Category: Stock Market News

Netflix Inc. on Wednesday confirmed that it has ordered a sequel to it’s Dec. 22 fantasy cop ride along original film “Bright.” The sequel will again star Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, and David Ayer will write and direct it. Netflix said that “Bright,” which was widely panned by critics and has a 28% Rotten Tomatoes score, was the company’s highest viewed original film ever on the service in its first week, and one of the platform’s biggest original productions (including sequels, series and additional seasons). The company also said “Bright” is the top movie on Netflix in every country the service is in, with more people overseas watching it than are watching it domestically. The film, costing a reported $90 million to produce, garnered 11 million viewers in its first three days, according to Nielsen measurements, which MarketWatch calculated would be equal to about a $95 million Friday-to-Sunday opening weekend at the box office. Netflix didn’t provide a release date for the “Bright” sequel. Shares of Netflix have gained 59% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 index is up 20% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 25%.

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ANGI Homeservices Inc. shares rose 5.3% in Wednesday trading after the company was upgraded to buy from neutral at MKM Partners due to the opportunity in the home services sector. ANGI Homeservices’ portfolio includes Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor and HomeStars. “The home services sector is one of the largest opportunities still relatively untouched by internet platforms and we think that a digital marketplace will become a primary source of business origination over time,” wrote analyst Rob Sanderson in a note. “If management can deliver on its post-merger targets, we think the company could be worth $13 billion to $16 billion by 2022, a 2.3X to 2.8X increase from current valuation.” The merger with HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List took place in September. ANGI shares up nearly 48% for the last 12 months while the S&P 500 index has rise nearly 20% for the period.

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Skechers USA Inc. global business is “accelerating into 2018” based on checks conducted by Wedbush, which has raised the company’s price target to $45 from $39. Wedbush maintains its outperform stock rating. Analyst Christopher Svezia believes consensus estimates for fiscal 2018 revenue growth are too low, especially for the first half of the year, given the strength across kid’s, men’s and wholesale. “The stronger top line, coupled with a margin story less reliant on SG&A leverage for fiscal 2018 leave us bullish on the shares,” Svezia writes. He also sees further opportunity internationally. Skechers shares are up 1.6% in Wednesday trading, and up 57% for the past year, outpacing the S&P 500 index , which has risen 19.7% for the last 12 months.

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U.S. stocks indexes opened modestly higher on Wednesday, following a fresh round of record closes for the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 index to kick off the new year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average looked to carve out its first record in 2018, up about 30 points, or 0.1%, at 24,856. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index rose 0.2% at 2,700, marking an intraday high, and the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3% at 7,029, adding to the tech-heavy index’s push above the psychologically significant level at 7,000. Wall Street is awaiting further clues from central bankers, with minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting last month set to be released at 2 p.m. Eastern. Investors will pore over the minutes to glean insights about the pace of rate hikes in 2018, which could influence the U.S. dollar and the benchmark 10-year Treasury .

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Roku Inc. said Wednesday that it plans to release a voice assistant and expand its licensing program to additional home entertainment devices for its TV operating system, Roku OS. Roku stock is up 1.3% in premarket trading Wednesday. The new licensing program will allow third-parties to make hardware such as soundbars, smart speakers and other complex multi-room audio systems and let users control them through Roku’s voice assistant and remote, said Roku vice president of product management Mark Ely. Ely said the licensing program will be called Roku Connect and the company does not expect it to materially affect the company’s revenue. In addition, much like the virtual assistants the likes of Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. unit Google have built, Roku also plans to roll out its own version of a virtual helper in the fall of this year called Roku Entertainment Assistant. Focused on “home entertainment” functions, the virtual assistant will allow consumers to launch shows and and play music with voice commands, among other functions, Ely said. The company has not yet announced partnerships with music streaming services such as Pandora Inc. Ely said both the virtual assistant and Connect software would be free for users and rolled out via software updates. Since Roku stock began trading in September it has gained 122%, as the S&P 500 index rose 7.4% during the same period.

