Category: Stock Market News

Charter Communications Inc. shares fell more than 5% on light volume in premarket trade on Tuesday after the company reported profit for the first quarter that came in below expectations. Net income for the quarter was $155 million, or 57 cents per share, after reporting a net loss of $188 million, or $1.86 per share during the same period a year ago. Analysts tracked by FactSet expected per share earnings to come in at 91 cents per share. Revenue hit $10.2 billion during the quarter, compared with $2.5 billion in the year earlier period. The revenue increase is a result of Charter’s acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Communications FactSet expected revenue to hit $10.3 billion. Charter reported losing 100,000 video subscribers, while overall customer relationships increased by 365,000. Shares of Charter have gained more than 19%, while the S&P 500 index has gained nearly 7% in the same period.

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Shares of ConocoPhillips were indicated down about 3% in premarket trade Tuesday after the oil and gas company reported a surprise adjusted loss. The company swung to a first-quarter net profit of $800 million, or 62 cents a share, from a loss of $1.5 billion, or $1.18 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, the per-share loss was 2 cents, compared with the FactSet consensus for a per-share profit of 2 cents. Production increased 2% to 1.584 billion barrels of oil equivalent per day, and said it expects second-quarter production of 1.495 to 1.535 BOED. The stock has lost 5.3% year to date through Monday, while the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF has tumbled 10% and the S&P 500 has gained 6.7%.

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CVS Health Corp. reported first-quarter net income of $953.0 million, or 92 cents per share, down from $1.15 billion, or $1.04 per share, for the same period last year. Adjusted EPS was $1.17, beating the $1.10 FactSet consensus. Revenue was $44.5 billion, up from $43.2 billion, and ahead of the $44.2 billion FactSet consensus. Revenue in pharmacy services was up 8.5% to $31.2 billion driven by claim volume, brand inflation and growth in specialty pharmacy. Pharmacy same-store sales fell 4.7%, impacted by about 480 basis points due to generic introductions and about 460 basis points by previously-discussed marketplace changes. Retail revenue was down 3.8% to $19.3 billion, driven largely by a 4.7% decline in same-store sales, reimbursement pressure and an increase in generic reimbursement rate. CVS confirmed its full-year EPS guidance of $5.02 to $5.18 and adjusted EPS of $5.77 to $5.93. It introduced second-quarter guidance of EPS of $1.15 to $1.19 and adjusted EPS of $1.29 to $1.33. CVS shares slipped 0.4% in Tuesday premarket trading and are down 19.2% for the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 14.7% for the last 12 months.

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Altria Group Inc. shares fell 1% in premarket trade Tuesday after the company missed first-quarter earnings expectations. It reported net income of $1.4 billion, or 72 cents per share, up from $1.2 billion, or 62 cents per share, in the year-earlier period. It reported adjusted earnings per share of 73 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 74 cents. Revenue was $6.08 billion, up from $6.07 billion in the year-earlier period, but below the FactSet consensus of $6.18 billion. It reaffirmed its full-year guidance of adjusted earnings per share between $3.26 and $3.32. The FactSet consensus for the full year was $3.30. Shares of Altria have fallen 1% in the past three months, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 5%.

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Archer Daniels Midland Co. reported first-quarter profit and revenue misses early Tuesday. Earnings for the latest quarter rose to $339 million, or 59 cents per share, from $230 million, or 39 cents per share in the year-earlier period. Adjusted earnings-per-share were 60 cents, compared with the FactSet consensus of 62 cents. Revenue rose to $14.99 million from $14.38 million, compared with the FactSet consensus of $15.10 million. Archer Daniels shares rose 4.0% over the last three months, compared with a 4.7% rise in the S&P 500 .

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IAC Corp. late Monday confirmed it entered a deal to buy Angie’s List Inc. for $8.50 a share, valuing Angie’s List at around $505 million, and said it will combine Angie’s List with its HomeAdvisor site to form a new publicly traded company to be called ANGI Homeservices Inc. The business will maintain both Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor brands, said IAC, the company behind sites such as Investopedia and Vimeo. The deal has been approved by the companies’ boards and it is expected to close in the fourth quarter, it said in a statement. It’s the 10th publicly traded company to emerge from IAC, and the company will own 87% to 90% of the equity value of the newly created company. HomeAdvisor Chief Executive Chris Terrill will lead ANGI Homeservices, and the new company’s headquarters will remain in HomeAdvisor’s Golden, Colo. Angie’s List co-founder Angie Hicks is expected to join the board of directors of the new company. Management expects $100 million to $250 million in synergies, IAC said. Angie’s List shares rose more than 40% in late trading, while IAC shares were up 1%. Angie’s List stock has traded as low as $5.22 in the past year. It priced its initial public offering at $13 in November 2011. The company said last year it was looking for a buyer, and in the fall of 2015 rejected an unsolicited buyout from IAC that valued the company around $512 million.

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Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares dropped in the extended session Monday after the tiny biotech said it pulled a European marketing application for a leukemia treatment. Shares of South San Francisco, Calif.-based Sunesis fell 18% to $3 in after-hours trading. The company said recent interactions with the European Medicine Agency suggested that the regulatory body was likely to adopt a negative opinion of the drug vosaroxin for the treatment of a type of leukemia in patients who were 60 years or older. Sunesis said it was reducing resources for its leukemia research and shifting them to other areas.

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Cisco Systems Inc. announced Monday that it has reached an agreement to purchase software-defined-networking startup Viptela Inc. for $610 million in cash and assumed stock awards. Viptela’s software allows for cloud-based management of networks spread over large areas or multiple sites, known as wide-area networks. Cisco has been focused on adding software offerings in order to diversify away from the networking-equipment business in which it is the biggest seller but struggling to grow revenues. “Together, Cisco and Viptela will be able to deliver next-generation SD-WAN solutions to best serve all size and scale of customer needs, while accelerating Cisco’s transition to a recurring, software-based business model,” Rob Salvagno, Cisco’s lead executive for M&A, said in a blog post Monday. Viptela is the first acquisition Cisco has announced since a $3.7 billion deal for AppDynamics in January that kept that startup from going public at a valuation of roughly half the price tag Cisco paid. Cisco seemingly got more of a deal on Viptela: The company was reportedly valued at $875 million in a funding round just a year ago, part of $110 million Viptela has raised from private investors. Cisco shares were quiet in late trading after the announcement Monday, but are up 12.4% so far this year, easily outpacing the 6.5% increase for the S&P 500 index.

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Shares of Angie’s List Inc. rallied late Monday after The Wall Street Journal reported that IAC Corp. is planning to buy the online referral marketplace for home improvement and other services. According to the report, which cited people familiar with the matter, IAC would combine Angie’s List with its HomeAdvisor site and form a new publicly traded company. IAC would pay $8.50 a share, or more than $500 million, for Angie’s List. Angie’s List had said last year it had hired advisers to review its options, and in the fall of 2015 rejected an unsolicited buyout $512 million cash offer by IAC.

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The Securities and Exchange Commission said it’s settled accounting fraud charges with a South Korean chipmaker and its former chief financial officer. According to the SEC, MagnaChip Semiconductor overstated revenues for nearly two years, and then-CFO Margaret Sakai directed or approved several fraudulent accounting practices to make it falsely appear the company had met revenue and gross margin targets. Without admitting or denying the findings in the SEC’s order, MagnaChip agreed to pay a $3 million penalty and Sakai agreed to pay a $135,000 penalty. Sakai also agreed to be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company and from appearing or practicing before the SEC as an accountant.

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