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AMD | 3 Health And Tech Stocks To Watch | These three health and technology stocks are on the move and pointing higher
Advanced Micro Devices Inc NASDAQ AMD one of our swing trade picks from two weeks ago when it was at 33 60 jumped 81 cents to 37 52 on 67 million shares Wednesday On Tuesday the chip maker announced Tencent will use its latest server processors The stock has been in a steep rising channel since its recent low below 28 in early October Next target is the rising channel top near 40 Amarin Corporation plc NASDAQ AMRN followed through on Wednesday up 55 cents to 21 49 after popping 23 on Tuesday An FDA advisory committee is scheduled to meet Thursday today to help decide the fate of the company s fish derived cardiovascular drug While trading has been halted in advance of the meeting the chart points to a test of the July high in the 23 50 24 zone next CRISPR Therapeutics AG NASDAQ CRSP rose 1 42 to 55 on 1 million shares Wednesday The move on no news continued the gene editing s stock s month long rally from the mid 36 level It also followed through on Tuesday s breakout of a mini wedge Watch for a move to 58 next |
AMD | Stock To Watch AMD CLVS COLL CRSP INMD MAXR OESX SEAC | Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD
AMD hit one penny off my 40 dollar target on Monday It was up 1 32 or 3 42 to 39 88 with a high of 39 99 on 66 3 million shares The next target is 47 I have a target of 45 and 46 but it looks to me now like at the top of the channel and lateral price resistance 47 might be the target
Clovis Oncology Inc CLVS CLVS swing keeps working and Monday was another stellar day for this stock particularly late in the session when it popped 88 cents or 10 66 to 7 06 with a high of 7 17 on 9 4 million shares traded Targets going forward are 7 3 4 and 9 1 2
Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc COLL
COLL swing which tried to move on Monday was up 75 cents or 4 11 to 18 86 with a high of 19 01 on 302 604 shares traded It looks like it may be trying to come out of a little falling wedge If it extends beyond 20 I m looking for a move to 22 and then 26
CRISPR Therapeutics AG CRSP CRSP is still moving It s been up nine days in a row and on Monday it gained another 1 66 or 2 92 to 58 53 with a high of 58 84 on 786 888 shares traded This stock has gone from 47 to nearly 59 There s resistance right there but the top of the channel comes in at 59 60 which is the next target
InMode Ltd INMD
INMD reached my second and third targets On Monday it jumped 2 79 or 5 64 to 52 23 with a high of 58 76 on 3 56 million shares This stock blew through my 52 and 58 targets going from 29 1 2 two weeks ago to 58 3 4 almost 30 points It s time to pare back some and sure enough late in the day it did
Maxar Technologies Inc MAXR MAXR after a 2 day pullback is acting very well in here gaining 61 cents or 5 3 to 12 11 with a high of 12 52 on 1 89 million shares on Monday If it gets up through the 12 3 4 range you may see this stock run toward 14 and then 17
Orion Energy Systems Inc OESX
OESX popped 42 cents or 12 46 to 3 70 with a high of 3 84 on the biggest volume all year on Monday at 1 5 million shares and I put a swing on it I love this chart The long term chart has multiple waves up then a long multi month consolidation which resulted in a move to the upside with the breakaway pop I m now looking for a quick run to 4 35 and then 6 00 eventually
SeaChange International Inc SEAC SEAC popped on Thursday flagged for a couple of days with very low volume on Friday But on Monday it took off again gaining 25 cents or 7 5 to 3 58 with a high of 3 64 on 332 534 shares traded The next targets are 4 4 1 4 and 5 1 2
Stocks on the long sideAgenus Inc AGEN Advanced Micro Devices Inc NASDAQ AMD Ballard Power Systems Inc BLDP Clovis Oncology Inc CLVS Collegium Pharmaceutical Inc COLL Capstone Turbine Corporation CPST CRISPR Therapeutics AG CRSP Digi International Inc DGII Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc DRNA Eidos Therapeutics Inc EIDX GSX Techedu Inc GSX InMode Ltd INMD El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc LOCO Maxar Technologies Inc MAXR Orion Energy Systems Inc OESX Progyny Inc PGNY Peloton Interactive Inc NASDAQ PTON SeaChange International Inc SEAC and Yandex N V YNDX |
T | The Extreme Risks Of Trading Your Own Retirement Assets October 09 2019 | Maybe you re a seasoned investor and have a good track record with stock picking And you may have a robust retirement portfolio perhaps including some Zacks Top Retirement stock selections such as
Medifast MED Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte OMAB and AT T T
If that sounds like you should you actively trade your own retirement assets
Perhaps if you re the one in a million investor who can expertly manage risk and maintain unflinching emotional control in volatile markets But for most there may be better strategies to achieve long term retirement investing goals
Active stock trading requires a very different investing approach and risk reward mindset than investing for retirement
Diversification vs Stock Picking
While stock picking can potentially generate outsized returns its excessive concentrated risk can present huge perils for retirement investors
A study done by Hendrik Bessembinder of equity markets spanning nine decades revealed that only 4 of the best performing U S stocks produced all the market s increases The rest were flat the gains of the following 38 were offset by the losses of the bottom 58
Those numbers reinforce that even if you are an experienced and talented stock picker your chances of success over a long period are very slim
Is Successful Investing a Mind Game
Most people think they can make rational investment decisions but research indicates the opposite is often true Investors followed in a DALBAR study performed significantly worse than the S P 500 For the 30 years between 1986 to 2015 the average investor earned just 3 66 whereas the S P 500 produced a 10 35 return
It is worth noting that this period included the 1987 crash and enormous bear markets in 2000 and 2008 and the positively trending market of the 1990s as well
An important takeaway of this study is that investors seem to underperform because they try to time volatile markets and irrational emotional responses tend to these investing mistakes
Curiously even experienced traders tend to underperform since they can t resist the emotional urge to make impulsive investment choices They might be overly self assured and miscalculate risk get attached to a price target or perceive a pattern that does not exist This behavioral fallacy over the long term can be disastrous with potential underperformance of a huge number of dollars disrupting your retirement
What It All Means for Retirement Investors
When it comes to managing your assets for retirement you must look at performance over the course of years and decades not weeks or months Because most traders generally tend to focus on the short term they may not have the right mindset to achieve successful long term outcomes
We re not saying you should not trade at all far from it If you enjoy trading perhaps you should put 10 of your investable assets to work in short term investments to seek alpha and outsized returns
But the point we re making here is that the money you have set aside for your retirement should be invested using a more conservative long term approach designed to produce reliable returns so you can steadily build assets and achieve your retirement goals
Did you know that one in six people retire a multi millionaire
Read our just released report 7 Things You Can Do Now to Retire a Multi Millionaire This report can help you maintain and increase assets heading into retirement while avoiding costly mistakes Click here for a free report |
PFE | Ex Oppenheimer adviser arrested for trading on Pfizer employee s tips | By Nate Raymond NEW YORK Reuters A former Oppenheimer Co Inc investment adviser was arrested on Friday on charges he traded on inside information supplied by a childhood friend working at Pfizer Inc N PFE about deals that drugmaker was considering David Hobson who during the alleged scheme also worked for RBC Capital Markets was charged in an indictment filed in Manhattan federal court for making illegal trades that earned him over 187 000 and about 145 000 for his customers His friend Michael Maciocio secretly pleaded guilty on May 20 to charges related to the scheme which ran from 2008 to 2014 and which the U S Securities and Exchange Commission in a lawsuit said earned him 116 000 from his own insider trading Hobson 47 was arrested at his home in Providence Rhode Island on charges of conspiracy and securities fraud He was released later in the day following a court hearing His lawyer declined comment Maciocio 46 has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors pursuing the case according to his plea agreement His lawyer did not respond to requests for comment The charges were brought by Manhattan U S Attorney Preet Bharara who since 2009 has overseen an insider trading crackdown that has resulted in charges against 104 and the conviction of 79 According to authorities Maciocio in his role at Pfizer as director of chemical research and development received information about potential deals relevant to his tasks evaluating manufacturing demands and capacity While Maciocio was not typically given the identity of the company in a potential deal he used the information to perform research to discern its identity sometimes with Hobson s help authorities said After identifying the company Maciocio then passed the information to Hobson who executed trades in accounts belonging to himself Maciocio and clients of Oppenheimer and RBC charging documents said The tips enabled Hobson to illegally trade in the stocks of Medivation Inc O MDVN Ardea Biosciences Inc and Furiex Pharmaceuticals Inc the indictment said The former employers of Hobson and Maciocio were not named in the court papers but Pfizer Oppenheimer a unit of Oppenheimer Holdings Inc N OPY and RBC a unit of Royal Bank of Canada TO RY confirmed their employment Oppenheimer said it has cooperated extensively with authorities Pfizer said it takes these allegations seriously and is cooperating fully with the authorities
The cases in the U S District Court Southern District of New York are U S v Hobson No 16 cr 351 and Securities and Exchange Commission v Maciocio No 16 cv 4139 |
PFE | Pfizer s opioid painkiller can be manipulated for abuse FDA | Reuters A long acting opioid painkiller being developed by Pfizer Inc N PFE has the potential to deter abuse but can be manipulated a preliminary review by the U S Food and Drug Administration showed
The drug is designed for the management of pain severe enough to require around the clock treatment in patients who have not derived enough benefit from other treatments
The treatment whose proposed trade name is Troxyca ER contains commonly used opioid oxycodone The abuse deterrence mechanism relies on the incorporation of naltrexone in the drug pellets
Troxyca ER is designed such that if the pellets are crushed in an attempt to abuse the painkiller naltrexone is released to counteract the effects of oxycodone
The panel is being asked to decide whether the drugmaker should be allowed to claim on the drug s label that it deters abuse The panel will vote separately on whether it likely deters abuse when swallowed snorted or injected
FDA reviewers said in a report published on Monday that oxycodone could be selectively extracted from intact pellets by a number of straightforward techniques and certain common solvents appear to be capable of removing naltrexone from crushed pellets
However studies did demonstrate that negligible oxycodone is released from heated Troxyca ER vapor reducing the likelihood of abuse by those seeking to inhale it the reviewers added
The review comes ahead of a June 8 meeting of outside experts who will recommend whether the drug should be approved The FDA is not obliged to follow the advice of its advisory panels but typically does
The abuse of opioids a class of drugs that includes heroin and prescription painkillers has reached epidemic proportions in the United States The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC estimates that 78 Americans die every day from opioid overdose
There is increasing political pressure on the FDA to address the problem of opioid abuse
Earlier this year FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said the agency would reform its process for approving opioids after a number of senators threatened to block his nomination as the agency s head
The CDC recommended in March that doctors prescribe non opioids including acetaminophen and ibuprofen for patients with pain unless they have active cancer or are receiving end of life care
The FDA also announced that short acting opioids would carry new warnings about the potential for abuse bringing the labels in line with the warnings on long acting pills |
PFE | Pfizer to invest 350 million in China biotech hub first in Asia | SHANGHAI Reuters Pfizer Inc N PFE will invest 350 million to build a biotech center in China the latest in a series of moves by pharma industry giants to set up shop in the world s no 2 drugs market with the aim of securing faster approvals for their products The facility in eastern Hangzhou region Pfizer s first biotech center in Asia is expected to be completed by 2018 the firm said in a statement on Tuesday Global Big Pharma is increasingly looking for smart ways to tap China s healthcare market estimated by consultancy IMS Health to be worth around 185 billion by 2018 From investing in China facilities to acquisitions licensing deals and joint ventures the aim is to seek an edge in dealings with domestic regulators and government John Young group president for Pfizer s essential health division said in the statement that the Hangzhou facility should help support China s aim to increase the complexity and value of its manufacturing sector by 2025 Pfizer said it would work closely with local regulators to bring the drugs to market as soon as possible The center will mostly on biologic drugs made from living micro organisms rather than chemically synthesized and lower cost biosimilars of generic versions of biologics Pharmaceutical executives have long complained about the slow process of getting drugs to market in China while others have run up against regulatory roadblocks Pfizer had to close its vaccine business in the country last year after a license for its top selling vaccine Prevenar was not renewed China s overall healthcare spending is set to hit 1 3 trillion by 2020 but drug market growth has slowed to a low single digit percentage pace from over 20 percent just four years ago as branded generics have lost their shine and Beijing has looked to drive down prices to keep a lid on costs |
AMD | AMD Earnings Surpass Target Amid Talk of Cryptocurrency Bull Market Return | United States transnational IT firm Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ AMD over delivered on Wall Street expectations for earnings the company confirmed in a press release on April 30
AMD which had previously seen volatility in its performance amid challenging 2018 market conditions posted an adjusted share price of 0 06 1 cent above the target |
T | USOC under pressure to fix USA Gymnastics before Tokyo 2020 | By Frank Pingue and Jonathan Allen Reuters Like a world class gymnast the United States Olympic Committee USOC needs to nail a perfect landing to put a damaging sexual abuse scandal behind it ahead of the 2020 Games in Tokyo sports sponsorship experts said The USOC s announcement this week that it would seek to revoke the status of USA Gymnastics as the national governing body for the sport reflects pressure from fans athletes and sponsors for a lasting solution for the scandal plagued organization If the USOC didn t take this step now then they would have had somewhat of a revolt on their hands from athletes and fans said Jim Andrews an independent sponsorship consultant USA Gymnastics has been in turmoil since dozens of female gymnasts including Olympic champions such as Simone Biles came forward to accuse former team doctor Larry Nassar of sexual abuse Nassar was sentenced in February to up to 125 years in prison after some 200 women testified about decades of abuse at his hands The U S gymnastics team performed well at the world championships in Doha Qatar that ended on Sunday with Biles becoming the first female gymnast in 30 years to claim a medal in all six events at a major competition The team s success meant a solution was not required immediately Andrews said but was vital to bring back lost sponsors and fans This is a reflection that the sport needs to move on he said This has to happen Asked for comment the USOC said it had nothing to add to its statement from Monday As the scandal unfolded sponsors including Under Armor Inc Proctor Gamble Co Hershey Co AT T Inc NYSE T and Kellogg Co suspended or did not renew sponsorship deals with USA Gymnastics None of those companies responded to requests for comment on Tuesday Nassar s sentencing did not end the crisis at USA Gymnastics Over the past two years three CEOs have been forced out of the organization after being criticized for the way they handled the scandal Interim chief Mary Bono resigned just four days into the job last month This has been such a colossal mess and it can t seem to get a CEO correct said Bob Dorfman a sports marketing expert at Baker Street Advertising in San Francisco referring to USA Gymnastics There is intense pressure for it to do this right get this out of the public eye by the time we get closer to the Olympics in 2020 Jonathan Little an Indiana based lawyer who has represented three gymnasts in lawsuits alleging sexual abuse as well as athletes from other Olympic sports in abuse cases dismissed the USOC s move as window dressing The bottom line is this is just to make themselves look good in front of Congress he said adding the organization fears Congress could replace it as it replaced the Amateur Athletic Union with the USOC in the 1970s In a post on Twitter on Monday Democratic U S Senator Richard Blumenthal said he hoped this signals USOC will be more vigilant in protecting athletes survivors when others fail them Some of Nassar s victims such as 2000 Olympic Bronze Medalist Jamie Dantzscher who has filed a lawsuit against USA Gymnastics want nothing less than a new governing body It is time for this organization to be replaced she said in a statement on Monday Andrews the independent sponsorship consultant said sponsors would eventually return to the sport but only if USA Gymnastics is replaced with an effective body that has the trust of athletes and fans
That s what everyone wants he said If they don t do that then it really will just be window dressing |
T | Victims Sue AT T T Mobile Over SIM Swap Crypto Hacks | Silver Miller a cryptocurrency focused law firm based in the U S says it has filed arbitration claims against AT T NYSE T and T Mobile on behalf of victims of SIM swapping cellphone hacks
Initiating the court actions on behalf of clients that have lost funds to criminals that used the increasingly common method of infiltrating mobile devices to access cryptocurrency wallets and two factor authentication codes the firm alleges
By leaving holes in their security protocols and failing to properly train and monitor their employees cellphone providers have assisted thieves in remotely taking over the SIM cards in people s smartphones accessing financial records and account information of the victims and emptying the victim s accounts of cryptocurrency and other valuable assets
In a press release published Friday Silver Miller said that one client an AT T customer had had over 621 000 of cryptocurrency stolen via a SIM swap attack The firm further alleges that the breach occurred after AT T had assured him it had increased security on his account following an earlier attempted hack Other cases have been filed against T Mobile with Silver Miller alleging that two clients had been robbed of 400 000 and 250 000 respectively via SIM swaps permitted by the telcom firm |
T | U S Law Firm Files Claims Against AT T T Mobile Over SIM Swap Enabled Crypto Thefts | U S crypto investor law firm Silver Miller has filed arbitration claims against telecoms giants AT T NYSE T and T Mobile for SIM swap related thefts according to a press release published Nov 8SIM swapping also known as a port out scam involves the theft of a cell phone number in order to hijack online financial and social media accounts enabled by the fact that many firms use automated messages or phone calls to handle customer authentication |
T | Telecom Italia board approves non binding offer for Brazil s Nextel sources | By Agnieszka Flak Gram Slattery and Tatiana Bautzer MILAN RIO DE JANEIRO SAO PAULO Reuters The board of Telecom Italia MI TLIT has given its Brazil unit approval to make a non binding offer for NII Holdings O NIHD Nextel Brazil three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday allowing for a potential deal that could boost its market share in Latin America s largest economy Any offer would be made through Telecom Italia s Brazilian unit TIM Participacoes SA SA TIMP3 and could kick off a long awaited consolidation in Brazilian telecoms One of the sources warned that the process was still early and the company was still studying whether to extend any offer All sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations NII s U S listed shares have appreciated some 1 670 percent year to date on expectations of a possible takeover bid bringing its market capitalization to some 754 million after Thursday s stock market close This is despite the firm having fewer than 3 million clients and almost no earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization Much of Nextel s value comes from its spectrum rights in the wealthier Brazilian states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro particularly its 1800 and 2100 MHz frequencies which are key for Brazil s fast growing and high margin data segment A representative for TIM Participacoes referred Reuters to public statements by Telecom Italia officials In a telephone conference on Friday Telecom Italia Chief Executive Amos Genish said the company was interested in Nextel s Brazil unit but that the process was in its initial phase Telecom Italia would be happy to participate in consolidation in Brazil he added One of the sources said NII was expecting to receive the first non binding offers within weeks NII s chief financial officer Daniel Freiman did not immediately respond to an e mail seeking comment A decision by Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel last week to loosen spectrum cap limits in Brazil helped spur the decision to look into a non binding offer one source said Previous Brazilian regulations effectively prohibited a Nextel acquisition by a domestic player as the country s largest telecoms operators were nearing the limit of how much spectrum they could hold in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro Telefonica MC TEF Brasil SA SA VIVT4 the country s largest telecom operator has cooled on a potential Nextel acquisition as the company focuses on its broadband segment three sources with knowledge of the matter said in recent weeks The firm s chief operating officer told Reuters in April the company would likely dedicate some 7 5 billion reais of capital expenditure from 2018 through 2020 to broadband expansion A representative for Vivo as Telefonica Brasil is branded declined to comment Shares of NII Holdings surged some 17 percent in pre market trading on the possible TIM bid before paring gains to 4 4 percent at midday Brazil listed TIM Participacoes shares edged 0 4 lower while shares in Telecom Italia fell 4 8 percent after the company took a 2 billion euro 2 27 billion writedown on its domestic assets and abandoned its 2018 net debt to core earnings target Reuters first reported in June that NII had hired Rothschild Co PA ROTH to explore a sale of Nextel Brazil
Nextel Brazil is NII s last operation in Latin America after it exited operations in Peru Chile and Mexico where its unit was sold for 1 9 billion to AT T Inc N T three years ago |
T | AT T T Stock Moves 0 59 What You Should Know | AT T T closed at 37 38 in the latest trading session marking a 0 59 move from the prior day This change was narrower than the S P 500 s 0 84 loss on the day At the same time the Dow lost 0 53 and the tech heavy Nasdaq lost 1 47
Coming into today shares of the telecommunications company had gained 7 64 in the past month In that same time the Computer and Technology sector gained 5 21 while the S P 500 gained 5 2
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from T as it approaches its next earnings report date On that day T is projected to report earnings of 0 94 per share which would represent year over year growth of 4 44 Meanwhile the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of 45 30 billion down 0 96 from the year ago period
Looking at the full year our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of 3 58 per share and revenue of 182 54 billion These totals would mark changes of 1 7 and 6 9 respectively from last year
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for T These revisions typically reflect the latest short term business trends which can change frequently As such positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company s business and profitability
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near term share price momentum Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple actionable rating system
The Zacks Rank system ranges from 1 Strong Buy to 5 Strong Sell It has a remarkable outside audited track record of success with 1 stocks delivering an average annual return of 25 since 1988 The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0 02 lower within the past month T is holding a Zacks Rank of 3 Hold right now
Looking at its valuation T is holding a Forward P E ratio of 10 52 This represents a discount compared to its industry s average Forward P E of 16 14
Investors should also note that T has a PEG ratio of 2 36 right now The PEG ratio is similar to the widely used P E ratio but this metric also takes the company s expected earnings growth rate into account The Wireless National industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2 36 as of yesterday s close
The Wireless National industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 86 putting it in the top 34 of all 250 industries
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors Our research shows that the top 50 rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1
Be sure to follow all of these stock moving metrics and many more on Zacks com |
T | BCE s Bell Mobility Extends Broadband Connectivity In Canada | Bell Mobility the wireless service provider and subsidiary of BCE Inc TSX BCE has extended its broadband service in Nunavut the northernmost territory of Canada as part of the company s commitment to provide wireless network connectivity across rural and remote locations of the country The sparsely populated region that forms most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago will thus gain access to mobile data speeds of up to 100 megabits per second mbps As the leading telecommunications service provider in Canada Bell is aiming to bring Internet service in smaller towns and rural communities across the country that were hitherto unserved by any carrier Under the Wireless Home Internet program the company is targeting to serve about 1 million rural households across Atlantic Canada Qu bec Ontario and Manitoba BCE the parent firm of Bell is likely to benefit from robust activities in the wireless business strong subscriber additions drop in churn rates and focus on technology upgrades The company continues to focus on six strategic areas including investment in broadband network and services accelerating wireless services leveraging wireline momentum expanding media coverage improving customer service and achieving a competitive cost structure These initiatives are expected to generate higher revenues per user and attract new customers in the future Notably BCE and TELUS Corporation NYSE T recently extended their LTE M coverage in the United States with a strategic tie up with AT T NYSE T The reciprocal agreement also enables AT T subscribers to enjoy their LTE M network while roaming in Canada LTE M or Long Term Evolution category M1 is the technology that supports low power IoT applications with enhanced coverage longer battery life and lower operating costs It helps IoT devices connect directly to a 4G network without a gateway and is compatible with 5G deployments These networks operate within a licensed spectrum with carrier grade security and support firmware and software updates In addition these allow low power devices such as smart wearables trackers and industrial sensors to operate across continents While Bell was the first Canadian carrier to launch the LTE M network in early 2018 TELUS rolled out the service in October the same year On one hand Bell s LTE M networks support a wide array of large scale IoT innovations such as asset tracking fleet management smart sensors smart city applications and municipal water system management On the other hand TELUS LTE M network is built on licensed cellular standards based technology which offers high quality service greater reliability and carrier grade security By collaborating with a premier global carrier to activate LTE M roaming facilities both Bell and TELUS have unlocked newer business opportunities for their users for accelerated growth in the IoT space The Canadian carriers also expect to benefit immensely from the increased 5G deployment of AT T BCE currently carries a Zacks Rank 2 Buy Another top ranked stock in the same space is Cincinnati Bell Inc NYSE CBB also carrying a Zacks Rank 2 You can see Cincinnati Bell has a long term earnings growth expectation of 2 Today s Best Stocks from ZacksWould you like to see the updated picks from our best market beating strategies From 2017 through 2018 while the S P 500 gained 15 8 five of our screens returned 38 0 61 3 61 6 68 1 and 98 3 This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon From 2000 2018 while the S P averaged 4 8 per year our top strategies averaged up to 56 2 per year |
