Citigroup reported third quarter earnings that beat analysts’ expectations, on the back of capital markets revenues and the release of loan loss reserves. The banking behemoth’s earnings for the three months ending in September surged +58% from the year-ago quarter to $2.15 per share, well above the Street consensus expectation of $1.65 per share. Citigroup also released $1.16 billion in loan...
U.S. President Joe Biden has announced that the Port of Los Angeles will start operating 24/7. On Wednesday, Biden said that the move is intended to boost supply chains. The current disruption in the global supply chain has pushed up prices of consumer goods. Around 40% of shipping containers enter the U.S. through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. "My administration is...
AT&T shares fell to the lowest level in more than a decade, amid the company’s shift in focus from media assets to telecoms and lower payout ratios ahead of its third quarter earnings. AT&T has sold key media assets, including DirecTV, and planned the $43 billion merger of its media division with Discovery. It is focusing on becoming a purely telecoms group. The company announced this spring...
Clean Harbors completed its acquisition of industrial cleaning and utilities services company HydroChemPSC, from an affiliate of Littlejohn & Co. In an all-cash deal, Clean Harbors bought HydroChemPSC for $1.25 billion. The acquisition was financed through a combination of existing cash and proceeds from Clean Harbors’ new $1 billion incremental term loan financing. The 2021 incremental term...
Tesla is delaying the launch of Full Self-Driving Beta 10.2 software for its Autopilot system, as indicated by a tweet from CEO Elon Musk on Saturday. According to Musk, there are last minute concerns about the software’s build, causing a few days delay in its release. The company had planned to release the Full Self-Driving Beta 10.2 at midnight Friday to about 1,000 Tesla vehicle owners...
Payroll processing group ADP released its National Employment Report, which revealed that U.S. private sector added +568,000 jobs in September, well above the Street consensus forecast of +428,000. It is the biggest increase in employment since June. The service sector added +466,000 jobs in September, led by + 226,000 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector. Goods producers added +102,000...
U.S. Steel Corp. shares got a rating downgrade from analysts at Goldman Sachs, amid price target cuts on major steel producers’ shares and an expected market correction of steel prices. Goldman Sachs analyst Emily Chieng cut her rating on U.S. Steel’s stock to "sell" from "neutral', while also reducing the price target to $21 a share. This was done in correspondence to a sector update that...
IAC/InterActive's digital media unit, Dotdash will acquire Meredith Corp. in an all-cash transaction valued at $2.7 billion. The combined entity will be named Dotdash Meredith and will be led by Dotdash CEO Neil Vogel, according to the two companies’ statement. Under the terms of the deal, Dotdash will pay $42.18 a share for Meredith. Meredith is a publisher of magazines such as People,...
Zoom Video Communications shares climbed higher Friday, after Five9 shareholders voted to reject its $14.7 billion takeover bid. The ongoing decrease in Zoom's share price made the all-stock proposed deal less appealing to Five9 shareholders. The deal implied a bid price of $200.28 in early July, but $144.70 when the vote took place last night. Also, Five9 investors were advised to reject the...
Tesla Inc. reported a record third quarter deliveries, beating analysts' forecasts. The electric carmaker delivered 241,300 new cars over the three months ended in October, compared to analysts’ expectations of around 230,000. The figure is +73.2% higher from a year ago, and almost +20% higher from the second quarter deliveries. "We would like to thank our customers for their patience as we...
Kohl's Corp. shares got a rating downgrade of two notches from analysts at Bank of America, amid supply chain concerns. Bank of America analysts Lorraine lowered her rating on the retail company’s shares to "underperform", with a $48 price target. Hutchinson cited the impact of supply chain disruptions to hurt the retailer's planned recovery. "Kohl's top performing active brands Nike , Under...
FactSet Research Systems Inc. expects its earnings per share and revenue to increase for full fiscal year 2022, as it generated gains from sales of analytics, content and technology solutions and research for the latest quarter. The analytics company expects earnings in the range of $11.60 a share to $11.90 a share on revenue of $1.705 billion to $1.72 billion. It reported earnings of $10.36...
Paychex posted its fiscal first quarter earnings and revenue that surpassed analysts' expectations. The human resource and payroll services company’s earnings per share rose +41% from the year-ago quarter to $0.89, well above the $0.80 per share expected by analysts polled by Investing.com. Revenue grew +16% from the year-ago quarter to $1.08 billion, vs. $1.04 billion expected by analysts...
Bed Bath & Beyond reported its fiscal second quarter earnings that were lower than expected by analysts. The home goods retail company also cut its full-year profit outlook. Bed Bath & Beyond’s adjusted earnings for the three months ending in August came in at 4 cents per share, well below the 52 cents per share expected by the Street. Revenues fell -26% from the year-ago quarter to $1.98...
Wells Fargo shares got downgraded to equal weight from overweight by Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley cited valuation concern and regulatory issues as factors behind the rating cut. It also lowered its share-price target to $46 from $49. Wells Fargo shares have risen +58% year to date, thereby reflecting the biggest gain among large-capitalization bank stocks. Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy...
Applied Materials shares fell Tuesday, after New Street Research downgraded its rating on the semiconductor company's shares. New Street Research analysts lowered their rating on Applied Material stock to neutral from buy. According to the analysts, Applied Materials’ valuation is still very reasonable based on the iShares Semiconductor ETF index. However, they don’t view a near-term catalyst...
Costco reported its fiscal fourth quarter earnings that surpassed analysts’ expectations. However, the big-box retail giant said that it would begin limiting purchases of certain essential items amid supply chain challenges. Costco's earning in the quarter came in at $3.76 per share, up +23.7% year-over-year, and beating analysts’ expectations of $3.58 per share. Gross margins, however, fell...
Salesforce.com raised its 2022 revenue guidance, ahead of its annual investor day conference. The cloud company now expects revenues for its 2022 fiscal year in the range of $26.25 billion to $26.356 billion, a modest boost to the August forecasts. For 2023, Salesforce has projected revenue in the range of $31.65 billion to $31.8 billion. It expects a non-GAAP operating margin of around 20%,...
Sports betting company DraftKings upped its bid for British gaming giant Entain to around $22.4 billion. DraftKings’ initial proposal was £25 per share for Entain; but that was quickly rejected, and it raised its bid to £28 per share -- a level that is more than double the $11 billion approach from MGM, Entain's U.S. joint-venture partner, earlier this year. MGM said it's the "exclusive...
Shares of solar panel maker SunPower got initiated with an outperform rating by analysts at Evercore ISI. Analysts at Evercore indicated that the stock has been overlooked by investors in recent years , and therefore the stock trades at a discount relative to peers. Analyst Sean Morgan wrote in a note to clients (as reported in CNBC), “…we believe investors are presently overlooking both...