RE:What happened today?A bit late to reply. This story from the Globe& Mail citing an analyst from Stifel seems the reason.
Basically, a downgrade from an analyst. Globe & Mail
June 22, 2022
Stifel analyst Maggie MacDougall expects AirBoss of America (BOS-T) to feel the impact of delays in U.S. defense spending after the U.K.-based peer Avon Protection warned its first-half results will fall below its guidance.
“Avon is a direct comp to AirBoss in the CBRN [Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear] category, which has experienced rising demand due first to the pandemic and recently the conflict in Ukraine,” she said. “However, despite rising demand, U.S. government spending delays have been a hurdle. We believe that Avon’s H1 miss and commentary around U.S. government spending delays prompted BOS sell-off [Tuesday], and triggered us to receive an update from management on the status of its sales pipeline.”
Shares of Toronto-based AirBoss fell 15.5 percent on Thursday following the Avon announcement, which led Ms. MacDougall to reset her estimates for their defense business to pre-pandemic levels. That led her to drop her earnings expectations for the next two years.
“AirBoss has been waiting on announcements from [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] and the [U.S. Department of Defense] on potential new contract wins from its more than US$1.0-billion big pipeline for several quarters,” she said. “In particular investors have been looking for the final RFP from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for up to 397.5 million Level 4 surgical gowns. BOS management has indicated that the RFP posting for this contract is unlikely to occur before the end of the U.S. Government September 30th fiscal year-end, and that re-approval in new budgeted funds will be required for this to proceed. We believe this pushes out this potential contract win until late 2022 or 2023. The smaller level 1 and 2 gown contract is still under consideration for RFP posting in Fiscal 2022. However, given the extent of delays experienced, timing is unclear.”
Keeping a “buy” rating, she dropped her target for AirBoss shares to $26.50 from $45. The average is $32.71.