Stock Watch: Most Iowa stocks had dismal December
Yesterday’s China-induced turmoil in the markets was just one more lump of coal for Iowa-based public companies after the season of giving proved unkind to most Iowa stocks last month.
In our monthly look back at stock performance, we see that stock prices for a majority of Iowa-based companies ended the month of December lower than the previous month.
The Iowa Index, an unweighted average price of the 22 Iowa-based public companies, ended the month of December down 5 percent from November. The index is a subset of 36 stocks of Iowa interest tracked by the Business Record.
Six companies experienced double-digit percentage drops in stock prices in December, among them Principal Financial Group Inc., Winnebago Industries Inc. and American Equity Investment Life Holding Co., with respective decreases of 12.6 percent, 11.6 percent and 10.4 percent in stock prices for the month.
Seven stocks ended the month with stock price gains, including pharmaceutical company KemPharm Inc., which had the largest monthly price gain — $2.54 per share or 14.7 percent. KemPharm in December announced it had submitted a new drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its abuse-resistant, immediate-release version of the painkiller hydrocodone.
Casey’s General Stores Inc., Windstream Holdings and Renewable Energy Group Inc. saw price increases in the 3 percent range. Other stocks with price gains for the month were Meta Financial Group Inc., Art’s Way Manufacturing Co. and Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq, which both experienced sharp declines on Monday amid global market turmoil, in December declined by 1.7 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
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