Category: Stock Market News

Tyson Foods Inc. shares are down nearly 2% in Monday premarket trading after the company reported second-quarter earnings that missed expectations. Net income was $340.0 million, or 92 cents per share, down from $432.0 million, or $1.10 per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted EPS was $1.01, below the $1.02 FactSet consensus. Sales for the quarter totaled $9.08 billion, down from $9.17 billion last year, but ahead of the $9.07 billion FactSet consensus. The beef and pork segments generated “tremendous” operating income, the company said in a statement. But the prepared foods segment was hurt by ongoing challenges with the pizza toppings and ingredients meats business. Tyson expects full-year adjusted EPS of $4.90 to $5.05. The FactSet consensus is $5.00. Tyson shares are down nearly 6% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 16.6% for the period.

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Horizon Pharma Plc shares tumbled 16% in premarket trade Monday, after the company reported a wider loss for the first quarter and said it’s buying River Vision Development Corp. for $145 million in upfront payments. Horizon said it had a net loss of $90.6 million, or a loss of 56 cents a share, in the quarter, wider than the $45.4 million loss, or 28 cents a share, posted in the year-earlier period. Adjusted per-share earnings came to 21 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 23 cents. Sales rose to $220.9 million from $204.7 million, also below the FactSet consensus of $248 million. “We generated strong first-quarter performance in our orphan and rheumatology business units, with KRYSTEXXA and RAVICTI achieving record net sales; however, our primary care business unit performed well below our expectations,” Chief Executive Timothy P. Walbert said in a statement. “The lower primary care business unit results were related to the implementation of the contracting model with pharmacy benefit managers, which has not performed in accordance with our expectations.” The company said it is buying River Vision Development Corp. and its Teprotumumab, a biologic in late-stage development for a rare eye disease. It raised its full-year sales guidance to $1.000 billion to $1.035 billion. Shares have gained 3.7% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 7%.

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OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares plummeted 16.9% in premarket trade on Monday after the company reported a mid-stage clinical trial miss in non-small cell lung cancer and a first-quarter revenue miss. The drug, demcizumab, was being tested as a combination treatment but didn’t meet its efficacy endpoints compared with the placebo, with patients on the placebo demonstrating better results, the company said. As a result, the company is discontinuing patient dosing in demcizumab trials, which also includes an early-stage clinical trial, and will review the program with its partner Celgene . The company reported a first quarter loss of $22.6 million, or a 61 cent per share loss, compared with a loss of $27.2 million, or a 90 cent per share loss, in the year-earlier period. The FactSet earnings-per-share consensus was a loss of 63 cents. Revenue declined to $6.2 million from $6.4 million, compared with the FactSet consensus of $8.1 million. The discontinued demcizumab program appears to add to OncoMed’s recent woes, with the company deciding to discontinue two drug programs in mid-April after disappointing clinical trial results, and reporting that Bayer wouldn’t be using its option to license two of the company’s cancer drugs. OncoMed shares have declined 54.8% over the last three months, compared with a 4.6% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Amazon Inc. may be the one that got away from legendary investor Warren Buffett–at least for now. The Oracle of Omaha said Amazon’s shares “always looked expensive,” and that he underestimated the ecommerce and cloud-computing behemoth–which boasts a market value of $446 billion, second only to Apple Inc. at $781 billion–potential dominance. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is the world’s third richest man, behind Microsoft Corp. founder and Buffett chum Bill Gates and Spanish billionaire Amancio Orega, according to Bloomberg’s index of the wealthiest people in the world. On Saturday, during Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s annual shareholder meeting, Buffett said he “didn’t think [Bezos would] be where he is today when I looked at [Amazon]” years ago. Buffett told CNBC on Friday that Bezos’s success has surprised him. “I’ve never seen a guy succeed in two businesses almost simultaneously that are really quite divergent in terms of customers and all the operations,” he said, referring to the company’s retail business and its cloud-computing operation. Shares of Amazon have climbed roughly 25% year to date, compared with 7.1% for the S&P 500 Index over the same period. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 6.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index has enjoyed a 13.3% in 2017, so far. Amazon’s performance has even outstripped the exchange-traded Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF , which is up 13.7% so far. As far as expenses go, Amazon is rich relative to the broad market, it has a price-to-earnings ratio, one popular measure of value, of 175 times, compared with a P/E of roughly 18 times for the S&P 500., according to FactSet.

