NOODLES LEADS STATE COMPANIES IN FIRST QUARTER
Noodles & Company bucks trend, rising 43.8 percent in three months
The first quarter was a tough one. The Bloomberg Colorado index was down 2 percent. Riot Blockchain was the big loser — down 76.7 percent. Noodles & Company was the big winner with a 43.8 percent rise.
Stock investors in January were greeted with talk of a “melt-up” and continued gains after major tax cuts late last year. In February, they were hit with their first correction in two years, and by March, winds from an emerging global trade war were whipping them.
“The markets over the course of the first quarter were nothing like the red-hot market of the fourth quarter,” said Mike Gegen, a wealth manager with The Gegen Group at Baird Financial in Cherry Creek.
In the fourth quarter, 11 sectors were positive, but in the first quarter, only two — technology and consumer discretionary — were. During the past two weeks, even technology shares came under heavy pressure, with market stalwarts Facebook and Amazon taking big hits.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended the first quarter down 2.49 percent, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.2 percent. The Nasdaq composite managed a gain, 2.32 percent.
The Bloomberg Colorado index, a priceweighted basket of 67 companies based in the state, is down 2 percent this year — less than the Dow but more than the S&P 500.
Castle Rock-based Riot Blockchain took a struggling biotech company and converted it to a holding company for cryptocurrency and blockchain investments last year, generating a 639.6 percent gain. In the first quarter, the company tanked 76.7 percent following a loss of faith in the management team. Other big losers in the quarters were AYTU Bioscience, down 71.4 percent; Westmoreland Coal, down 66.1 percent; and Ascent Capital Group, down 68 percent.
Despite sloppy market conditions, shares of several Colorado companies managed to achieve double-digit gains, led by those of Noodles & Company, which rose 43.8 percent in the first quarter of the year.
The Broomfield-based fast-casual restaurant group last summer brought in a new CEO, Dave Boennighausen, who has
staged a recovery that investors are buying into.
“The turnaround is much on track, and 2018 is turning out to be a strong year,” Boennighausen said.
Noodles has increased its focus on its people and operations, launched a reward program and enhanced its mac-and-cheese offerings. It is also coming out in May with noodles made from zucchini, filling in a gap of healthy alternatives in its menu.
Enservco, a petroleum services firm based in Denver, had the nextlargest gain in share price, 41.3 percent, during the quarter. Crocs, Whiting Petroleum and Array Biopharma managed to achieve gains of over 27 percent during the quarter.