PFE | Pfizer s Anacor deal showcases new wave of eczema therapies | By Ransdell Pierson NEW YORK Reuters Pfizer Inc s N PFE purchase of Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc O ANAC heralds an approaching wave of potentially safer and more effective treatments for millions who suffer from eczema a common skin condition which causes infection prone rashes that can feel like having poison ivy 24 hours a day More than two dozen drugmakers are working on novel medicines to treat the condition affecting about 20 million Americans also known as atopic dermatitis and Pfizer s 5 2 billion deal positions it to become a market leader Anacor s steroid free topical ointment crisaborole is the first of the new treatments to be reviewed by U S regulators An injectable therapy called dupilumab from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc O REGN is expected to be submitted for U S approval later this year Until a few years ago I don t think we had any message of hope for eczema patients who have tried everything said Gil Yosipovitch chairman of dermatology at Temple University School of Medicine who is a paid consultant for both companies Now we do The two medicines greatly reduced eczema symptoms in late stage trials without side effects accompanying current treatments They could eventually see combined annual global sales of over 9 billion and face no significant competition for years Yosipovitch said Anacor s crisaborole could be a valuable option for the 60 percent to 80 percent of patients with mild and moderate eczema on localized areas of the body Dupilumab would be used for patients with more severe disease he said The global eczema drug market is currently worth about 4 billion in sales mostly of topical steroids than can cause skin atrophy and increase risk of glaucoma and cataracts Doctors may also prescribe oral drugs that suppress the immune system such as cyclosporine but they are not approved for eczema and can cause infections shingles and cancer There are no approved systemic drugs for the condition However the cost of the new treatments may limit patient access Regeneron s injectable dupilumab could cost 25 000 a year similar to psoriasis drugs at a time when U S health insurers are resisting rising drug prices Analysts say it could eventually capture annual sales of 6 billion with Anacor s drug costing more than 1 200 a year and having peak annual sales of up to 3 billion Payers know this will be a big market and will put up a lot of barriers and restrictions said Yatin Suneja an analyst with Suntrust Robinson Humphrey Express Scripts Inc O ESRX last month said it would scrutinize new eczema treatments and their expected prices LONG TERM EFFECTS Crisaborole blocks an inflammation causing protein called PDE 4 In large clinical trials that included children and adults it cleared or almost cleared treated areas of skin in half of patients with mild to moderate disease with mild side effects We badly need a nonsteroidal topical that can get around serious steroid concerns and this drug showed no skin atrophy or other significant side effects said Dr Lawrence Eichenfield of the University of California San Diego and lead author of American Academy of Dermatology eczema treatment guidelines Regeneron and Sanofi PA SASY aim to seek approval for dupilumab this year for adults with moderate to severe eczema It blocks two proteins IL 4 and IL 13 believed to cause eczema and allergic conditions like asthma In big trials dupilumab led to an average 70 percent improvement in rash area and severity Fewer serious side effects including infections were reported for dupilumab than for placebos In separate studies it reduced incidence of asthma One concern over drugs like dupilumab which regulate the immune system is potential for serious side effects over time including lymphoma Such problems typically do not show up until a patient has used a medicine many years said Dr Cameron Rokhsar a New York dermatologist with no financial ties to the drugmakers Roche Holding AG S ROG and AstraZeneca Plc L AZN are developing injectable eczema treatments several years behind dupilumab Data from mid stage trials of the Roche drug lebrikizumab are expected in the second quarter AstraZeneca plans this year to disclose data from a mid stage trial of its tralokinumab in adults with moderate to severe eczema Nemolizumab from Japan s Chugai T 4519 is also being tested in a mid stage trial The injectable drug targets IL 31 a protein associated with itch a hallmark of eczema The main concept of our drug is to break the vicious itch scratch cycle because scratching damages the skin and causes more intense inflammation Dr Michiaki Tanaka a senior Chugai research executive said in an interview Celgene Inc O CELG recently tested its psoriasis drug apremilast in about 200 patients with moderate to severe eczema
It has not publicized the results but researchers and analysts say it could become the first approved oral treatment for eczema The pill has caused nausea and other gastrointestinal problems in psoriasis patients I m very excited about apremilast because we have no approved oral drug for eczema said Dr Emma Guttman Yassky of Mt Sinai Medical Center in New York She helped conduct trials of apremilast and dupilumab |
PFE | Pascal Soriot s big experiment reinventing AstraZeneca | By Ben Hirschler LONDON Reuters AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot is a big believer in science and the biggest experiment of his career is the reinvention of the drugmaker The 500 million corporate headquarters and research hub emerging amid cranes on the southern edge of the university town of Cambridge symbolizes his aim to create a science led company with uniquely close ties to academia For employees these are uncomfortable times Thousands of job have been cut globally at the company in the past three years with more to come Some staff are also reluctant to move to Cambridge with its high house prices from north west England where the company has a strong presence dating from its time as part of the old ICI chemicals empire Soriot however relishes the chance to shake things up by setting up home near world renowned university labs where he says the firm is better placed to hire the best of the best while shrinking its operations to focus on core areas like cancer respiratory and cardiovascular disease In the past we ve had too much stability the CEO said in an interview with Reuters that gives some of the clearest indications yet of the scale of the cultural change he intends to push through at the company We had people who never moved and turnover of 1 or 2 percent That might sound good but it s actually not because you don t have new ideas flowing through the place The stakes are high Two years after spurning a 100 billion bid from Pfizer NYSE PFE AstraZeneca is going through the biggest cliff of patent expiries the drug industry has ever seen wiping off more than half of its sales or 17 billion in 2011 2017 That has forced Soriot to seek new routes to profit and his overhaul of the company is now entering a pivotal phase with make or break trial results and drug approvals due over the next 12 months coinciding with the move to Cambridge As with any experiment the outcome of Soriot s reinvention is uncertain and investors are divided Neil Woodford of Woodford Investment Management the seventh largest AstraZeneca shareholder is convinced the company will re emerge as a successful player focused on specialty drugs like cancer treatments rather than mass market medicines He has added to his stake recently But Andy Smith chief investment officer at fund manager Mann Bioinvest says Soriot has yet to prove his plan will pay off The big question hanging over his tenure is how close he can get to showing actual value from the pipeline rather than promised value he said IMPLODING No other pharmaceutical company has moved itself wholesale to an academic center Soriot argues the move is already paying off for some 1 600 staff nearly a quarter of its UK workforce now in rented space around Cambridge who are liaising far more closely with academic researchers It is fundamentally changing the way we operate said the 56 year old who trained as a veterinarian in France Most of the staff will move into the new building from late 2017 Soriot said he had no choice but to overhaul AstraZeneca when he took over in October 2012 due to the patent cliff The company was imploding he said bluntly His answer has been to invest in internal research and bolt on acquisitions including more than 7 billion of deals at the end of 2015 to rebuild the company s drug pipeline This includes cancer drugs that boost the immune system which are the hottest area of drug research right now although AstraZeneca also has high hopes for other approaches to fighting tumors That makes oncology the area with the greatest potential to drive future sales at AstraZeneca as the company grapples with a wave of patent expiries on older products such as its cholesterol fighter Crestor and stomach acid pill Nexium Investors are anxious for proof Soriot s prescription will work since AstraZeneca shares are languishing 28 percent below the 55 pounds offered by Pfizer and earnings are expected to fall in 2016 and 2017 AstraZeneca has also had to cope recently with some senior executive departures including the loss on Tuesday of its North America head to Novartis At the height of the takeover battle the company went public with a forecast that sales would rise by three quarters to 45 billion by 2023 a hostage to fortune perhaps but a target Soriot remains confident will be met I might not be here to see if we achieve that in 2023 but people won t have to wait until then If we succeed the share price will reflect the value of the company much earlier than that he said I think it is going to take another 12 months and then hopefully we can show people what they want to see STEPS FORWARD BACK So far there have been some steps forward like success with lung cancer drug Tagrisso and with good results for a new asthma drug But there have also been setbacks including the loss of a fast to market opportunity for AstraZeneca s big immuno oncology hope durvalumab The latter has increased the pressure to prove that a combination treatment mixing durvalumab and tremelimumab can help in lung cancer giving AstraZeneca a foothold in a market currently dominated by Bristol Myers Squibb Pascal has played his hand well but now he s at the point where it gets harder said one top executive at a rival company He s going down to the valley floor on earnings and we don t know how the clinical data will play out to get the business up the other side AstraZeneca has also used so called externalization income from licensing out non core products to underpin profits leading to criticism over earnings quality from some analysts With R D spending equivalent to 24 percent of sales AstraZeneca s science budget exceeds the industry average But Soriot aims to push selling general and administrative expenses down to 30 32 percent from 35 percent The CEO says investors need patience to see through a turnaround story that with luck will mirror the recovery Bristol Myers now the star of the pharma sector
There will be a tipping point where people see a sufficient number of projects progressing positively and then they can see the future is bright |
PFE | French drugmaker Sanofi to step up push into China | By Matthias Blamont and No lle Mennella PARIS Reuters Sanofi PA SASY will step up its push into China its second biggest market after the United States in the next five years as part of a wider expansion into emerging countries where it sees a large part of its future growth The French drugmaker is under pressure to diversify geographically and expand in areas such as oncology as it faces declining sales of its diabetes blockbuster Lantus The company went public with an unsolicited 9 3 billion offer to buy U S cancer firm Medivation O MDVN in April setting up what could be a lengthy takeover battle In the past years we have always managed to come up with a 5 10 percent growth in emerging economies and I think we will remain in this range this year even if we should be closer to 5 percent than 10 percent Peter Guenter Sanofi s executive vice president for general medicines and emerging markets said in an interview with Reuters Emerging markets with expanding middle class populations are a big opportunity for global drug companies although growth rates have slowed in recent years China has been particularly tough following imposed price cuts and more cautious drug promotion in the wake of a record bribery fine for GlaxoSmithKline L GSK in 2014 Sanofi however has recently done better there than some of its rivals Guenter will move to a new position on June 1 as head of diabetes and cardiovascular replacing Pascale Witz who is leaving the company The group s 2015 revenues in emerging markets reached 10 6 billion euros 11 83 billion up 8 percent at constant currency exchange rates There are still a lot of unmet medical needs in China Guenter said with rapid urbanization leading to the spread of western diseases such as diabetes Patients still travel long distances to meet an established specialist in the big cities of the east coast because they fear they won t get the right treatment at home Guenter said Sanofi which vies with China market leaders Pfizer N PFE and AstraZeneca L AZN as well as local manufacturers has set up a research and development center in Shanghai both to reinforce its presence and boost its credibility with authorities The company has been marketing Eloxatine usually prescribed for colorectal cancer for Chinese patients suffering with liver cancer for the past three years The prevalence of liver cancer is very high China and very low elsewhere we don t know quite why Guenter said The company does not break out its sales figures by country but Guenter said the growth potential in China was particularly promising especially with improved access to health insurance in rural areas of the country Of course the reforms aimed at implementing better healthcare in China will put some pressure on pricing in the coming years but our hypothesis is that volumes will compensate |
AMD | Mubadala opens NY office to focus on financial services private equity | ABU DHABI Reuters Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala has opened an office in New York the state fund s second in the United States its deputy chairman Waleed al Muhairi said on Wednesday
Mubadala s New York office opened on April 1 and will employ 10 people a company spokesman told reporters separately The team will focus on financial services and private equity investments
The state fund s venture capital arm launched in 2017 to oversee an early growth fund set up with Japan s SoftBank and a fund of funds focused on emerging fund managers is already based in San Francisco
The New York office will be headed by Kevin Kokko a director from Mubadala Capital s team a spokesman said
From the investment standpoint these two are the centers of gravity the spokesman said of the two U S office locations
Mubadala which manages over 225 billion in assets committed 15 billion to the 100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund Saudi Arabia s Public Investment Fund allocated 45 billion
Among major U S investments Mubadala owns a minority stake in buyout firm Carlyle and a stake in Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ AMD |
T | San Francisco Giants famed slugger Willie McCovey dead at 80 | By Leonard Anderson SAN FRANCISCO Reuters San Francisco Giants Hall of Fame slugger Willie McCovey one of the most formidable batters in Major League Baseball died on Wednesday at age 80 following a battle with ongoing health issues the team said Blessed with a sweeping powerful swing the left handed first baseman hit 521 homers during his 22 years in the majors and his 18 grand slams rank as the most ever by a player who spent his career entirely in the National League McCovey whose death the Giants announced on Twitter was voted National League Rookie of the Year in 1959 won Most Valuable Player honors in 1969 and was a six time All Star He played for the Giants San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics but was most closely identified with the Giants playing 19 seasons in San Francisco alongside future Hall of Fame teammates Willie Mays Orlando Cepeda Juan Marichal and Gaylord Perry Along the way the 6 foot 4 inch Alabama native nicknamed Stretch and Big Mac made his mark as one of the greatest hitters of his era and one of the most beloved players to wear the Giants uniform He was one of a talented group of young players who joined the Giants after the franchise moved to San Francisco from New York in 1958 at the dawn Major League Baseball s westward expansion Unlike Mays McCovey was a San Francisco Giant all the way recalled longtime Oakland Tribune sports columnist Art Spander San Francisco didn t take to Mays right away when the Giants moved here in 1958 He was identified with New York But when McCovey came up from the minor leagues he was an instant hit San Franciscans loved him as one of their own Spander said BORN TO HIT Born on Jan 10 1938 in Mobile Alabama McCovey showed promising batting prowess even as a youngster Balls were kind of hard to get and we played in this ballpark that had a short right field fence he once told an interviewer They used to make me hit right handed because I d lose all the balls over the wall Perhaps the most memorable game McCovey ever played was on Oct 16 1962 Game 7 of the World Series against the New York Yankees the last World Series game between the two long time rivals to date With two outs and the Yankees leading the Giants 1 0 in the bottom of the ninth inning at Candlestick Park McCovey came to bat with Mays on second base and Matty Alou on third McCovey smashed a line drive toward right that for an instant looked like it would score Mays and Alou to give the Giants a 2 1 win and the World Series championship their first since 1954 Instead Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson speared the ball for the final out to end the series When the Giants moved from old Candlestick Park to their stunning new bayside ballpark now known as AT T NYSE T Park for the 2000 season they honored McCovey in a novel fashion naming an inlet of San Francisco Bay beyond the right field fence McCovey Cove where Giants slugger Barry Bonds thrilled fans with splashdown homeruns into the water In 2003 the Giants unveiled a statue of McCovey at a park adjacent to McCovey Cove complementing Mays statue at the entrance to the ballpark The Giants also honored McCovey after his final season in 1980 by establishing the annual Willie Mac Award presented each year to the Giants player who best exemplifies the spirit and leadership consistently shown by McCovey throughout his career After his playing days the Giants retired McCovey s uniform number 44 one of only nine former players or managers so honored in the 121 year history of the Giants Writing and reporting by Leonard Anderson in San Francisco Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles editing by Darren Schuettler OLUSSPORT Reuters US Online Report Sports News 20181101T051143 0000 |
T | HBO goes dark on Dish Network in carriage dispute | Reuters Dish Network Corp said on Thursday AT T Inc NYSE T had blacked out HBO and Cinemax networks for its Dish and Sling TV subscribers as the companies failed to agree on a new distribution pact AT T the No 2 U S wireless carrier by subscribers closed its 85 billion acquisition of media company Time Warner in June and created WarnerMedia to house assets including Turner TV networks and the premium channel HBO It seems AT T is implementing a new strategy to shut off its recently acquired content from other distributors said Andy LeCuyer Dish s senior vice president of programming A WarnerMedia spokesman said past behavior showed that removing services from customers was becoming a common negotiating tactic for Dish Over the last few years Dish has dropped Fox News CBS and local TV station owners Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc and Tribune Media Co the spokesman said
Dish said AT T is demanding that the company pay for a guaranteed number of subscribers regardless of how many consumers actually want to subscribe to HBO |
T | AT T s WarnerMedia accuses DOJ with collaborating with Dish in HBO dispute | By Kenneth Li Reuters AT T NYSE T Inc s WarnerMedia has accused the U S Department of Justice of collaborating with Dish Network Corp in a high profile dispute over carrying HBO and Cinemax For the first time in its 40 year history Warner Media s HBO known for its award winning TV series Game of Thrones and The Sopranos went dark on Dish s satellite television service on Thursday after a disagreement over a new distribution deal About 2 5 million of Dish s 13 million customers subscribe to HBO or Cinemax according to one person familiar with the matter AT T also owns DirecTV a satellite TV rival to Dish WarnerMedia said it had offered to extend the contract to continue discussing a new deal but Dish executives declined to negotiate further Dish s proposals and actions made it clear they never intended to seriously negotiate an agreement said Simon Sutton HBO President and Chief Revenue Officer The dispute could be a public relations blow to AT T which is heading back into court in December when oral arguments begin in the DOJ s appeal of the antitrust decision approving the No 2 U S wireless carrier s 85 billion deal to buy Time Warner This behavior unfortunately is consistent with what the Department of Justice predicted would result from the merger a DOJ representative said We are hopeful the Court of Appeals will correct the errors of the District Court The Justice Department s statement was amplified by Fox Business Network journalist Charlie Gasparino s tweet on the matter AT T fired back The Department of Justice collaborated closely with Dish in its unsuccessful lawsuit to block our merger a WarnerMedia spokesman said in a statement That collaboration continues to this day with Dish s tactical decision to drop HBO not the other way around DOJ failed to prove its claims about HBO at trial and then abandoned them on appeal Dish declined comment on the accusation The merger created for AT T immense power over consumers said Andy LeCuyer DISH senior vice president of programming in a prepared statement It seems AT T is implementing a new strategy to shut off its recently acquired content from other distributors Dish testified against the deal in March arguing that AT T s concession to get the deal done was not strong enough to protect competitors AT T proposed that for seven years it would submit to third party arbitration any disagreement with distributors over the pricing for Time Warner s networks and promise not to black out programming during arbitration |
T | NFL notebook Jackson calls Browns firing premature | Hue Jackson won three times in 40 games as head coach of the Cleveland Browns but he claims he was fired prematurely Monday when general manager John Dorsey and owner Jimmy Haslam announced that they were moving on from him and offensive coordinator Todd Haley The fact that we played four overtime games this season says that we were a better football team In my mind if we fix the offense it s a totally different story Jackson said in an interview with Cleveland com on Friday So I do believe the move to fire Jackson was premature But I think a part of the problem again went back to the first two years when the Browns went a combined 1 31 Jackson reported to ownership during his tenure but faulted former general manager Sashi Brown who was promoted from an analytics role to be a first time personnel boss for digging the Browns a massive roster hole to dig out of the past two years Dorsey was hired in December 2017 to replace Brown and gave only a tepid endorsement of Jackson Haslam said Monday that internal discord in addition to the poor results on the field led to the decision to fire Jackson midseason Jackson on Friday denied he was throwing anyone under the bus by saying Haley had total control of the offense Jackson also pointed directly to Brown and the personnel department passing on multiple quarterbacks Carson Wentz and Patrick Mahomes in particular as a setback for the franchise But he also said 2018 No 1 pick Baker Mayfield is on his way to being a sensational player On the heels of a 34 3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers and little known third string quarterback Nick Mullens Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden reiterated his mission with the on the move franchise The Oakland Raiders is a great organization I know it s not looking pretty right now Gruden said I ve heard a lot of negativity over the last six or seven months and rightfully so But we re going to build a championship football team here I know a lot of people as players as fans just in general want to be a part of this Since the end of training camp the Raiders have parted with a pair of top five draft picks outside linebacker Khalil Mack and wide receiver Amari Cooper which could be perceived by players in the locker room as a white flag on the 2018 season Many media types and some former players took to social media on Thursday night to make the claim that Gruden s roster returned serve quitting on the coach at midseason San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan plans to take the weekend to decide which way he wants to go at quarterback next week In the aftermath of a surprisingly strong performance from Mullens in his first career start Thursday the 2017 undrafted free agent appears to have a leg up on second year quarterback C J Beathard Mullens completed 16 of 22 passes for 261 yards and three touchdowns with Beathard scratched due to a wrist injury Beathard was filling in for Jimmy Garoppolo who is out for the season with a torn ACL Beathard s status will be a factor in next week s decision at quarterback According to reports he was unable to grip the football and couldn t get ready on a short week for the Thursday night game Mullens 151 9 passer rating was a record for a player making his NFL debut Former Dallas Cowboys executive Gil Brandt will see his name placed in the team s Ring of Honor owner Jerry Jones announced on Friday Brandt will become the 22nd member of the esteemed group in a halftime ceremony on Nov 29 when the Cowboys meet the New Orleans Saints at AT T NYSE T Stadium Part of the staff of the expansion Cowboys in 1960 Brandt will join founding team president Tex Schramm and the first head coach Tom Landry as the non players in the Ring of Honor When Jerry called me with the news it was on par with walking off the field after winning the Super Bowl said Brandt who worked in the Cowboys front office for 29 seasons In fact 15 of the 19 players in the Ring of Honor were acquired by Brandt either through a trade or the draft All 15 are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame starting with his 1964 draft class of Roger Staubach Bob Hayes and Mel Renfro
I hope my heart and legs will be strong enough to survive that moment Brandt 85 said about the moment he will be inducted into the Ring of Honor To see my name up there with guys like Roger Staubach Bob Lilly Drew Pearson LON PSON Lee Roy Jordan these all time greats not only with the Cowboys franchise but in the history of our great game it overwhelms me Field Level Media |
T | BCE And TELUS Extend LTE M Coverage With AT T Collaboration | Leading Canadian carriers BCE Inc TSX BCE and TELUS Corporation NYSE T have extended their LTE M coverage in the United States with a strategic tie up with AT T NYSE T The reciprocal agreement also enables AT T subscribers to enjoy their LTE M network while roaming in Canada LTE M or Long Term Evolution category M1 is the technology that supports low power IoT applications with enhanced coverage longer battery life and lower operating costs It helps IoT devices to connect directly to a 4G network without a gateway and is compatible with 5G deployments These networks operate within licensed spectrum with carrier grade security and support firmware and software updates In addition these allow low power devices such as smart wearables trackers and industrial sensors to operate across continents While Bell was the first Canadian carrier to launch LTE M network in early 2018 TELUS initiated the service in October 2018 Bell s LTE M networks support a wide array of large scale IoT innovations such as asset tracking fleet management smart sensors smart city applications and municipal water system management On the other hand TELUS LTE M network is built on licensed cellular standards based technology which offers high quality of service greater reliability and carrier grade security By collaborating with a premier global carrier to activate LTE M roaming facilities both Bell and TELUS have unlocked newer business opportunities for its users for accelerated growth in the IoT space The Canadian carriers also expect to benefit immensely from the increased 5G deployment of AT T In order to have a seamless transition among Wi Fi LTE and 5G services AT T intends to deploy a standards based nationwide mobile 5G network in early 2020 Its 5G service entails utilization of millimeter wave spectrum for deployment in dense pockets while in suburban and rural areas it intends to deploy 5G on mid and low band spectrum holdings It believes that as the 5G ecosystem evolves customers can experience significant enhancements in coverage speeds and devices The telco giant has already introduced mobile 5G networks in parts of 12 U S cities and is planning to add seven more to the tally in 2019 AT T TELUS and BCE each carry a Zacks Rank 3 Hold A better ranked stock in the same space is Cincinnati Bell Inc NYSE CBB carrying a Zacks Rank 2 Buy You can see Cincinnati Bell has a long term earnings growth expectation of 2 Just Released Zacks 7 Best Stocks for TodayExperts extracted 7 stocks from the list of 220 Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buys that has beaten the market more than 2X over with a stunning average gain of 24 6 per year These 7 were selected because of their superior potential for immediate breakout |
