DXC Technology shares were losing more than -31% in trading Friday, following news that the company’s second quarter earnings missed estimates, margins fell from the year-ago period, and the company’s outlook that full-year earnings would fall heavily short of Wall Street estimates. The information tech company reported adjusted earnings from continuing operations of $1.74 a share in the first fiscal quarter  2020, lower than the year-ago quarter’s $1.93. The EPS also fell below Wall Street analysts’ estimates of $1.71 a share. What’s more, adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) as a percentage of revenue was 13.3% in the quarter, substantially down from 15.2% a year ago. CEO Mike Lawrie said the company is expecting adjusted earnings per share for the full year to be in the range of $7 to $7.75, far below the average Wall Street estimate of $8.20 for the year.  

CBS and Viacom are reportedly not yet ready to announce a merger – atleast not by Thursday when CBS reports its quarterly earnings. According to a CNBC report, sources familiar with matter indicated that the media giants are still deliberating/negotiating on the exchange ratio for the merger.Speculations are rife that a deal could be announced in the coming days. Shari Redstone, vice chairwoman of the board at CBS and Viacom, has suggested for a deal that boosts the combined company’s position in the media market and allow it to compete better with tech behemoths (including Amazon and Apple) for entertainment and sports rights, like the National Football League.  CBS currently owns NFL broadcast rights until 2022 – it is apparently determined to do what it takes to renew them. The merger, if goes through, is expected to see Viacom CEO Bob Bakish take over as CEO of the combined company, according to sources (as mentioned by CNBC). 

CVS Health Corp. topped second quarter earnings expectations and raised its full-year profit guidance, leading to a climb in its stock price Wednesday. For the three months ending June, the retail pharmacy and pharmacy benefit manager reported adjusted earnings of $1.89 per share, marking a +11.8% increase from the year-ago quarter and a significant beat on the Street estimate of $1.69 per share. Total revenues for the quarter  climbed +35.2% year-over-year to $63.4 billion, also exceeding analysts' forecasts of $62.66 billion.Sales from Aetna (which CVS acquired in 2018) emerged as a significant contributor to the overall revenue growth. Revenues from Pharmacy Services rose +4.2% to $34.8 billion.

On Wednesday, courier delivery service company FedEx revealed that it will end its ground-delivery contract with Amazon, and that it won’t renew it at the end of the month. FedEx dubbed the cancellation as a “strategy to focus on the broader e-commerce market”. In June, FedEx had announced that it was ending its express U.S. shipping contract with the e-commerce giant, a decision which only affected air services. At the time, FedEx said that less than 1.3% of its total revenue came from serving Amazon during the 12-month period ended Dec. 31. In late June, Amazon unveiled its Delivery Service Partners program through which it aims to attract entrepreneurs who can create their own local delivery networks with up to 40 vans each.

Liberty Global (Nasdaq: LBTYK) is a provider of video, broadband internet, mobile telephone, and land-line telephone services to European customers.The company was founded in 2004 and is based in London, England. The company has been struggling in recent years with the company losing money and sales declining.

  A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that Chinese companies have stopped purchasing U.S. agricultural products in response to U.S. President Trump’s latest  10% tariffs on additional $300 billion of Chinese goods. The department also indicated it would “not rule out” tariffs on newly bought agricultural goods after August 3. Previously, Trump had said that he had secured a large amount of agricultural purchases after meeting with China President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in June.But later, Trump alleged that China is not staying true to the agreement,  and then he announced on Thursday the 10% tariffs on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese imports. China accounted for $5.6 billion in U.S. farm product exports in 2018, according to the U.S. Census.

Cisco announced that it wants to buy business communication company Voicea, to  further strengthen its own collaboration/video-conferencing platform, Webex.  Voicea offers meeting transcription, voice search, and meeting highlights., By acquiring Voicea, Cisco hopes to add those functionalities to its Webex platform, especially in a way that bolsters Artificial Intelligence-driven, Cognitive Collaboration across an entire portfolio of products/services.Voicea’s technology could potentially help Cisco make meetings more engaging for people/businesses by allowing them to add calls to messaging streams, personalize and access transcribed notes among other features. The company did not provide financial details for the potential acquisition.  WebEx is used by more than 130 million people a month.

Ford Motor Co. shares got a boost in rating and a hike in price target from Morgan Stanley analysts. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas raised his rating on the automaker to 'Overweight' from 'Equalweight" in a client note Tuesday.The collaboration will focus on commercial vehicles and could later expand to electric and self-driving vehicles.

However, the adjusted EPS was just under -1% from the year-ago quarter. Total revenues declined -0.8% to $4.09 billion, but beat analysts' estimates of $3.93 billion. CEO Brent Saunders emphasized that Allergan delivered steady growth in key products including Botox, Vraylar and Ozurdex. Looking ahead, Allergan expects its net non-GAAP revenues of $15.4 billion to $15.6 billion for the full-year 2019, up from $15.1 billion to $15.4 billion.It maintained its forecast of non-GAAP earnings of around $16.55 per share.  In late June, AbbVie announced that it will pay $188.24 each in cash and shares for Allergan's outstanding common stock, representing a 45% premium to the group's closing price on June 24.

Tanger Outlet Centers (NYSE: SKT) is set to announce second quarter earnings results on Wednesday, July 31.The company is expected to earn $0.24 per share on the quarter and that matches the earnings from the second quarter of 2018. The stock has been trending lower for several years now, but the last six months really caught my attention.

