Beyond Meat shares climbed higher Thursday, after McDonald's announced that it would expand the test market for its plant-based burger next month onwards. McDonald's said it would begin offering the McPlant created in collaboration with Beyond Meat, at around 600 test locations in U.S. restaurants, beginning on February 14. Location would mostly be in and around San Francisco and Dallas...
Ford Motor shares got a rating downgrade from analysts at Jefferies, ahead of the carmaker’s fourth quarter earnings early next month. Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois lowered his rating on Ford shares to “hold” from “buy”. Houchois mentioned that it is too early to re-rate the carmaker based on its expected expansion into electric vehicle production. Ford aims to double the pace of its...
Unilever shares climbed higher on Wednesday, after the consumer goods company announced that it won't increase its offer for the consumer healthcare division of GlaxoSmithKline above £50 billion. GSK's health products business owns brands such as Panadol, Sensodyne toothpaste, and Centrum vitamins. According to GSK, Unilever's bid valued at around $68 billion has "fundamentally undervalued"...
On Tuesday, Activision Blizzard shares climbed, after Microsoft announced that it would buy video game maker for close to $69 billion. According to the terms of the all-cash deal, Activision will be valued at $95.00 a share, which is a 45% premium to its Friday closing price. The deal would make Microsoft the world's third largest gaming group behind Tencent and Sony. After the deal goes...
Dollar Tree is now selling goods at a buck and a quarter. According to several social media posts, consumers are not satisfied about the discount retail company’s planned price increase. In November, Dollar Tree said that it planned to implement price hikes that would lead to a midpoint of $1.25. In late September, the company revealed plans to test the sale of goods priced at $3 and $5,...
Most investors by now are aware of the cryptocurrency craze. Bitcoin’s price is soaring, and investors all over the world are caught in the mire of “do I invest? Or is this a bubble waiting to burst?” Nobody has the definitive answer to those questions, and there are plenty of risks involved with investing in cryptocurrency. But many investors are just looking for some basic answers first,...
Citigroup posted a sharp drop in earnings for the fourth quarter. The banking giant’s earnings came in at $1.46 a share, compared to $1.38 expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenue of $17 billion also was higher than analysts’ expectations of $16.75 billion expected The company’s net income plunged -26% to $3.2 billion. Citigroup attributed that to an increase in expenses for a...
Streaming giant Netflix is set to raise its subscription prices in the U.S. and Canada. The subscription cost of the standard Netflix plan will rise to $15.49 from $13.99 in the U.S,. and C$16.49 from C$14.99 in Canada. The basic plan, will increase in the U.S. by $1 to $9.99 per month. The premium plan is increasing by $2 to $19.99 per month. According to Netflix, the higher prices will help...
Wealth management behemoth BlackRock has crossed the $10 trillion mark for assets under management. It ended 2021 at $10.01 trillion. It was largely actively managed funds that pushed Blackrock’s assets under management to breach the $10 trillion mark. Active funds comprised almost 50% of the $211.7 billion net new money last quarter for the company. “We generated a record $267 billion of net...
Wells Fargo posted fourth-quarter 2021 results that exceeded analysts’ expectations. The banking behemoth’s adjusted earnings per share grew +109% from the year-ago quarter to $1.38, surpassing the $1.11 expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Total revenue of $20.86 billion (+13% YoY) was above FactSet consensus estimate of $18.79 billion. Net interest income rose +4% quarter-over-quarter...
U.S. retail sales plunged in December, amid inflation pressures According to data from the Commerce Department, December retail sales fell -1.9% from the previous month to $626.8 billion, well below the Street consensus forecast of flat reading. The figure is +19.3% higher from the COVID-hit period in the fall of last year. Excluding auto and gasoline sales, December retail sales fell -2.5%,...
Take-Two Interactive shares climbed higher Wednesday, following a rating upgrade from analysts at BMO Capital Markets. BMO analyst Gerrick Johnson boosted his rating on the video gaming company shares to 'outperform'. Johnson held his price target at $180 per share. The analyst views the group's $12.7 billion acquisition of Zynga as a way to leverage its key video game properties, including...
U.S. consumer price annual inflation surged to 7% in December – registering the fastest pace in four decades, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed. The headline figure indicates an acceleration from the 6.8% pace in November. December’s rate is the highest since June 1982. Surging prices of used and new cars and rising rental costs largely fueled the increase in prices last...
Advanced Micro Devices got a rating hike at KeyBanc. KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst John Vinh boosted his rating on AMD shares to 'overweight', while mentioning that that demand for its data center chips should "meaningfully outpace" growth in the broader industry, especially with links to flexible CSP contracts with tech giants Microsoft and Meta AMD expects to complete its takeover of...
IBM shares were downgraded to sell from neutral by a UBS analyst. Analyst David Vogt also cut his price target on the tech company’s shares to $124 from $136. Vogt mentioned in a research note that near-term risk to fourth-quarter operating estimates and an "elevated valuation" implies that the shares are "vulnerable" over the next 12 months. Vogt said that IBM is trading at over three turns...
Bitcoin is beginning to enter the popular consciousness in a big way – financial publications, traditional news sites, discussion boards, and others are giving increasing coverage to the latest in cryptocurrency. With so many terms and varieties flying around, it is difficult to know how to start investing. Lucky for you, we’ve created an easy-to-use guide for investing in bitcoin! Buy Some...
Deere unveiled its first self-driving tractor. The equipment can be controlled by a farmer from a smartphone and they will also be able to watch the equipment work through a field from a live video. A standard 8R tractor and the 2430 chisel plow will cost over $500,000. The company said that it aims to lease out the tractors with the new autonomous equipment already attached. Jahmy Hindman,...
Mortgage rates climbed to a 20-month high this week, following the Federal Reserve’s tilt towards a more hawkish monetary approach. The 30-year fixed-mortgage rate averaged 3.22% for the week ended Thursday, vs. 3.11% last week and 2.65% a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac. The latest week’s level was the highest since May 2020. Sam Khater, the mortgage agency’s chief economist,...
Earnings Wholesale retailing giant Costco (COST) is getting ready to release its fiscal second quarter results for 2021. The report is due out on March 4, after the closing bell. With the report, the company will be looking to maintain the momentum in its earnings growth that has helped push the stock higher in recent years. Costco has seen its EPS grow at a rate of 19% per year over the last...
Since the beginning of 2021, the software sector has underperformed the overall market. Using the iShares North American Tech-Software ETF (IGV) as a barometer for the industry, the group has dropped 5.75% from the start of the year through March 18. During the same time period, the S&P is up 4.24%. Not all software firms have seen their stocks decline, but there does seem to be a disparity...