PFE | Sanofi sees strong strategic fit with U S Medivation | PARIS Reuters Sanofi PA SASY sees a strong strategic fit with Medivation O MDVN even though its tie up proposal was rejected by the U S cancer drug maker last week the company s chief executive said on Wednesday The French drugmaker went public with a 9 3 billion proposal to buy Medivation on April 28 but the target said offer undervalued the company and its pipeline of drugs U S firm Pfizer N PFE has also approached Medivation to express interest in an acquisition raising the possibility of a bid rivaling Sanofi s people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday We have a strong strategic complementarity with this company Sanofi Chief Executive Olivier Brandicourt said of Medivation at the group s annual shareholder meeting in Paris He didn t say if Sanofi would raise its offer We will only move forward to a point where we create value Sanofi chairman Serge Weinberg said Of course it is out of question to say here where that point is Sanofi is keen to boost its presence in cancer treatments and already has teamed up last year with U S firm Regeneron O REGN in immuno oncology Immuno oncology differs from traditional treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy as its uses or enhances the patient s own immune system to be able to stop the growth of cancer cells Brandicourt said much had still to be done to catch up with rivals such as Switzerland s Roche S ROG or Novartis S NOVN We are making progress with Regeneron but coming back to Medivation the complementarity comes from the fact they are very involved in prostate cancer Brandicourt said
Based in San Francisco Medivation is known for its prostate cancer treatment Xtandi while Sanofi markets its own drug for the disease Jevtana |
PFE | Sanofi ready to up offer for drugmaker Medivation could oust board | PARIS NEW YORK Reuters France s Sanofi PA SASY said it could raise its proposed 9 3 billion deal to buy Medivation if the U S cancer drugmaker engaged in talks threatening to go directly to shareholders to oust the board if not Sanofi Chief Executive Olivier Brandicourt wrote in a letter to the board of Medivation published on Thursday that the transaction was a priority for the French drugmaker and it was committed to seeing it through San Francisco based Medivation said on Thursday it had received a letter from Sanofi that simply restates an inadequate proposal that substantially undervalues the Company its leading oncology franchise and innovative late stage pipeline Brandicourt said Sanofi had spoken to top Medivation shareholders and the proposal had overwhelming support If you engage in good faith discussions with us and demonstrate additional value we could be in a position to revise our offer the CEO wrote If you are not prepared to engage with us we have no choice but to go directly to your shareholders Sanofi said rules in the state of Delaware where Medivation is registered gave shareholders owning a majority of the company the power to oust the board If the Medivation board of directors continues to refuse to engage with us then we intend to commence a process to remove and replace members of the board Brandicourt said In its quarterly earnings call on Wednesday Medivation s Chief Executive Officer David Hung said that Medivation s major shareholders had been very supportive of the board s choice to reject Sanofi s bid He declined to comment on whether Medivation would run a sale process to explore offers from other potential bidders Sanofi went public with the takeover proposal on April 28 but Medivation rejected the 52 50 a share deal outright saying it undervalued the company substantially The stock has since risen to over 59 We believe we have offered a fair price and a very attractive premium Brandicourt wrote in the letter We remain enthusiastic about a potential combination with Medivation Medivation s first quarter earnings missed most analysts forecasts The San Francisco based company reported non GAAP net income of 11 cents per diluted share up from 8 cents a year earlier but much less than the average 23 cents expected by analysts in a Thomson Reuters poll Sanofi is keen to boost its presence in cancer treatments and teamed up last year with U S firm Regeneron in immuno oncology This differs from traditional treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy as it uses or enhances the patient s own immune system to stop the growth of cancer cells
Medivation known for its Xtandi prostate cancer treatment said on Thursday its board of directors believes the execution of Medivation s business plan will deliver value to its stockholders that is far superior to Sanofi s proposal The U S company will announce first quarter results after the market closes on Thursday U S drug maker Pfizer NYSE PFE has also approached Medivation to express interest in an acquisition raising the possibility of a bid rivaling Sanofi s people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday |
PFE | Ackman s Pershing Square cuts stake in Zoetis | Reuters Billionaire investor William Ackman s Pershing Square NYSE SQ now holds a 5 percent stake in Zoetis Inc NYSE ZTS after the hedge fund sold about 800 million worth of shares in the animal health company according to a regulatory filing Ackman sold 16 85 million Zoetis shares at an average price of 46 55 each the filing showed on Tuesday The fund had reported an 8 6 percent stake in the company in a filing on April 22 Zoetis which was spun off from Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE in 2013 reported better than expected quarterly revenue and profit last week
Pershing Square was a top industry performer in 2014 when it delivered a 40 percent return But more recently it has been close to the bottom losing 20 percent last year |
T | Million dollar tips Life lessons with Ryan Serhant | By Chris Taylor NEW YORK Reuters Ryan Serhant initially turned to New York real estate just to pay the rent and ended up becoming one of the stars of Bravo s Million Dollar Listing New York TV series as a top broker with Nest Seekers International Serhant has parlayed his success into a new book Sell It Like Serhant a YouTube channel and even mobile apps Agent Empire NYC He spoke with Reuters for our Life Lessons series about how he embarked on his stunning career and how others can do the same Q Did you entrepreneurial streak show up early on A My brother and I started working when we were little kids We sold firewood to our neighbors when I was only 10 years old But it wasn t really a success and I kind of sucked at it Because we couldn t drive we had to hire a guy with a pickup truck and one day he got pissed off and just took off After that the business came crumbling down Q Were your early acting years the typical story of the starving artist A When my grandfather died he left me 40 000 which was the most money I had ever seen in my life I thought it would last me 10 years in New York City Of course the money quickly ran out so I turned to hand modeling I did a lot of that you d be surprised I held things like AT T NYSE T phones and Nespresso pods and made 150 an hour They called me Ryan Serhand Q What was it like to make a big career transition to real estate A In 2008 I bit the bullet and got my real estate license I was trying to find a way to pay rent and I didn t want to start bartending or waiting tables and then still be doing that 20 years later So real estate was another way to work with people I was good at memorizing things about listings and could set my own hours Eventually I got addicted to it and became a deal junkie Q Did your acting history help you in the real estate business A It s the same talent and the same muscle I make all my team members take improv classes because you become a better businessperson if you know how to improv It s about saying yes and adapting to situations That s sales That s business Q How did those lean years shape your understanding of money A I saved as much as I possibly could and still do I was always afraid of having no money Even now I don t think of myself as rich I distinctly remember the day I had my debit card declined at the Food Emporium and I had to leave the grocery store with tears in my eyes I promised myself I would never go back to that moment Q Since you make a living at real estate is that where you invest your personal money too A It s important to invest in what you know So I do invest in a lot of townhouses and apartments I see deals fifty times a day and I know what s a good deal or a bad one If my clients pass on a good deal I ll jump on it Q Why is your giving so New York focused A I wouldn t be where I am were it not for New York City So any money I make is honestly the house s money I don t understand people who don t give back because the city has done so much for me So I work with a lot of organizations doing good work locally like City Harvest and Robin Hood and Ronald McDonald House Q You are looking to start a family with your wife Emilia what lessons do you plan to pass along to your kids A Daddy comes first A lot of kids in NYC grow up as complete brats because they are raised with the idea that they come first That s just not true So I want them to understand the value of work and the power of a dollar the same way my dad taught me Growing up I resented him a lot but now I am very thankful
The writer is a Reuters contributor The opinions expressed are his own |
T | Stocks struggle after trade worries send yuan to 10 year low | By Marc Jones LONDON Reuters European shares labored in the red and China s yuan hit a 10 year low on Tuesday as the prospect of an escalation in the U S Sino trade war compounded the recent gloom in global markets Traders reacted by sending the dollar a 2 1 2 month high and lifting futures prices on Wall Street s badly bruised main markets which have lost between 7 and 10 percent during this month s turbulence N Asia had also made modest gains thanks to hints of economic stimulus from Beijing SS but European bourses could not maintain the momentum as some disappointing company results and data from France and Italy triggered more caution EU The euro wallowed near a 10 week low of 1 1352 too as the dollar climbed to its 2 1 2 month high against a basket of the world s top six currencies It was the 10 year low for China s yuan in Asia that grabbed most attention though as it weakened to 6 9696 per dollar stirring speculation over whether Beijing will tolerate a slide beyond 7 per dollar That had came on top of reports that Washington will impose tariffs on all Chinese imports by the end of the year without progress at next month s meeting of Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping though Trump then said in an interview that a great deal was still possible with China We don t see the trade war being resolved any time soon said Rabobank s senior macro strategist Teeuwe Mevissen And it comes at a time when we see all the sentiment indicators in the euro zone but also in the U S too cooling down There was more negative news out of Italy the other major concern for Europe at the moment as its coalition government faces off with the European Commission over spending Data showed the Italian economy had ground to a halt in the third quarter as both domestic demand and trade flows failed to spur any growth The flat reading was the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2014 and renewed the pressure on Italy s government debt in the bond markets Italy s 10 year government bond yield was up 2 5 basis points at 3 36 percent having been as low as 3 32 percent earlier in the session IT10YT RR The closely watched spread over German government debt was back up to 300 bps DE10YT RR Traders were also still digesting the news on Monday that Germany s Chancellor Angela Merkel will step down as leader of the Christian Democrats CDU heralding the end of a 13 year era in which she has dominated European politics Friedrich Merz a former parliamentary leader of Merkel s conservative alliance became the first candidate to officially throw their hat into the ring to succeed her on Tuesday GLOBAL BEAR MARKET Asia s choppy rise had come as China made a fresh attempt to stabilize its stock markets Beijing s securities regulator said it would encourage share buybacks and mergers and acquisitions by listed firms and would enhance market liquidity Mainland China s benchmark Shanghai Composite SSEC and the blue chip CSI 300 CSI300 gained to 1 0 percent and 1 1 percent respectively having initially fallen after Trump s administration had hit state backed Chinese chipmaker Fujian Jinhua with U S restrictions on Monday Japan s Nikkei average N225 also erased early losses and rose 1 5 percent as traders went shopping for bargains among beaten down stocks T MSCI s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares MIAPJ0000PUS has lost 12 percent this month and is on track for its biggest October decline since 2008 during the global financial crisis At this point nobody can say the equity market is bottoming out Global investor sentiment remains shaky said Yasuo Sakuma chief investment officer at Libra Investments in Tokyo The speed with which a brief rally in U S stocks faded on Monday underscored that jittery mood Wall Street was pointing to 0 4 0 5 percent gains later but the S P 500 will be starting near a six month low having dropped almost 10 percent from last month s record highs N The chill around China and global trade means emerging market stocks are at an 18 month low MSCI s index is down for a sixth day in a row and Monday s post election rally in Brazil was already in the rear view mirror EMRG FRX The CBOE Global Markets volatility index VIX known as Wall Street s fear gauge was down a touch but it had jumped as high as 27 86 points its second highest level since a worldwide volatility shock in early February The probability of global stocks turning to a bear market is increasing said Masanari Takada cross assets strategist at Nomura Securities In the main commodity markets oil prices were down after easing overnight as Russia signaled that output will remain high and as concern over the global economy led to worries about demand for crude West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 dropped 1 4 percent to 66 13 per barrel Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell 1 8 percent to just under 76 Zinc and copper prices also buckled along with other base metals after U S President Trump s warning of new tariffs on Chinese goods
Trump has said during an interview with Fox News that he thinks there will be a great deal with China on trade but said he had billions of dollars worth of new tariffs ready to go if a deal is not possible |
PFE | Pfizer s Leukemia Drug Gets FDA Nod In First Line Setting | Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE announced that the FDA has approved its leukemia drug Bosulif in first line setting
We remind investors that Bosulif is currently approved for the treatment of chronic accelerated or blast phase Philadelphia chromosome positive Ph chronic myelogenous leukemia CML in adults who are resistant or intolerant to prior therapy
The drug is now approved for the first line treatment of patients suffering from chronic phase Ph CML Please note that Pfizer has a partnership with Avillion for Bosulif
Shares of Pfizer have risen 13 8 this year so far comparing unfavorably with a 17 3 increase for the
The supplemental New Drug Application sNDA filed by Pfizer for the label expansion was granted priority review by the FDA in August The sNDA filing was based on data from a phase III study BFORE In December last year Pfizer and Avillion announced that the study had met the primary endpoint demonstrating superiority of Bosulif bosutinib over Novartis NYSE NVS Gleevec
Additionally the European Medicines Agency EMA accepted a similar regulatory application for review
Bosulif recorded revenues of 163 million up 35 year over year With the approval to treat newly diagnosed patients which will expand the eligible patient population the drug s sales should improve further
Bosulif s label expansion makes it the third approval for a hematology indication in five months Two leukemia treatments Besponsa for relapsed refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia ALL and Mylotarg for newly diagnosed CD33 positive acute myeloid leukemia AML were approved in third quarter of 2017
Zacks Rank Stocks to Consider
Pfizer carries a Zacks Rank 3 Hold
Some better ranked stocks in the pharma biotech sector include H Lundbeck A S OTC HLUYY and XOMA Corp NASDAQ XOMA While XOMA carries a Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buy H Lundbeck has a Zacks Rank 2 Buy You can see
Shares of Lundbeck have risen 21 8 so far this year while 2018 earnings estimates have gone up 3 2 in the past 60 days
While XOMA shares have skyrocketed 651 year to date its 2018 loss estimates have narrowed almost 20 over the past 60 days
5 Medical Stocks to Buy Now
Zacks names 5 companies poised to ride a medical breakthrough that is targeting cures for leukemia AIDS muscular dystrophy hemophilia and other conditions
New products in this field are already generating substantial revenue and even more wondrous treatments are in the pipeline Early investors could realize exceptional profits |
AMD | Why Advanced Micro Devices AMD Might Surprise This Earnings Season | Investors are always looking for stocks that are poised to beat at earnings season and Advanced Micro Devices Inc NASDAQ AMD may be one such company The firm has earnings coming up pretty soon and events are shaping up quite nicely for their report That is because Advanced Micro Devices is seeing favorable earnings estimate revision activity as of late which is generally a precursor to an earnings beat After all analysts raising estimates right before earnings with the most up to date information possible is a pretty good indicator of some favorable trends underneath the surface for AMD in this report In fact the Most Accurate Estimate for the current quarter is currently at 19 cents per share for AMD compared to a broader Zacks Consensus Estimate of 18 cents per share This suggests that analysts have very recently bumped up their estimates for AMD giving the stock a Zacks Earnings ESP of 6 54 heading into earnings season Advanced Micro Devices Inc Price and EPS Surprise Why is this Important A positive reading for the Zacks Earnings ESP has proven to be very powerful in producing both positive surprises and outperforming the market Our recent 10 year backtest shows that stocks that have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank 3 Hold or better show a positive surprise nearly 70 of the time and have returned over 28 on average in annual returns see more Given that AMD has a Zacks Rank 2 Buy and an ESP in positive territory investors might want to consider this stock ahead of earnings You can see the complete list of today s Zacks 1 Rank Strong Buy stocks here Clearly recent earnings estimate revisions suggest that good things are ahead for Advanced Micro Devices and that a beat might be in the cards for the upcoming report Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana Ignited by new referendums and legislation this industry is expected to blast from an already robust 6 7 billion to 20 2 billion in 2021 Early investors stand to make a killing but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look |
AMD | Advanced Micro Devices AMD Q3 Earnings Match Estimates | Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ AMD came out with quarterly earnings of 0 18 per share in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate This compares to earnings of 0 13 per share a year ago These figures are adjusted for non recurring items
A quarter ago it was expected that this chipmaker would post earnings of 0 08 per share when it actually produced earnings of 0 08 delivering no surprise
Over the last four quarters the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates just once
Advanced Micro which belongs to the Zacks Electronics Semiconductors industry posted revenues of 1 80 billion for the quarter ended September 2019 missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0 11 This compares to year ago revenues of 1 65 billion The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters
The sustainability of the stock s immediate price movement based on the recently released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management s commentary on the earnings call
Advanced Micro shares have added about 82 5 since the beginning of the year versus the S P 500 s gain of 21 3
What s Next for Advanced Micro
While Advanced Micro has outperformed the market so far this year the question that comes to investors minds is what s next for the stock
There are no easy answers to this key question but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company s earnings outlook Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter s but also how these expectations have changed lately
Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried and tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions
Ahead of this earnings release the estimate revisions trend for Advanced Micro was favorable While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company s just released earnings report the current status translates into a Zacks Rank 2 Buy for the stock So the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future You can see the complete list of today s Zacks 1 Rank Strong Buy stocks here
It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead The current consensus EPS estimate is 0 32 on 2 16 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and 0 63 on 6 76 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year
Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank Electronics Semiconductors is currently in the top 23 of the 250 plus Zacks industries Our research shows that the top 50 of the Zacks ranked industries outperform the bottom 50 by a factor of more than 2 to 1 |
PFE | In China s tougher drug market minnows open back door for Big Pharma | By Adam Jourdan SHANGHAI Reuters Armed with Beijing funds and friends in the right places Chinese drug minnows are thriving luring money from Big Pharma majors struggling to restore the strong growth they once enjoyed in the world s second largest medicine market Chinese healthcare mergers and acquisitions nearly tripled last year to more than 50 billion helped by giants like GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Eli Lilly and Co tapping small biotech and research innovators The targets offer vital regulatory know how as Beijing builds a domestic drug industry For Big Pharma acquisitions licensing deals and joint ventures offer a back door into a market where Beijing expects healthcare spending to rise to 1 3 trillion by 2020 The majors need the opening their China growth has stalled to low single digit pace from over 20 percent just four years ago as branded generics have lost their shine As a China biotech company we have the advantage of knowing policy understanding the environment and being able to mobilize resources to get things done said Li Chen 54 chief executive of Hua Medicine Hua has a deal in place to develop drugs including a diabetes treatment licensed from Swiss giant Roche Holding SIX ROG AG While firms like Hua can help global drugmakers navigate complex regulatory risks speeding up approvals in treatment areas like diabetes and cancer they get something in return access to what Hua s Li calls good assets and in some cases potential partners to sell their wares overseas For Li a former Roche scientist Hua s partnership deal brings the advantages of a tie up with a global industry leader to a company with a staff of around just 25 people which he founded himself in Shanghai five years ago We were looking for assets around the world so that s a really great match and I know this asset really well Li said Among his firms peers interest in such tie ups is growing M A BOOM The buzz around China s healthcare industry has helped it outstrip hotspots like India to become the most active region in Asia for pharmaceutical tie ups said Wei Zheng healthcare analyst at BMI Research Chinese healthcare M A last year surged to 54 billion from 18 8 billion the year before according to Thomson Reuters data not including the value of numerous joint ventures and licensing deals There have already been deals worth more than 9 billion this year the data shows showing demand for the assets remains robust As well as acquisitions partnership deals are increasingly being sought after industry executives say A lot of firms are coming here to tap into a cost effective way of doing drug development said Mireille Gillings chief executive of U S firm HUYA Bioscience International which has scouts around China hunting for drug development breakthroughs At the same time other small firms are keen to find overseas partners to push their drugs overseas HUYA has in licensed a Chinese immunotherapy cancer treatment that is undergoing trials in Japan and the United States LOCAL NETWORKS Shanghai based research firm WuXi AppTec is one company that may fit that bill It now employees around 11 000 people worldwide and said this month it was setting up a joint venture with U S listed Juno Therapeutics Inc to develop innovative cancer drugs in China Honestly if you manufacture locally test local and file local that will give you a time advantage the firm s chief executive Ge Li told Reuters It s as simple as that The tilt in strategy for the majors comes as Beijing accelerates efforts to promote a Made in China drug industry GlaxoSmithKline s China head Herve Gisserot told Reuters late last year that Beijing was putting pressure on off patent generics reining in prices and trying to cut out low quality drugs positive moves longer term but which created short term challenges The only thing for pharma is that some of the things will happen sooner than others Price erosion will likely be faster than the accelerated approval of new medicines he said SEA TURTLES Chinese partners bring an extra dimension The domestic start ups aren t shy about their government backing and political connections an important element to help attract funding and navigate complex regulations Samantha Du chief executive of Shanghai based Zai Lab which has in licensed cancer treatment drugs from Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE and struck a partnership in March with German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim said her firm had lots of government funding Du 52 like Hua Medicine s Li Chen is a so called sea turtle one of China s best and brightest who has returned home after studying and working overseas She has served on various government linked committees she said noting this had done nothing to harm the firm s prospects Over 18 months we ve raised around 140 million and haven t even spent the first round she said Her firm founded in 2013 employs 30 staff in house There s plenty of money to spend |
PFE | New drugs fuel strong Pfizer results company raises 2016 forecasts | By Ransdell Pierson Reuters Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE which last month abandoned its 160 billion quest for Allergan Inc NYSE AGN pa reported quarterly results that blew past analyst estimates on sales of its new cancer and arthritis treatments and the acquisition last year of hospital products company Hospira NYSE HSP The largest U S drugmaker also raised its revenue and earnings forecast for the year helped in part by the weakening dollar Shares of the company rose 2 4 percent in morning trading on Tuesday Global company sales jumped 20 percent to 13 billion in the first quarter which was 1 billion more than Wall Street had expected But the quarter included five more days of sales in the United States than the year ago quarter adding revenue of 900 million in the most recent period Pfizer said sales would be hurt in the fourth quarter of 2016 however when those added days will be offset by fewer days Credit Suisse SIX CSGN analyst Vamil Divan said the results were impressive with most drug categories beating sales expectations But he said investors are eager to hear how Pfizer s overall strategy might change given its dashed hopes for Allergan Pfizer walked away from the deal after the U S Treasury issued new rules curbing tax inversion deals under which American companies move overseas to cut taxes Many analysts believe Pfizer needs to buy new medicines or entire biotech companies to ensure competitive earnings growth Meanwhile its recently launched breast cancer treatment Ibrance is on its way to becoming a mega blockbuster product Its sales jumped to 429 million from 38 million in the year ago quarter Morningstar analyst Damien Conover said sales of rheumatoid arthritis pill Xeljanz more than doubled to 197 million after new treatment guidelines from the American College of Rheumatology put it on par with standard injectable treatments for patients that have failed prior therapy With the Allergan deal scratched Pfizer has said it will decide this year whether to sell or split off its hundreds of generic medicines called established products into a separate business When it announced its planned Allergan deal last November Pfizer put off making the decision until 2019 Conover said Pfizer is likely for the remainder of 2016 to seek far smaller bolt on deals possibly in the 5 billion to 20 billion range They really need to figure out whether to break into two pieces before doing a lot of big mergers Conover said Sales of Pfizer s generic medicines rose 17 percent in the quarter to 5 97 billion while sales of its array of patent protected drugs jumped 23 percent to 7 03 billion Pfizer in September 2015 completed its 16 billion purchase of Hospira which makes a wide array of drugs and devices used in hospitals especially sterile injectable products Hospira products posted sales of 1 2 billion in the quarter Net income rose to 3 02 billion or 49 cents per share from 2 38 billion or 38 cents per share a year earlier according to Thomson Reuters I B E S Excluding special items Pfizer earned 67 cents per share well above the average analyst estimate of 55 cents per share
