a little research to insure you’re buying stocks that have compelling EPS stories. What I mean by that is you need to find stocks that have had earnings estimates from analysts moving in the right direction or, at the very least, not continuing to sink.

One such stock that’s seen estimates move in the wrong direction is today’s Bear of the Day Party City (PRTY - Free Report) .Party City Holdco Inc. designs, manufactures, contracts for manufacture and distributes party goods, including paper and plastic tableware, metallic and latex balloons, Halloween and other costumes, accessories, novelties, gifts and stationery. It also operates specialty retail party supply stores primarily in the United States and Canada. Party City Holdco Inc. is based in Elmsford, New York.

The reason why the stock is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) is the multiple earnings estimate revisions to the downside that have happened over the last sixty days. Four analysts have dropped their estimates for the current quarter while five have dropped their numbers for the current year. The bearish sentiment has taken the current quarter Zacks Consensus Estimate from 85 cents to 73 cents and has dropped the current year Zacks Consensus Estimate from $1.23 to $1.13.

The chart has been in a downward trending channel since the stock peaked under $20 in August of this year. Since then the stock has made a series of lower highs and lower lows. The dip down in November below $12 tested the May lows. Recently stocks been selling off aggressively after failing at the 50-day moving average earlier in the month. The commodity channel index is now under -200 indicating an extremely oversold condition in the short-term. This could lead to a little relief rally back to the 50-day.

Investors looking for other stocks in the same industry should check out Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stocks Central Garden (CENT -Free Report) and the Container Store (TCS - Free Report) .

More Stocks to Sell. Now.

Beyond our Bear Stock of the Day, today's list of 220 Zacks Rank #5 Strong Sells demand even more urgent attention. If any are lurking in your portfolio or Watch List, they should be removed immediately. Many appear to be sound investments but, since 1988, such stocks have actually performed more than 11X worse than the S&P 500.

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