Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Yext Inc. were trading at $13.74 Thursday morning, above the company’s $11 issue price, in the stock’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange. The New York-based company, which helps businesses streamline locations and other data across digital platforms, sold 10.5 million shares to raise $115.5 million at a valuation of $940 million. Underwriting banks have the option to buy an additional 1.6 million shares. Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets were the lead underwriters on the offering.

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Shares of Sorrento Therapeutics Inc. plunged 36% toward a 4 1/2-year low in active morning trade Thursday, after the cancer treatment developer said its large public share offering priced at a deep discount. Volume spiked to 1.9 million shares in recent trade, already more than seven times the full-day average. Sorrento said its public offering of 23.6 million shares was priced at $2.00 a share, which was 32% below Wednesday’s closing price of $2.95. The shares being sold, which are all coming directly from the company, in effect increases the shares outstanding by about 46%. The company said Chief Executive Henry Ji will be buying shares in the offering. The stock has now tumbled 62% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.8%.

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U.S. stocks kicked off trade lower on Thursday and were on track to finish the holiday-shortened week in the red, with a third straight decline in sight, after a trio of bank stocks fell in the wake of their quarterly results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52 points, or 0.3%, at 20,546, the S&P 500 index was off 6 points, or 0.3%, at 2,339, while the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 8 points, or 0.1%, at 5,828. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup , beat analysts’ expectations, but Wells Fargo , which is still suffering from its sales-practice scandal, disappointed on revenues, and billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said it reduced its stake in the San Francisco-based lender. Those banks all opened lower. Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims fell slightly in the latest week, dropping to 234,000, while a report on producer-prices fell 0.1% in March, though core PPI-which excludes food, energy, and trade-was up 0.1%. Thursday’s early trade follows a week of intensifying geopolitical worries, underscored by a strained relationship between Russia and the U.S. and mounting aggression in North Korea. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described the Russia-U.S. relationship as at a “low point” in a news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. President Donald Trump’s comments in an interview with The Wall Street Journal late Wednesday, where he said the U.S. dollar is “getting too strong,” also weighed on the market. Yields on the 10-year Treasury note [BX:TMUBMUSD10Y] at 2.24% were trading near multimonth lows. Financial markets will be closed in observance of Good Friday, however, a batch of data are slated for the day because it isn’t a federal holiday. Data include a reading of retail sales, and consumer prices for March.

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Tocagen Inc. , a cancer-selective gene therapy company, said Thursday that it priced its initial public offering at $10 a share, at the low end of its expected range. The company sold 8.5 million shares to raise $85 million. Tocagen had previously set an expected price range of $10 to $12 and planned to sell 7.25 million shares. The shares are expected to start trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “TOCA.” Tocagen has granted underwriters a 30-day option to buy an additional 1,275,000 shares of common stock.

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MiMedx Group Inc. shares surged 3% in premarket trade Thursday after the company’s first-quarter revenue results beat the consensus. Revenue rose to $72.6 million from $53.4 million, above the FactSet consensus of $70.2 million. The first quarter is “typically the most challenging quarter in the year and is the most difficult quarter to generate meaningful growth over the preceding quarter,” said MiMedx Group President and Chief Operating Officer Bill Taylor, for various reasons including health plans’ deductibles restarting in January. “We feel we are well poised to deliver on a robust 2017.” Three new products launched last year helped contribute to the first-quarter results, the company said. MiMedx Group is scheduled to report earnings on March 31. Shares have surged 12.9% over the last three months, compared with a 3.1% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Warrior Met Coal Inc. priced its initial public offering at $19 a share Thursday, at the high end of its expected range. Selling stockholders sold 16.67 million shares to raise about $317 million. Warrior Met Coal will not receive any proceeds from the sale. The shares are expected to start trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “HCC.” Selling stockholders have granted underwriters the option to buy up to an additional 2.5 million share within 30 days.

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It would be “logical” for Apple Inc. to buy Walt Disney Co. , as it would allow Apple to replicate its music-iTunes strategy in the content-media space, said analyst Amit Daryanani at RBC Capital. While the odds of deal are “low,” Daryanani said he sees a “confluence of events that make an acquisition of [Disney] a ‘greater than 0%’ probability event.” He suggested the odds could increase if Apple is able to access the more-than $200 billion in cash it has overseas through a repatriation tax holiday. Disney’s market capitalization was about $178.7 billion, according to FactSet. Daryanani said a deal would accelerate Apple’s push into services and content, with Apple instantly leapfrogging Netflix Inc. , Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube in content. “There are plenty of factors to consider, but such a deal would create a tech/media juggernaut like no other and instantly scale [Apple’s] services, content and media portfolio, which would make the case for a higher valuation,” Daryanani wrote in a note to clients. Apple’s stock slipped 0.3% and Disney shares inched up 0.1% in premarket trade. Year to date, Apple’s stock has soared 22%, Disney shares have climbed 8.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 4.7%.

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ConocoPhillips announced Thursday a deal to sell its San Juan Basin assets for up to $3 billion to an affiliate of Hilcorp Energy Co. Under terms of the deal, ConocoPhillips will receive $2.7 billion in cash and a contingent payment of up to $300 million, effective Jan. 1, with a term of six years. ConocoPhillips said it plans to use the proceeds from the deal for general corporate purposes. The exploration and production company said 2016 production from its San Juan Basin assets was 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, the bulk of which was natural gas. “This transaction significantly accelerates value from our San Juan Basin assets,” said Chief Executive Ryan Lance. “Including our recently announced Canadian asset sales, we have line of sight to more than $16 billion of total considerations in 2017.” The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has lost 1.4% year to date, while the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF has lost 6.3% and the S&P 500 has gained 4.7%.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said Thursday it entered into license deals with Biogen Inc. and Roche, in which it will receive a combined $470 million in upfront payments and up to $615 million in potential milestone payments. Under the agreements, Bristol-Myers will license its anti-eTau compound in development to treat Progressive Supranuclear Palsy to Biogen, for $300 million upfront and up to $410 million in milestone payments. The drug giant will also license its anti-myostatin adnectin in development to treat Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy to Roche for $170 million upfront and up to $205 million in milestone payments. The agreements, which are subject to antitrust regulatory approval, are expected to close in the second quarter of 2017. Bristol-Myers’ stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has dropped 9.3% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 4.7%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Yext Inc. priced its initial public offering at $11 a share Wednesday, $1 higher than its projected range, pulling in at least $115.5 million at a valuation of $940 million as enterprise-software offerings continued to succeed on Wall Street. The New York tech startup, which helps businesses ensure the accuracy of locations and other data across digital platforms, is expected to begin trading Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol YEXT. Founded in 2006, Yext disclosed in IPO filings that it had a net loss of $43.2 million on revenue of $124.3 million in its most recent fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31. Both sales and losses increased from the prior year, when the company reported a net loss of $26.5 million on revenue of $89.7 million. Yext raised more than $117 million in private investment, according to Crunchbase, and the IPO prospectus showed shares selling for $5.81 in its most recent round of venture funding, in 2014. Four venture-capital firms — Sutter Hill Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, Marker Financial Advisors and Insight Venture Partners — held more than 10% of the company ahead of the IPO, with Sutter Hill leading the way with 23.6% of the company. No investors are selling shares in the IPO; Yext will take all of the proceeds on the sale of 10.5 million shares, and underwriting banks have access to an additional 1.6 million shares that they could potentially sell.

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From:: Stock Market News