Pfizer now expects 2016 revenue of 51 billion to 53 billion from its earlier view of 49 billion to 51 billion and earnings of 2 38 to 2 48 per share from 2 20 to 2 30 per share |
T | AT T Shares Fall After Earnings Miss | Investing com AT T reported third quarter earnings that missed analysts forecasts on Wednesday but revenue was solid led by gains in Mobility and WarnerMedia
The firm reported earnings per share of 0 90 on revenue of 45 7bn compared to forecast for earnings per share of 0 93 on revenue of 45 33bn
Consolidated revenues for the third quarter were up 15 3 on a year over year basis primarily due to the Time Warner acquisition the company said in a statement
AT T NYSE T shares were down 1 88 in pre market trade following the report
The company reaffirmed its 2018 guidance of adjusted earnings per share at the high end of 3 50 range free cash flow at the high end of the 21 billion range and net capital expenditures at the 22 billion range
The company reported a net increase of 4 3 million wireless subscribers made up of 3 4 million in the U S and 907 000 in Mexico
Operating income came in at 7 3bn up 25 2 on a year over year basis the company said
WarnerMedia known as Time Warner before its acquisition generated revenue of 8 2bn an increase of 6 5 year over year
I m pleased with the progress we made on a number of fronts in the third quarter Randall Stephenson AT T chairman and CEO said in a statement He added that WarnerMedia was immediately accretive in its first full quarter and contributed 5 cents to EPS
For the year AT T shares are down 15 46 under performing the S P 500 which is up 2 12 year to date |
T | AT T Falls 4 | Investing com AT T NYSE T fell by 4 18 to trade at 31 64 by 09 31 13 31 GMT on Wednesday on the NYSE exchange
The volume of AT T shares traded since the start of the session was 6 38M AT T has traded in a range of 31 40 to 31 73 on the day
The stock has traded at 33 2700 at its highest and 31 4200 at its lowest during the past seven days |
PFE | Pfizer Hikes Dividend Announces 10B Share Buyback Plan | The board of directors of Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE announced a 6 hike in the pharma giant s quarterly dividend for 2018 while also authorizing a new 10 billion share repurchase program The quarterly dividend was raised from 32 cents to 34 cents which adds up to an annual dividend of 1 36 per share This amounts to an annual dividend yield of 3 7 The increased dividend for the first quarter of 2018 will be payable on Mar 1 2018 to shareholders of record at the close of business on Feb 2 2018 Shares of Pfizer have risen 14 3 this year so far comparing unfavorably with a 17 1 increase for the Pfizer regularly rewards shareholders through share buybacks and dividends The company returned about 13 1 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks in 2015 and 12 3 billion in 2016 including the completion of a 5 billion accelerated share repurchase agreement In 2017 so far the company has bought back shares worth 5 billion It has 6 4 billion remaining under the company s current buyback plan Pfizer is exploring strategic alternatives for its Consumer Healthcare segment the proceeds of which it plans to use to return value to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividends For the Consumer Healthcare segment Pfizer is considering either a partial or a full separation through a spin off sale or other transaction A decision regarding the same is expected to be made next year It may even choose to retain the business The divestment of the Consumer Healthcare business will help Pfizer focus on its Innovative Health segmentZacks Rank Stocks to ConsiderPfizer carries a Zacks Rank 3 Hold Some better ranked stocks in the pharma biotech sector include H Lundbeck A S OTC HLUYY ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc NASDAQ ANIP and XOMA Corporation NASDAQ XOMA While XOMA carries a Zacks Rank 1 Strong Buy H Lundbeck and ANI Pharmaceuticals have a Zacks Rank 2 Buy You can see ANI Pharmaceuticals earnings estimates have moved up 2 4 for 2018 over the last 60 days Share price of the company has risen 9 3 year to date While XOMA shares have skyrocketed 665 2 year to date its 2018 loss estimates have narrowed almost 20 over the past 60 days Shares of Lundbeck have risen 21 so far this year while 2018 earnings estimates have gone up 3 2 in the past 60 days
Zacks Editor in Chief Goes All In on This Stock
Full disclosure Kevin Matras now has more of his own money in one particular stock than in any other He believes in its short term profit potential and also in its prospects to more than double by 2019 Today he reveals and explains his surprising move in a new Special Report |
T | Pound Strong Again Amidst Ongoing Brexit Drama | FX It was another day of drama in London including Speaker Bercow announcing his resignation but at the end the pound was the strongest major currency Safe haven currencies like the Japanese yen and Swiss franc Commodities Gold edged about 0 5 lower on the day while oil surged nearly 3 to a 1 month high
US indices closed mixed in relatively quiet trade Energy XLE and Financials XLF were the strongest major sectors Technology XLK brought up the rear Stocks on the move AT T NYSE T rallied more than 1 on news that activist fund Elliott has taken a stake in the company and is pushing for a breakup Cloud software stocks like Slack WORK 9 Zoom Video Communications ZM 8 and Twilio TWLO 10 all fell sharply as investors questioned their elevated valuations |
PFE | U S plans to curb tax inversions could hit foreign companies | By Tom Bergin
LONDON Reuters Planned changes that President Barack Obama says are aimed at ensuring American companies do not avoid tax by shifting their headquarters overseas could also force foreign companies to adopt more conservative U S tax planning strategies
One of the measures restricts the ability of U S subsidiaries of foreign companies to deduct the interest they pay on loans from their parent firms from their taxable income
It aims to stop a redomiciled American firm from reducing its U S tax bill by piling inter group debt on its U S operations and effectively shifting profits overseas
But it could also affect European companies that use similar strategies to reduce their tax bills in the United States after buying U S firms
The new rules announced by the Treasury department this week aim to curb so called inversions where a U S group acquires a smaller overseas company and shifts its domicile to a lower tax jurisdiction
Drugmaker Pfizer NYSE PFE s plan to buy rival Allergan NYSE AGN pa and move to Ireland was one of the planned inversions that prompted the Obama administration to act The 160 billion deal fell apart last week as a result of other aspects of the Treasury reforms
Under the new rule regarding debt if a U S subsidiary transfers money to its overseas parent within three years before or after borrowing money from it by paying a dividend or buying shares in the parent then U S tax authorities could potentially treat the loan as if it was equity
This means the interest on the debt would not be deductible for U S income tax purposes
Experts said that European companies would still be able to shift profits via inter group debt but may have to do so gradually over a longer period of time
It without doubt significantly changes the rules of the game said Stephen Shay professor of law at Harvard University
In the old days you bought and then you levered up as much as you can and that is not going to happen in the same way but how much of a constraint that becomes is unclear he added
Nancy McLernon president of the Organization for International Investment a trade group for the U S subsidiaries of foreign companies denied non U S groups were routinely shifting profit overseas through debt
Where s the problem they U S authorities are trying to fix It feels more like a tax grab she said
She said the complexity of the issue and uncertainty over how the Internal Revenue Service IRS the U S tax authority would seek to use their new powers would make investing in new U S projects less attractive
It will have a chilling effect on foreign direct investment in the United States McLernon added
BILLIONS AT STAKE
The Treasury says it is targeting situations where large debts are incurred to fund dividends shortly after an inversion or foreign acquisition rather than the most common way U S subsidiaries accumulate inter group debt That is by having the subsidiary gradually pay all its profit to its parent as dividends and then borrow money from its parent for new investment
The proposed regulations generally do not apply to related party debt that is incurred to fund actual business investment such as building or equipping a factory a Treasury factsheet released last week said
Providing the money a foreign company takes out of its U S subsidiary is in line with the U S company s profits the transactions should escape IRS scrutiny Shay said
Companies don t usually publish details of their inter group financing so it s impossible to put a figure on how much profit foreign companies shelter from U S tax through inter group loans Richard Murphy professor of practice in international political economy at City University London estimates the IRS could lose tens of billions of dollars in taxes each year in this way
Companies that have reduced their U S tax bills via inter group lending include drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline education group Pearson LON PSON utility Scottish Power and telecoms group Vodafone LON VOD
All said their lending to U S subsidiaries had been unwound and that they complied with all tax rules Details of their lending arrangements came to public attention following data leaks or legal action with tax authorities
A 2013 Reuters examination of tax planning by Europe s largest software group SAP AG DE SAPG showed how the German company shifted profits from the United States which has a corporate tax rate of at least 35 percent to Ireland whose headline rate is 12 5 percent
HIGH INTEREST LOANS
According to Reuters calculations based on 2015 corporate filings SAP America Inc reduces its U S tax bill by around 200 million a year by borrowing 7 4 billion from SAP Ireland US Financial Services Ltd at an interest rate of at least 7 percent
The debt which helped fund the acquisition of U S software groups cuts its taxable income by around 600 million a year
A spokesman for SAP group declined to comment on the Reuters calculations but said the company followed all tax rules and that its funding structure was driven by business rather than tax reasons
Some measures previously proposed by Obama and the Organization for Economic Co operation and Development OECD which advises developed nations on tax policy would have limited interest deductions to the extent that they reflected an operating unit s share of total group interest costs
Since SAP group s total net interest expense was just 5 million euros last year most of its U S subsidiary s deduction may have been disallowed under such proposals
But the Treasury plan is far more limited than these proposals SAP filings suggest that it has not taken large amounts of cash from its acquired U S subsidiaries and recapitalized them with debt
Debts accumulated as SAP has done by acquiring and expanding U S companies should not be captured by the new measures even if that debt is out of proportion to the parent s overall debt burden
But it s hard to be certain
Inter group debts usually run for a period of a few years and each time they extend them there is an opportunity for the IRS to re examine the arrangement
There is certainly is a risk when they roll over that instrument that it is going to be recharacterised as equity said Victor Fleischer professor of law at the University of San Diego said of the SAP loans |
PFE | Obama tax inversion rules may overstep authority U S lawmaker | By David Morgan WASHINGTON Reuters President Barack Obama s proposed rules to stop U S companies from reincorporating abroad if only on paper to avoid U S income taxes appear to overstep legal authority a top Republican lawmaker said on Friday Representative Kevin Brady said his staff is scrutinizing the rules which were unveiled last week by the U S Treasury Department Legal experts have offered mixed views on the viability of any court challenge The new rules intended to discourage tax inversions led to the collapse of U S drugmaker Pfizer NYSE PFE Inc s 160 billion acquisition of Ireland s Allergan NYSE AGN pa Plc We recognize there is broad discretion in some areas of that tax code Brady a Texas Republican and chairman of the tax writing House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee said in a speech to the U S Chamber of Commerce But it certainly appears that Treasury overstepped its authority especially in effect taking legislative proposals that haven t passed this Congress or any other Congress and essentially making it law through regulation Brady gave no indication of what his committee might do It was unclear what action if any the Republican controlled Congress would take against the inversion rules in an election year marked by voter anger over taxes and international trade I share the concern about inversions Everyone does But there s a right way and a wrong way to tackle them Brady said An inversion is a tax driven deal in which a U S company acquires a smaller foreign business and adopts its tax domicile to reduce the combined company s overall tax burden The deals most often involve reincorporating in Ireland or Britain Though inversions have been going since the 1980s a new wave has been under way for about five years The Pfizer Allergan deal would have been the biggest inversion of all time There is bipartisan agreement on the need for comprehensive tax reform to address inversions but the deeply divided Congress is unlikely to tackle this until 2017 especially with elections coming in November analysts said In the interim the Obama administration has tightened inversion rules in limited areas drawing Republican criticism
The administration s strategy won t solve the fundamental problem and likely will make it worse Brady said |
PFE | U S Treasury readies new tax rules as G20 vows to fight evasion | By David Lawder WASHINGTON Reuters The U S Treasury Department is finalizing new tax rules aimed at combating the use of shell companies to evade taxes U S Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Saturday amid increased pledges by global finance leaders to cooperate on tax issues In a statement to the International Monetary Fund s steering committee Lew said the Treasury was finalizing a rule that would require banks to identify the beneficial owners of new customers that are companies In addition we are about to propose a regulation that would require the beneficial owners of single member limited liability companies to identify themselves to the Internal Revenue Service thus closing a loophole that some have been able to exploit Lew said In the wake of controversy stirred by the so called Panama Papers which revealed widespread use of tax havens and shell companies by wealthy global elites officials from the Group of 20 major economies on Friday threatened to penalize tax haven countries that do not comply with new information sharing efforts and moves to reduce tax mismatches between countries They called for criteria by July to identify non cooperative jurisdictions Defensive measures will be considered by G20 members against non cooperative jurisdictions if progress toward tax goals is not made the group said in its statement Lew said the United States fully supports calls for all countries to automatically exchange financial account information The new U S shell company rules will follow steps taken by the Treasury earlier this month to curb corporate inversion deals in which U S firms buy foreign rivals to move their tax jurisdictions offshore Those changes were cited as scuttling a 160 billion merger between U S drug maker Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE and Dublin based Allergan NYSE AGN pa Plc that would have shifted the combined company headquarters to Ireland where corporate tax rates are 12 5 percent compared to the top U S corporate tax rate of 35 percent before deductions and credits Tax evasion and tax avoidance hurt government budgets reduce the equity of our tax systems and hinder global growth Lew said In his statement Lew also repeated calls for euro area countries and Japan to use available fiscal policy space to stimulate domestic demand while enacting structural reforms to their economies Japan should deploy a flexible fiscal policy in the near term that provides a supportive fiscal impulse while accelerating the implementation of structural reforms including labor market reforms and opening the service sector to increased competition
He offered up a long to do list for China saying the world s second largest economy should prioritize reforms that strengthen its social safety net reduce industrial over capacity open up the services sector to competition tackle rising corporate leverage confront the associated challenges to the banking system and allow for a market determined allocation of credit |
PFE | Pfizer to pay 784 6 million to resolve Wyeth false claims lawsuit | WASHINGTON Reuters Pfizer Inc N PFE has agreed to pay 784 6 million to resolve allegations that Wyeth which it acquired in 2009 underpaid drug rebates to Medicaid the federal health insurance program the Justice Department said Wednesday The settlement resolves claims by the U S and states that Wyeth knowingly reported false and fraudulent prices on two of its anti acid drugs Protonix Oral and Protonix IV the Justice Department said Pfizer acquired Wyeth in 2009 about three years after Wyeth had ended the conduct that led to settlement the Justice Department said We are pleased to have finalized the agreement to resolve these cases which involve historic conduct that occurred at least 10 years ago before we acquired Wyeth said Doug Lankler executive vice president and general counsel in a statement The resolution of these claims reflects our desire to put these historic cases behind us and to focus on the needs of patients Lankler said About 93 7 million of the settlement will resolve claims relating to New York state s Medicaid program said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a statement on Wednesday New York will receive 55 6 million of that sum |
AMD | Nvidia forecasts demand rebound Wall Street not so sure | By Sonam Rai Reuters Nvidia Corp s forecast of a demand rebound by the end of the year calmed investor nerves and pushed its shares up 5 percent on Friday but several Wall Street analysts said the outlook was aggressive given weak demand and the ongoing U S China trade war The chip designer on Thursday forecast full year revenue to be flat or down slightly from 2018 but Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said he expects China gaming and self driving vehicles to drive demand for its chips Rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ AMD Inc had also forecast full year revenue ahead of analysts expectations AMD like Nvidia is banking on its newest graphics and data center chips to bolster growth for the year Top chipmakers took a hit in the fourth quarter from a slowdown in China triggered by the trade dispute In January Nvidia cut its fourth quarter revenue estimate by half a billion dollars because of weak demand in China The dispute remains an overhang even as negotiators from the two countries are in talks ahead of a March 1 tariffs deadline While Nvidia could see a double digit drop in revenue in the first two quarters it is projecting a big 35 percent jump in the fourth quarter to make up for the lost sales Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note The key question is a 35 percent y y growth exiting FY20 realistic Our belief is that it is not realistic because it is similar to the growth rates during the crypto boom Munster said Demand for graphic chips from Bitcoin miners brought in hundreds of millions of dollars for Nvidia in 2018 But at the fag end of the year the boom evaporated and coupled with lower demand from China led to a pile up of unsold chips at distributors and retailers Nvidia will not be able to make up on all the crypto loss and could likely miss the full year guidance according to analyst Kinngai Chan from Summit Insights Group However the company still has an opportunity in the form of selling technology for self driving cars Nvidia s platform is being used by hundreds of companies involved in autonomous cars including software developers auto suppliers sensor and mapping companies
Although this self driving segment currently contributes relatively little to the top line we acknowledge the opportunity Nvidia has to grow its presence in cars beyond infotainment as drivers seek autonomous features in newer vehicles Morningstar analyst Abhinav Davuluri wrote |
PFE | Pfizer Cresemba Deal Extended To Asia And China | Basilea has announced an extension to its licence agreement with Pfizer NYSE PFE for Cresemba for invasive fungal infections The original deal granted PFE exclusive commercialisation rights to the product in Europe ex Nordics Russia Turkey and Israel and the new amendment includes China and 16 countries within Asia Pacific The extension of Cresemba s global footprint at this stage highlights PFE s commitment to the product in areas outside of Europe Concomitantly Basilea has updated its guidance for FY17 to a reduced operating loss of CHF1m per month vs CHF2m per month Our valuation rises slightly to CHF1 222m
PFE to commercialise Cresemba in China Asia Pac
Pfizer is to use its extensive footprint in China and Asia Pac to commercialise Cresemba isavuconazole contingent on approval in each territory The revised agreement includes a 3m upfront payment deferred and up to 223m in additional payments dependent upon the achievement of pre specified regulatory and sales milestones Basilea will also receive royalties in the mid teen range on Pfizer s sales in these territories Importantly as of November 2017 PFE has launched Cresemba into Spain so it is now available in the top five EU markets In addition Swissmedic has granted marketing authorisation for Switzerland
To read the entire report Please click on the pdf File Below |
T | Why Is Amdocs DOX Up 2 4 Since Last Earnings Report | A month has gone by since the last earnings report for Amdocs DOX Shares have added about 2 4 in that time frame outperforming the S P 500
Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release or is Amdocs due for a pullback Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late let s take a quick look at the most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important catalysts Amdocs Reports Q3 ResultsAmdocs reported third quarter fiscal 2019 results wherein the top line narrowly missed estimates but the bottom line beat the same Quarterly non GAAP earnings came in at 1 19 per share up from 1 03 in the year ago quarter The bottom line also beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 1 11 The figure came above the company s guided range of 1 08 to 1 14 per share Revenues for the reported quarter came in at 1 024 billion marginally missing the consensus estimate of 1 03 billion but improving 2 2 year over year The top line also came within the company s guided the range of 1 005 1 045 billion Continued flow of new customers strong project execution and strong growth in managed services drove revenues However a negative impact of nearly 3 million year over year in foreign currency movements was a headwind Notably Amdocs announced the acquisition of TTS Wireless to strengthen its capabilities in open cloud and 5G network Quarter DetailsRegion wise revenues from North America 62 2 of total revenues were 634 2 million up 1 6 from the year ago quarter driven by digital modernization requirements of many of Amdocs communications Pay TV and media customers Europe 14 8 recorded revenues of 151 million up 1 6 Rest of the World 13 generated revenues of 234 5 million up 6 8 The North America region witnessed sequential revenue growth driven by stable activity trends at AT T NYSE T and healthy activity levels at many customers in the border region Strong growth in Amdocs managed services business was driven by the continued ramp up of managed transformation activities for customers like PLDT and Infineon It is combining the deployment of large scale data transformation projects with operational benefits of its managed services model Moreover strong traction was seen at Amdocs Media where the company continued the integration of media assets to meet the rapidly evolving content monetization needs of traditional service providers and media studios Along this line Amdocs signed a managed service agreement for distribution of 3D video on demand services for new logo During the quarter Amdocs worked with T Mobile and Sprint assuming the planned merger proceeds Operating MetricsThe company incurred non GAAP operating expenses of 847 4 million up 2 3 from the year ago quarter Non GAAP operating income increased 2 1 to 177 3 million Balance Sheet Cash FlowDuring the fiscal third quarter the company repurchased shares worth 89 million Also its board of directors recently approved the payment of a quarterly dividend of 0 285 per share The dividend will be paid out on Oct 25 2019 OutlookFor fourth quarter fiscal 2019 Amdocs expects revenues in the range of 1 015 1 055 billion assuming approximately 2 million sequential positive impact from foreign currency fluctuations and a partial quarter revenue contribution from the TTS Wireless buyout Non GAAP earnings per share in the band of 1 04 to 1 10 are expected for the fiscal fourth quarter No impact of the acquisition of TTS Wireless on Amdocs non GAAP earnings is expected in the quarter For fiscal 2019 the company raised its revenue guidance on a reported basis It now expects revenues to grow 2 4 3 4 year over year compared with 1 8 3 8 rise expected earlier Amdocs also revised its revenue guidance on a constant currency basis It expects revenue growth between 3 6 and 4 6 compared with 3 5 projected earlier This guidance takes into account 1 2 year over year negative impact of foreign exchange fluctuations The company now expects non GAAP earnings per share growth of 6 2 7 8 year over year up from the earlier guided range of 4 5 8 5 rise Favorable market dynamics are resulting in healthy customer activity in North America This is likely to partially offset the declining revenues from AT T which is likely to deliver modest revenue growth in North America for the full fiscal year 2019
How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then
In the past month investors have witnessed a downward trend in estimates revision
VGM Scores
Currently Amdocs has a nice Growth Score of B though it is lagging a bit on the Momentum Score front with a C Charting a somewhat similar path the stock was allocated a grade of B on the value side putting it in the top 40 for this investment strategy
Overall the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of B If you aren t focused on one strategy this score is the one you should be interested in
Outlook
Estimates have been broadly trending downward for the stock and the magnitude of these revisions indicates a downward shift Notably Amdocs has a Zacks Rank 2 Buy We expect an above average return from the stock in the next few months |
T | AT T Surges As Elliot Management Invests Big | Leading the market headlines to kick off a new week is a letter from activist investment firm Elliott Management to AT T NYSE T in which the firm owns 1 2 of the telecom giant s market cap or 3 2 billion Though details are fuzzy Elliott is vying to have AT T s board of directors restructure its businesses which Elliott calculates would generate share price gains of 65 In what is being advertised as a value creation opportunity Elliott speaks of AT T which bought media major Time Warner s assets for 85 billion in June 2018 as being deeply undervalued Though shares of the Zacks Rank 3 Hold rated company have swung up 22 year to date this was from a multi year crater in share price that bottomed the last week of December last year Would paying down its significant debt be the main crux of a new plan from Elliott Its founder Paul Singer has specialized throughout his career in making distressed debt acquisitions Perhaps a plan to sell off assets like DirecTV and or attempt to wring significant revenues out of Time Warner which owns CNN Warner Bros film studios and HBO is more what the investment firm has in mind We d like to hear from John Stankey on this matter he has been running the WarnerMedia wing of AT T since that acquisition took place Shares of AT T had been up as much as 10 on the news in today s pre market They have since simmered to roughly 5 a half hour before the opening bell Trade War Having Negative Affect on ChinaChinese Imports fell 5 6 for the month of August according to a report from Beijing released yesterday Exports to the U S fell even further down 16 on the month with Exports overall down 1 Imports from the U S sank 22 4 This marks the fourth straight month of falling Import Export data out of China Analyst had been expecting something of a pop in monthly trade data but it would appear the takeaway is that the trade war with the U S is having a heavier affect on the world s second largest economy that originally surmised In addition more support is expected from the Chinese governments to free up liquidity on Friday capital reserve requirements were loosened for the nation s banks All this comes before the latest ratcheting up of tariffs on both sides of the Pacific a week ago if we think things are bad in this data now just wait until future tariffs hinder trade activity |
