Blogs

Shares of Tellurian  climbed, following news of natural gas company finalizing a 10-year deal to provide energy trader Vitol with LNG from its proposed liquefaction facility terminal in Louisiana.

The deal, valued at at about $12 billion in revenue over the deal period, is for  3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of LNG.

Last week, Tellurian also inked a 10-year agreement with commodity trader Gunvor Group for 3 MTPA of LNG.The LNG would be delivered from the proposed liquefaction facility Driftwood LNG, near Lake Charles, Louisiana in the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Devon Energy   shares rose Tuesday, following a rating upgrade and price target increase by  Raymond James analyst.

 Analyst John Freeman boosted rating on the energy company’s shares to strong buy from outperform. Freeman hiked his price target to $40 from $34.

Freeman mentioned that the solid performance of Devon's Delaware wells offer opportunities for productivity gains – something that would boost Devon's free-cash-flow-to-enterprise-value ratio, which could lead toa a higher dividend yield, according to Freeman .

Shares of Roblox  rose Tuesday, after Truist Securities boosted price target on the stock to a Wall-Street-high .

Truist Securities raised the price target on the online game platform’s shares to $103 from $83.

According to Truist, second-quarter bookings (the amount of virtual currency users purchase in a given period ) seem to be tracking at least mid-single-digit-percent above consensus (upwards of low-double-digit-percent).

Truist said that 2021 consensus seems “a low hurdle”. 

"Beyond numbers, the focus is likely to remain China, new features/platforms and new branded experiences", Truist noted.

President Joe Biden unveiled a proposal of $6 trillion budget.

The plans include proposals for a $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan and $1.8 billion in spending on education and families.Both of these, however, are facing pushback from Congressional Republicans. 

The plan indicates spending of $6 trillion, $4.2 trillion in revenue, with a $1.8 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2022.

Biden’s proposal mentions  a 39.6% top tax rate on capital gains and dividends for millionaires.

The clothing company also raised its full-year guidance.

For the quarter ended May 1, Gap’s adjusted earnings came in at 48 cents a share, while analysts polled by FactSet expected adjusted loss of -5 cents a share.

Revenue rose to $3.99 billion,  from $2.1 billion a year ago.Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting $1.43 a share.

The company projects net sales growth between the low to mid 20% range for fiscal 2022, compared with its earlier guidance of mid-to-high teens percent.

 

 

 

The company projects revenue to be between o $6.22 billion to $6.23 billion, higher than analysts’ estimate of  $6.15 billion.

For the full 2022 fiscal year, Salesforce projects adjusted earnings in the range of $3.79 to $3.81 per share – higher than analysts’ expectation of $3.43 .While Salesforce predicts revenue $25.9 billion to $26.0 billion (22% growth), analysts polled by Refinitiv expect $25.76 billion in revenue.

AMC Entertainment  stock’s market value surpassed $10 billion for the first time.

The world’s largest movie theatre chain’s stock has more than doubled since the company reported its quarterly results on May 6.The offering generated $428 million of new capital, before commissions and fees, at an average price of $9.94 a share.

AMC has raised more than $1 billion to avoid bankruptcy in recent months.

Chipotle Mexican Grill  got a rating boost from Stephens analyst James Rutherford, to overweight from equal weight.

Rutherford also hiked his share-price target to $1,700 from $1,600.This implies 26% upside from Wednesday's closing price

The analyst cited same-store sales long-term growth prospects, strong presence in the suburbs, and near-term sales drivers including reopening, new long-term opportunities (brisket being tested), digital growth, a return of dine-in sales, a bigger ad budget as some of the factors behind the improved outlook on the shares.

FactSet poll showed analysts’ expectations of $163.7 million for revenue and $185.4 million for billings.

Looking ahead, Zscaler projects adjusted earnings of 8 cents to 9 cents a share on revenue of $185 million to $187 million for the fiscal fourth quarter, and about 47 cents a share on revenue of $660 million to $664 million for the year.Analysts had expected earnings of 9 cents on revenue of $173.9 million for the fiscal fourth quarter, and 40 cents a share on revenue of $637.5 million for the year.

On Monday, exercise equipment and media company Peloton Interactive  said that it plans to build its first U.S. factory in Troy Township in Wood County, Ohio.

The company expects that the factory will begin making Peloton Bike, Bike+ and Peloton Tread starting in 2023.

According to Peloton, it will commit $400 million to the facility, which will span more than 200 acres and have more than 1 million square feet of space.The facility is expected to create more than 2,000 new jobs.

In April, one of Peloton’s  treadmills was slapped with an urgent safety warning after several people were injured and a child died.

The company also said that 2021 production of its Endurance truck will be half prior expectations.

Lordstown incurred a net loss of -72 cents a share, compared with a loss of -28 cents a share expected by analysts polled by FactSet.The year-ago quarter’s loss was - 16 cents a share.

Chairman and CEO Steve Burns said Endurance production this year will be limited and would be "at best 50%" of the company's prior expectations of 2,200 trucks.