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Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. shares rose nearly 3% in premarket trade on Wednesday after the company said it used cash on hand to pay down an additional $300 million in senior secured term loans. Valeant said it has now paid down more than $6.5 billion in debt since the first quarter of 2016, with total debt of about $25.7 billion remaining as of the end of 2017. After a series of accounting and drug pricing scandals in 2015, Valeant has also struggled with a significant debt load. In recent months, the company launched a $750 million private debt offering and a $1 billion offering in the bond market in order to repay term loans due in 2022 and 2020, respectively. The company said in late October that it was on track to pay down more than $5 billion in debt ahead of a previously-stated February 2018 goal. However, the company still has long-term debt maturing in the coming years, through 2024. Valeant shares have surged 51.7% over the last three months, compared with a 6.4% rise in the S&P 500 and a 9.6% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

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JCP Investment Management LLC, BLR Partners LP and Joshua Schechter have issued an open letter to Casey’s General Stores Inc. shareholders recommending that the company explore strategic alternatives, including a sale. Together, the activist shareholders own about $45 million in Casey’s stock. “Casey’s no longer delivers best in class returns as measured by either operating metrics or share price performance,” the letter says, noting that the company has missed earnings targets for the past seven quarters. Casey’s has expanded from operations in nine states to 15 states in recent years. “We believe such rapid expansion coupled with seeming declining returns on invested capital is symptomatic of a company that has been unable to manage growth effectively,” the letter says. The investment groups believe Casey’s shares could be worth from $150 to more than $170 per share to a potential buyer. They are priced at $112.39 in Wednesday premarket trading. Casey’s stock is down 5.5% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 19.4% for the period.

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Sangamo Therapeutics Inc. shares surged 3.4% in premarket trade on Wednesday after news of the company’s $12 million collaboration with Pfizer Inc. on a gene therapy for two neurodegenerative disorders, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Sangamo, which will be responsible for development, will also be eligible for up to $150 million in milestone payments, plus royalties on net sales. Pfizer will handle and pay for further development and commercialization for the program and any resulting products; company shares rose 0.2% in premarket trade. Mutations in a certain gene, C9ORF72, are linked to both ALS and FTLD, resulting in motor neuron deterioration for ALS patients and frontal and temporal lobe neuron deterioration for FTLD patients. Neither disorder currently has a cure. The collaboration will use Sangamo’s zinc finger protein technology, which engineers zinc finger proteins to recognize specific DNA sequences, in the hope of developing a one-time treatment that would “down-regulate expression of the mutant form of the gene,” the companies said. Sangamo shares have surged nearly 5% over the last three months, compared with a 0.8% rise in Pfizer shares, a 6.4% rise in the S&P 5000 and a 9.6% rise in the Dow Jones Industrial Average .

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International Business Machines Corp. shares rose 1.2% in premarket trade Wednesday, after RBC upgraded the stock to outperform from sector perform and said it expects a range of secular and cyclical catalysts to propel the stock higher in 2018. “A return to gross margin stability coupled with revenue growth in 2018 should set-up the stock for a year of outperformance especially considering the depressed valuation,” analysts led by Amit Daryanani wrote in a note. Key levers include the mainframe cycle, which should drive hardware and software sales, currency is expected to become a tailwind and not a headwind in the year, the trend toward hybrid IT spend is expected to improve and the stock’s valuation is attractive-especially given the 3% plus dividend yield. RBC raised its stock price target to $180 from $160. Shares have fallen 8% in the last 12 months, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 25% and the S&P 500 has gained 19%.

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Electric utility Dominion Energy Inc. and Scana Corp. said Wednesday they have reached an agreement to merge in a stock-for-stock deal valued at about $7.9 billion. Including assumption of debt, the deal is valued at about $14.6 billion, the companies said in a statement. The deal calls for benefits for customers of Scana’s South Carolina Electric & Gas Company subsidiary to offset previous and future costs related to the withdrawal of operating licenses for the unfinished V.C. Summer nuclear reactors, which were pulled after the bankruptcy of nuclear vendor Westinghouse. Benefits include a $1.3 billion cash payment within 90 days of the deal closing, equal to about $1,000 for the average residential electric customer. Customers would also get an estimated 5% rate reduction, equal to more than $7 a month. Scana employees would have job protections until 2020. Dominion expects the deal to immediately boost earnings and to close in 2018. Scana shares jumped 23% premarket on the news, while Dominion was not yet active.

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