T | Elliot Management Discloses Major Stake In AT T T | Shares of AT T NYSE T soared today after active investor Elliot Management Corp disclosed it owns a 3 2 billion stake in the telecommunications giant the telecom giant jumped as much as 7 in premarket trading and has gained about 2 in intraday
Active investors like Elliot Management take large stakes in companies that they believe are undervalued and then leverage their new position to institute the changes they would like to see in the company However unlike its peers Elliot has the size and influence to buy entire companies instead of pushing for changes as a minority stake holder The hedge fund recently bought health care tech company Athenahealth and is in the works of acquiring the manufacturing company Arconic NYSE ARNC
Elliot Weighs in on AT T s Operations
The active investor sent a letter to the company expressing their ideas to help improve AT T Elliot argued for ways to improve its business and realize historic increases in value raising concerns about AT T s recent acquisition of Time Warner and stating that AT T has yet to articulate a clear strategic rationale for why AT T needs to own Time Warner The New York based hedge fund also wrote in the letter that it is seeking seats on the company s board and further challenged AT T to sharpen its focus on its successful wireless business and trim unnecessary assets Elliot was also critical about the company s acquisition of DirecTV
AT T s chief executive Randall Stephenson made the company one of the biggest US media players by buying DirecTV and Time Warner over the past few years The acquisitions however left the company with 170 billion in net debt by the end of 2018 The letter blamed AT T s underperformance over the past decade on Stephenson s acquisition strategy stating AT T has transformed itself into a sprawling collection of businesses battling well funded competitors in new markets with different regulations and saddled with the financial repercussions of its choices
AT T shares hit a multiyear low in December as investors were unsure about the company s debt load sustainability The telecommunications giant spent the past year fortifying its balance sheet by selling off certain assets like its stake in streaming service Hulu as well as ownership of WarnerMedia s new Manhattan headquarters
In response to Elliot s letter AT T said its management team and Board of Directors maintain a regular and open dialogue with shareholders and will review Elliot Management s perspectives in the context of the company s business strategy They also expressed that the focused and successful execution of their current strategy is the best path to take moving forward to provide long term value for shareholders
Bottom Line
AT T is sitting at a Zacks Rank 3 Hold and has a Style Score of A in Value The stock currently trades at 10X its forward earnings well below the industry average of 16X The current valuation of the stock provides a solid entry point if the company can capitalize on the acquisitions it has made in recent years
Now in terms of growth consensus estimates have the company making a bottom line jump of 4 44 to 0 94 and sales slipping 0 62 to 45 45 billion for the current quarter Full fiscal year estimates anticipate AT T to see an earnings increase of 1 42 to 3 57 and sales growth of 7 02 to 182 75 billion Its low beta of 0 62 also provides shareholders protection from broader market volatility but the company still needs to figure out a way to successfully monetize its acquisitions and trim down its debt
Today s Best Stocks from ZacksWould you like to see the updated picks from our best market beating strategies From 2017 through 2018 while the S P 500 gained 15 8 five of our screens returned 38 0 61 3 61 6 68 1 and 98 3 This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon From 2000 2018 while the S P averaged 4 8 per year our top strategies averaged up to 56 2 per year |
PFE | Democratic White House hopefuls cheer end of Pfizer Allergan deal | Reuters Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on Wednesday cheered the end of U S drugmaker Pfizer NYSE PFE Inc s 160 billion merger with Ireland based Allergan NYSE AGN pa Plc Glad to hear Pfizer is calling off the merger We need to close the loopholes that let corporations escape paying their taxes Clinton said on Twitter
Sanders said on the social media site that he applauded President Barack Obama for new rules aimed at curbing so called inversion deals which Pfizer said led it to scrap the deal |
T | Sprint sells mobile advertising unit to InMobi | By Sheila Dang Reuters Sprint Corp N S has sold the mobile data and advertising company it created in 2012 to InMobi which provides technology for marketers in an all stock deal the companies said on Wednesday The fourth largest U S wireless carrier by subscribers is selling the company called Pinsight Media as it awaits regulatory approval to sell itself to larger rival T Mobile US Inc O TMUS The value of the Pinsight deal was not disclosed Pinsight uses data from wireless carriers to help companies better target ads on smartphones to the right audiences That use of data was one major reason for AT T Inc s N T acquisition of media company Time Warner which closed in June Pinsight will continue to work with Sprint after the deal said Rob Roy Sprint s chief digital officer in a statement Sprint s sale of Pinsight comes as mobile advertising in the United States is expected to surpass television ad spending by more than 6 billion this year according to eMarketer The research firm estimates the gap will widen even more by 2022 with mobile spending at 141 billion compared to 68 billion on TV Former Pinsight Chief Executive Kevin McGinnis said in 2015 that the company hoped to grow to a 1 billion business
InMobi and Pinsight did not respond to requests for comment on whether Pinsight had reached that goal Sprint declined to comment |
T | Appeals court to hear U S Justice Department objection to AT T deal on Dec 6 | WASHINGTON Reuters A U S appeals court will hear oral arguments on Dec 6 in the Justice Department s fight against AT T Inc s N T 85 4 billion purchase of Time Warner the court said on Wednesday The merger which was announced in October 2016 closed on June 14 after a U S district court ruled the deal was legal under antitrust law The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to reverse that approval The core of the Justice Department s concern is that AT T which owns DirecTV would use its ownership of Time Warner s content to make pay TV rivals pay more thus raising their costs and forcing them to charge consumers more The merged company includes CNN a cable news station that is a frequent target of President Donald Trump s ire
AT T has said it would manage Time Warner s Turner cable television networks as part of a separate business unit until February 2019 or the conclusion of the government s appeal |
AMD | Stocks To Watch AMD BIMI INMD RKDA STNG | Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD
AMD which I m watching carefully because the falling wedge that we ve seen over the last two months popped to the upside and was broken it gained another 78 cents or 2 62 to 30 53 with a high of 30 61 on 44 million shares on Monday Now I m looking at 32 and 35 1 2 If it can get through those levels it s on its way to 40 and then 43 4 Support and stop are under 28
NF Energy Saving Corporation BIMI
NF Energy Saving Corp NASDAQ BIMI is one of those stocks we talked about on Monday exploding 7 54 or 516 44 to 9 00 with a high of 9 79 on 26 5 million shares with an average volume of 30 000 shares traded It shot up in the morning from under 2 00 and eventually reached 11 82 in after hours a 12 fold increase from top to bottom That doesn t mean it s over yet It could see 14 15 even 20 going forward If it gets through 9 00 it has a lot of room to run
InMode Ltd INMD
InMode Ltd NASDAQ INMD broke out on Monday and in my opinion after pulling back from the trendline and holding support it blew out leaving a little bit of a gap to the moving average Volume picked up to 1 24 million shares and it jumped 2 81 or 22 54 to 27 17 with a high of 27 30 I think it was a breakout day for this stock Next resistance and target are at 28 35 The all time high was reached at 29 38 on September 16 just about a month ago That high could be taken out and I would not be surprised to see this stock move to 40 dollars at some point
Arcadia Biosciences Inc RKDA
Arcadia Biosciences Inc NASDAQ RKDA popped out of a long falling channel on Monday and gained 1 08 or 24 8 to 5 43 with a high of 5 68 on 1 6 million shares I think this is the beginning of something much greater Targets going forward are 7 00 and 10 00
Scorpio Tankers Inc STNG
Scorpio Tankers Inc NYSE STNG is another one of those shipper stocks that is doing great It has been up the last two and a half weeks having gone from 26 and change to 36 and change It popped 1 28 or 3 68 to 36 02 with a high of 36 85 on 1 2 million shares on Monday It looks like a 40 dollar stock
Stocks on the long sideAdvanced Micro Devices Inc NASDAQ AMD NF Energy Saving Corporation BIMI Beyond Meat Inc NASDAQ BYND Hovnanian Enterprises Inc HOV InMode Ltd INMD Navios Maritime Acquisition Corporation NNA Arcadia Biosciences Inc RKDA Revance Therapeutics Inc RVNC Synthesis Energy Systems Inc SES Solid Biosciences Inc SLDB Scorpio Tankers Inc STNG and Yuma Energy Inc YUMA |
PFE | Obama to deliver statement on economy Tuesday after inversions move | WASHINGTON Reuters President Barack Obama will deliver a statement at 12 15 ET on Tuesday on the economy following Monday s Treasury Department announcement on corporate tax inversions the White House said
The U S Treasury Department took new steps to curb tax avoiding corporate inversions late on Monday that threw a series of proposed mergers into question including Pfizer NYSE PFE Inc s 160 billion agreement to buy Allergan NYSE AGN pa Plc |
PFE | Obama urges Congress to take action on corporate tax reform | WASHINGTON Reuters U S President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged Congress to take action to stop U S companies from taking advantage of tax loopholes that allow them to avoid paying taxes When companies exploit loopholes like this it sticks the rest of us with the tab and it makes hard working Americans feel like the deck is stacked against them Obama told reporters at the White House adding that wealthy corporations and individuals should not be gaming the system Obama a Democrat has called repeatedly for action by the Republican controlled U S Congress on tax avoiding corporate inversions which lowers companies tax bills by allowing them to redomicile overseas even though their core operations and management usually remain in the United States So far lawmakers have done little The U S Treasury Department took more decisive actions to crack down on inversions late on Monday that imperils a number of proposed mergers including Pfizer NYSE PFE Inc s 160 billion agreement to buy Dublin based Allergan NYSE AGN pa Plc I want to be clear While the Treasury Department s actions will make it more difficult to exploit this particular corporate inversions loophole only Congress can close it for good Obama said |
AMD | AMD 4 7 on mixed Q4 downside rev guide | AMD NASDAQ AMD gains 4 7 on Q4 results that met on EPS but missed on revenue with revenue up 6 Y Y Downside Q1 guidance has revenue of 1 2B to 1 3B consensus 1 47B due to graphics softness as the cryptocurrency mining inventory continues to clear out Revenue breakdown Computing and Graphics 986M 9 Y Y Enterprise Embedded and Semi Custom 433M flat Y Y 39 Q Q on seasonal weakness Earnings call is scheduled for 5 30 PM ET with a webcast available here Press release Previously Advanced Micro Devices EPS in line misses on revenue Jan 29 Now read |
AMD | AMD Q4 Financial Report Sees Income Dip Executives Show No Signs Of Panic | United States transnational IT company Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ AMD released its Q4 revenue report on Jan 29 broadly conforming to analysts fears of a continued slowdown
AMD which like other graphics hardware manufacturers has suffered due to the cryptocurrency bear market produced quarter on quarter revenue losses of 14 percent |
T | Hedge fund Olympic Peak plans to short AT T bonds | TEL AVIV Reuters U S hedge fund Olympic Peak Management s founding partner said on Wednesday he planned to short AT T s debt when the fund launches in January citing increasing competition and high leverage that may ultimately lead to a credit ratings downgrade Todd Westhus told the Sohn Conference in Tel Aviv that the telecoms giant s debt was misperceived as risk free while its main businesses and fundamentals were weakening even as the U S economy grows The company benefits today from an unsustainable price premium relative to T Mobile and its business and consumer wireline operations are losing market share he said Westhus said potential negative catalysts for the bonds were a ratings downgrade from an investment grade BBB Bb2 to high yield a dividend cut acquisitions that would leverage its balance sheet and a recession A spokesperson for AT T NYSE T said the company had a net debt to adjusted EBITDA core earnings ratio of 2 9 times as of the second quarter and continued to expect the ratio to be in the 2 5 times range by the end of 2019 AT T continues to expect to return to historical debt levels by the end of 2022 the spokesperson said AT T will use cash after dividend payments to pay down debt Westhus formerly worked at Perry Capital which was shut in September 2016 after almost 28 years He has 300 million in anchor capital from investors including the co founders of Perry Richard Perry and Paul Leff and Marc Lasry from Avenue
We are continuing to raise money into our launch on January 1 2019 and will close the fund at 750 million he told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference |
T | U S Justice official says lawyer vowed personal attacks over AT T deal | Advisory Note language in paragraph 5 By David Shepardson WASHINGTON Reuters The U S Justice Department s top antitrust lawyer said Time Warner s general counsel threatened to employ personal attacks if the agency tried to block the company s 85 4 billion merger with AT T Inc NYSE T according to a court filing made public on Thursday The merger which was announced in October 2016 and closed on June 14 was opposed by President Donald Trump The merged company includes CNN the cable news station that is a frequent target of Trump s ire The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to reverse a lower court s approval of the deal In the court filing Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim denied that the government s lawsuit was motivated by animus toward CNN He also said that Trump s opposition was not a factor According to the filing Delrahim said the exchange with the Time Warner general counsel Paul Cappuccio occurred during a Nov 8 2017 meeting that included the company s chief executive Jeffrey Bewkes and Time Warner board member William Barr a former U S attorney general Delrahim said that Cappuccio stood up wagged his finger at me and said that if the Antitrust Division goes through with this the case will be a sh tshow like you ve never seen and that it would be like Jimmy Hoffa and the firing of Jim Comey referring to the missing former Teamsters president and the former FBI director fired by Trump I interpreted Mr Cappuccio s comments to mean that if we brought this enforcement action defendants would employ personal attacks to denigrate the integrity of the Antitrust Division and myself he added Delrahim s deputy Andrew Finch filed an affidavit with a nearly identical recollection Barr filed a declaration that the Justice Department officials recollections were incorrect and that Cappuccio did not wag his finger at Delrahim or make reference to Hoffa or Comey He added No reasonable person could have misinterpreted Mr Cappuccio s comments as a threat that the companies would personally attack Mr Delrahim or anyone else in the event of litigation Barr said Cappuccio was suggesting instead that the government s challenge of the deal would cause a public political and media frenzy because of Trump s animus toward CNN Cappuccio could not immediately be reached but AT T said in a statement on Thursday that our opinion of the government s lawsuit is no secret and that the company appreciated Barr stepping forward to provide his first hand account of DOJ s interactions with us The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment The previously secret declarations were made in February when AT T unsuccessfully sought court approval to see any White House communications that could have shed light on whether Trump pressured the Justice Department to block the Time Warner deal Last month AT T asked a federal appeals court to reject the Justice Department s challenge saying the government had offered no basis for second guessing key conclusions of a ruling upholding the transaction On Thursday the Justice Department said the lower court had made an illogical conclusion that the merger will lead to no change in bargaining leverage and erroneously concluded that consumers would not be harmed
The core of the Justice Department s concern is that AT T which owns DirecTV would use its ownership of Time Warner s content to make pay TV rivals pay more thus raising their costs and forcing them to charge consumers more |
AMD | Advanced Micro Devices AMD Stock Moves 0 28 What You Should Know | Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ AMD closed at 28 93 in the latest trading session marking a 0 28 move from the prior day This change was narrower than the S P 500 s 0 45 loss on the day Elsewhere the Dow lost 0 36 while the tech heavy Nasdaq lost 0 33
Heading into today shares of the chipmaker had lost 7 9 over the past month lagging the Computer and Technology sector s gain of 1 8 and the S P 500 s gain of 0 59 in that time
Investors will be hoping for strength from AMD as it approaches its next earnings release In that report analysts expect AMD to post earnings of 0 18 per share This would mark year over year growth of 38 46 Meanwhile our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of 1 80 billion up 9 08 from the prior year quarter
Looking at the full year our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of 0 63 per share and revenue of 6 76 billion These totals would mark changes of 36 96 and 4 43 respectively from last year
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for AMD These revisions help to show the ever changing nature of near term business trends As a result we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company s business outlook
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near term share price momentum We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear actionable rating model
Ranging from 1 Strong Buy to 5 Strong Sell the Zacks Rank system has a proven outside audited track record of outperformance with 1 stocks returning an average of 25 annually since 1988 Within the past 30 days our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant AMD is currently a Zacks Rank 3 Hold
Looking at its valuation AMD is holding a Forward P E ratio of 46 17 This represents a premium compared to its industry s average Forward P E of 19 54
Investors should also note that AMD has a PEG ratio of 1 96 right now This popular metric is similar to the widely known P E ratio with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company s expected earnings growth rate Electronics Semiconductors stocks are on average holding a PEG ratio of 1 99 based on yesterday s closing prices
The Electronics Semiconductors industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 90 putting it in the top 36 of all 250 industries
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups Our research shows that the top 50 rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1
To follow AMD in the coming trading sessions be sure to utilize Zacks com |
T | AT T T Up 4 7 Since Last Earnings Report Can It Continue | A month has gone by since the last earnings report for AT T T Shares have added about 4 7 in that time frame outperforming the S P 500
Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release or is AT T due for a pullback Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late let s take a quick look at its most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers AT T s Q2 Earnings in Line Revenues Miss EstimatesAT T reported relatively mixed second quarter 2019 results as higher operating expenses led to year over year decline in earnings despite healthy top line growth driven by solid domestic wireless business and incremental contribution from WarnerMedia assets The company expects to significantly reduce its debt burden in the second half of the year to achieve its year end deleveraging goals while focusing on the availability of nationwide commercial 5G coverage by early next year Net IncomeOn a GAAP basis AT T reported net income of 3 713 million or 51 cents per share compared with 5 132 million or 81 cents per share in the year ago quarter The slump in earnings despite higher revenues was primarily attributable to higher operating costs and merger and integration related expenses Excluding non recurring items adjusted earnings for the quarter were 89 cents per share compared with 91 cents in the year earlier quarter and were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate Quarter DetailsQuarterly GAAP operating revenues increased 15 3 year over year to 44 957 million primarily due to the accretive Time Warner acquisition and solid performances by domestic wireless services and advertising unit Xandr The top line however marginally missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 44 963 million Operating income for the quarter was 7 500 million compared with 6 466 million in the prior year quarter largely driven by WarnerMedia assets resulting in respective operating income margins of 16 7 and 16 6 Adjusted operating income for the reported quarter excluding the amortization merger and integration related expenses and other items was 9 899 million compared with 8 216 million in the year earlier quarter for respective margins of 22 and 21 1 During the reported quarter AT T experienced a net increase in total wireless subscribers of 3 9 million to reach 159 7 million in service Postpaid churn was 1 08 compared with 1 02 in the year ago quarter owing to pricing pressures and tablet churn The company had 5 8 million branded net adds both postpaid and prepaid Postpaid phone only average revenue per user ARPU increased 2 2 year over year to 55 68 Segmental PerformanceCommunications Total segment operating revenues were 35 508 million up 0 3 year over year with decline in Business Wireline owing to lower legacy voice and data services revenues Service revenues from the Mobility unit improved 2 4 year over year to 14 006 million owing to subscriber gains and postpaid phone ARPU growth while equipment revenues were down 2 6 to 3 506 million due to lower upgrades Revenues from the Entertainment Group were down 1 to 11 368 million while that from Business Wireline decreased 0 3 to 6 628 million due to lower legacy voice and data services Segment operating income was 8 737 million compared with 8 414 million in the year ago quarter largely due to continued focus on cost initiatives Operating margin was 24 6 compared with 23 8 in the prior year quarter Segment EBITDA was 13 357 million compared with 13 052 million in the year ago quarter for respective margins of 37 6 and 36 9 WarnerMedia Total segment revenues were 8 350 million with solid performance from all business units Operating income improved to 1 970 million owing to strong gains from Turner and Home Box Office units for corresponding margin of 23 6 Segment EBITDA was 2 061 million for a corresponding margin of 24 7 Latin America Total operating revenues were 1 757 million down 9 9 year over year due to adverse foreign currency translation EBITDA decreased to 63 million from 148 million in the year ago quarter for respective margins of 3 6 and 7 6 primarily due to foreign exchange headwinds Xandr Total revenues were 485 million up 23 7 year over year due to AppNexus acquisition while operating income declined 2 4 to 325 million due to higher acquisition and integration costs for corresponding margin of 67 EBITDA was 338 million for a corresponding margin of 69 7 Cash Flow LiquidityAT T generated 25 336 million of cash from operations for the first six months of 2019 compared with 19 176 million in the prior year period Free cash flow at quarter end increased to 8 812 million from 5 121 million in the year ago period As of Jun 30 2019 AT T had 8 423 million of cash and cash equivalents with long term debt of 157 937 million The company is on track to achieve end of year net debt to adjusted EBITDA in the 2 5x range and has reduced debt by about 18 billion since the close of its merger with WarnerMedia Moving ForwardWith solid performance from the Wireless business and incremental contribution from WarnerMedia assets AT T is poised to continue its healthy growth momentum The company also remains focused on managing its debt portfolio AT T is ramping up its FirstNet program and revamping lineup of video products pricing and promotion initiatives At the same time the company remains well poised to benefit from the impending 5G boom deploying mobile 5G services in select regions in 19 cities across the United States AT T currently expects free cash flow in 2019 to be in the range of 28 billion with low single digit adjusted earnings per share growth and dividend payout ratio in the 50 range
How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then
In the past month investors have witnessed a downward trend in estimates revision
VGM Scores
Currently AT T has an average Growth Score of C though it is lagging a lot on the Momentum Score front with an F However the stock was allocated a grade of A on the value side putting it in the top quintile for this investment strategy
Overall the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of B If you aren t focused on one strategy this score is the one you should be interested in
Outlook
Estimates have been broadly trending downward for the stock and the magnitude of these revisions has been net zero Notably AT T has a Zacks Rank 3 Hold We expect an in line return from the stock in the next few months |
PFE | Pfizer s 160 billion mega merger is in trouble | Because the move can be seen as fleeing the US tax inversions are not particularly politically popular In November when the deal was announced everyone from US Sen Bernie Sanders I Vermont to took a stance against the deal
This isn t the first time the Treasury has tried to squash a tax inverting merger In 2014 AbbVie called off its inversion deal with Shire after Treasury announced
The government can discourage inversions by eliminating some of their economic benefits One practice Treasury said it would target on Monday is a practice called which is a way of jacking up interest payments in order to lower tax bills
Pfizer NYSE PFE said it will review the newest actions and declined to speculate on any potential impact until it is done with that
Shares of Allergan NYSE AGN pa fell more than 16 on Tuesday morning to 232 19 while Pfizer rose less than one percent
The companies have anticipated the potential for the government to make rule changes that could kill the deal
When the announced the deal in November Pfizer and Allergan said that if a deal between Pfizer and Allergan doesn t go through because shareholders of one company object or a superior proposal appears the companies would pay a breakup fee of up to 3 5 billion
But if the deal breaks because of a change in the law under which this Treasury move would fall that termination fee falls to just 400 million
The Treasury Department didn t specifically reference Pfizer s deal in its statement US
Treasury has taken action twice to make it harder for companies to invert These actions took away some of the economic benefits of inverting and helped slow the pace of these transactions but we know companies will continue to seek new and creative ways to relocate their tax residence to avoid paying taxes here at home |
T | Nine state attorneys general back AT T in Time Warner appeal | By David Shepardson WASHINGTON Reuters A group of nine state attorneys general on Wednesday backed AT T Inc N T as the Justice Department asks a federal appeals court to reverse approval of the company s 85 4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc NYSE TWX It is rare for the federal government to pursue an antitrust case involving major national companies without any state joining the effort the nine state officials said in a court filing noting that no states have filed briefs supporting the Justice Department s appeal It is notable that the district court after a six week trial during which it heard numerous witnesses and reviewed thousands of pages of exhibits found the federal government s case to be without merit That determination validates the States decision and is entitled to substantial deference the brief said The nine attorneys general are from Alabama Georgia Kentucky Louisiana New Mexico Oklahoma South Carolina Utah and Wisconsin The government is appealing U S District Judge Richard Leon s ruling in June that the acquisition of Time Warner could proceed The government argued the deal would lead to higher prices for consumers and was illegal under antitrust law AT T has said it would manage Time Warner s Turner cable television networks as part of a separate business unit until February 2019 or the conclusion of the government s appeal In the crucible of litigation DOJ s claims were exposed as both narrow and fragile AT T company argued in court documents filed last week The merger announced in October 2016 and closed on June 14 was opposed by President Donald Trump The merged company includes CNN a frequent target of Trump s ire In August the Justice Department said Leon had failed to take into account how companies negotiate with each other and seek to maximize profits in considering the Justice Department s arguments about how the deal would decrease competition The core of the Justice Department s concern about the deal is that AT T which owns DirecTV would use its ownership of Time Warner s content to make pay TV rivals pay more thus raising their costs and forcing them to charge consumers more
