Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Gigamon Inc. rose nearly 6% late Thursday after the company said private-equity firm Elliott Management had agreed to buy it for $1.6 billion. After the deal is completed, Gigamon will become a private company, it said. In a separate statement, Gigamon said it earned $2.2 million, or 6 cents a share, in the third quarter, compared with $6.1 million, or 16 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, Gigamon earned $9.5 million, or 23 cents a share, compared with $14 million, or 36 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue fell to $79.2 million, compared with $83.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2016. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of 23 cents a share on sales of $84.7 million.

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Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc. plunged about 12% in late trading Thursday despite reporting nearly twice the profits experts expected, as the company’s revenue forecast for the fourth quarter came in lighter than expected. The search company reported third-quarter net income of $1.2 billion, or $3.62 a share, on revenue of $3.54 billion, up 29% from a year ago. After adjustments for share-based compensation and other effects, the company claimed earnings of $3.89 a share, up more than 160% from a year ago. On average, analysts estimated Baidu would report adjusted earnings of $1.96 a share on sales of $3.56 billion. Baidu’s fourth-quarter forecast called for revenue of $3.34 billion to $3.52 billion, while analysts on average were projecting revenue of $3.76 billion, according to FactSet. Baidu shares dropped to less than $230 in after-hours trading following the release of the report, after closing with a 0.9% decline at $260.62.

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Shares of Deckers Brands fell in Thursday’s extended session after the footwear company said it will no longer seek a sale after failing to find a potential bidder out of some 90 entities it had contacted. However, the company remains open to considering other strategic alternatives to boost stockholder value, said John Gibbons, chairman of the board, in a statement. Deckers also announced a new stock buyback program of up to $335 million on top of the $65 million remaining in its current plan. It separately reported second-quarter earnings of $1.54 a share on revenue of $482.5 million, ahead of the $1.02 a share in earnings and revenue of $438 million forecast by analysts in a FactSet survey. Shares trimmed losses in late trade to slide 0.6% after being down as much as 6% earlier. [Updated with quarterly earnings data.]

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Super Micro Computer Inc. shares dropped in the extended session Thursday after the “green” computing company forecast results that fell below the Wall Street consensus. Super Micro shares dropped 22% to $17 after hours. The company said it expects fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings of 26 cents to 30 cents a share, down from its previous estimate of 30 cents to 40 cents a share. The company narrowed its expected revenue range to $675 million to $685 million, from its previous $625 million to $685 million range. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 34 cents a share on revenue of $652 million. For the second quarter, Super Micro expects revenue of $725 million to $780 million, while analysts expect $749.5 million. The company said it is still conducting an auditing review of its statements and has delayed its annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Shares of Microsoft Corp. gained in Thursday’s extended session after the technology giant posted better-than-expected quarterly results. The company reported its fiscal first-quarter earnings rose to $6.58 billion, or 84 cents a share, from $5.67 billion, or 72 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 12% to $24.5 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had projected earnings of 71 cents a share on revenue of $23.52 billion. The maker of the Windows operating system had announced earlier this year that it will release its quarterly results in generally accepted accounting principles in the new fiscal year, a move that Silicon Valley peers like Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc. are adopting as well. Microsoft shares climbed 0.6% to $79.20, matching an all-time high set on Oct. 24.

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The European Central Bank sees September as an implicit end to its bond-buying program after policymakers didn’t debate options beyond that date, according to a report by Bloomberg News, citing unnamed officials. But one member of the Governing Council had suggested if inflation did not show enough improvement, it could extend the bond-buying after that date, the report said. The ECB announced it would reduce the its monthly asset-buying program to €30 billion ($35.42 billion) in January from €60 billion, but extended the program to September 2018.

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The stocks of companies in the pharmaceutical supply chain dropped in Thursday afternoon trade after a report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that online retailer Amazon has obtained approval to become a wholesale distributor in a number of states. Amazon has received approval in at least 12 states, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Speculation about an Amazon pharmacy entry has swirled since a CNBC report on the subject earlier this year, but Amazon has repeatedly declined to comment on or confirm any interest in pharmacy. Such a move would likely threaten a number of industry players, including drug wholesalers, pharmacy chains and pharmacy-benefit managers, middlemen that negotiate drug prices. Rite Aid Corp. shares dropped 5.6% in Thursday afternoon trade, CVS Health Corp. shares dropped 4.8%, Express Scripts Holding Company shares dropped 3.5%, McKesson Corp. shares dropped 3.4%, AmerisourceBergen Corp. shares dropped 4.4%, Walgreens Boots Alliance shares dropped 3.7% and Cardinal Health Inc. shares dropped 2.5%, compared with a 0.2% rise in the S&P 500 . Many of the stocks have plunged in the last several months on concerns about Amazon.

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Oil prices climbed Thursday, erasing a decline from a day earlier to settle back at their highest level since mid-April. Prices continued to find some support from talk of a potential extension to the OPEC-led production cuts, despite data Wednesday showing the first rise in U.S. crude supplies in five weeks. December WTI crude rose 46 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $52.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange–the highest since April 17, according to FactSet data. Prices fell 0.6% Wednesday after settling at a six-month high Tuesday.

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Shares of Stein Mart Inc. slipped 0.4% in afternoon trade Thursday, after the Florida-based discount department store chain it would cut its corporate office workforce by 10%, as part of ongoing cost cutting efforts. The company expects to cuts to save about $10 million in 2018. The job cuts are in addition to previously-announced cost-cutting measures, such as the suspension of the dividend announced in May, lowering inventories by 15% and cutting capital expenditures by $22 million. “While we believe our sales-driving strategies are now taking hold, we are still in a very challenging retail environment,” said Chief Executive Hunt Hawkins. The stock has plunged 78.4% year to date, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has slipped 7.2% and the S&P 500 has gained 14.5%.

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Gold prices dropped Thursday to mark their lowest settlement since early August, pressured by strength in the U.S. dollar, with the ICE U.S. Dollar Index touching its highest level in about three months. The index was up nearly 0.9% at 94.515 as gold prices settled, a level not seen since July. December gold fell $9.40, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,269.60 an ounce, the lowest since Aug. 8, according to FactSet data.

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