Align, Mattel at opposite ends of S&P under Trump
Although U.S. financial markets have continued to boom during the Trump administration, the broadest gauge of stocks — the Standard & Poor’s 500 — has seen big winners and losers since the nation’s 45th president took office in January.
A dental-products maker, an aerospace giant that initially riled Trump and a gaming company headed by an on-again-off-again rival and friend of the president are among the top 10 winners, data from S&P Capital IQ show.
Top 10 losers during the same 11month stretch are a toy company that long has been a household name, an iconic American conglomerate and a popular sportswear maker.
Snapshots of some of the companies’ fortunes from Jan. 23, the Monday after Trump was sworn in, through Dec. 15:
WINNERS Align Technology
With a 153.7% jump in its stock price since Trump’s inauguration, the San Jose technology company is the top S&P
500 winner so far. It makes the popular Invisalign clear aligners dentists and orthodontists have used to help straighten the teeth of about 5 million patients since it was introduced in 1999.
Align’s market capitalization has more than doubled since mid-2016 to
$18.7 billion. The company’s share price has risen as Trump and the Republicancontrolled Congress move closer to enacting a tax package that would cut corporate rates.
Boeing
The stock of the jet, rocket and satellite manufacturer has soared 86.2% since Trump took office despite the company’s initially rocky relationship with the president. Trump criticized Boeing in a December 2016 tweet, characterizing its costs to build the next generation of presidential Air Force One as “out of control.” But since then, Boeing has worked to build a stronger relationship with the president.
In September, the administration imposed preliminary anti-subsidy duties on Bombardier C Series jets after Boeing complained that its Canadian rival got an unfair subsidy from its home country. One month earlier, the Air Force tapped Boeing and Northrup Grumman as finalists for a competition to determine which would get an estimated $62 billion contract for a missile-defense system to be awarded in the 2020 fiscal year.
Wynn Resorts
Shares of the Las Vegas-based gaming industry giant are up 79.2% since Trump’s inauguration as revenue from the Wynn Macau and Wynn Palace Cotai resorts in China supplements income from the firm’s Nevada sites.
Gaming industry businessman Stephen Wynn was a rival of Trump’s back when the future president owned casinos in Atlantic City. Wynn initially supported the 2016 presidential bid of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., before quietly backing Trump.
Wynn was named finance chairman of the Republican National Committee in late January. “I look forward to helping President Trump and his administration make America greater again for the people who work hard every day,” he said in a press statement at the time.
LOSERS Mattel
Shares of the company that makes Barbie and American Girl dolls are down
48.8% since Trump’s inauguration, slicing its market capitalization from
$8.7 billion at this time last year to roughly $5.3 billion now.
The El Segundo, Calif., company has battled to remain relevant in an age when many children are drawn more to games on mobile phones and tablets than traditional toys. Although American Girl dolls had been hot, sales fell in the third quarter.
The company’s stock jumped in November amid reports of a potential merger with rival Hasbro, the maker of Mr. Potato Head and other toys. However, media reports said Mattel rejected the offer.
During an October earnings call with Wall Street analysts, Mattel executives said they expected to see revenue stabilize in the year’s fourth quarter. That would result in a mid-single-digit decline in gross sales for the full year, weighed down in part by the recent Toys R Us filing for bankruptcy court protection, the company said.
General Electric
One of the world’s largest manufacturers of home appliances, GE is in the midst of shedding many of its component companies. Its stock is down 40.1% since Trump’s inauguration.
Jeff Immelt stepped down as CEO in August after a nearly 16-year tenure, then retired as chairman in October, three months before his scheduled departure. He left after selling off most of GE Capital banking, an effort to simplify the conglomerate and focus on its bestperforming businesses.
John Flannery, another GE veteran, succeeded Immelt. In a sign the company’s turnaround plan will take time to execute, GE in November sliced its quarterly dividend from 24 cents a share to 12 cents in a move to free up capital.
Under Armour
Shares of the Baltimore-based sportswear maker are down 46.7% since Trump’s White House term began. Part of the drop came in October after Under Armour reported third-quarter results that showed lower sales of women’s training apparel, outdoor sporting outfits and basketball shoes.
The company also acknowledged that it had muffed the implementation of a major internal software program, delivering a self-inflicted financial blow.
Under Armour also announced in August that it would cut approximately 2% of its workforce as it tries to cope with the broad consumer shift to e-commerce that has led to shutdowns of sporting-goods chains.