Oral arguments have not yet been scheduled by U S Court ofAppeals for the District of Columbia |
T | Business groups ask U S court to not undo AT T merger with Time Warner | By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON Reuters The U S Chamber of Commerce and other powerful business groups asked an appeals court on Thursday to not undo AT T Inc s N T purchase of movie and TV show maker Time Warner despite the protests of the Justice Department The chamber backed by the National Association of Manufacturers Business Roundtable and others argued that stopping the merger would undermine myriad transactions that generally benefit consumers The business groups argued that companies had long assumed that if they bought a supplier or distributor generally called a vertical merger that the deal would be considered good for the consumer and would be allowed The vague legal standard that the government advocate s would cloud the business community s ability to ascertain whether vertical mergers are lawful making it more difficult to invest in transactions with enormous potential to lower prices and enhance innovation all of which benefit a diverse array of customers the business groups said in a brief court filing The Justice Department lost a lawsuit in district court to prevent AT T which owns satellite company DirecTV from buying Time Warner over concerns that AT T would seek to raise prices when licensing Time Warner s news sports and other programing to DirecTV s cable and satellite rivals AT T closed the Time Warner deal in June and has said it would manage Time Warner s Turner cable television networks as part of a separate business unit until February 2019 or the conclusion of the government s appeal to the U S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia No date has been set for an oral argument The merger announced in October 2016 was opposed by President Donald Trump The merged company includes CNN a frequent target of Trump s ire
A group of nine state attorneys general asked the court on Wednesday also to let the lower court stand |
AMD | Stock Market News For Sep 13 2019 | Wall Street continued its bull run on Thursday on the back of positive developments on trade war front and monetary stimulus injected by the European Central Bank Investors are expecting a second rate cut by the Fed next week All three major stock indexes closed in the green The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI gained 0 2 to close at 27 182 45 The S P 500 increased 0 3 points to close at 3 009 57 The Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 8 194 47 climbing 0 3 The fear gauge CBOE Volatility Index VIX decreased 2 7 to close at 14 22 A total of 7 51 billion shares were traded on Thursday higher than the last 20 session average of 6 79 billion Advancers outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 1 24 to 1 ratio On Nasdaq a 1 19 to 1 ratio favored advancing issues How Did The Benchmarks Perform The Dow closed in positive territory for seventh consecutive day with 22 components of the 30 stock blue chip index closing in the green while the remaining 8 ended in red This marked the index s largest winning streak since May 14 2018 The S P 500 also ended in the green for three straight days The Materials Select Sector SPDR XLB and the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR XLRE gained 0 8 and 0 6 respectively Notably nine out of total 11 sectors of the benchmark index closed in the green while two finished in red The Nasdaq Composite finished in the green for second successive days due to strong performance of semiconductor stocks Advanced Micro Devices Inc NASDAQ AMD with a Zacks Rank 3 Hold gained 1 5 You can see ECB Injects Massive Stimulus On Sep 12 the ECB cut its main deposit rate by 10 basis points to 0 50 This simply means that commercial banks need to pay the ECB to hold their overnight excess cash balance This was the first rate cut by the central bank since early 2016 despite the fact that the benchmark is already in negative territory However the central bank left twoother major benchmark rates unchanged Rate on main refinancing operations and the marginal lending facility remained same at 0 and 0 25 respectively However the ECB eased the terms of its long term lending facility through which some banks will avail loans at a cheaper rate Additionally introduction of a tiered system by the central bank will enable struggling banks to be exempted to pay to the ECB while holding overnight excess cash balance with it Meanwhile the central bank of the Eurozone reintroduced the quantitative easing program Effective Nov 1 the ECB will purchase 20 billion of bonds each month from banks in order to improve liquidity in the systems so that Eurozone banks can lend more to their clients Per the governing council of the ECB this asset purchase program will continue for as long as necessary to reinforce the accommodative impact of its policy rates Possibility of an Interim Trade Deal On Sep 12 President Donald Trump told reporters that he is not averse to an interim trade deal with China although his preference will be to have a full agreement resulting in a complete trade deal with the Asian economic powerhouse Earlier that day Bloomberg reported that high level officials of the Trump administration are considering offering an interim trade deal to China Bloomberg cited five internal sources that say the U S government would like to delay imposing new tariffs on Chinese goods or it may even roll back some tariffs which are already levied on China for the first time since the trade dispute started in March 2018 In return the U S government wants China to substantially increase imports of domestic agricultural products More importantly the Chinese authority must comply with their earlier commitments related to the use and application of intellectual properties before the trade negotiation broke down in May Economic Data The Department of Commerce reported that consumer price index in August rose 0 1 compared with 0 3 in July However the data was in line with the consensus estimate The consumer price index rose 1 7 year over year in August The core consumer price index excluding volatile food and energy costs rose 0 3 in August remained flat sequentially but surpassed the consensus estimate of 0 2 The core consumer price index increased 2 4 year over year in August The Department of Labor reported that U S initial claims declined by 15 000 to its five month low level of 204 000 for the week ended Sep 7 The figure was better than the previous week s revised figure of 219 000 as well as consensus estimate of 215 000 Number of continuing claims dropped 4 000 to 1 67 million Today s Best Stocks from ZacksWould you like to see the updated picks from our best market beating strategies From 2017 through 2018 while the S P 500 gained 15 8 five of our screens returned 38 0 61 3 61 6 68 1 and 98 3 This outperformance has not just been a recent phenomenon From 2000 2018 while the S P averaged 4 8 per year our top strategies averaged up to 56 2 per year |
PFE | Indian court grants temporary relief to Abbott Glenmark in drug ban case | NEW DELHI Reuters An Indian court on Tuesday granted interim injunction to U S drugmaker Abbott s India unit NS ABOT and domestic companies Glenmark Pharmaceuticals NS GLEN and Macleods Pharmaceuticals on the prohibition on sale of several combination drugs India banned 344 drug combinations over the weekend including Abbott s codeine based cough syrup after a government panel of experts found they had no therapeutic justification The judge in the Delhi High court granted an interim stay to the pharmaceutical companies and said regulators should take no coercive steps against them The case will now be heard on March 21
The Indian unit of U S drugmaker Pfizer N PFE NS PFIZ had on Monday won a similar reprieve on a ban on its popular cough syrup Corex |
PFE | Pfizer CEO Ian Read s total compensation falls more than 20 in 2015 | Investing com Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE CEO Ian Read s total compensation package fell more than 20 in 2015 primarily due to a sharp reduction in stock awards over the calendar year
In total Read s compensation decreased by 23 to 18 037 million last year down from approximately 24 million a year earlier It came as Read s compensation through stock options and Total Shareholders Return Unit TSRUs exercises fell considerably to 2 879 million for the year
Read who became Pfizer s CEO in December 2010 saw his base salary increase moderately to 1 859 million in 2016 up from 1 8 million a year earlier Read s incentive award also rose to 4 3 million last year from 3 million in 2014
Over the course of the year Read said Pfizer advanced the company s drug pipeline by developing nearly 40 compounds and made significant advancements with its development of Xelianz its Rheumatoid Arthritis treatment Ibrance its drug to treat metastic breast cancer and Prevanac a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine
Every part of the business turned in a strong performance and achieved significant milestones across our four strategic imperatives Read said in the company s annual 2015 report We grew several of our brands that are early in their life cycle and achieved our first year of operational revenue growth in five years
Pfizer has been widely criticized by U S Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and others for its proposed 160 billion merger with Allergan NYSE AGN pa last November Under the proposed deal Pfizer will reduce its effective corporate tax rate from 25 in the U S to between 17 18 for the new company by moving its corporate headquarters to Dublin The deal takes advantage of a so called corporate inversion strategy when a company acquires a legal address abroad to lower its effective corporate tax rate
Shares in Pfizer ticked up 0 07 or 0 24 to 29 58 in after hours trading |
PFE | U S stocks broadly higher after Fed lowers rate forecast for 2016 | Investing com U S stocks rose broadly on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve voted to maintain short term interest rates at their current level while cutting its forecast for future rate hikes in 2016
On Wednesday afternoon the Federal Open Market Committee FOMC held the Federal Funds Rate at a target range between 0 25 and 0 50 leaving its benchmark interest unchanged for the second consecutive month Citing increased global and economic and financial risks and a modest uptick in inflation Fed chair Janet Yellen emphasized that conditions in the economy will likely warrant gradual interest rate hikes for the remainder of the year Notably the FOMC lowered its projections for future rate increases by 50 basis points for each of the next two years The Fed now expects to raise interest rates twice in 2016 down considerably from December forecasts of four potential interest rate hikes this year
Any rate hikes from the Fed this year are viewed as bearish for equities as investors pile into bonds and U S Treasuries in an effort to capitalize on higher yields
Yellen s comments provided a boost to the major indices late in the session as the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 73 07 or 0 42 to 17 324 60 The Dow reversed territory following the release of the relatively dovish statement gaining more than 125 points at session highs With the gains the Dow ended Wednesday s session at its highest closing level of 2016
The NASDAQ Composite index gained 35 30 or 0 75 to 4 763 97 while the S P 500 Composite index rose 11 35 or 0 56 to 2 027 32 On the S P 500 nine of 10 sectors closed in the green as stocks in the Energy Basic Materials and Technology industries led Stocks in Health Care sector lagged ending the session as the lone industry in the red While analysts largely expected little action from the Fed after the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan held rates in negative territory over the last week the Fed s decision to slash its rate outlook came as a mild surprise
The top performer on the Dow was Caterpillar Inc NYSE CAT which jumped 1 90 or 2 62 to 74 34 Shares in the world s largest manufacturer of mining and construction equipment moved higher as commodities surged following the Fed s statement The worst performer was Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE which lost 0 50 or 1 69 to 29 04 Pfizer NYSE PFE shares dipped on Wednesday one day after the pharmaceutical giant reported that CEO Ian Read s total compensation fell by more than 20 last year
The biggest gainer on the NASDAQ was Charter Communications Inc NASDAQ CHTR which added 10 99 or 5 88 to 197 92 The worst performer was VRTX which lost 3 85 or 4 65 to 78 98 Slumping pharmaceutical stocks continued to drag down the health care sector as Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc NASDAQ ALXN Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc NASDAQ BMRN and Celgene Corporation NASDAQ CELG were among the worst performers of the session
The top performer on the S P 500 was Freeport McMoran Copper Gold Inc NYSE FCX which soared 0 97 or 10 46 to 10 24 as gold futures surged by more than 30 an ounce on Wednesday afternoon Gold which is not attached to interest rates or dividends struggles to compete with high yield bearing assets in rising rate environments The worst performer was Mallinckrodt NYSE MNK which lost 3 05 or 5 13 to 56 46
On the New York Stock Exchange advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a 2 513 604 margin |
PFE | Company News For Nov 1 2017 | Shares of Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE fell 0 3 after posting third quarter 2017 revenues of 13 168 million below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 13 169 millionShares of Under Armour Inc NYSE UA plummeted almost 22 after posting third quarter 2017 earnings of 0 22 a share lower than 0 29 a share in the year ago quarterShares of Aetna Inc NYSE AET dipped 0 7 after posting third quarter 2017 revenues of 14 948 million below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 15 108 millionShares of Acorda Therapeutics Inc NASDAQ ACOR declined 2 7 after posting third quarter 2017 revenues of 141 million below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 151 million |
AMD | Advanced Micro Devices AMD Flat As Market Gains What You Should Know | Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ AMD closed the most recent trading day at 31 45 making no change from the previous trading session This change lagged the S P 500 s daily gain of 0 06 Meanwhile the Dow gained 0 16 and the Nasdaq a tech heavy index lost 0 13
Coming into today shares of the chipmaker had gained 5 32 in the past month In that same time the Computer and Technology sector lost 4 41 while the S P 500 lost 2 95
AMD will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release The company is expected to report EPS of 0 19 up 46 15 from the prior year quarter Meanwhile the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of 1 80 billion up 9 08 from the year ago period
Looking at the full year our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of 0 64 per share and revenue of 6 76 billion These totals would mark changes of 39 13 and 4 43 respectively from last year
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for AMD Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near term business trends As a result we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company s business outlook
Based on our research we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near team stock moves To benefit from this we have developed the Zacks Rank a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system
The Zacks Rank system ranges from 1 Strong Buy to 5 Strong Sell It has a remarkable outside audited track record of success with 1 stocks delivering an average annual return of 25 since 1988 Over the past month the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 7 56 lower AMD is holding a Zacks Rank of 3 Hold right now
Investors should also note AMD s current valuation metrics including its Forward P E ratio of 49 5 This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry s average Forward P E of 18 83
Also we should mention that AMD has a PEG ratio of 2 1 This popular metric is similar to the widely known P E ratio with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company s expected earnings growth rate AMD s industry had an average PEG ratio of 2 1 as of yesterday s close
The Electronics Semiconductors industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 102 putting it in the top 40 of all 250 industries
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups Our research shows that the top 50 rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1
Make sure to utilize Zacks Com to follow all of these stock moving metrics and more in the coming trading sessions |
PFE | Trump calls global currency devaluations dangerous for U S | By Megan Cassella WASHINGTON Reuters Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday blasted currency devaluations around the world for hurting the U S economy and costing American jobs and defended his calls for a tougher U S stance on trade Asked about the European Central Bank s decision on Thursday to cut interest rates Trump told CNBC that such devaluations were driving manufacturing and other jobs outside of the United States We just sit back and do nothing Trump said That s getting to be very dangerous as far as I m concerned A more effective economic move than devaluations would be charging a tax on products made abroad and sold in the United States particularly those from China Trump said China is the grand master of all Trump said I have great relationships and business relationships with China and even those people say they can t believe what they re getting away with Additionally the front runner for the Republican nomination in the Nov 8 U S presidential election said that while he supports free trade if it is fair the United States has been taken advantage of in negotiations Trump also said if elected president he would move quickly to stop corporate inversions when a U S company acquires an overseas firm and reduces its tax bill by moving its headquarters to the purchased firm s location Trump said he thinks corporate inversions cost the United States twice as much as estimated He said drugmaker Pfizer Inc NYSE PFE and other companies that have recently left the country show there are things that are very structurally wrong with what we re doing I think it s 5 trillion but I don t think our country has any idea what it is but I think it s much more than 2 5 trillion he said referring to U S tax revenue lost when companies pull off corporate inversions Trump said Republicans and Democrats agree they want to halt such inversions but they can t make a deal because they don t have leadership
I could make a deal in 15 minutes by getting people in a room Trump said Everybody wants that money to come into the United States It would be so easy |
T | AT T asks U S appeals court to uphold approval of Time Warner acquisition | By David Shepardson WASHINGTON Reuters AT T Inc N T on Thursday asked a federal appeals court to reject the Justice Department s challenge to its acquisition of Time Warner saying the government had offered no basis for second guessing key conclusions of a ruling upholding the transaction The government is appealing U S Judge Richard Leon s ruling in June that AT T s 85 4 billion acquisition of Time Warner could proceed The government had said it would lead to higher prices for consumers and was illegal under antitrust law AT T has said it would manage Time Warner s Turner cable television networks as part of a separate business unit until February 2019 or the conclusion of the government s appeal AT T s brief said the government did not meet its burdens In the crucible of litigation DOJ s claims were exposed as both narrow and fragile the company argued The Justice Department declined comment The merger announced in October 2016 and closed on June 14 was opposed by President Donald Trump The merged company includes CNN a frequent target of Trump s ire AT T s brief noted the government s lawsuit was the first litigated challenge to a vertical merger in four decades prompting many press outlets to question whether the White House had improperly influenced DOJ s decision to bring the case Leon quashed discovery into that issue effectively limiting the trial to the fundamental question of if the deal violated U S antitrust law AT T added In August the Justice Department said Leon failed to take into account how companies negotiate with each other and seek to maximize profits in considering the Justice Department s arguments about how the deal would decrease competition In its brief the government argued the court should have concluded that the merger would give Time Warner more clout at the bargaining table Leon ignored evidence regarding how companies use leverage to bargain with each other and failed to consider corporate efforts to increase their revenues the government argued The court s errors colored the court s view of the facts leading to a decision that is clearly erroneous in light of the evidence presented at trial the Justice Department said The core of the Justice Department s concern about the deal is that AT T which owns DirecTV would use its ownership of Time Warner s content to make pay TV rivals pay more thus raising their costs and forcing them to charge consumers more Oral arguments have not yet been scheduled by U S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia |
PFE | Pfizer earnings beats estimates as pneumonia vaccine sales grow | Investing com U S drugmaker Pfizer N PFE reported better than expected quarterly revenue on Tuesday helped by demand for its pneumonia vaccine and its Hospira N HSP acquisition
Revenue rose 7 to 14 05 billion in the fourth quarter ahead of the average analyst estimate of 13 56 billion
Net income fell to 613 million or 10 cents per share from 1 23 billion or 19 cents per share a year earlier
But the company provided full year revenue and earnings forecasts below analysts estimates citing generic competition and a strong dollar
Pfizer said it expects reported revenue of 49 billion 51 billion for 2016 and adjusted earnings of 2 20 2 30 per share |
AMD | Baird trims AMD target on 2019 headwinds | Baird maintains a Neutral rating on AMD NASDAQ AMD but lowers the target from 25 to 23 Analyst Tristan Gerra expects EPYC and the 7nm refresh to serve as the key 2019 drivers offset by an estimated 40 revenue headwind in semi custom and GPUs The analyst says Asian supply chain checks suggest graphics card inventory levels are near six months in China and three months at resellers twice the normal levels Gerra notes that easy comps will allow for a return to double digit revenue growth in 2020 AMD shares are up 0 7 premarket to 20 63 Now read |
T | Golf Rose leads McIlroy Schauffele by one shot at BMW Championship | Reuters Justin Rose carded six under par 64 for a one stroke lead over Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele after the third round of the BMW Championship in Pennsylvania on Saturday Englishman Rose notched six birdies on the front nine before running off nine successive pars in perfect scoring conditions on the rain soaked Aronimink course outside Philadelphia He recorded a 17 under 193 total while Northern Irishman McIlroy 63 vaulted into equal second place with American Schauffele 67 on 16 under McIlroy sank a 40 foot birdie putt at the last while Schauffele bogeyed the same hole missing a 10 footer Englishman Tommy Fleetwood 62 and American Rickie Fowler 65 were two behind the leader Tiger Woods did not capitalize on a birdie birdie start plodding to a 66 that left him five shots adrift Preferred lies were allowed after heavy overnight rain left puddles on the waterlogged fairways With marshmallow soft greens and little wind the course was at the mercy of the field Despite his lead Rose was not totally satisfied with his performance on the course where he won the 2010 AT T NYSE T National on the PGA Tour Today was a struggle at times he told Golf Channel Not every shot felt in complete control I didn t drive it as well as yesterday especially on the back nine wasn t able to make a birdie but more importantly was able to make a couple of good par saves especially 17 and kept my nose ahead of the field I m doing a lot of things well All aspects of my game are turning up for me most days It can never be perfect every day Rose also won the 2013 in suburban Philadelphia at nearby Merion McIlroy bounced back from a double bogey at the par three eighth with an eight foot eagle at the par five ninth Weird day he said They put a lot of the tees up It was very wet but if you didn t shoot 65 you were losing ground It was one of those days you had to stay aggressive His birdie at the last brought a smile to his face It was going a little bit firm It was nice to see it go in Halfway leader Schauffele battled his driver but the rest of his game was solid I guess I hung in there he said I m just happy to have a shot tomorrow The event is the third of four playoff events on the PGA Tour The top 30 players on a season long points list after Sunday s final round will advance to the Tour Championship |
T | Brexit Sword Hanging Over Market May Spur Sterling Bond Issuance | Bloomberg Companies considering a sterling bond sale may need to hurry up as potential Brexit deadlock looms
The U K s path to exiting the European Union in March is still far from certain despite some promising signs that a deal may soon be agreed A no deal scenario would open up a host of regulatory and economic complications with borrowers highlighting risks including possible flight disruptions legal holes or loss of EU funding in bond documents These worries may intensify in the weeks ahead potentially driving up borrowing costs or even shutting the market
If I were a treasurer thinking I may need to access markets between late September and June I would be nervous said Ian Robinson a fund manager at BMO Global Asset Management which oversees more than 75 billion pounds 98 billion of fixed income worldwide No one can be sure how bond markets in the U K may react to adverse scenarios
The potential issuance window is also squeezed by corporate earnings next month as well as key Brexit meetings in the run up to year end Such concerns probably helped fuel a post summer pickup in sterling sales with borrowers issuing a total of 5 6 billion pounds of notes marketwide since the Aug 27 U K national holiday according to data compiled by Bloomberg Pension Insurance Corp ports operator DP World Ltd and cigarette maker Japan Tobacco Inc may also bring deals soon
AT T BMW
AT T Inc NYSE T sold 750 million pounds of bonds maturing in 2026 last week only the third U S corporate sale in sterling this year The Dallas based telecommunications company said the deal was part of efforts to diversify in debt in an email to Bloomberg News
BMW AG issued its second sterling deal of the year on Sept 5 The German automaker has 950 million pounds of notes maturing in December and a similar total due across the whole of next year according to data compiled by Bloomberg
Sterling issuances are a relevant source of funding in the bond market for the group BMW spokesman Max Morten Borgmann said by email
Still recent corporate pound sales have slowed compared to last year dropping 7 percent to 1 9 billion pounds in the 11 trading days after the U K national holiday versus the equivalent period last year By contrast euro sales are up about 12 percent at 23 1 billion euros 27 billion partly because of issuers reviving deals that were delayed by market volatility earlier in the year
Corporate sales in both currencies will likely cool next month due to restrictions ahead of earnings Whether the market will reopen again after that particularly in sterling may largely depend on the Brexit talks
This year it is difficult to know if volatility will hit again said Luke Hickmore a senior investment manager at Aberdeen Standard Investment in Edinburgh If it does the window may close very quickly he said |
PFE | Emerald Health Therapeutics Nears Phase 2 Of Major Growth Strategy | On October 2 2012 Emerald Health Therapeutics SG TBD announced that it had appointed Chris Wagner as company CEO On the appointment previous CEO Bin Huang shifted to focus on the management of the company s operations and expansion as President of Emerald Health Botanicals Emerald Health Therapeutics wholly owned subsidiary
With this reshuffle the company has shown its cards as far as future operational focus is concerned and in doing so has made itself very much one to watch in the biotechnology space going forward
Here is why
Those familiar with Emerald Health Therapeutics will know the company as a Canadian medical cannabis grower and producer based out of Victoria BC The company is a well established player in its sector and the legality of both medical and recreational cannabis in Canada has led to it being able to achieve substantial growth over the last 12 months raising revenues over this period from 36 000 during the third quarter of 2016 to just shy of 200 000 during the second quarter of 2017 an increase of more than 450
Over the coming 12 months however recent activity suggests that management is seeking to implement what we might refer to as the second phase of Emerald Health Therapeutics growth efforts and this second phase could very quickly outweigh even the triple digit percentage point topline increase detailed above
There are two separate elements of near term operational activity that are going to support this last statement with one being the operational focus implied by the appointment of the above mentioned Chris Wagner
