Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Newell Brands Inc. tumbled 7.6% in premarket trade Thursday, after the consumer goods company, which brand include Paper Mate, Rubbermaid and Graco, missed third-quarter profit and sales expectations and cut its guidance, while announcing a $1 billion stock buyback program. Net income rose to $234.4 million, or 48 cents a share, from $186.5 million, or 38 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to 86 cents, missing the FactSet consensus of 92 cents. Revenue fell 7.0% to $3.68 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $3.71 billion. “Newell Brands third quarter results were below expectations as our transformation progress was overshadowed by weak late-quarter sales related to retailer inventory rebalancing, primarily in response to decelerating U.S. market growth through the Back-to-School period,” said Chief Executive Michael Polk. The company cut its 2017 adjusted EPS outlook to $2.80 to $2.85 from $3.00 to $3.20 and its revenue outlook to $14.7 billion to $14.8 billion from $14.8 billion to $15.0 billion. Separately, the company extended and expanded its share repurchase program to $1 billion through the end of 2020. The stock has tumbled 22% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.1%.

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Shares of Blue Apron Holdings Inc. rose as much as 7% in premarket trade on Thursday after the company reported better-than-expected revenue for the third quarter. Blue Apron reported a net loss of $87.2 million, or a loss of 47 cents per share for the quarter, compared with a loss of $37.4 million, or 56 cents loss per share for the same period a year ago. FactSet’s consensus was for a 44 cents loss per share. Revenue for the quarter was $210.6 million, up from last year’s $205.5 million, and above FactSet’s $191.0 million consensus. The meal prep delivery service said that the number of customers dropped 6% year-over-year and 9% quarter-over-quarter. Blue Apron said that was due to a planned decrease in marketing spend as it shifts focus to improving operations. “We are now focused on optimizing our operations so that we can drive progress on our product roadmap,” said Chief Executive Matt Salzberg in a statement. Average revenue per customer increased to $245, from $227 a year ago. Shares of Blue Apron have declined nearly 25% in the last three months, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 6% during the same three-month span.

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AutoNation, Inc. on Thursday blamed the recent hurricanes as it reported net income that was lower than a year ago. Net income came to $97.5 million, and per-share earnings were $1.00, compared to $107.3 million and $1.05 per share a year ago. That beat FactSet’s consensus of $84 million and 84 cents per share. Total revenue for the quarter was $5.43 billion, versus $5.57 billion a year ago but below the $5.6 billion forecast by FactSet analysts. Unit same-store sales were 25 higher than a year ago, the company said, but it also noted that Hurricane Irma dented net income by about $8 million after-tax, or 8 cents per share. The company also said it had struck a multi-year agreement with Waymo to collaborate on self-driving car technologies. Shares are 2.2% lower for the year, versus a 15.2% gain for the S&P 500 .

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Lawmaker comments that any corporate tax cut will have to be temporary, at least as written in a current proposed bill, nicked stock futures and helped drag the dollar lower in early trading Thursday. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, has said that the bill he will introduce would not permanently lower the corporate tax rate to 20%. Instead, the cut would be temporary, and that reduction would expire in around eight years, the Washington Post reported, citing a person briefed on the planning who wasn’t authorized to disclose details. Brady said he had to make changes to keep his upcoming bill in line with rules Republicans need to abide by if they hope to pass the measure through the Senate without Democratic support, according to the report. Brady added he hopes to make changes during negotiations with the Senate at some point to make the cuts long-term, but at this time he is unable to propose a permanent cut, the paper said. In citing the market pullback, analysts at GKFX said, “This implies that a tax proposal with a temporary corporate cut will revert back to the original 35% tax rate after a decade. President Trump cited previously that this temporary cut proposal would limit its ability to spur economic growth.” The slump in equities dragged the greenback sharply lower, the analysts noted. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average [S: YMZ7] fell 14 points, or 0.1%, to 23,358, while those for the S&P 500 index gave up 1.80 points, or 0.1%, to 2,573. Futures for the Nasdaq-100 index [S:NQZ7] lost 10.25 points, or 0.2%, to 6,230.25. The S&P 500 and Dow industrials hit intraday records during Wednesday’s session and ended higher, a few points shy of their all-time closing highs.

