Category: Stock Market News

After a difficult few months in which the price of buffalo wings affected finances, Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. seems to have found its way with boneless wings. The restaurant chain announced much better profit than expected in a third-quarter earnings report released Wednesday afternoon, despite revenue coming in a bit short of expectations, after announcing in July a focus on the boneless product that costs less. “The recent Tuesday promotion shift from traditional to boneless wings at company-owned restaurants will continue to improve cost of sales while traditional wing prices remain elevated,” Chief Executive Sally Smith said in Wednesday’s announcement, referring to the chain’s popular half-price wing specials on Tuesday. Buffalo Wild Wings reported net income of $18.7 million, or $1.17 a share, on total sales of $496.7 million, up from $494.2 million a year ago. After adjusting for stock-based compensation and other effects, the company claimed earnings of $1.36 a share. Analysts on average expected adjusted earnings of 79 cents a share on revenue of $501 million. The company also increased its forecast for full-year adjusted earnings to a range of $4.85 to $5.15 a share, after previously guiding to $4.50 to $5 a share. Buffalo Wild Wings stock was halted ahead of the announcement, and were expected to resume trading at 4:25 p.m. Eastern.

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President Donald Trump does not intend to appoint his economic adviser Gary Cohn to lead the Federal Reserve, according to a report by Bloomberg News. The report is based on three people familiar with the matter. The front-runners for the top central bank job are Fed governor Jerome Powell, Stanford University economist John Taylor and current Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen.

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Shares of A.O. Smith Corp. fell 4.4% Wednesday, after Boenning & Scattergood downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform following its 38% gain in the last 12 months. The maker of water and air purification products had another strong quarter with per-share earnings climbing 14% and revenue up 10%, “and the fundamental underpinnings of the story (including consistent growth in both North America and China) are firmly intact,” analyst Ryan Connors wrote in a note. But the stock is now trading at a price/earnings ratio of 25 times his revised (upward) 2018 estimate of revenue growth of 9% and EPS growth of 17%, “a modest premium to the water infrastructure peer group average of 24.2 times,” said Connors. Margins for the company’s rest of the world division, which includes China, where it is expanding to second and third-tier cities, continue to be soft at 40 basis points below the year-earlier period, he wrote. Still, the company is one of the highest-quality names in the water infrastructure space and even in the broader industrial space, he said. Shares have gained 24% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 14%.

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Sears Holding Corp. said Wednesday that it has relaunched its Wish Book, a holiday catalog that was last available in 2011. The 120-page book includes holiday decorations, appliances, toys and more. The digital Wish Book is also available online and on the Sears app. Pricing online will shift to ensure customers get the best deal. Sears says its “best members” will receive the book while select Shop Your Way loyalty members will receive an email invitation to pick up a copy at their local Sears store while supplies last. Sears shares are down nearly 5% in Wednesday trading and down more than 49% for the last year. The S&P 500 index is up 19.3% for the past 12 months.

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Gold prices turned higher by the settlement on Wednesday to tally a modest gain as the U.S. dollar index traded near the session’s lows. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index was down 0.1% at 93.644, near the day’s low of 93.608 as gold prices settled, offering support for dollar-denominated prices of the yellow metal. December gold rose 70 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,279 an ounce. Prices on Tuesday lost 0.2% to settle at $1,278.30–their lowest since Oct. 6.

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Shares of Boeing Co. tumbled $9.77, or 3.7%, in afternoon trade Wednesday, enough to make it the biggest percentage decliner among Dow Jones Industrial Average components, as better-than-expected third-quarter results couldn’t support the recent sharp run up. The percentage decline would be the biggest in 16 months, while the price decline would be the second-biggest in the stock’s history, behind only the $11.43 plunge suffered on Jan. 27, 2016. “After last quarter’s barnstormer, Boeing’s 3Q result is relatively dull,” said analyst Robert Stallard, at Vertical Research Partners. The stock had shot up 9.9% on July 26, after Boeing reported second-quarter earnings that were well above estimates, although revenue came up a bit shy. The stock has been on a tear, soaring 25% over the past three months through Tuesday’s record close of $266. The stock has still run up 64.5% year to date, the best performer this year among Dow components, while the Dow has climbed 17.8%.

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GlaxoSmithKline PLC shares plummeted 6% in extremely heavy midday trade Wednesday on concerns that the company’s interest in Pfizer Inc.’s over-the-counter business could put its dividend at risk. After being asked if she could give investors assurances that the potential deal would carry no dividend risk, Chief Executive Emma Walmsley did not exactly give those assurances. “We know the dividend matters to our investors. We intend and we do pay it now as a function of our free cash flow after investing in the necessary priorities to secure long-term growth for the company,” Walmsley said, according to the FactSet transcript of the company’s third-quarter earnings call, adding, “we confirmed our intentions to pay the dividend in 2017 of 80 pence and again in 2018 and then we will be returning to declaring the dividend quarterly and not giving a more specific outlook beyond that.” When Walmsley was again pressed about the potential Pfizer deal, she said it was “too premature and hypothetical.” “For us, even though we believe pricing (mostly in Respiratory) and competitive concerns (Respiratory and HIV) are largely factored into the stock at current levels, investors remain focused on the safety of the dividend,” said Leerink Partners analyst Seamus Fernandez. GlaxoSmithKline shares have dropped 9.5% over the last three months, compared with a 2.9% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Target Corp. said Wednesday that it has added an augmented reality feature called See It In Your Space to its mobile site to help shoppers searching for home items among the 200 in its Project 62 collection. The feature allows customers to use a photo of their living space to test what an item would look like if it were added. Target introduced 360-degree shopping in May, using computer-generated imagery, or CGI, to show what items would look like in a real space. Target shares are down 1.8% in Wednesday trading, and down 14.3% for the year so far. The S&P 500 index is up 14% for 2017 to date.

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General Electric Co.’s stock fell 1.3% in morning trade Wednesday, which puts it on track for the worst weekly performance in over seven years, in the wake of the industrial conglomerate’s disappointing third-quarter results. The stock, which was headed for the lowest close since April 23 2013, has now tumbled 9.4% so far this week. That would be the worst three-session decline since it plunged 11.7% over the three-day stretch ending Aug. 8, 2011, and the biggest weekly decline since it tumbled 10.5% for the week ending May 7, 2010. GE reported late Friday earnings that missed expectations for the first time in 2 1/2 years. The stock reversed an early selloff to close higher that day, but then fell 6.3% Monday and 1.9% Tuesday. Wednesday’s slide would mark three-straight 1%+ declines since it fell 1.6%, 4.2% and 1.8% over three days ending Jan. 8, 2016. GE’s stock has now tumbled 15% over the past three months and 32% year to date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 8% in three months and 18% this year.

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Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Wednesday showed that domestic crude supplies rose by 900,000 barrels for the week ended Oct. 20. That contradicted the forecast for a decline of 425,000 barrels by analysts surveyed by S&P Global Platts. The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday reported a 519,000-barrel climb. Gasoline stockpiles dropped by 5.5 million barrels for the week, while distillate stockpiles fell 5.2 million barrels, according to the EIA. The S&P Global Platts survey forecast drops of 2.3 million barrels for gasoline and nearly 2.1 million barrels for distillates. December crude was down 11 cents, or 0.2%, from Tuesday to $52.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was trading at $52.22 before the supply data.

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