Bloodbath in Cary Day 2 – Wall Street Slaughters R.H. Donnelley Stock Again

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK,  N.C. – Second day, same as the first – sad, sad days at R.H. Donnelley?

In less than 12 months its market cap has shrunk to $505 million from around $6 billion.

A repeat of bad news came Friday as the run on the yellow pages and online directory firm’s stock continued with another 24 percent selloff. After an analyst cut the stock to “sell” and slashed the value to $5 from $25 the selling frenzy set off by what Wall Street interpreted as bad news on Thursday resumed.

For details, see our daily story from Friday evening. Suffice it to say here on Saturday that the stats say it all:

RHD (NYSE: RHD) closed Friday evening at $7.09, down $2.25 or 24 percent from Thursday’s close.

Not that long ago, RHD sold at more than $84 a share.

How many of you believe anyone among RHD’s staff of 2,100 people slept at all over the weekend?

Motley Fool’s Tim Beyers focused his criticism of RHD on the firm’s decision not to pay a dividend. In his “Worser” stock category, Beyers wrote:

“ … Donnelley said plainly that it ‘exceeded cash flow guidance’ in the quarter. How do you exceed cash flow guidance -- in effect cementing the October rationale for a dividend -- and then not initiate the dividend?”

 It will be very interesting to see what happens th RHD today on the street.