Category: Stock Market News

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Securities and Exchange Commission is suing the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, for not disclosing the compensation he’s received for promoting a stock. Paxton allegedly raised $840,000 in funds for Servergy Inc. and received 100,000 shares in return while in the Texas House of Representatives without disclosing his commissions. A former Servergy director, Caleb White, settled with the SEC on similar charges. The SEC also announced fraud charges against Servergy Inc. and its founder, William E. Mapp III, for saying in private offerings that its servers could compete with IBM, Dell and Hewlett-Packard without disclosing that the products could not in reality compete. Servery agreed to pay a $200,000 fine while the case against Mapp, who the company cut ties with, continues. Servergy and White neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s charges in their settlements.

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Gold mining stocks surged Monday, helped by a surge in gold prices and an upbeat research note on the sector at RBC Capital. the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF climbed 4.5%, with all 39 of its equity components gaining ground. Shares of Kinross Gold Corp. ran up 8.3%, and was the biggest gainer among North America-based miners, after the company was upgraded to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital, with cited valuation, amid an improving outlook for gold prices. RBC also raised its 2016 gold price forecast to $1,250 an ounce from $1,150 an ounce. Shares of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. rose 4.6%, after the company was upgraded at RBC, while Goldcorp Inc.’s stock gained 3% despite being downgraded at RBC on valuation concerns. Elsewhere, shares of Barrick Gold Corp. advanced 5%, of Newmont Mining Corp. rose 4.5% and of Yamana Gold Inc. rallied 6.1%. Meanwhile, April gold futures jumped 1%.

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U.S. stocks opened higher on Monday, as a recovery in the dollar against the yen helped lift the main indexes. Investors are bracing for the first-quarter earnings season that kicks off with the results from Alcoa Inc. after the market close. The S&P 500 climbed 9 points, or 0.4%, to 2,056. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 71 points, or 0.4%, to 17,646. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite advanced 26 points, or 0.5%, to 4,877 at the open.

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PulteGroup Inc. founder Bill Pulte sent another letter Monday to the home builder’s board, calling for the immediate removal and replacement of Chief Executive Richard Dugas. Pulte said Dugas’ current “value creation strategy” has done the opposite for the company, which has lost over $530 million in the 12 years Dugas has been in charge. “In Richard Dugas’ hands, PulteGroup’s ‘value creation’ means ‘value destruction,'” Pulte’s letter said. Pulte also said Dugas “couldn’t be more wrong” to characterize the disagreement between Pulte and Dugas as a “family squabble,” and said it was not in the best interest of shareholders to allow Dugas to remain as a “lame duck” CEO for another year. Pulte had sent a letter to the board last week calling for Dugas’ immediate removal, after the company said Dugas would retire effective May 2017. The stock, which slipped 0.1% in premarket trade, has tumbled 20% over the past year, compared with a 3.8% decline in the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF and a 2.6% drop in the S&P 500.

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AdvancePierre Foods Holdings Inc., a national food producer and distributor, filed to go public Monday. The company set a placeholder offering amount of $100 million. AdvancePierre Foods reported sales of $1.61 billion in 2015 and $1.58 billion in 2014 and swung to a profit of $37.1 million in 2015 after a loss of $37.9 million in 2014. The company is backed by investment firm Oaktree Capital Group LLC and said the firm would continue to “exert significant influence” on the company after the IPO. The offering is being underwritten by Barclays, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.

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Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. said it’s making the opioid antidote Naloxone available without a prescription in more than 120 pharmacies across Pennsylvania. Naloxone can be used in cases of heroin and other opioid overdoses, and is administered through a nasal spray or injection. Walgreens previously committed to making the antidote available without a prescription in 35 states and Washington D.C., and has since done so in New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Indiana and Ohio. The pharmacy chain will also be installing medication disposal kiosks in more than 500 locations in 40 states, including Pennsylvania, by later this year. They will allow people to rid themselves of unwanted and expired prescriptions. Walgreens shares are inactive in premarket trading, and down 11.6% for the past year. The S&P 500 is down 2.6% for the past 12 months.

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Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. acknowledged Monday that Chief Executive J. Michael Pearson has been subpoenaed by the Senate Committee on Aging, which is investigating price increases in certain prescription drugs. “The board has requested Mr. Pearson’s cooperation in connection with a subpoena for deposition from the Senate Committee on Aging prior to the Committee’s scheduled April 27 hearing,” The company said in a statement. The committee will be examining how Valeant dramatically raised the price of certain life-saving drugs that it acquired. Valeant’s stock, which climbed 2% in premarket trade, has plunged 67% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 has gained 0.2%.

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SiriusXM , the satellite radio service, said Monday that it gained 465,000 net new subscribers in the first quarter of 2016, to reach 30.1 million total subscribers. Self-paying subscribers, or the number of subscribers who don’t get the service as part of a promotion, increased 348,000 to reach 24.6 million. The company will report earnings on April 28. Shares of Sirius were up 0.5% in pre-market trade Monday.

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Shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. tumbled 6.2% in premarket trade Monday, after the car rental company warned that first-quarter U.S. car rental revenue and adjusted earnings per share would be below previous expectations. U.S. rental car revenue per available car day (RACD) is expected to decline in the range of 2.5% to 3.5% from a year ago, while transaction days are expected to increase in the “low single-digit” range. For the 2016, Hertz now expects total car rental revenue to be flat to down 1.5%, compared with previous guidance of an increase of 1.5% to 2.5%. “We are disappointed that the pricing pressure experienced late in 2015 further intensified in the first quarter of 2016,” said Chief Executive John Tague. The stock has plunged 32% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 has gained 0.2%.

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Restaurant Brands International Inc. was upgraded to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital Markets on an upbeat outlook for Burger King and fresh opportunities for cost cuts at the Tim Horton chain. The price target was raised to $48 from $38. RBC analysts believe Burger King has sales momentum that has carried it through the first quarter, and raised the fast-food chain’s first quarter same-store sales growth estimate to 4% from 2%. “We believe Burger King has weathered the storm of competitive discounting with its own value platforms,” analysts wrote in a note published Monday. “We believe hot dogs also contributed to first quarter growth. Lastly, we believe the company will continue to find efficiences in the Tim Horton’s supply chain–a key source of earnings per share upside versus the street in the second half of 2015.” Restaurant Brands shares are inactive in premarket trading, but down 4.4% for the year so far. The S&P 500 is up 0.2% for the year to date.

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