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Marissa Mayer, the former chief executive of Yahoo Inc., and the current and former CEOs of Equifax Inc. will testify about their respective companies’ massive data breaches next week before a U.S. Senate panel. The Senate Commerce Committee announced late Wednesday that Mayer, who departed in June after Verizon Communications Inc. completed its acquisition of the company, will speak along with Equifax’s interim CEO Paulino Barros, its former CEO, Richard Smith, Verizon’s chief privacy officer, Karen Zacharia, and Entrust Datacard Corp. CEO Todd Wilkinson. “Massive data breaches have touched the vast majority of American consumers,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said in a statement. “When such breaches occur, urgent action is necessary to protect sensitive personal information. This hearing will give the public the opportunity to hear from those in charge.” Yahoo and Equifax were the victims of two of the largest data breaches in history. Equifax announced earlier this year that personal information, including Social Security numbers, of more than 145 million people were exposed. Verizon said earlier this month that a previously disclosed Yahoo hack in 2013 affected every single Yahoo customer — roughly 3 billion accounts.

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Zendesk Inc. shares rose in the extended session Wednesday after the company beat earnings and revenue estimates. Zendesk shares gained 2.9% to $31.50 after hours. The company reported a third-quarter net loss of $27.69 million, or 28 cents a share, compared to a loss of $25.83 million, or 27 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted losses were two cents a share. Revenue rose to $112.78 million from $80.71 million in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated adjusted losses of six cents share on revenue of $109 million. For the fourth quarter, analysts model losses of one cent a share on revenue of $119.5 million. Executives said they expect fourth-quarter sales to range between $118 million and $120 million and operating losses to range between $29 million and $31 million. Zendesk stock has gained 44.4% this year, with the S&P 500 index rising 15%.

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The White House has notified Federal Reserve governor Jerome Powell that President Donald Trump intends to nominate him as the next chairman of the central bank, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, quoting a person familiar with the matter. President Donald Trump and Powell spoke by phone on Tuesday, according to another person, who could not describe what was discussed. White House officials have said Trump will make the formal announcement of a new Fed chair on Thursday.

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MetLife Inc. reported third-quarter adjusted profit and sales that beat expectations, announced a new $2 billion stock repurchase program and said it would divest its remaining Brighthouse Financial Inc. stake, but the stock still fell 1.7% in after-hours trade as it swung to a net loss. The insurer reported a net loss of $87 million, or 8 cents a share, in the quarter to Sept. 30, after net income of $571 million, or 51 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, such as a $1.1 billion in Brighthouse separation-related charges, adjusted earnings per share came to $1.09, above the FactSet consensus of 89 cents. Revenue rose 2% to $16.10 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $15.52 billion, as 9% growth in premiums, fees and other revenue offset a 7% drop in net investment income. The company had about $200,000 remaining in the $3 billion stock buyback program announced in 2016. Regarding Brighthouse, MetLife is the largest shareholder, with about 23 million shares, 19% of the shares outstanding. At Brighthouse’s stock closing price of $62.05 on Wednesday, the stake would be worth about $1.43 billion. MetLife’s stock has rallied 8.5% over the past three months, while the SPDR S&P Insurance ETF has tacked on 0.2% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.2%.

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L Brands Inc. , whose portfolio of brands includes Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, saw shares soar 9% in Wednesday after-hours trading after it reported revenue and same-store sales growth for the month of October. The company had October sales of $794.1 million, up from $756.7 million for the four-week period last year. Same-store sales increased 2% for the four weeks ending Oct. 28. Same-store sales were hurt by about one percentage point by Victoria’s Secret’s exit from the swim category, and declined about two percentage points due to the brand’s exit from the apparel category. L Brands expects third-quarter earnings on the high end of its prior guidance for earnings of 25-to-30 cents per share. It reiterated its full-year guidance for EPS of $3.00 to $3.20. The third-quarter FactSet estimate is for EPS of 29 cents, and full-year EPS of $3.11. L Brands will announce third-quarter earnings on Nov. 16. L Brands shares are down 33.8% for the year so far while the S&P 500 index is up 15.2% for the period.

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Gold futures settled with a gain on Wednesday, then moved even higher in electronic trading as the U.S. dollar held onto a slight rise in the wake of the Federal Reserve monetary policy statement. The central bank held interest rates steady but left the door open for a rate hike at its meeting in December. December gold rose $6.80, or 0.5%, to settle at $1,277.30 an ounce, marking its third gain in four sessions. In electronic trading after the Fed statement, prices traded at $1,278.60.

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