Valeant, JC Penney Plunge Into Tuesday's 52-Week Low Club

March 13, 2017: Here are four stocks trading with relatively heavy volume among 116 equities making new 52-week lows in Tuesday’s session. On the NYSE, decliners led advancers by about 2 to 1 and on the Nasdaq decliners also led advancers by about 2 to 1.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) dropped more than 13% Tuesday, to post a new 52-week low of $10.50 after closing at $12.11 on Monday. The stock’s 52-week high is $53.90. Volume was nearly 4 times the daily average of around 17 million shares. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman sold his entire stake in the company for a loss of $3 billion.

Frontier Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: FTR) posted a new 52-week low of $2.41 on Tuesday, down about 4.7% compared with Monday’s closing price of $2.53. The stock’s 52-week high is $5.75. Volume was about 50% above the daily average of around 27 million shares. The company had no specific news today, but the dividend yield has risen to 15.73%.

Anthera Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ANTH) dropped nearly 41% Tuesday, to post a new 52-week low of $0.41 after closing at $0.69 on Monday. The stock’s 52-week high is $4.41. Volume was more than 8 times the daily average of around 2 million shares. The company priced a secondary stock offering of 30 million shares at $0.50 a share this morning.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) dropped about 2.3% Tuesday to post a new 52-week low of $5.85 after closing Monday at $5.99. Volume of more than 15 million shares was about 40% below the daily average of around 21 million. The company said on Monday that it was expanding into the home services market. Investors were not thrilled apparently.