Before outlining that one however let s address the other one production capacity expansion
Emerald Health Therapeutics announced during the early part of September that it has put together a joint venture with a company called Village Farms The latter is another cannabis grower and distributor in Canada and the joint venture will see the two companies combine to create 1 100 000 ft of fresh greenhouse space with Village Farms providing the space and Emerald Health Therapeutics putting up 20 million in initial capital to get the facility into production
Why is this important
Because right now Emerald Health Therapeutics total grow space is just 100 000 ft An additional 1 100 000 ft is going to allow the company to compete with some of its much larger billion dollar peers in the Canadian grow arena and is going to do so with the above mentioned investment of only 20 million Emerald Health Therapeutics and Village Farms are going to split profits 50 50 but even just taking 50 of the earnings from the project Emerald Health Therapeutics is going to be in a different league as compares to its current situation
Moving on let s now look at why the Chris Wagner appointment is important
As noted above it represents something of a pivot for Emerald Health Therapeutics and specifically a pivot into the biotechnology sector
Chris Wagner has a history of leading successful biotechnology companies with perhaps the most notable being Contextual Genomics Inc Contextual Genomics under Wagner s leadership teamed up with some of the biggest names in the healthcare space including Astrazeneca NYSE AZN Pfizer NYSE PFE and Sanofi NYSE SNY to develop and eventually commercialize a range of groundbreaking oncology therapies
What this means then is that Emerald Health Therapeutics is trying to capitalize on the dramatically improved grow space that it has picked up as part of the Village Farms deal through the development of its own range of cannabis based pharmaceutical products Additionally it looks as though the company is not only becoming a biotechnology play but is also looking to create its own supply chain minimizing production and manufacturing risk and the assumption being reducing operational cost as and when any of its development stage products hit the shelves
Right now the company is producing medical cannabis for sale as dried flower and oils at what it calls its Saanich facility In conjunction with this production the Saanich facility also serves as Emerald Health Therapeutics research and product development facility in Canada Management has submitted some licensing applications to Health Canada the Canadian equivalent of the FDA in the US and these licenses are a key first step in getting the facility accepted as a medical product development location in Canada This makes the response to these applications a potential near term catalyst for the company during late 2017 early 2018
To sum up Emerald Health Therapeutics has been growing reasonably well in a rapidly expanding industry in Canada but with a new CEO and a JV that s going to allow it to dramatically increase production capacity near term the company is going to look completely different in 12 months than it does today If the operational execution goes to plan this transformation could serve up a considerable upside revaluation across the period meaning Emerald Health Therapeutics is a stock to watch between now and the end of 2018
Disclosure The author holds no positions in any of the stocks mentioned in this piece |
T | AT T T Q2 Earnings Meet Estimates | AT T T came out with quarterly earnings of 0 89 per share in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate This compares to earnings of 0 91 per share a year ago These figures are adjusted for non recurring items
A quarter ago it was expected that this telecommunications company would post earnings of 0 85 per share when it actually produced earnings of 0 86 delivering a surprise of 1 18
Over the last four quarters the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times
AT T which belongs to the Zacks Wireless National industry posted revenues of 44 96 billion for the quarter ended June 2019 missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0 01 This compares to year ago revenues of 38 99 billion The company has topped consensus revenue estimates just once over the last four quarters
The sustainability of the stock s immediate price movement based on the recently released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management s commentary on the earnings call
AT T shares have added about 12 4 since the beginning of the year versus the S P 500 s gain of 19 9
What s Next for AT T
While AT T has underperformed the market so far this year the question that comes to investors minds is what s next for the stock
There are no easy answers to this key question but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company s earnings outlook Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter s but also how these expectations have changed lately
Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried and tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions
Ahead of this earnings release the estimate revisions trend for AT T was mixed While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company s just released earnings report the current status translates into a Zacks Rank 3 Hold for the stock So the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future You can see the complete list of today s Zacks 1 Rank Strong Buy stocks here
It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead The current consensus EPS estimate is 0 95 on 45 66 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and 3 58 on 183 19 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year
Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank Wireless National is currently in the top 25 of the 250 plus Zacks industries Our research shows that the top 50 of the Zacks ranked industries outperform the bottom 50 by a factor of more than 2 to 1 |
PFE | Clinton exit tax to take aim at companies inversion deals | By Amanda Becker WASHINGTON Reuters U S Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will announce a planned crackdown on corporations that shift profits overseas including a new exit tax against so called inversion deals her campaign said on Monday Clinton will call for spending the revenue raised by her proposed tax to boost manufacturing jobs in the United States the Associated Press reported In an inversion deal a company merges with a corporation in another country to lower its tax bill Pfizer Inc N PFE last month announced it would buy Allergan N AGN pa Plc in a deal worth 160 billion in part to slash its U S tax bill The purchase an example of a huge inversion deal would create the world s largest drugmaker and shift Pfizer s headquarters to Ireland Clinton said in a statement at the time it would leave U S taxpayers holding the bag Clinton the Democratic front runner will discuss her plan to deal with corporations shifting profits overseas at a campaign event in Iowa on Wednesday On Tuesday she is slated to discuss boosting manufacturing at another event in New Hampshire
The two states hold the first party nominating contests early next year for the November 2016 presidential election |
PFE | Clinton aims to stop earnings stripping to curb inversion deals | By Amanda Becker WATERLOO Iowa Reuters U S Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will continue her push to crack down on companies that shift profits overseas at a campaign stop on Wednesday in Iowa where she will unveil her plan to rein in the practice known as earnings stripping Clinton is spending this week detailing how she will address tax avoiding inversion deals in which a company buys or merges with a foreign rival and relocates on paper to lower its U S tax bill Clinton and her campaign have made clear they are viewing the real life implications of inversion deals through the lens of the 160 billion plan by U S pharmaceutical maker Pfizer Inc N PFE to purchase smaller rival Allergan N AGN pa Plc and move its headquarters to Ireland The deal would leave U S taxpayers holding the bag Clinton said in a statement at the time Clinton has called on the U S Congress to stop such deals by requiring the acquiring foreign entities to control at least a 50 percent stake in the combined company instead of the 20 percent under current law On Monday her campaign confirmed she will suggest an exit tax on the untaxed earnings of corporations that use inversion deals to relocate overseas Clinton s campaign said one of the primary benefits of the Pfizer Allergan deal is earnings stripping She will on Wednesday discuss how she believes that she would have the executive authority as president to address earnings stripping and encourage the U S Treasury Department to use its regulatory authority to crack down on this loophole Earnings stripping is widely used and covers a range of deals that shrink the taxable U S profits of multinational corporations while still allowing them to take advantage of some U S tax deductions The Treasury Department after a wave of inversion deals announced new regulations in September 2014 targeting certain tax avoidance deals The regulations did not take on earnings stripping directly but the department reserved the right to make any future regulation retroactive to that date That was a signal to me that they thought they could do something by regulation Harvard Law School lecturer Stephen Shay said in an interview Shay said the sentiment in the tax community today is yes there is regulatory authority to do something about earnings stripping Shay has written on the topic and has spoken to Clinton s campaign in recent weeks
Clinton s campaign estimates that closing the earnings stripping loophole would raise 60 billion over 10 years that could be used to provide incentives for manufacturing research and small business |
PFE | Alibaba names new head of anti counterfeiting IP unit | Reuters Alibaba N BABA Group Holding Ltd appointed Matthew Bassiur as head global intellectual property enforcement to oversee the company s anti counterfeiting and intellectual property rights protection efforts The appointment comes days after the Chinese e commerce giant avoided being named on a U S blacklist for sites hosting the sale of fake goods Alibaba s Taobao Marketplace and Alibaba com were both previously on the piracy blacklist which highlights markets linked to significant intellectual property infringement Alibaba com was removed in 2011 and Taobao in 2012 after efforts to work with sellers of legitimate goods to clean up the sites Since then the Chinese e commerce giant has worked toward enforcing anti counterfeit procedures but the U S trade office said it was unclear what effect these measures have had Bassiur whose appointment is effective January 2016 will report to Michael Evans president of Alibaba
Prior to joining Alibaba Bassiur was vice president and deputy chief security officer at Pfizer Inc N PFE |
PFE | SAC Capital to pay 10 million in investors insider trading lawsuit | By Nate Raymond NEW YORK Reuters Billionaire Steven A Cohen s former hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors LP has agreed to pay 10 million to resolve a lawsuit by shareholders of drugmaker Wyeth who claimed they lost money because the fund engaged in insider trading in Wyeth s stock The proposed settlement was disclosed in court papers filed on Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan and would resolve a class action launched following the arrest of a former SAC Capital portfolio manager Mathew Martoma for insider trading Martoma was sentenced in 2014 to nine years in prison after being convicted of engaging in insider trading based on confidential results of a clinical trial of an Alzheimer s drug being developed by Elan Corp and Wyeth Prosecutors said the trades enabled SAC Capital to make 275 million making it the most lucrative insider trading case ever charged in the United States The 10 million class action accord which requires court approval follows earlier deals with U S authorities in which SAC Capital agreed to pay 1 8 billion and plead guilty following investigations into insider trading by its employees Those accords included a 602 million settlement with the U S Securities and Exchange Commission by an SAC Capital unit resolving claims related to insider trading in Elan and Wyeth Elan and Wyeth are now part of Perrigo Co N PRGO Plc and Pfizer Inc N PFE respectively City of Birmingham Retirement and Relief System and KBC Asset Management NV served as lead plaintiff in the Wyeth class action which was filed in 2013 and sought to recover investor losses from the defendants who included Cohen himself A separate case by Elan investors remains pending SAC Capital has been in runoff mode and Cohen s fortune is now traded through his family office Point72 Asset Management We are pleased to have resolved the Wyeth matter and are prepared to vigorously contest the remaining class action Point72 spokesman Mark Herr said In total six ex SAC Capital employees have been convicted of insider trading Prosecutors in October dropped charges against two others including Michael Steinberg who was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to 3 1 2 years in prison Cohen was never criminally charged But the SEC filed an administrative action against him in 2013 for failing to supervise Martoma and Steinberg The SEC on Monday said that given the dismissal of charges against Steinberg it would pursue a narrower case against Cohen over his supervision of Martoma Trial is scheduled for April 11
The case is Birmingham Retirement and Relief System v SAC Capital Advisors LP U S District Court Southern District of New York No 13 02459 |
T | With FirstNet live chair and vice chair resign | The chair and vice chair at first responder network FirstNet have sent formal resignations to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Sue Swenson chair of the board since 2014 and Vice Chair Jeffrey Johnson are stepping down the NTIA says Having accomplished what Chief Johnson and I set out to do back in 2012 with the deployment of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network across all 56 states and territories with AT T T 0 5 it seems like the right time to transition Swenson says With the resignations the board has seven seats to fill and its next quarterly meeting is in December The board chair is selected by the Secretary of Commerce while that chair selects the board s vice chair Previously AT T turns FirstNet core live Verizon unveils its public safety core Mar 27 2018 Now read |
T | Success of Crazy Rich Asians movie sparks plans for sequel | By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES Reuters The Warner Bros movie studio is in the early stages of developing a sequel to its groundbreaking romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians a source with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday It is unclear when a sequel could reach theaters No script has been written and no deals have yet been signed with the movie s screenwriters the source said Jon M Chu plans to return to direct the new film his publicist confirmed But he is first scheduled to direct an adaptation of Lin Manuel Miranda s musical In the Heights which is scheduled for release in June 2020 The Hollywood Reporter first reported plans for a sequel The trade publication said the next installment would be based on author Kevin Kwan s second book in a trilogy China Rich Girlfriend Crazy Rich Asians marked a milestone as the first film from a major Hollywood studio in 25 years to feature an all ethnic Asian ensemble cast It stars Constance Wu Michelle Yeoh Awkwafina and newcomer Henry Golding On its debut weekend the movie topped U S and Canadian box offices with 26 5 million in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday and sales had topped 44 million through Tuesday The movie is now starting to roll out in theaters around the world In the film Wu plays a New York economics professor who flies to Singapore to meet her boyfriend s family only to discover it is one of the wealthiest in the country The cast was drawn from Taiwan Britain China Malaysia the Philippines the United States and Australia along with Singapore The main cast also is expected to return for the sequel The Hollywood Reporter said The new film also will tell the story of Astrid the cousin of Golding s character Nick with a man named Charlie played by Glee alum Harry Shum Jr Chu told the trade publication The gold digging character in Crazy Rich Asians Kitty Pong portrayed by Fiona Xie will also have a bigger role Chu said We needed to hire somebody who can really act because in time she becomes much more significant he said The plans for a sequel emerged as Singapore s defense ministry said that author Kwan also an executive producer on the Crazy Rich Asians film is wanted for defaulting on his compulsory military service Kwan could not be reached for comment Warner Bros is a unit of AT T Inc NYSE T |
T | Report More data exposed in breach than T Mobile acknowledged | In an update to today s data breach at T Mobile NASDAQ TMUS Vice reports the company acknowledges that encrypted passwords were included in the compromised data A spokesperson told Vice that it had earlier said no passwords were compromised because they weren t They were encrypted But researchers who saw the compromised data say data exposed in the breach is more than what T Mobile disclosed Vice says and that the passwords are likely encoded with a notoriously weak algorithm that can be cracked with brute force Those those researchers advised changing passwords Previously T Mobile reveals data breach impacting 2M customers Aug 24 2018 Now read |
T | FCC report found no favoritism on proposed Sinclair deal | WASHINGTON Reuters The U S Federal Communications Commission s inspector general said there was no evidence of impropriety relating to the proposed and now defunct merger of Sinclair Broadcast Group O SBGI and Tribune Media Co N TRCO concluding FCC Chairman Ajit Pai had not shown bias in favor of the deal According to its report released on Monday the Office of Inspector General said there was no evidence nor even the suggestion of impropriety unscrupulous behavior favoritism toward Sinclair or lack of impartiality related to the proposed Sinclair Tribune merger U S Representatives Elijah Cummings and Frank Pallone Democrats asked the FCC inspector general last November to probe whether Pai was biased in favor of Sinclair which had sought approval of a 3 9 billion acquisition of Tribune Sinclair announced on May 8 2017 that it wanted to buy Tribune s 42 television stations in 33 U S markets and cable network WGN America Cummings and Pallone cited FCC decisions that benefited Sinclair the largest U S television broadcast group and a 2016 Politico news report that Donald Trump s presidential campaign had struck a deal with Sinclair for favorable media coverage Pai said in a statement on Monday that he was pleased with the finding adding that the suggestion that he favored any one company was absurd He could not immediately be reached for comment beyond the statement Pallone said in a statement that the report provided the first detailed responses to Congress questions Beyond that questions remain regarding the Chairman s personal communications which the IG noted were beyond his reach and his conversations with Jared Kushner and White House Counsel Don McGahn The Sinclair deal was scuttled this month after the Republican led FCC expressed opposition to the deal questioning Sinclair s candor over the planned sale of some stations In December 2016 Politico reported citing remarks by Jared Kushner Trump s son in law and now a White House senior adviser that Trump s campaign had struck a deal with Sinclair to try to secure better media coverage The Inspector General s report cited an email from Kushner to Pai on May 5 2017 with the message Just tried you had a quick thing to run by you and indicated that phone records for that date showed a call from a blocked number at 10 03 a m The message was sent three days before the Sinclair deal was announced The Inspector General s report said that Pai had said he could not recall that conversation The White House did not have an immediate comment on the report The report also said that White House Counsel Don McGahn called Pai in July 2018 to make a status inquiry regarding the Sinclair deal Pai disclosed the call from McGahn in testimony earlier this month before a U S Senate panel He said it came around the same time he issued a July 16 statement that said he had serious concerns about the proposed takeover and proposed referring the matter to an administrative law judge Pai said McGahn did not express a view on the merger but had seen a news report and wanted to know what the action was The Inspector General s report also said that days before taking office President Elect Trump discussed with Pai the legal framework of AT T Inc s N T proposal to buy media company Time Warner The report said Pai told the Inspector General that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss Pai s possible appointment to the SEC chairmanship
AT T which successfully fought off an effort by the Justice Department to kill the deal declined to comment |
T | Trump urges AT T to oust CNN news chief | WASHINGTON Reuters U S President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated his attack on CNN over what he said was biased news coverage against him saying the AT T owned news broadcaster should fire news chief Jeff Zucker
Little Jeff Z has done a terrible job his ratings suck AT T NYSE T should fire him to save credibility Trump said in a post on Twitter |
T | Factbox Trump on Twitter Aug 30 CNN NBC Comey | The following statements were posted to the verified personal Twitter account of U S President Donald Trump realDonaldTrump The opinions expressed are his own Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy realDonaldTrump The hatred and extreme bias of me by CNN has clouded their thinking and made them unable to function But actually as I have always said this has been going on for a long time Little Jeff Z has done a terrible job his ratings suck AT T NYSE T should fire him to save credibility 0650 EDT What s going on at CNN is happening to different degrees at other networks with NBCNews being the worst The good news is that Andy Lack y is about to be fired for incompetence and much worse When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia they were hurt badly 0702 EDT I just cannot state strongly enough how totally dishonest much of the Media is Truth doesn t matter to them they only have their hatred agenda This includes fake books which come out about me all the time always anonymous sources and are pure fiction Enemy of the People 0711 EDT The news from the Financial Markets is even better than anticipated For all of you that have made a fortune in the markets or seen your 401k s rise beyond your wildest expectations more good news is coming 0720 EDT Ivanka Trump Jared Kushner had NOTHING to do with the so called pushing out of Don McGahn The Fake News Media has it purposely so wrong They love to portray chaos in the White House when they know that chaos doesn t exist just a smooth running machine with changing parts 0744 EDT The only thing James Comey ever got right was when he said that President Trump was not under investigation 0756 EDT Wow Nellie Ohr Bruce Ohr s wife is a Russia expert who is fluent in Russian She worked for Fusion GPS where she was paid a lot Collusion Bruce was a boss at the Department of Justice and is unbelievably still there 0854 EDT The Rigged Russia Witch Hunt did not come into play even a little bit with respect to my decision on Don McGahn 0917 EDT I am very excited about the person who will be taking the place of Don McGahn as White House Counsel I liked Don but he was NOT responsible for me not firing Bob Mueller or Jeff Sessions So much Fake Reporting and Fake News 0939 EDT Will be going to Evansville Indiana tonight for a big crowd rally with Mike Braun a very successful businessman who is campaigning to be Indiana s next U S Senator He is strong on Crime Borders the 2nd Amendment and loves our Military Vets Will be a big night 0949 EDT Source link |
PFE | Basilea Pharmaceutica Future Looks Bright | Basilea Pharmaceutica s SIX BSLN prognosis looks good Multiple licensing distribution agreements announced for launched assets Cresemba and Zevtera should drive top line growth faster than we had expected Major deals include Cresemba in Europe ex Nordics Russia Turkey and Israel with Pfizer NYSE PFE CHF70m upfront plus up to 427m in regulatory and sales milestones and mid teen royalties Zevtera in China with CR Gosun and in Europe with Cardiome These licensing and distribution deals validate the commercial potential for both assets and enable the financial fire power to bolster Basilea s existing innovative R D pipeline with a focus on cancer and anti infective drug resistance Our upgraded valuation is CHF1 188m or CHF110 share excluding treasury shares vs CHF1 048 previously
2017 a successful year for partnerships
Basilea has announced multiple licensing distribution agreements for key assets Cresemba isavuconazole for invasive mould infections and Zevtera Mabelio ceftobiprole for bacterial infections The significant licensing deal with Pfizer for Cresemba in Europe ex Nordics Russia Turkey and Israel makes strategic and commercial sense given its expertise in this niche therapeutic indication As a result we have upgraded our global Cresemba peak sales forecasts to 0 8bn from 0 6bn the bulk of the upgrade relates to the European opportunity
To read the entire report Please click on the pdf File Below |
AMD | Advanced Micro Devices AMD Q2 Earnings Meet Estimates | Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ AMD came out with quarterly earnings of 0 08 per share in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate This compares to earnings of 0 14 per share a year ago These figures are adjusted for non recurring items
A quarter ago it was expected that this chipmaker would post earnings of 0 05 per share when it actually produced earnings of 0 06 delivering a surprise of 20
Over the last four quarters the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates just once
Advanced Micro which belongs to the Zacks Electronics Semiconductors industry posted revenues of 1 53 billion for the quarter ended June 2019 surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0 62 This compares to year ago revenues of 1 76 billion The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters
The sustainability of the stock s immediate price movement based on the recently released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management s commentary on the earnings call
Advanced Micro shares have added about 81 4 since the beginning of the year versus the S P 500 s gain of 20 5
What s Next for Advanced Micro
While Advanced Micro has outperformed the market so far this year the question that comes to investors minds is what s next for the stock
There are no easy answers to this key question but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company s earnings outlook Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter s but also how these expectations have changed lately
Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried and tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions
Ahead of this earnings release the estimate revisions trend for Advanced Micro was mixed While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company s just released earnings report the current status translates into a Zacks Rank 3 Hold for the stock So the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future You can see the complete list of today s Zacks 1 Rank Strong Buy stocks here
It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead The current consensus EPS estimate is 0 22 on 1 94 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and 0 67 on 6 89 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year
Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank Electronics Semiconductors is currently in the top 28 of the 250 plus Zacks industries Our research shows that the top 50 of the Zacks ranked industries outperform the bottom 50 by a factor of more than 2 to 1 |
PFE | Shares in Asia mixed with Tokyo gaining on strong PMI | Investing com Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday with Tokyo edging higher on manufacturing data but other markets down
The Nikkei 225 gained 0 09 while the S P ASX 200 fell 0 52 and the Shanghai Composite dropped 0 73
Overnight U S stocks closed slightly lower on Monday on a volatile day of trading as a rally in the health care and energy sectors faded late in the session
Investors reacted to a major merger in the pharmaceutical industry after Pfizer Inc N N PFE acquired Allergan N AGN pa Plc N AGN in a 160 billion the biggest deal ever in the healthcare sector
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 31 13 or 0 17 to 17 792 68 while the NASDAQ Composite index fell 2 44 or 0 05 to 5 102 48 erasing some of their gains from late last week The S P 500 Composite index also lost 2 58 or 0 12 to 2 086 59 as six of 10 sectors closed in the red Stocks in the Utilities Telecommunications
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Monday she and her colleagues hope and expect the economy will continue to expand and if that is the case it will be appropriate to raise interest rates
Most of us expect the pace of that normalization to be gradual Yellen said in a letter to Ralph Nader released by the Federal Reserve
Nader penned an open letter to Yellen Oct 30 calling on the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee to raise the fed funds rate off the zero lower bound where it has been since December 2008
Japan reported its PMI for November rose to 52 8 compared to 52 1 seen and up from 52 4 in October