Chevron Corp. reported second quarter earnings that edged past analysts’ expectations, even as revenue missed estimates. The energy company’s earnings for the three months ending in June surged around +27.5% year-over-year to $2.27 per share, crushing the Street consensus forecast of $1.78 per share. The company benefited from a $1 billion termination fee it received after Occidental Petroleum bought Anadarko Petroleum with a winning $38 billion bid.The termination fee added $720 million to the quarter’s profit, Chevron said. However, total revenue for the company declined -21% from the year-ago quarter to $36 billion, falling short of analysts' estimates of $40.55 billion. While its U.S. shale production climbed +21% during the quarter, it was offset by sharply lower oil and gas prices.  Chevron’s daily production of oil and gas rose +9.1% to 3.08 million barrels - a record high for the company.  The company indicated that it  expects to buy back $5 billion i

Cloudera shares were climbing on Friday on reports that activist investor Carl Icahn has taken a 12.6% stake in the company. According to regulatory filings, Icahn along with his associated businesses have built up the stake in the data analytics software company on their perception that Cloudera shares were undervalued. Cloudera shares are down more than -36% on the year, following a disappointing revenue forecast in early June and rating downgrades from analysts. 

On Friday, International Business Machines (IBM)  made an update on the earnings impact of its $34 billion acquisition of open-source software firm Red Hat. Information tech giant IBM said the acquisition could potentially reduce non-GAAP operating earnings for the full-year 2019 by $1.10 to "at least" $12.80 per share, compared to the $13.90 per share forecast the company published in its second-quarter earnings report on July 16. However, the company reiterated its 2019 free cash flow estimate of $12 billion.It predicts a "high single-digit" growth rate in overall operating pre-tax income for the 2020-2021 period.  Last month, IBM reported non-GAAP earnings of $3.17 per share which surpassed analysts’ estimates.

Sprint Corp. incurred a fiscal first quarter loss, but that’s what the Street has been expecting.  The telecommunications behemoth’s loss for the three months ending in June came in at -3 cents per share, compared to positive earnings  of 4 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenues from wireless business declined -3% year over year to $5.3 billion.

United States Steel Corp. beat Wall Street's second-quarter earnings and revenue expectations, but reported substantial decline in profit from the year-ago period. The steel producer reported adjusted earnings of 45 cents a share, which surpassed analysts’ expectation of 40 cents a share.However, the earnings-per-share figure marks a large decline from $1.46 a share of the same period last year. Sales came in at $3.5 billion, lower than the year-ago quarter’s $3.6 billion, but still exceeding Wall Street's $3.4 billion forecast.

Pluralsight’s second-quarter billings came in lower than expected, while the company issued guidance below analysts’ forecasts. The online tech education company reported second-quarter loss of -30 cents a share, wider than the year-ago quarter’s loss of -19 cents a share.Adjusted losses came in at -6 cents a share,  compared to analysts’ expectations of adjusted earnings of 14 cents a share. Revenue grew to $75.9 million, from $53.6 million in the year-ago period, and was higher than analysts’ estimate of $73.8 million.  But Pluralsight’s second-quarter billings of $80.6 million came in below the expected $89.1 million. For the third quarter, Pluralsight has projected revenue of $79.5 million to $80 million  - a range lower than the $82.6 million forecasted by analysts. The company expects third-quarter adjusted loss per share of -13 cents to -15 cents per share, compared to the consensus estimate of an -11 cent loss.

Kellogg Co. beat analysts’ expectations on its second quarter sales and earnings. Excluding items, the food manufacturing company earned 99 cents per share, surpassing analysts’ expectations of 92 cents. However, the company’s overall net income plunged -52% year-over-year to $286 million, largely owing to  restructuring and divestment costs and a lower tax rate in the prior-year period.Higher input costs and a strong dollar also weighed on profits. Kellogg’s total net sales increased +3% year-over-year to $3.46 billion, beating the average analyst estimate of $3.41 billion, (based on IBES data from Refinitiv).

The company also got a rating upgrade from analysts at J.P. Morgan.  The cloud technology company’s second-quarter earnings came in at of 20 cents a share, higher than  analysts’ expectation of 12 cents a share.Revenue increased +27% year-over-year to $77.4 million, close to  analysts’ estimates.  What’s more, analysts at J.P. Morgan upgraded Five9 stock to overweight from neutral, while also increasing their price target on the shares to $70 from $59. 

Cirrus Logic beat analysts’ expectations on its fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue, sending its shares soaring on Thursday. The semiconductor company reported adjusted earnings of 35 cents a share, which surpassed analysts’ estimate of 15 cents. Although revenue declined from $254.4 million a year ago to $238.3 million in the quarter, it was still higher than the Street's forecast of $221.9 million.The year-over-year drop in revenue has been attributed by Cirrus to mainly lower sales of portable products shipping in smartphones, along with digital headsets and adapters, which were offset to some extent by increased amplifier sales at Android customers. For the second quarter, Cirrus has projected revenue to range between $300 million and $340 million.

Verizon Communications reported second quarter earnings that topped analysts’ expectations, while raising its outlook for the full-year. The telecommunications giant’s earnings for the three months ending in June increased +2.5% year-over-year to $1.23 per share, which is 3 cents ahead of the Street consensus estimate. Verizon added a net 245,000 telephone subscribers over the quarter, beating the 163,000 estimated (on consensus) by analysts polled by FactSet. Total revenue of $32.1 billion, however, and fell slightly below analysts' forecasts of $32.42 billion.  For the full-year 2019, Verizon is expecting a low single-digit percentage growth rate for adjusted earnings, compared to its prior forecast of flat growth.