S&P 500 companies returned a record $1.263 trillion to shareholders last year, according to data published Monday by S&P Dow Jones Indices.The amount is +37% higher compared to 2017.Share buybacks during the quarter were a record $223 billion.
For the full year 2018, Technology sector contributed to nearly a third (and the largest slice) of the S&P 500 buybacks at a total of $278.5 billion.
On the face of it, it may seem like Roku is in competition with Apple, who is likely to introduce smart TVs and other devices in the market which is likely to allow users to stream over-the-top content.But the presence of Roku’s CEO at the event suggests that both the companies are likely to work together to stay ahead of the curve.
According to the WSJ, Apple has been in talks with Roku and other platforms about hosting its TV app and the announcement of this arrangement is likely to happen on Monday.
Shares of Roku have risen ~114% from last year and with this jump, the company added ~$500 million to its market value, making it now worth $7.5 billion.
According to court documents released on Monday, the German pharmaceutical multinational, Bayer AG, and the American pharmaceutical major, Johnson & Johnson, have finally agreed to settle more than 25,000 U.S. lawsuits over their best-selling blood thinner Xarelto, for a total of $775 million.
Although Bayer and J&J are yet to admit liability under the agreement, the settlement resolves all the pending U.S. lawsuits over Xarelto.Plaintiffs accused the companies of failing to sufficiently notify patients on the risk of uncontrolled bleeding.
Bayer had jointly developed Xarelto with J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit, which sells the blood clot preventer under a licensing agreement in the United States.
Xarelto emerged as Bayer’s best-selling drug in 2018 and contributed 3.6 billion euros ($4.07 billion) in revenue to the German group’s pharmaceutical business.
Hostess Brands and Nutella-owner Ferrero are competing to buy Kellogg's Keebler, Famous Amos and fruit snacks businesses, in a deal that could value the brands at roughly $1.5 billion.
In a recent shakeup across the food industry, big food companies are increasingly shedding smaller brands, as they intensify focus on the profit-makers.Taking advantage of such situations, companies like Hostess and Ferrero are placing a bet on these smaller brands as they believe the right strategy can successfully revive these already established brands.
According to sources familiar with the deal, both Hostess and Ferrero have put in their final offers to Kellogg for the cookie and fruit snacks brands.
Viacom had also previously said that it offered options to AT&T to reduce customers’ bills. AT&T had hit back claiming that some of Viacom’s channels were losing popularity, and called it “a serial bad actor” in negotiations with pay-TV companies.
If the dispute hadn’t been resolved, DirecTV customers could have lost access to Viacom channels like Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount."We are pleased to announce a renewed Viacom-AT&T contract that includes continued carriage of Viacom services across multiple AT&T platforms and products," the companies said in a statement Monday.
Viacom shares surged as much as +8% on the news.
Avaya Holdings is reportedly considering a leveraged buyout offer from a private equity firm.
Citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, a Reuters report suggests that the telecommunications equipment and software vendor is being valued at more than $5 billion (including debt) by the private equity company.However, the identity of the potential acquirer has not been learned by Reuters yet, and the sources claimed that there is no guarantee that the proposed offer would actually translate into an actual acquisition.
Avaya emerged from bankruptcy protection around 15 months ago.
Tyson Foods is recalling over 69,000 pounds of its ready-to-eat chicken strips after two consumers complained of finding metal in their meals, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.Read More...
American Airlines is cancelling 90 flights per day through April 24 as a result of the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft.
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The company’s same-store sales grew +3.8% year-over-year, beating analysts’ expectations of a flattish growth.
President and CEO Jeff Rosenthal pointed out that Hibbett’s digital sales surged +60% to account for 10.6% of the company’s total sales in the fourth quarter.Rosenthal cited “significant progress on our strategic initiatives along with compelling assortments from our key vendors" as key factors that bolstered the firm’s latest performance.
The analysts now expect Tesla to deliver 47,500 Model 3s this quarter, compared to their previous forecast of 55,000.
Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne seems skeptical on the U.S. market for Tesla cars, and anticipates the demand to decline until Tesla introduces a planned $35,000 version of the Model 3 in the second quarter.The analyst also mentioned that Tesla’s product price changes and the resulting pressure on margins have been incorporated in Cowen’s latest price targets on Tesla stock.
