Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Micron Technology Inc. slid 2% Monday, after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to neutral from buy after the stock’s strong gains since February 28. That was the date Goldman added it to its Americas Buy List, a call made at a time when Goldman’s estimates for the company were well above the Street consensus. “Street estimates for FY17/18 have increased by 70% and 72%, respectively, on better memory prices and margins, and while our FY17E EPS estimate is still 5% above the Street, our FY18 EPS estimate is now 23% below,” analyst Mark Delaney wrote in a note. Goldman lowered its price target on the stock to $30 from $32. Delaney said he believes the DRAM upturn is in the mid to late stages and said channel checks suggest it is expected to slow. Shares have gained 26% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 7%.

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PTC Therapeutics Inc. said early Monday that it plans to launch the Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug Emflaza at a price of $35,000 a year and within the coming weeks. The price tag comes in below the controversial $89,000-a-year price set by Emflaza’s previous owner, privately-held Marathon Pharmaceuticals, which faced so much backlash on the drug’s price tag that it delayed Emflaza’s launch. The price tag was especially controversial because the drug is part of a class of corticosteroids used for DMD in other parts of the world and available as cheaply as $1,000 a year. PTC Therapeutics said it believes the new price is “sustainable” and “balances providing access to all eligible patient in the United States in an ultra-orphan population while maintaining sufficient infrastructure and programs, including continued investment in Duchenne,” said Chief Executive Officer Stuart Peltz, according to the FactSet earnings call transcript. “The factors in our decision include a consideration of the resources required to provide access to Emflaza for a small patient population to improve the standard of care and further the Duchenne community’s educational need while enabling continual investment in therapies for rare diseases and providing financial return for our shareholders.” PTC Therapeutics announced its plan to buy Emflaza in mid-March for about $75 million in cash and $65 million in PTC common stock. But it’s possible the new, lower price tag may still prove controversial. “The question is how low is low enough, especially when patients (and now politicians, given all the noise) know that the drug is available overseas for $1,000/year?” RBC Capital Markets analyst Simos Simeonidis said in March. PTC Therapeutics shares were not yet active in pre-market trade on Monday. Shares have declined 7.5% over the last three months, compared with a 4.6% rise in the S&P 500 . An earlier version of this report said Emflaza would launch in the coming week, due to an error in the earnings call’s FactSet transcript.

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The U.S. stock market opened nearly flat on Monday following Emmanuel Macron’s closely watched presidential election victory in France on Sunday. A run-up in global stocks leading up to the polls suggested that investors fully priced in Macron victory. Shares of Coach Inc jumped after news that it will buy Kate Spade . Shares of Kate Spade also rallied. The S&P 500 flat at 2,399, near its record close set on Friday. The Nasdaq Composite was unchanged at 6,099 at the open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average began the session flat at 21,005.

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The U.S. stock market opened nearly flat on Monday following Emmanuel Macron’s closely watched presidential election victory in France on Sunday. A run-up in global stocks leading up to the polls suggested that investors fully priced in Macron victory. Shares of Coach Inc jumped after news that it will buy Kate Spade . Shares of Kate Spade also rallied. The S&P 500 flat at 2,399, near its record close set on Friday. The Nasdaq Composite was unchanged at 6,099 at the open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average began the session flat at 21,005.

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Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. said on Monday it is set to acquire Tribune Media Co. for $3.9 billion, which represents an 8% premium to Tribune shares’ Friday close and roughly a 26% premium to the shares’ close on Feb. 28, or the day before media speculation of a possible deal. Shares of Tribune rose more than 5% in premarket trade following the news. The deal combines two of the largest TV station owners in the U.S. Tribune owns and operates 42 TV stations in 33 markets, along with cable network WGN America and minority stakes in the TV Food Network. “The Tribune stations are highly complementary to Sinclair’s existing footprint,” said Sinclair Chief Executive Chris Ripley in a statement. He went on to say the acquisition will allow the company to build out its next generation broadcast platform, scale emerging networks and national sales, and integrate content verticals. Sinclair may have to sell stations in markets where it currently owns stations, in order to comply with ownership requirements and antitrust regulations set by the Federal Communications Commission, the company said. Shares of Sinclair were inactive in premarket trade, but have gained nearly 11% in the year to date, while Tribune is up more than 15%. By comparison, the S&P 500 index is up 7% in the year.

