Brands is acquiring charbroiled hamburgers-famed Habit Restaurants, for around $375 million. Yum, parent of casual dining restaurant chains  KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, said on Monday that it was buying Habit for $14 a share in cash. The acquisition could potentially bolster/expand Yum’s menu offerings by adding Habit's specialties like flame-grilled burgers, chargrilled chicken, tuna and other sandwiches. “As a fast-casual concept with strong unit economics, The Habit Burger Grill is a fantastic addition to the Yum!Brands indicated that it is expecting minimal impact to non-GAAP earnings per share before special items in 2020, with accretion starting in 2021 and increasing after that.  

HBO’s former executive Richard Plepler is ready to turn producer for Apple TV+. Plepler was CEO and chairman of HBO until February 2019 - a few months after its parent company, WarnerMedia got acquired by AT&T. Plepler’s production company, Eden Productions, has clinched a five-year deal to produce exclusive content (including documentaries, television series, and movies) for Apple TV+ - Apple’s video streaming platform which launched in November 2019. Apple TV+ charges its users $4.99 a month.  Meanwhile, HBO is introducing a streaming service (at $14.99 per month charge) in May, which is expected to offer  current and past HBO programming, alongwith original content, plus content from other AT&T brands.

United Airlines got a rating upgrade from an Evercore ISI analyst. Analyst Duane Pfennigwerth raised rating on the airline stock to outperform from in-line.Pfennigwerth also boosted his price target for the shares to $125, from $105. Pfennigwerth cited United shares’ "significant valuation" discount in comparison with its peers, combined with a potential  improvement in longer-term co-brand credit card economics and Evercore ISI’s outlook of improved global GDP growth in 2020.

On Thursday, Wingstop  announced that its chief operating officer will step down in March. The restaurant chain specializing in chicken wings informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that Laurence Kruguer would resign effective March 7.The departure is not due to any disagreement, the company indicated  in its filing. In early December, Goldman Sachs added the stock to its conviction-buy list, and boosted its estimate for same-store sales to 12.5%, up from prior forecast of 10%.

Lowe's Cos. has plans to add more than 53,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers across its U.S. stores for spring. The home-improvement retail chain announced on Thursday that its stores in Florida, Southern California, Hawaii, and parts of Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Texas, Alabama and Georgia, will conduct the first walk-in recruitment events, on Jan. 8.Full-time and part-time year-round roles include department supervisors, cashiers, stockers, sales specialists, customer-service associates and merchandise-service associates. Jennifer Weber, Lowe's executive vice president for human resources, said in a statement, "Spring is the busiest season for home-improvement projects and a great time to launch a new career at Lowe's".

Incyte Corporation shares took a hit late trading Thursday, after news of disappointing results on one of its clinical trials. The pharmaceutical  company revealed that one of its drugs fell short of meeting its primary endpoint in a phase 3 trial.That is, it did not meet the primary endpoint of a statistically significant improvement in overall response rate (ORR) at Day 28 compared to placebo plus corticosteroids; also, no difference was found in non-relapse mortality at month 6, which is a crucial secondary endpoint. The above-mentioned disease is often seen in patients undergoing bone marrow or organ transplants.

Tesla is reportedly producing its Model 3 electric vehicles at a rate of 28 per hour at its new Shanghai plant, or more than 1,000 per week given 10 hours on shift each day, according to a report from the Global Times. Tesla began work on the $2 billion China plant just under a year ago.The China-made Model 3s are selling for around 355,800 yuan (or $50,000) before subsidies. Tesla aims to make 3,000 vehicles per week at Shanghai “in the near future,” Tesla executives told the Global Times. According to the report, Tesla sources 30% of the China-made Model 3 parts in China itself.

On Monday, tech giant Microsoft announced that it won a court order that allowed the company to take control of 50 websites that a North Korea-linked hacking group was using to make cyber-attacks. The hacker group called “Thallium,” believed to be operating from North Korea, was using spear phishing technique to gather  information about individuals through the public domain and social media.As a result, hackers got access to the users’ emails, contact lists and calendar appointments (according to Microsoft). Individuals targeted by Thallium included think tanks, university staff, government employees,  and those working on nuclear proliferation issues.

Any reading above 50 suggests an expansion in activity.Economists polled by Reuters expected the official December manufacturing PMI to come in at 50.1. Production accelerated and demand increased in December, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. December was the second straight month of expansion for the index. On December 13, the U.S. and China announced that they had reached a phase one trade deal, that includes (among several aspects) holding off and reduction of  some U.S.tariffs, increased purchases by China of U.S. agricultural goods, and policies related to intellectual property and technology.

On Monday, car rental company Avis Budget Group  named Joe Ferraro, the company's Americas president, as interim chief executive. Ferraro is succeeding Larry De Shon.De Shon had announced in May that he will be stepping down by the end of the year.  Having spent 40 years at Avis, Ferraro has been at the forefront of  the company’s Avis, Budget, Payless and Zipcar brands in North and South America, including Latin America and the Caribbean. A committee at Avis is still looking for a candidate for a permanent position for the role.