According to Cowen’s analysis, most of Tesla's first-quarter deliveries (22,000) is expected to come from the U.S. Additionally, China would probably deliver 10,000, Norway would supply 5,300, and the rest of Europe (outside of Norway) would account for 5,850 deliveries, according to the Cowen analysts’ forecasts.
Detroit based automobile manufacturer, General Motors, on Friday announced that it would make investments worth $300 million at its Orion Assembly Plant in Michigan, and is likely to add 400 jobs to build a new electric vehicle.
According to the GM CEO, Mary Barra, the new vehicle which will bear GM’s Chevrolet brand would be produced at its Orion plant outside Detroit.It was slated to be produced outside of the U.S. initially.
The $300 million investment comes as a part of the GM's pledge to invest a total of $1.8 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations, which would create 700 new jobs and would support 28,000 jobs across six states.
According to the company, the reason for shifting the production of the new car to the U.S. is that it would require an advanced version of the platform used in the current Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle, which the Orion plant currently builds.
The company also warned that revenue growth could slow during the fourth and current quarter.
The shares of the sneaker giant closed on Thursday at record high of $88.01, after climbing more than 32% over the past 12 months.
Andy Campion, Oregon-based Nike’s CFO, told analysts on Thursday evening that it expects sales during its fiscal fourth quarter will be up a high-single-digit rate, on a constant currency basis.But currency headwinds are expected to reduce that growth by about 6 percentage points, therefore resulting in low-single-digit gains compared with a year ago.
For the quarter ending on February 28, the company reported an EPS of $0.68 versus an EPS estimate of $0.65.
U.S.home sales rose 11.8% in February, aided by accelerating wages and falling mortgage rates that are improving affordability.
The National Association of Realtors said that existing homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.51 million last month, a decisively sharp rebound from a pace of 4.94 million in January. Still, existing-home sales are down 1.8% from a year ago because of the severity of last year's slowdown.
The Boeing 737 trouble doesn’t seem to be ending, as Indonesia’s national airline handed Boeing its first official order cancelation following two deadly crashes in recent months.
Indonesian airline, Garuda, on Friday publicly announced it has told Boeing that it wishes to cancel its multibillion-dollar order for Boeing's 737 Max 8 passenger jet, citing that its passengers had lost confidence in the model after two deadly crashes in five months.
According to Garuda, it already sent a letter to Boeing on March 14, seeking to cancel the pending delivery of its 2014 order of 50 planes, of which just one had been delivered so far.
Estimated to be worth $4.9 billion, the cancelled order is the latest blow to Boeing over the 737 Max - its bestselling passenger jet.
The plane has been grounded by many authorities across different countries like U.S., Europe, China and Indonesia, but it's the first airline to say it's canceling a 737 Max 8 order.
Garuda spokesperson Ik
After what was a tepid year last year, the U.S. housing market started building up strength in 2019.
According to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Survey, the average U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage slipped to the lowest level in a year to 4.28% for the week ended Mar 21 from 4.31% recorded a week ago.It was also lower than the year-ago 4.45%.
The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.71%, down five basis points from 3.76% in the week earlier, while the five-year adjustable-rate mortgage was nearly flat at 3.84%.
Despite all the back and forth between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping’s negotiating teams, the U.S. and China will ultimately come to a trade agreement, according to one investor.READ MORE...
Brazilian stocks fell sharply on Friday as the arrest of the country’s former president, Michel Temer, sparked worries that government debate over key fiscal reforms may be delayed.READ MORE...
Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc.announced that it has initiated the dosing in a phase II study on netarsudil ophthalmic solution in Japan for reducing elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension.
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One of the things that attending Nvidia's (NVDA - Get Report) annual developer conference drives home is the extent to which Nvidia is now a software company as much as it is a graphics chip developer.
And from the perspective of the head of Nvidia's server GPU business, this end-to-end approach to product development -- one that encompasses developing GPUs and hardware, creating software tools and libraries that work with those GPUs and working with third-party developers on software that can effectively leverage those GPUs and tools/libraries -- has become a vital competitive strength.READ MORE...
Nike’s domestic business apparently continues to feel pressure from rival companies like Under Armour, Adidas and Vans.
Growth in international sales fared better.Sales grew +14% in Asia Pacific and Latin America.
According to Nike, its revenue from Converse shoes declined -2% year-over-year to $463 million, largely due to softening sales in the U.S. and Europe.
Nevertheless, the company’s total adjusted earnings of 68 cents per share surpassed analysts’ estimates of 65 cents per share (based on Refinitiv data).