Overnight the release of disappointing U S housing sector data was eyed as expectations for a December rate hike by the Federal Reserve continued
The U S National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales decreased by 3 4 to 5 36 million units last month from 5 55 million in September Analysts had expected existing home sales to fall 2 3 to 5 40 million units in October
New York Fed President William Dudley said Friday that there is a strong case for hiking rates at the central bank s next meeting in December as long as economic data continues to remain solid
Also on Monday the Federal Reserve Board of Governors scheduled a closed door meeting held under expedited procedures to review the discount rates charged by its regional banks
The discount rate is the interest rate charged to commercial banks on loans they receive from their regional Federal Reserve Bank lending facilities also known as the discount window When the Fed increases the discount rate it makes the borrowing costs for banks more expensive decreasing the money supply in the system
The discount rate differs from the Federal Funds Rate which is the rate banks lend to one another on overnight loans for funds maintained at the Federal Reserve In February 2010 the Fed increased the spread between the discount rate and the top of the target range of the Federal Funds Rate to 50 basis points It came nearly two years after the Fed reduced the spread to 25 points in March 2008 in an effort to bolster liquidity
The Federal Funds Rate has remained at a level between zero and 0 25 for nearly seven years since December 2008 The announcement of the previously unscheduled meeting helps raise speculation that the U S central bank will lift the Fed Funds Rate when it meets next on Dec 15 16 The Fed last held an unscheduled meeting in December 2012 An initial rate hike is viewed as bearish for gold which is not attached to dividends or interest rates and struggles to compete with high yield bearing assets |
PFE | Exclusive Lazard works with Sanofi on 12 7 billion animal health unit deal sources | By Pamela Barbaglia Olivia Oran and Arno Schuetze LONDON NEW YORK FRANKFURT Reuters Investment bank Lazard is working with Sanofi s management to prepare a sale or listing of its Merial animal health unit aiming to land the leading advisory job for the deal which could value the business at up 12 billion euros 12 7 billion sources familiar with the matter said Lazard is expected to win the role for the so called dual track process having helped Sanofi s management in the ongoing review the sources said speaking on condition of anonymity If successful the deal will play a pivotal role in getting France s most valuable company back on track and delivering on its five year strategic plan after the business was hit by lagging diabetes sales and boardroom rows Sanofi PA SASY and Lazard declined to comment Lazard has a close relationship with Sanofi Chairman Serge Weinberg who has often recommended the investment bank on deals carried out by his private equity firm Weinberg Capital Partners another source said Sanofi s new boss Olivier Brandicourt 59 took the helm of the drugmaker in April and on Nov 6 unveiled plans to cut costs by 1 5 billion euros by 2018 while seeking bolt on acquisitions to continue growing its product offering But he also hinted at possible disposals namely Merial and the company s European generic drugs business The company said on Nov 6 these two units provide limited synergies and all options would be considered including retention Led by Carsten Hellmann Merial provides veterinary products such as antiparasitics and vaccines and is present in more than 150 countries The unit which employs around 6 500 people expects to exceed 2 4 billion euros in sales this year Sanofi could favor an initial public offering IPO for Merial as any takeover attempts by industry rivals would face antitrust challenges a banker familiar with the matter said Merial competes head to head with Pfizer s former animal health business Zoetis N ZTS which Brandicourt helped to list on the New York Stock Exchange in a previous job at Pfizer N PFE in 2013 Zoetis with a market capitalization of 23 4 billion trades at a multiple of enterprise value to forecast earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization EBITDA of 16 2 according to Thomson Reuters data Sanofi could also pursue an outright sale of its European generics business worth up to 3 billion euros But any process would only start in the second half of 2016 due to the lengthy legal work needed to disentangle the European business from its global operations the sources said Sanofi s global generics unit had overall sales of 1 8 billion euros in 2014 In Western Europe generics sales grew 5 6 percent to 135 million euros in the third quarter
1 0 9434 euros |
T | Democratic candidates told not to use ZTE Huawei devices source | WASHINGTON Reuters The Democratic National Committee warned party candidates running in November elections not to use devices made by Chinese telecommunications companies ZTE Corp HK 0763 and Huawei Technologies because they pose a security risk a Democratic source said on Friday
U S lawmakers and the Trump administration have pressured U S companies to not sell Huawei or ZTE SZ 000063 products saying they potentially could be used to spy on Americans Earlier this year they pushed AT T N T to drop a deal with Huawei to sell its smartphones in the United States
The source said Bob Lord the DNC s chief security officer said in a email that it was important for party and campaign workers to be vigilant about the warnings
Please make sure that you are not using or purchasing ZTE or Huawei devices anywhere within your staff for personal or work related use Lord said
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai told Congress in March he shared the concerns of U S lawmakers about espionage threats from Huawei
Hidden back doors to our networks in routers switches and virtually any other type of telecommunications equipment can provide an avenue for hostile governments to inject viruses launch denial of service attacks steal data and more Pai said at the time
The U S Department of Defense has already stopped selling mobile phones and modems made by Huawei and ZTE in stores on its military bases citing potential security risks |
T | Huawei in British spotlight over use of U S firm s software | By Jack Stubbs and Joseph Menn LONDON SAN FRANCISCO Reuters Huawei Technologies is facing increased scrutiny in Britain because it is using an aging software component sold by a firm based in the United States one of the countries where lawmakers allege its equipment could facilitate Chinese spying sources told Reuters The fact that the British misgivings stem in part from Huawei s relationship with a U S company shows how trade wars and heightened national security concerns are making it harder for technology firms and governments to safeguard products and communication networks A report last month by a British government oversight board charged with analyzing Huawei equipment said it had found technical and supply chain shortcomings which exposed the country s telecoms networks to new security risks One of those is due to Huawei s use of the VxWorks operating system which is made by California based Wind River Systems said three people with knowledge of the matter all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing details which were not made public in the report The sources said the version of VxWorks being used by Huawei will stop receiving security patches and updates from Wind River in 2020 even though some of the products it is embedded in will still be in service potentially leaving British telecoms networks vulnerable to attack Third party software including security critical components on various component boards will come out of existing long term support in 2020 even though the Huawei end of life date for the products containing this component is often longer the July report which did not name VxWorks said U S and Australian lawmakers have said Huawei s products can be used to facilitate Chinese espionage operations an allegation the world s biggest producer of telecoms equipment has repeatedly denied All three sources said there was no indication that the VxWorks mismatch was deliberate There is also no suggestion that the software itself represents a security risk Reuters was not able to establish which Huawei products were involved or what steps the Chinese company was taking to address the issue A spokeswoman for Wind River Systems said she was unable to comment on Huawei but said the company often helped customers upgrade to newer software versions Wind River offers migration routes and paths for its customers which should be pretty well known and understood in the industry she said A Huawei spokesman declined to comment on specific issues in the report but said the company would address any areas for improvement which were raised by British authorities Cyber security remains Huawei s top priority and we will continue to actively improve our engineering processes and risk management systems he said LEGITIMATE CONCERN While the United States and Australia have moved to restrict the use of its gear due to security concerns Huawei has been deepening ties with Britain supplying broadband equipment to its largest telecoms provider BT Group L BT and mobile networks for wireless giant Vodafone Group L VOD Consultant Edward Amoroso a former chief security officer at AT T NYSE T said Huawei s experience in Britain showed the challenges of securing international supply chains Although no one should dismiss Huawei as a supplier solely because of its geographical location reliance on software that is going out of support is a legitimate concern Amoroso said I don t care if it s from China Indiana or the moon it speaks badly for them he added The globalized nature of the technology industry has come under increasing scrutiny as countries seek to limit the use of equipment from nations they regard as adversaries In the United States the Pentagon is working on a do not buy list to block vendors who use software code originating from Russia and China and Moscow has had problems implementing a data storage law without relying on foreign technology By contrast London says it effectively addresses any security issues presented by the use of Huawei products as part of Britain s critical national infrastructure by having the equipment reviewed by staff at a special company laboratory This is overseen by British government and intelligence officials who report annually on its work In addition to the issue with VxWorks this year s report also cited technical issues which limited security researchers ability to check internal product code Many in the cybersecurity industry say efforts to bar equipment or software on grounds of nationality are futile because of the deeply inter dependent nature of the global technology business There s a real dilemma for policy makers for politicians said Robert Hannigan former director of Britain s GCHQ spy agency and now executive chairman for Europe at cybersecurity services firm BlueVoyant
How do we find a way of taking advantage of foreign technology in a way that we don t think compromises our security That s a really difficult balance to get |
T | U S argues judge failed to take its arguments into account in AT T trial | WASHINGTON Reuters The U S government said on Monday the judge in the trial to stop AT T Inc s N T purchase of Time Warner failed to take into account how companies negotiate with each other and seek to maximize profits in considering the Justice Department s arguments about how the deal would decrease competition In the brief for its appeal to the U S District Court decision in June the government also argued the court should have concluded that the merger would give Time Warner more clout at the bargaining table Judge Richard Leon ruled in June that the Justice Department was wrong to ask that the 85 4 billion merger be blocked The government had said it would lead to higher prices for consumers and was illegal under antitrust law In writing that ruling Leon the government said in its brief ignored evidence regarding how companies use leverage to bargain with each other and failed to take into account corporate efforts to increase their revenues The court s errors colored the court s view of the facts leading to a decision that is clearly erroneous in light of the evidence presented at trial the Justice Department said The core of the Justice Department s concern about the deal is that AT T which owns DirecTV would use its ownership of Time Warner s content to make pay TV rivals pay more thus raising their costs and forcing them to charge consumers more The district court erroneously concluded that the merger will not give Time Warner any increased bargaining leverage The reasons the district court gave for finding zero increase in leverage are implausible and internally inconsistent the government said in its brief AT T s General Counsel David McAtee disagreed with the Justice Department s assessment saying that the government s case had many holes Appeals aren t do overs There is nothing in DOJ s brief today that should disturb that decision he said using the acronym for the Department of Justice The Justice Department has appealed but no date has been set for when the appeals court will hear the case The deal closed on June 14 AT T has said it would manage Time Warner s Turner cable television networks as part of a separate business unit until February 2019 or the conclusion of the government s appeal
The merger announced in October 2016 was opposed by President Donald Trump The merged company includes CNN a frequent target of Trump s ire |
T | AT T Telefonica bids win Mexican spectrum auction | MEXICO CITY Reuters Bids by telecommunications firms AT T NYSE T and Telefonica MC TEF won 120 MHz of radioelectric spectrum in the 2500 2690 MHz frequency band that can be used for wireless services Mexico s telecommunications regulator IFT said on Monday The auction had drawn strong interest from operators because it is well suited for broadband 5g mobile networks and the so called Internet of Things The companies will have the 2 5 GHz spectrum which will be used for broadband mobile services Said spectrum will allow operators to offer better quality to the domestic telecommunications market said the IFT AT T will pay 1 4 billion pesos 75 6 million and Telefonica 700 million pesos 37 8 million in total for their respective winning bids the IFT added Telefonica has achieved its goal obtaining the spectrum it needed to address the foreseeable increase in the demand for mobile data the company said in a statement |
T | U S investor sues AT T for 224 million over loss of cryptocurrency | By Gertrude Chavez Dreyfuss NEW YORK Reuters U S entrepreneur and cryptocurrency investor Michael Terpin filed a 224 million lawsuit on Wednesday against telecommunications company AT T N T accusing it of fraud and gross negligence in connection with the theft of digital currency tokens from his personal account In a 69 page complaint filed with the U S District Court in Los Angeles Terpin alleged that on January 7 2018 the tokens were stolen from him through what he alleged was a digital identity theft of his cellphone account In the complaint he said AT T was his service provider In an emailed response an AT T spokesman said We dispute these allegations and look forward to presenting our case in court At the time of the theft the three million stolen tokens were worth 23 8 million the complaint said Terpin is also seeking 200 million in punitive damages The complaint said that AT T had been previously contacted by law enforcement authorities about such frauds Cryptocurrencies have a market capitalization of about 200 billion according to data from virtual coin tracker coinmarketcap com Nine years after bitcoin came into existence the market has seen the emergence of more than 1 800 digital currencies Terpin represented by Los Angeles litigation firm Greenberg Glusker claimed in the lawsuit that after the theft of the digital currency his cellphone account was transferred to an international criminal gang Terpin co founded the first angel group for bitcoin investors BitAngels in early 2013 and the first digital currency fund the BitAngels Dapps Fund in March 2014 He is a senior advisor to Alphabit Fund one of the world s largest digital currency hedge funds The complaint claimed that the theft of the tokens occurred through what is called a SIM swap fraud SIM stands for subscriber identification module and SIM cards are used to authenticate subscribers on mobile phones
SIM swapping consists of tricking a provider into transferring a subscriber s phone number to a SIM card controlled by someone else Once that person gets the phone number it can be used to reset the subscriber s passwords and access online accounts |
T | Trump advisor touts Sprint T Mobile deal while denying lobbying | By Ginger Gibson WASHINGTON Reuters Corey Lewandowski President Donald Trump s former campaign manager touted on Wednesday benefits he sees in federal government approval of T Mobile US Inc s bid to acquire Sprint Corp while also denying that he has worked directly for the company Lewandowski said he remains in regular contact with the president and has daily contact with Trump s new campaign manager Brad Parscale He has said he does not lobby on behalf of companies but said he does consult with some corporations about navigating the federal government If the T Mobile deal is going to move forward because it s going to create better 5G coverage in rural areas and create more jobs in the marketplace and help grow and compete with a competitive China then without any hesitation I say we should have more jobs we should be more competitive Lewandowski said on Wednesday at an event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor I have no idea what the Justice Department does on it I haven t spoken to anyone at the Justice Department on it U S antitrust enforcers have started reviewing T Mobile s plan to buy Sprint for 26 billion and have reached no conclusions on how many wireless carriers the country needs The two companies compete against AT T NYSE T and Verizon to provide U S wireless service Lewandowski is among those advising the No 3 wireless company on its deal as it prepares for what should be a tough regulatory review process the mobile provider said in a statement in May Lobbying by former Trump officials has received increased attention after it was made public that Michael Cohen the president s former attorney was paid 1 2 million by Novartis and 600 000 by AT T to consult about the administration It is not uncommon for former political officials to lobby and consult with corporations after leaving the employment of an elected official A T Mobile spokeswoman declined to comment on Lewandowski Lewandowski insisted he simply shares office space with a lobbying shop Turnberry Solutions LLC which is advising T Mobile Lobbying disclosure reports show T Mobile has paid Turnberry Solutions LLC 170 000 since September 2017 T Mobile said in May that Lewandowski is now affiliated with Turnberry and they have offered perspective to T Mobile on a variety of topics including the pending transaction
T Mobile hired Jason Osborne and Mike Rubino which is a firm that is also housed at the same office space that I am and I talk to these guys all the time Lewandowski said when asked why T Mobile said he was consulting with them I haven t made a phone call I ve never called a government employee or a person and asked them to look at help solicit move forward pass any transaction and I would challenge anybody in the room to find someone in the government who said I called and asked for a favor because I ve never done it |
T | Cryptocurrency Theft Triggers 224M Lawsuit Against AT T | Michael Terpin a US entrepreneur and crypto trader filed on Wednesday a 224 million lawsuit against telecoms giant AT T NYSE T claiming that the company was engaged in fraud and negligence when tokens were stolen from Terpin s personal account Reuters The investor who filed the lawsuit with the US District Court in Los Angeles LA said in the document that three million tokens were stolen on January 7 this year via a digital identity theft of his mobile phone account which is served by AT T
Terpin co founded Bitcoin angel investor group BitAngels in 2013 and crypto fund BitAngels Dapps Fund in 2014 Currently he is a senior advisor to crypto |
PFE | Race Oncology Expecting To Start Pivotal US Trial In 2018 | Race Oncology AX RAC is developing bisantrene which had been the subject of over 40 clinical trials in the 1980s and 1990s as part of Lederle s search for a safer anthracycline chemotherapy
Despite positive responses in a variety of cancers especially AML it was even approved for the treatment of AML in France but never commercialised development stopped after Lederle was sold to Wyeth and then Wyeth to Pfizer NYSE PFE Race will be developing bisantrene initially for relapsed refractory AML and expects to start a pivotal trial for approval in the US around the end of 2018 |
AMD | Advanced Micro Devices AMD Outpaces Stock Market Gains What You Should Know | Advanced Micro Devices NASDAQ AMD closed the most recent trading day at 32 85 moving 1 05 from the previous trading session This move outpaced the S P 500 s daily gain of 0 28 At the same time the Dow added 0 07 and the tech heavy Nasdaq gained 0 71
Prior to today s trading shares of the chipmaker had gained 8 33 over the past month This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector s gain of 2 34 and the S P 500 s gain of 1 93 in that time
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from AMD as it approaches its next earnings report date This is expected to be July 30 2019 In that report analysts expect AMD to post earnings of 0 08 per share This would mark a year over year decline of 42 86 Meanwhile the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of 1 52 billion down 13 35 from the year ago period
Looking at the full year our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of 0 67 per share and revenue of 6 89 billion These totals would mark changes of 45 65 and 6 43 respectively from last year
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for AMD These revisions typically reflect the latest short term business trends which can change frequently With this in mind we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company s business outlook
Based on our research we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near team stock moves We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear actionable rating model
The Zacks Rank system which ranges from 1 Strong Buy to 5 Strong Sell has an impressive outside audited track record of outperformance with 1 stocks generating an average annual return of 25 since 1988 Within the past 30 days our consensus EPS projection has moved 0 75 higher AMD is holding a Zacks Rank of 3 Hold right now
Digging into valuation AMD currently has a Forward P E ratio of 48 83 This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry s average Forward P E of 18 24
Also we should mention that AMD has a PEG ratio of 1 59 The PEG ratio is similar to the widely used P E ratio but this metric also takes the company s expected earnings growth rate into account The Electronics Semiconductors industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1 61 as of yesterday s close
The Electronics Semiconductors industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 64 which puts it in the top 25 of all 250 industries
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups Our research shows that the top 50 rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1
To follow AMD in the coming trading sessions be sure to utilize Zacks com |
T | Dividend Aristocrat AT T Is Leading The 5G Revolution | Wireless technology has come a long way
The first generation of wireless called 1G rolled out in the 1980s The only thing you could do with it was make a phone call And the call quality rivaled that of two tin cans connected by a string
Since then there s been a new generation of wireless tech about every 10 years 1G gave way to 2G then 3G and 4G each generation faster and more reliable than the last
Now we re arriving at 5G The rollout should be complete around June 2020
This new technology will let phones and computers communicate 1 000X faster than 4G It will also make everything from self driving cars to remote surgery possible
As with any new technology investors are clamoring for the best way to profit from this trend That means different things for different people
The Safest Way to Profit from the 5G Revolution Some investors are looking for that moonshot stock You know the one that might quickly shoot up 100 or more
Of course those kinds of wins are great If one of my stocks shoots up 100 I m thrilled
But let s face it they re called moonshot stocks for a reason They re not all that safe You might make a lot of money But you might lose a lot of money too
That s not what I m after
Instead we re focused on safe and reliable dividend paying stocks But that doesn t mean we have to sit on the sidelines
That s where telecom giant AT T NYSE T comes in
The First Company to Roll Out 5G
AT T is the second largest wireless carrier in the US
It was also the first provider to start rolling out 5G technology The company expects to complete its 5G nationwide network in 2020
AT T will also directly benefit as other wireless providers roll out 5G
See around a third of Americans are AT T customers And all of their data will be transferred on the company s infrastructure So the more data transferred the more people call text download YouTube videos and do the thousands of other things we now do on our phones the more money AT T will make
But that s not the only reason to like AT T especially if you re an income investor
First off AT T pays a huge 6 dividend yield That s over three times the dividend yield on the S P 500
It s also part of an elite group called the Dividend Aristocrats These are companies that have increased their dividends for at least 25 consecutive years
AT T has increased its dividend 34 years in a row now That s incredible In fact only 40 companies in the S P 500 have raised their dividends longer and more consistently than AT T
Safer than the Competition
Over three decades of consistent dividend increases means AT T s dividend is certainly reliable But it s also safe as I ll show you in a moment
That s extremely important If a company cuts its dividend its share price is going to crater Not good
As a general rule the higher the dividend yield the less safe it is So when I saw AT T s 6 dividend yield the first thing I did was plug it into the Dividend Sustainability Index DSI my proprietary tool for measuring dividend safety
The DSI looks at three key things payout ratio debt to equity ratio and free cash flow I ll walk you through each one
The payout ratio tells you how much of a company s net income it pays out to shareholders as dividends The lower the payout ratio the better
Next is the debt to equity ratio No surprise the more debt a company has the harder it is to run a business That includes paying the dividend
The last thing the DSI looks at is free cash flow This is the amount of cash the company has left after it pays expenses
AT T excels in all three categories For perspective I compared AT T s DSI score to three major competitors and it blows them out of the water
Not only does AT T pay a higher dividend than these companies its dividend is also safer
Only time will tell which moonshot 5G stocks soar and which ones plummet As income investors we re not interested in those kinds of risky gambles
Instead we ll play the 5G trend by investing in safe and reliable dividend payers like AT T |
T | U S court allows release of bench transcripts in AT T merger fight | By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON Reuters An appeals court that is hearing the U S Justice Department s fight with AT T N T over its merger with Time Warner agreed on Friday to allow the release of transcripts of bench conferences that the public was unable to listen in on during the trial in a lower court The U S Court of Appeals for the D C Circuit said in an order on Friday that the government would be allowed to release transcripts of the conversations that generally occurred between Judge Richard Leon who tried the case and one or more lawyers from the Justice Department AT T and Time Warner A loud hissing noise was played over the public address system in the court during the conferences to ensure that reporters and others in the courtroom could not hear what was said Judge Leon ruled in June that the Justice Department was wrong to ask that a 85 4 billion merger of AT T which owns DirecTV and Time Warner be blocked The government had said it would lead to higher prices for consumers and was illegal under antitrust law The Justice Department has appealed but no date has been set for when the appeals court will hear the case The deal closed on June 14 AT T has said it would manage Time Warner s Turner cable television networks as part of a separate business unit until February 2019 or the conclusion of the government s appeal
The merger announced in October 2016 was opposed by President Donald Trump |
T | Court allows transcript release in AT T DOJ battle | News from the government s appeal of the decision in United States v AT T the 2018 one not the 1984 one The D C Court of Appeals has agreed to allow the release of bench transcripts from the lower court allowing the public to listen in on conferences they didn t previously have access to Those generally took place between Judge Richard Leon and attorneys for the Justice Dept AT T NYSE T and Time Warner since June 14 part of AT T called WarnerMedia Leon s decisive ruling paved the way for the closing of the 85 4B merger an successful appeal by the DOJ however unlikely would mean undoing the tie up There s no date yet set for when the appeals court will hear the case Now read |
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