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Amazon.com Inc.’s stock price target was raised on Tuesday to $800 from $725 at Deutsche Bank, which cited an increased valuation of the online retailer’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud business. Analyst Ross Sandler’s price target, which is 27% above Monday’s closing price of $628.35, now ties for the highest among the 33 analysts that have provided targets to FactSet. Deutsche Bank called AWS “the growth story of the decade,” as it is nearly seven-times bigger than its next competitor, has nearly 100% share of the start-up ecosystem and is benefiting from the accelerated pace at which Fortune 500 companies are moving software and infrastructure workloads to the public cloud. Sandler said he values the AWS business, by itself, at $300 a share. “From a size standpoint, AWS is the clear market leader in the public cloud space, and appears to be extending its dominant position with new features,” Sandler wrote in a note to clients. The stock, which was little changed in premarket trade, has doubled year to date, while the S&P 500 has ticked up 2.2%.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Freddie Mac , the mortgage buyer under government conservatorship, on Tuesday said it lost $475 million in the third quarter, its first loss in four years, after earning $4.17 billion in the prior-year quarter. Freddie Mac blamed the loss on the mark-to-marking of derivatives as interest rates declined. Freddie Mac’s regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said more losses were a possibility for both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae . “Volatility in interest rates coupled with a capital buffer that will decline to zero in 2018 under the terms of the Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements with Treasury will likely make both Enterprises increasingly susceptible to the possibility of quarterly losses that could result in draws going forward,” said FHFA Director Mel Watt in a statement.

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Aeropostale Inc. , the mall-based apparel retailer, said it signed two licensing agreements that will launch new stores in Thailand and Egypt. The deal with Robinson Department Store Public Company will open about 40 standalone and store-within-a-store locations in Thailand over the next five years. The first store will open in the Robinson Department Store in Sriracha. The agreement with Q and A Retail Company will open approxiamately 40 standalone stores over the next five years in Egypt. The store openings will begin in early 2016. Aeropostale shares are down 71.1% for the year so far. The S&P is up 2.2% for the same period.

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Pershing Square Holdings Ltd. said the hedge fund founded by billionaire investor Bill Ackman suffered a net loss of 7.3% in October. That compares with an 8.3% gain in the S&P 500 Index , which was the index’s best monthly percentage performance in four years. Year to date, Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management has lost 19%, while the S&P 500 has gained 2.2%. Among Pershing’s largest holdings is Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. , which has come under scrutiny following allegations it was using its relationship with specialty pharmacy Philidor to inflate revenue. Valeant’s stock plunged 47% in October, and had lost 22% year to date through Oct. 30. The latest filings showed that Pershing held 19.47 million Valeant shares as of June 30. In late October, Pershing indicated that it increased its Valeant holdings by two million shares.

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Kellogg Co. said it had net income of $205 million, or 58 cents per share, in the third quarter, down from $224 million, or 62 cents, for the same period last year. Adjusted earnings per share were 85 cents versus FactSet consensus of 84 cents. Sales for the quarter totaled $3.3 billion, down from $3.6 billion the year. The FactSet sales consensus was $3.42 billion. Kellogg is increasing its 2015 operating cash flow guidance after capital expenditure to $1.1 billion, which the company said is due to better-than-expected results from working-capital initiatives. The company also maintained its previous 2015 guidance for currency-neutral comparable sales, operating profit, and earnings per share. Kellogg shares are down 3.3% in pre-market trading, but up 6.9% for the past three months. The S&P is down 0.3% for the past three months.

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Red Hat Inc. was upgraded to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank on Tuesday, as the software company begins to benefit from its partnership with Amazon Web Services . Analyst Karl Keirstead raised his 12-month price target on the stock to $90 from $75, which implies a 12% increase from Monday’s closing price. Keirstead pointed to the ramp of Red Hat’s $100 million cloud subscription revenue stream, which AWS contributes almost half to, for the upgrade. He said he views Red Hat, which offers a combined cloud computing solution with Amazon targeted at the enterprise market, as one of the “winners” in the AWS success story. Shares of Red Hat climbed 1.1% in premarket trade, putting the stock on track to open around $81.06. Its shares have risen 2.4% over the last three months, compared with a 0.3% increase for the S&P 500.

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Office Depot reported on Tuesday third-quarter earnings that fell to $6 million, or 1 cent a share, from $29 million, or 5 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, such as costs related to the OfficeMax merger and pending acquisition of Staples, the office supply retailer said adjusted earnings per share came to 16 cents, matching the FactSet consensus. Sales fell to $3.69 billion from $4.07 billion, just shy of the FactSet consensus of $3.72 billion, as slightly better-than-expected North American retail sales were offset by weakness in international sales. The company said it still expects full-year 2015 sales “to be lower” than 2014. It increased the number of expected 2015 store closures to 180 from 175, but lowered its outlook for 2016 store closures to “more than 50” from “at least 60.” The stock, which fell 2.8% in premarket trade, has dropped 13% year to date through Monday, while the S&P 500 has tacked on 2.2%. (This replaces an earlier item that incorrectly identified the company reporting results)

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American Express and Airbnb announced a partnership Tuesday that will allow card members to create a log in with their American Express credentials and add an extra layer of verification. With the partnership, card holders can use Membership Rewards points to book the accommodation. The card will also give members another way to verify their profile, so that hosts and other users will see an American Express badge on their page.

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Sprint Corp.’s stock dropped 4.5% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the telecommunications company reported a wider-than-expected fiscal second-quarter loss, and a surprise decline in sales. For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the loss came to $585 million, or 15 cents a share, compared with a loss of $20 million, or 1 cent a share, in the same period a year ago. The FactSet per-share loss consensus was 7 cents. Revenue slipped to $7.98 billion from $8.03 billion, while the FactSet consensus was for an increase to $8.12 billion. Total net additions were 1.1 million, compared with 590,000 a year ago. The company said it now expects fiscal 2015 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to be at the low end of its previous outlook of $7.2 billion to $7.6 billion. Sprint said it expects further cost reductions in fiscal 2016. The stock had run up 17% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 2.2%.

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Archer Daniels Midland Co. said Tuesday it had net income of $252 million. or 41 cents a share, in the third quarter, down sharply from $747 million, or $1.14 a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted per-share earnings came to 60 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 70 cents. Revenue fell to $16.565 billion from $18.117 billion, and also fell short of the FactSet consensus of $17.676 billion. “Ag Services earnings were limited by lower margins and volumes of North American exports, due to the continued strength of the U.S. dollar and ample global crop supplies, particularly from South America,” Chief Executive Juan Luciano said in a statement. ” “In corn, we continue to confront very weak industry ethanol margins, while sweeteners and starches results remain solid amid tight supplies.” Shares fell 2.8% in premarket trade, and are down 11% in the year so far, while the S&P 500 has gained 2%.

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From:: Stock Market News