Baton Rouge’s public companies have yet to rebound from late February’s drastic drop in share prices.
In the more than three months since U.S. stocks saw some of the worst weeks since the 2008 financial crisis, none of Baton Rouge’s public companies have seen their share prices return to what they were before the February crash.
H&E Equipment Services initially experienced the largest percentage drop out of the Baton Rouge companies. The company’s share price bottomed at $9.55 in mid-March, but has slowly been making gains since then. As of this afternoon, the company’s shares were trading at $18.88.
Right before the initial stock drop, Lamar Advertising Company saw its share prices grow significantly, gaining more than $10 from the start of the year and reaching an all-time high price of $96.19 the week prior to stocks dropping. After reaching a five-year low at $32.33 in early March, share prices are on the incline and currently selling at $71.76.
Home health provider Amedisys is the closest of the Baton Rouge companies to its pre-COVID-19 levels. In the week before the stock market initially plunged, Amedisys’ shares were selling in the mid-$190s. The drop cut prices by 10%, and since then prices have been tumultuous—dropping in mid-March to $137 before shooting up to an all-time high of $213 less than three weeks later—as investors looked for company confidence.
As of this afternoon, Amedisys’ share price was $176.03, just 9% lower than before the pandemic.
Investar Holding Corp., which initially was faring the best out of the local publicly traded companies, now has the largest percentage share price loss, with shares currently 39% lower than what they were in mid-February. As of this afternoon, the company’s shares were trending slightly higher at $13.83.
National companies with a heavy Baton Rouge presence are also still recovering. Shares for IBM this afternoon were selling 15% lower than what they were in mid-February. Prior to the drop, IBM had been seeing significant share price growth this year, with shares increasing from the $130-range in January to the mid-$150 range right before stocks fell. As of this afternoon, its shares were $128.89.
Share prices for oil and gas behemoths Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil are also still down, some 27% and 17%, respectively, compared to earlier this year. Once prices started dropping, Shell bottomed at $21.62 in mid-March and has been fluctuating in the $30 range ever since. Exxon, whose share prices began dropping at the beginning of the year, also saw shares hit a low in March, at $31.45, though the company’s shares have risen since then and were trading at $49.10 this afternoon.
