Amazon sinks on outlook; Visa drags down Dow

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Financial results dragged down shares of heavyweight companies like Amazon.com Inc. and Visa Inc. on Friday, helping spur a selloff in the broad indices that erased weekly gains.

Amazon.com (AMZN)  shares sank 9.9% to $303.83 after the Internet company reported earnings after the close of the previous session. Amazon showed thin profits alongside a 23% increase in sales. The firm also said it expects an operating loss in the second quarter due in part to the costs of expansion into new product lines.

/quotes/zigman/63011/delayed/quotes/nls/amzn AMZN 303.83, -33.32, -9.88% Amazon stock price

Concerns about Amazon's growing expenses prompted some analysts to cut their price targets.

Visa Inc. (V)   shares retreated 5% Friday following the release of the financial services company's earnings. CEO Charles Scharf said the firm expects "slightly more pronounced" difficulties in year-over-year comparisons next quarter due to the effects of a strengthening dollar.

Given that Visa is the highest-priced component in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)  , which weights stocks according to their prices, the decline in Visa dragged on the broader index .

Decliners

Pandora Media Inc. (P)  plunged 17% after reporting better-than-expected revenues and a narrower first-quarter loss late Thursday, but a disappointing outlook. The Internet-radio company said it expected to earn between zero and 3 cents a share in the second quarter on revenue that ranges between $213 million and $218 million. That was below analyst forecasts of 5 cents a share in profit on sales of $218 million.

Plug Power Inc. (PLUG)  shares shed 11% after the company announced the terms of a secondary stock offering. The fuel-cell maker said it was pricing 22.6 million shares at a price of $5.50 per share.

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Ford Motor Co. (F)  missed its profit target in an earnings report Friday morning, while beating estimates on revenue. Shares slid 3.3%. The company said it earned pre-tax profit of 25 cents a share on revenue of $35.9 billion, compared with analyst expectations of 31 cents a share on revenue of $34.54 billion, according to FactSet.

Shares of Masco Corp. (MAS)  sank 7.4% after the home-improvement products maker reported its first-quarter earnings.

Facebook Inc. (FB)  was down 5.2% along with a broad swath of tech stocks.

Gainers

Chip-maker Cirrus Logic Inc. (CRUS) jumped 4.9% after its earnings report late Thursday. The company had a profit last quarter of 41 cents a share on revenue of $149.7 million, compared with a consensus estimate of 32 cents of $143 million. The semiconductor maker, which derives much of its revenue from Apple Inc. (AAPL) , has been gaining since the computer giant reported its results earlier in the week.

Shares of Ballard Power Systems Inc. (BLDP)  gained 5.2% after the fuel-cell maker said it had acquired patents and patent applications from United Technologies Corp. (UTX) . The intellectual property relates to fuel cells for transportation and stationary. The patents cost Ballard 5.1 million of its shares and $2 million in cash. UTC also has a license to use the patent portfolio.