Its owners include Highland Capital Partners, Anchorage Capital, Davidson, Kempner Capital Management, Solus Alternative Asset Management and Owl Creek Investments.

MGM owns several popular movie and TV franchises, such as The Pink Panther, Rocky, and Legally Blonde.It also owns a studio, which has produced hit TV shows, including “Fargo.” The company also owns many popular reality TV shows, including “Shark Tank,” “Survivor,” and “The Voice.”

 

 

 

Hodulik also hiked the price target to $35 from $32.

According to the analyst, AT&T’s decision to  spin-off  its streaming business with Discovery Communications could simplify the structure for AT&T. “We see a favorable risk-reward at the current valuation given a more simplified set of connectivity-based assets, lower dividend payout, better visibility into EBITDA growth and lower leverage,” Hodulik said.

Hodulik said that a goal of free cash flow of $20 billion is achievable by 2023.The deal structure could lead to $7 to $8 per share in a one-time tax-free payment via shares of DiscoveryWarner, which represents four to five years of lump-sum dividend payment, Hodulik said.

 

Applied Materials got bullish views from several analysts, following its fiscal second-quarter earnings beat.

Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore boosted the price target on the semiconductor equipment company’s shares to $139 from $137.Moore maintained an Equal-weight rating on the shares.

Moore noted that tight supply conditions led to better near-term spending conditions, thereby boosting Applied Materials’ performance relative to peers in the quarter.However, even as the company’s guidance implied continued wafer fab equipment, or WFE, growth through 2022, Morgan Stanley sees the growth plateauing ahead in the second half of 2021.

Needham analyst Quinn Bolton reiterated a Buy rating and $153 price target.

What's more, the guidance for the fiscal  third quarter is also higher than analysts' forecast.

The company’s net income came in at $1.43 a share, increasing from 82 cents a share in the year-ago period. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected $5.41 billion.

For the third quarter, Applied Materials project adjusted earnings of $1.70 to $1.82 a share on sales of $5.72 billion to $6.12 billion.

Photo-sharing app Snapchat reached 500 million monthly active users, parent Snap  announced.

Chief Executive Evan Spiegel said that around 40% of the Snapchat user base is now located outside North America and Europe.

"[Nearly] one of every two smartphone users in the U.S. is on Snapchat," Chief Executive Evan Spiegel said in opening Snap's partner summit, according to Yahoo Finance.

Snapchat launched series of augmented reality tools, including Scan, which allows Snapchatters to match what is seen through the camera to relevant AR experiences on Snapchat.

The company also announced  that it would launch a new app called Story Studio, which has video-editing tools.

Also, Poshmark is partnering with Snap to launch Poshmark Mini, which will be available to Snapchat users in the U.S. in three different ways: Shop Virtual Posh Parties, Shop Poshmark’s Entire Catalogue, and Shop Top-Selling Brands.

 

Boeing Co. is reportedly preparing to boost production of its flagship 737 MAX aircraft. 

On Friday, Reuters reported that Boeing could produce as many as 42 Max jets per month by the fall of next year – which would be higher than the aircraft manufacturer’s current target of an increase to 31 planes per month by the spring of next year. 

However, the implementation of the plan hinges on various of factors including demand, capacity uncertainty around some suppliers and Boeing's ability to reduce a surplus of jets already built.

Boeing has not issued any official statement on the plans yet.Last month the company reaffirmed plans to increase MAX output from an unspecified "low" rate to 31 a month by early 2022.

 

 

The cybersecurity company also boosted its guidance for the year. 

The company’s fiscal third-quarter non-GAAP earnings came in $1.39 per share, compared to the $1.29 a share expected by analysts polled by FactSet.The company generated revenue of $869.4 million in the year-ago quarter.

Palo Alto Networks is expecting fiscal fourth-quarter revenue in the range of $1.165 billion to $1.175 billion and diluted non-GAAP net income per share of $1.42 to $1.44.

On Thursday, the U.S. Treasury proposed a minimum global corporate tax rate of 15%.

The proposal is part of discussions with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and G20 officials over the past two days.

During the discussions “Treasury expressed its belief that the international tax architecture must be stabilized, that the global playing field must be fair, and that we must create an environment in which countries work together to maintain our tax bases and ensure the global tax system is equitable and equipped to meet the needs of for the 21st century global economy,” the Treasury said in a statement.

Many large U.S. companies are known to avoid higher taxes by setting up headquarters in tax haven countries such as Ireland and the Cayan Islands. 

 Ehrlich  also hiked share-price target to $53 from $38.

Ehrlich cited Viacom’s “scarcity value in an industry facing consolidation.”  She indicated that various recent press reports  have suggested Viacom as a potential target “with several assets that could command a premium."

The analyst emphasized that Viacom’s variegated content  consisting of 140,000-plus TV episodes and 3,600-plus films across sports, movies, comedy, news, children, etc.