Angela Palumbo and Emily Dattilo
April has been a tough month for stock investors.
This month, the S&P 500 saw its biggest one-month percentage and point decline since September 2023. The index is on track to fall more than 3% in April; the drop has been largely driven by hotter-than-expected inflation data that have eroded investors' hopes that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates as soon as this summer.
These are the best- and worst-performing stocks in the S&P 500 in April.
GE Aerospace
GE Aerospace was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 in April after the aircraft company had an exciting couple of weeks.
GE Aerospace stock has jumped 19% this month to $164, which was its best month since January 2023, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
In early April, General Electric completed its split into three different companies: GE Aerospace, GE Vernova, and GE Healthcare. GE Aerospace and GE Vernova started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on April 2. In the same week, GE Aerospace announced it was raising its quarterly dividend by 250% to 28 cents a share.
GE Aerospace also raised its operating profit guidance for 2024 on April 23 and reported first-quarter aerospace orders of $11 billion, a 34% increase from the prior year.
"The future is bright for GE Aerospace in the near, medium, and long term," Melius analyst Robert Spingarn, who rates the stock as a Buy with a $186 price target, wrote in a research note after earnings.
Globe Life
Globe Life is the index's worst performer in April, driven sharply lower by short sellers' reports.
The life insurance company's shares have tumbled 35% this month, on track for their worst month on record, based on available data back to 1982.
In a short position, investors borrow shares and sell them with the hopes of buying them back later at a lower price; short sellers profit when a stock declines.
Globe Life stock plummeted 53% on April 11, after the short seller Fuzzy Panda said in a report that the company's management had ignored allegations of insurance fraud, "despite being obvious and reported hundreds of times."
Globe Life has denied the allegations.
"We reviewed the report and found it to be wildly misleading, mixing anonymous allegations with recycled points pushed by plaintiff law firms to coerce Globe Life into settlements," Globe Life said earlier this month in a news release responding to the report.
Globe Life didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Earlier this month, on a call to discuss first-quarter earnings, co-chief executive officer Frank Svoboda said Globe Life and its subsidiary America Income had received subpoenas in late 2023 from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
"The company and American Income is in the process of responding to these subpoenas...and have been fully cooperating with the DOJ [Department of Justice]," Svoboda said on the call.
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com and Emily Dattilo at emily.dattilo@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 30, 2024 14:18 ET (18:18 GMT)
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