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Newell Brands Inc. shares jumped 9.5% in Monday premarket trading after the company reported first-quarter earnings that beat expectations, and raised both its guidance and dividend. Net income was $638.5 million, or $1.31 per share, up from $40.5 million, or 15 cents per share for the same period last year. Earnings benefited from the sale of the company’s tools business and cost synergies from the acquisition of Jarden and other contributions. Adjusted earnings were 34 cents, beating the 29-cent FactSet consensus. Sales were $3.27 billion, up from $1.31 billion last year, and ahead of the $3.21 billion FactSet consensus. Newell raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $3.00 to $3.20 from $2.95 to $3.15. It reaffirmed it full-year sales guidance of $14.52 billion to $14.72 billion. The FactSet consensus is for adjusted EPS of $3.05 and sales of $14.71 billion. Newell also raised its dividend by 4 cents to 23 cents per share. Newell shares are up nearly 4% for the year so far while the S&P 500 index is up 7.2% for the period.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The Federal Reserve’s benchmark federal funds rate is close to where a famous mathematical rule recommends it should be, said St. Louis Fed President James Bullard on Monday. “The policy rate is approximately at an appropriate setting today,” Bullard said, at a banking conference sponsored by the Atlanta Fed. The St. Louis Fed president said his analysis suggests a rule, based on research by Stanford University economist John Taylor, suggests the fed funds rate should be either 67 basis points or 155 basis points. The actual current policy rate is about 88 basis points. Bullard is not a voting member of the Fed policy committee this year. Bullard has previously said he didn’t think the central bank needed to raise rates much more over the next few years. He does favor allowing the balance sheet to shrink.

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Food services company Sysco Corp. said Monday it had net income of $275.9 million, or 44 cents a share, in its fiscal third quarter to March 26, up from $217.1 million, or 38 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted per-share earnings came to 51 cents, matching the FactSet consensus. Sales rose to $13.5 billion from $12.0 billion, ahead of the FactSet consensus of $13.1 billion. Sales were boosted by strength in the company’s international food service operations, where they rose to $2.5 billion from $1.3 billion. Shares were slightly higher in premarket trade, but are down 0.1% in 2017 through Friday’s close, while the S&P 500 has gained 7%.

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Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc. said Monday morning that the two cable providers have entered into an agreement to to work together to better compete in an intensifying wireless marketplace, confirming an earlier report from The Wall Street Journal. The agreement, which comes after Comcast said last month it was launching a new Xfinity Mobile cell phone service, will see the two work solely with one another for a year. “By working with the team at Comcast, we can not only speed Charter’s entry into the marketplace, it will also enable us to provide more competition and drive costs down for consumers at a similar national scale as current wireless operators,” said Charter Chief Executive Tom Rutledge in a statement. Both Comcast’s and Charter’s stock were inactive in premarket trade, but shares of Comcast have gained 13% in the year to date, while Charter’s have increased more than 16%. By comparison, the S&P 500 index has gained more than 7% in the year.

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Brink’s Co. said Monday that it has increased its quarterly dividend 50% to 15 cents a share from 10 cents a share. The new dividend will be payable June 1 to shareholders of record on May 18. The security and cash-in-transit service provider said it authorized a $200 million stock repurchase program that expires on Dec. 31, 2019. Based on Friday’s stock closing price of $61.20, the new dividend would imply an annual dividend yield of 0.98%, compared with the estimated S&P 500 dividend yield of 2.01%, according to FactSet. The buyback would allow the repurchase of of about 3.27 million shares, or about 6.5% of the shares outstanding. “The dividend increase and the share repurchase program reflect our commitment to increasing shareholder value and our confidence in the recently disclosed strategic plan, which targets a 70 percent increase in non-GAAP earnings and a 50 percent increase in cash flow by the end of 2019,” said chief Executive Doug Pertz. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has soared 48% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 7.2%.

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