Goodyear Tire got a bullish look from analysts at Nomura analysts. The note, in which Nomura initiated coverage of the auto tyre manufacturing company,  mentions a buy rating and a $20 target price, which represents a potential upside of more than 30%. Nomura analyst Anindya Das cited the stock’s attractive valuation, the company's market share of the aftermarket tire business, and an expected increase in profitability in 2020 amid restructuring of its U.S. plants.Das hinted that Goodyear is a defensive stock with inexpensive valuation that should do well when the economic growth outlook for 2020 is what Das called “somewhat muddled". Goodyear has upped the ante on automation at its German plants, while shifting production towards higher-cost, premium tires.

Analysts at Cowen have a bearish outlook on Tesla, citing  falling demand in 2020. Cowen has an underperform rating and $210 price target on the electric carmaker's stock, representing a potential 51% downside from the stock’s Friday closing price above $420 a share. Excluding the Netherlands and China, Cowen expects Model 3 deliveries to be down.The expected slowing down reflects a  demand saturation that Cowen perceives across most mature markets as they shift from “pent-up demand to steady flow demand.” According to Cowen, Tesla’s pricing and mix issues will affect the company’s near-term margins.

Biotech company Wave Life Sciences’ shares plummeted , after clinical test results on a anti-Huntington disease drug turned out to be a bit disappointing. The trial, which compared the results from oligonucleotide therapeutic WVE-120102 with a placebo, showed a statistically significant 12.4% reduction in a disease-causing mutant huntingtin protein, at the highest doses tested ( as indicated in the Wave Life’s statement).However,  “there was no difference" in total huntingtin protein compared with placebo, the company said. The drug was generally safe and “well tolerated among patients receiving doses up to 16 mg in both single and multidose portions of the study,” according to Wave Life. Wave Life conducted a Phase 1b/2a Precision-HD2 trial.

The deal amount ($765 million) is almost 80% of Maxar's current market capitalization.Northern Private Capital intends to allow MDA to operate as a "stand-alone" company in its portfolio.  Through the sale of its space robotics unit, along with a deal to offload real estate in Palo Alto, Calif., Maxar expects to reduce the company's debt by $1 billion.

And now, Wesco has upped its offer price to $93.50 a share. Wesco Chairman, President, and CEO John Engel indicated that the proposal to acquire Anxiter is a solid opportunity to deliver significant and immediate value to Anixter's stockholders.The filing said that the $90-a-share offer still contained significant risks, including the probability for major antitrust scrutiny in certain jurisdictions, including the U.S. and Canada, which could potentially delay the closing date  for the deal.

Steves maintains an outperform rating on the shares. Steves cited improving data center demand and AMD's optimism on margin ramps through 2020.  The analyst expects AMD earnings to come in at earn $1.30 a share in 2020, which is higher from his prior forecast of $1.24. For 2021, Steves now projects earnings of $1.73 a share (compared to previous forecast of $1.68 ); the Street expects $1.51 . The analyst mentioned "solid channel checks" for both gaming chips and products used in data centers as factors behind his solidly optimistic earnings outlook on AMD.

Mylan got an approval from the Food and Drug Administration on the  generic-drug maker's version of Eliquis. Eliquis is a tablet for  reducing stroke risks and pulmonary embolisms in individuals.It’s also used against deep vein thrombosis. The approval is part of FDA’s program Drug Competition Action Plan, which is aimed at providing more affordable medicine for patients.

Water-treatment company AquaVenture’s stock  was downgraded by two investment banks, after the announcement of an acquisition. On Monday, it was revealed that Culligan International, backed by  private-equity firm Advent International, would acquire AquaVenture for $27.10 a share cash, or about $1.1 billion, including AquaVenture's net debt.The deal, already approved by AquaVenture's board , is expected to close in early April. Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov lowered his rating  on the stock to market perform from outperform.  Molchanov  mentioned in a note to investors that Culligan is "a very logical buyer” and  it is unlikely that any other firms will engage in a bidding war. The analyst indicated that he was expecting continued strong M&A activity in the water industry in 2020.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jones is cautious about Tesla’s long-term valuation. In a note on Monday, Jones hinted that Tesla's current valuation of roughly $76 billion may not be sustainable, as he thinks that the company would over time be viewed more as a traditional auto manufacturer (versus a technology company). Jonas maintains a $250 price target on Tesla shares. “We are prepared for a potential surge in sentiment through 1H20 but question the sustainability”, Jones mentioned in the note. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had to step down from his chairman position at the company after posting a tweet in August last year that he was "considering taking Tesla private at $420.Funding secured".   Interestingly,  Tesla stock rose to touch $420 per share on Tuesday, and is around $425 as of this writing. On Monday, a Reuters report suggested that Tesla secured a $1.4 billion loan from a group of banks in China that it will use to expand production at its Shanghai factory.&

AutoZone reported fiscal third quarter earnings that surpassed expectations. The aftermarket automotive parts retailer’s earnings for the quarter ended May 4 came in at $15.99 a share, compared to $15.10 a share expected by analysts polled by FactSet.It was also higher than the year-ago quarter’s earnings of $13.42 a share. Sales increased to $2.8 billion, from $2.7 billion in the comparable year-ago period. Domestic same-store sales climbed +3.9%, compared to analysts estimate of +3%. AutoZone CEO Bill Rhodes indicated that the  industry fundamentals remain strong, and that the company is improving its market share position. During its fiscal third quarter, the company repurchased 472,000 shares of its common stock for $466 million at an average price of $987 per share.