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From:: Stock Market News

Warren Buffett says owning an index fund is better than owning shares in his own company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. At least, that’s the advice he is offering his wife, in the event of his death. Buffett is a champion of index funds, which track a benchmark like the S&P 500 index or the Dow Jones Industrial Average , and thinks that owning an index fund is less stressful than owning a single investment, like Berkshire. “The important thing is that she never worries about money the rest of her life,” he said at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday. The 86-year-old Sage of Omaha is married to Astrid Menks, with whom he was married in 2006. Buffett’s longtime partner Charlie Munger said he’d rather own Berkshire shares, for his part. So far this year, Berkshire’s Class B shares, most commonly owned by investors, are up 2.2%, but the S&P 500 has returned 7.2%, while the Dow is up 6.3%, according to FactSet data. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index boasts a year-to-date return of 13.3%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Prominent investor Warren Buffett said Wells Fargo’s incentive system was the San Francisco bank’s biggest error, which led to an embarrassing scandal that led to the resignation of former CEO John Stumpf and sullied the bank’s image as a poster child for good banks. The mistake they made but “one one that dwarfs all…but you have to be very careful what you incentivize. You can’t incentivize bad behavior,” Buffett said at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Neb. on Saturday. Last year, Wells Fargo paid $185 million to settle allegations, without admitting or denying wrongdoing, of”widespread illegal” sales-practice, where its employees created accounts without the knowledge of its customers–at times creating fake accounts–in order to meet sales goals. Wells Fargo, now run by CEO Tim Sloan, has lagged behind its banking peers following the scandal that has resulted in the clawback of pay from its employees. Buffett also said the bank didn’t move swiftly enough when signs of the fake-account problem first surfaced: “It was bad enough having a bad system,” he said. “But they didn’t act.” Wells Fargo is Buffett’s largest investment. Wells Fargo spokesman Mark Folk said: “We agree with Mr. Buffett’s comments and value Berkshire Hathaway as a long-term shareholder and customer.” Folk said the bank has taken strides to fix the problems, make things right for customers. Those include eliminating product-sales goals in its retail division and implementing a new performance-management-and-rewards program, among other changes. The bank’s shares are trading flat year to date, compared with a gain over the same period of 2.5% in the exchange-traded Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF , which tracks the broad financial market. The S&P 500 index is up 7.2% so far in 2017, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 6.3% over the same period.

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From:: Stock Market News

Warren Buffett said he was wrong about his investment in International Business Machines Corp., reiterating earlier comments that he has made before about the computing giant. “I was wrong,” Buffett told an audience at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday. The star investor’s remarks provided a rare mea culpa and follow his announcement on Thursday that he unloaded a third of his stake in Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM . Buffett owned about 81 million shares of IBM at the and of 2016, but dumped about 30 million shares so far this year, he told CNBC last week. Buffett said he lost confidence in the investment. IBM shares fell 3.3% last week, shedding about 3.5 billion in its market value, which stands at $145.669 billion, according to FactSet data. So far this year, IBM’s shares are down 6.6%, compared with a gain of 7.2% for the S&P 500 index year to date, a 6.3% rise for the Dow Jones Industrial Average , and a 13.3% climb for the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index . Buffett and his longtime investment partner Charlie Munger at the meeting also lamented missed opportunities in tech giants like Amazon Inc. , and Google-parent Alphabet Inc. . Buffett also is an investor in Apple Inc. , the largest company by market value in the world.

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From:: Stock Market News

Billionaire Warren Buffett doled out praise for investment icon Jack Bogle at his annual meeting, saying the pioneering champion of index investing has left “tens of billions” in the pockets of investors over the years. “Jack Bogle has done more for the American investor than any man in the country,” Buffett said at Berkshire Hathaway Inc. annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday. Bogle, who turns 88 on Monday, is the founder of the Malvern, Pa.-based Vanguard Group, the world’s largest provider of mutual funds, boasting $4 trillion in global assets. Index investing, or funds that track a benchmark, like the S&P 500 index or the Dow Jones Industrial Average , has been credited with lowering the costs of investing for average folks. Bogle was in attendance at the annual meeting and was applauded after Buffett’s plaudits. Buffett has been an unabashed proponent of index funds, which have ballooned in popularity, compared with picking stocks, or active management, which has underperformed in recent years.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News

Warren Buffett says owning an index fund is better than owning shares in his own company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. At least, that’s the advice he is offering his wife, in the event of his death. Buffett is a champion of index funds, which track a benchmark like the S&P 500 index or the Dow Jones Industrial Average , and thinks that owning an index fund is less stressful than owning a single investment, like Berkshire. “The important thing is that she never worries about money the rest of her life,” he said at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday. The 86-year-old Sage of Omaha is married to Astrid Menks, with whom he was married in 2006. Buffett’s longtime partner Charlie Munger said he’d rather own Berkshire shares, for his part. So far this year, Berkshire’s Class B shares, most commonly owned by investors, are up 2.2%, but the S&P 500 has returned 7.2%, while the Dow is up 6.3%, according to FactSet data. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index boasts a year-to-date return of 13.3%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News

Prominent investor Warren Buffett said Wells Fargo’s incentive system was the San Francisco bank’s biggest error, which led to an embarrassing scandal that led to the resignation of former CEO John Stumpf and sullied the bank’s image as a poster child for good banks. The mistake they made but “one one that dwarfs all…but you have to be very careful what you incentivize. You can’t incentivize bad behavior,” Buffett said at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Neb. on Saturday. Last year, Wells Fargo paid $185 million to settle allegations, without admitting ore denying wrongdoing, related to “widespread illegal” sales-practice issues, where its employees created accounts without the knowledge of its customers–at times creating fake accounts–in order to meet sales goals. Wells Fargo, now run by CEO Tim Sloan, has lagged behind its banking peers following the scandal that has resulted in the clawback of pay from its employees. Buffett also said the bank didn’t move swiftly enough when signs of the fake-account problem first surfaced: “It was bad enough having a bad system,” he said. “But they didn’t act.” Wells Fargo is Buffett’s largest investment. The bank’s shares are trading flat year to date, compared with a gain over the same period of 2.5% in the exchange-traded Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF , which tracks the broad financial market. The S&P 500 index is up 7.2% so far in 2017, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 6.3% over the same period.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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From:: Stock Market News