Visteon Dividend Drives D20 Down

The Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index dropped dramatically last week losing 2.7 percent to finish at 136.32 as both the Dow and the S&P 500 rose. Six gainers, 13 losers and one unchanged stock pushed the D20 negative while the Dow gained 2.3 percent to finish at 16,466.30 and the S&P 500 added 1.8 percent to close at 1,940.24. Visteon (VC) and Mobileye (MBLY) were the two D20 stocks that had significant drops.

Visteon dropped $36.27 a share, from $103.15 to $66.88, a 35 percent loss, after declaring a huge but unexpected dividend of $43.40. This seemingly incongruent price drop on good economic news is the market’s mechanism for handling unexpected large dividend payments. Visteon provides vehicle ‘cockpit’ electronics products and connected car technology, and analysts are strong on the stock.

Mobileye’s stock continues to founder as the market reacts to its slowing growth in sales. Mobileye stock lost nearly 11 percent last week, dropping from $30.41 to $27.13. Since its peak of $61.06 in July 2015, Mobileye has lost 56 percent.

Auto OEM Nissan (NSANY) was the largest gainer for the D20 last week, closing up 4.4 percent and ending the week at $19.78. Nissan seems to be resistant to many of the fluctuations of the larger markets over the past three months.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.