Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Vista Outdoor Inc. slumped 2.4% in midday trade Monday, after the guns and ammunition maker was booted from the S&P MidCap 400 index following the recent sharp decline in market capitalization. S&P Dow Jones Indices said late Friday that it had increased the market cap guidelines for its U.S. indices to better reflect the stock market’s rally so far this year. The range for the MidCap 400 increased to $1.6 billion to $6.8 billion from $1.4 billion to $5.9 billion. Vista was moved into the S&P SmallCap 600 , which saw its market cap guideline range rise to $450 million to $2.1 billion from $400 million to $1.8 million. With Vista’s stock down 47% over the past three months, the market cap has fallen to $1.15 billion, according to FactSet. In comparison, the MidCap 400 has gained 1.7% over the past three months, while the SmallCap 600 has lost 1.8% and the S&P 500 has tacked on 4.3%.

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Viacom Inc. on Monday said it has named company veteran Kern Schireson to a newly-created position, chief data officer. In the new role, Schireson, who previously served as Viacom’s executive vice president of data strategy and consumer intelligence, will lead the expansion of Viacom’s data capabilities across its domestic and international TV, film, events consumer products and digital businesses. “As we look to the future of Viacom, it is absolutely clear that our deep data and analysis expertise will play a critical role in growing our company.” said Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish in a statement. Shares of Viacom’s publicly-owned class B shares have gained 11% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 17%.

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Chapparal Energy Inc. said Monday its plan of reorganization has been approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware, after receiving strong support from its bondholders and lenders. The Oklahoma City-based oil and gas exploration company said it expects to emerge from chapter 11 protection by the end of March. Under the terms of the plan, the company’s unsecured bondholders and creditors will own 100% of the company’s ownership interest. The company will have a reserve based lending facility with an initial borrowing base of $224 million and a $150 million term loan, both of which mature in four years. The company will also have cash on hand and $50 million of new equity from a rights offering.

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Noted short-seller Andrew Left of Citron Research, who once called Mobileye N.V. the “most outrageously overpriced, overhyped semiconductor stock ever,” tweeted a statement about the company’s buyout deal with Intel Corp. , saying “we tip our hat” and are moving on. Citron had put out a research note on Sept. 9, 2015, saying “investing in this company is a losing bet on a blue-sky futures that just does not exist,” which Citron backed up with data showing aggressive selling of shares by insiders. The stock closed at $48.36 that day. On April 13, 2016, Citron issued another note saying the stock was worth just $11 a share, which was 72% below that day’s closing price of $39.84. On Monday, Citron said in a statement: “While we are scratching our heads at the economics of paying almost 30x 2017 revenue, the deal is done and we will move on. Who should be most amazed is management, who has sold hundreds of millions of dollars of stock at significantly lower prices during Mobileye’s short lifetime as a public company….Neither Citron nor any analysts who covers Mobileye saw this coming.” The stock soared 30% in morning trade, after Intel Corp. agreed to buy the camera-based driverless technologies company in a $15.3 billion deal. At current prices, the stock has run up 27% since Citron’s first bearish note, while the PHLX Semiconductor Index has soared 62% and the S&P 500 has rallied 22%.

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U.S. stocks opened virtually unchanged on Monday as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve meeting. Most investors expect the Fed to deliver a rate hike. The S&P 500 was flat at 2,371. The Nasdaq Composite was unchanged at 5,861. The Dow Jones Industrial Average began the session at 20,909.

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Amgen Inc. said early Monday that its pricey cholesterol drug Repatha significantly reduced patients’ need for a high cholesterol blood therapy in a late-stage clinical trial. Repatha also met secondary endpoints in the clinical trial, working on certain cholesterol measures, Amgen said. The blood therapy apheresis removes LDL cholesterol from a patient’s blood and is typically used by patients with very high LDL levels. That patient group has “limited treatment options and face the daunting challenge of frequent, invasive and costly procedures,” said Sean Harper, Amgen’s executive vice president of Research and Development. Repatha is one of a class of PCSK9 inhibitors which haven’t sold as well as drugmakers expected, due to their high cost and a lack of data demonstrating PCSK9 inhibitors’ benefit relative to statins, which are very inexpensive. Amgen shares surged about 0.8% in pre-market trade Monday. Shares have surged 22.3% over the last three months, compared with a 4.4% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Under Armour Inc. said Monday that Clay Dean is joining the company as chief innovation officer. He’ll be responsible for global strategy and collaboration between the design, marketing, product and category management teams. Dean joins from General Motors Co. where he most recently led the Global Advanced Design group. Under Armour shares are down nearly 55% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 17.3% for the period.

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Shares of Boeing Co. dropped 0.8% in premarket trade Monday, after the aerospace and defense giant was downgraded at Morgan Stanley, which cited concerns over valuation after the recent run up in price. Analyst Rajeev Lalwani cut his rating to equal weight from overweight, but raised his stock price target to $190, which is 6.3% above Friday’s closing price of $178.70, from $185. Lalwani said he remains upbeat on the company’s earnings potential, given fundamental positives including increased aircraft orders, emerging defense opportunities, potential tax reform and economic stimulus, but its current valuation implies just a “moderate” total return. The stock has soared 15% year to date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 5.8%.

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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn disclosed Monday that he spent $19.1 million to buy 372,324 more shares of Herbalife Ltd., just as the stock was falling to a 2-month low. An S-4 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Ichan bought the stock Friday at $51.35, to boost his stake in the nutrition and weight management company to 22.9 million shares, or 24.6% of the shares outstanding. The stock, which had tumbled 16% over the previous three weeks, was headed for a seventh-straight drop on Friday, falling as much as 2.3% intraday before bouncing to close up 0.7%. Icahn is by far Herbalife’s biggest shareholder, and runs counter to billionaire investor William Ackman’s bearish call on the company. Ackman said he has bet $1 billion that Herbalife’s stock will fall, calling the company a “pyramid scheme.” Herbalife’s stock, which surged 1.4% in premarket trade, has lost 8.3% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 17%.

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Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Monday confirmed plans for a second Scottish independence referendum in the wake of the U.K.’s plan to leave the European Union. In a press conference in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said she will ask the Scottish parliament next week to vote in favor of her plans for a new independence ballot. The new referendum could take place between the autumn of 2018 and spring 2019. That would allow Scotland to vote on its independence before the U.K. has left the EU and possibly allow the Scots to stay in the political union. Sturgeon said she’s been trying to reach a Brexit compromise with Westminster, but has been met with a “brick wall of intransigence.” Scottish voters overwhelmingly backed remaining in the in the EU in the U.K.’s Brexit referendum in June last year. In the first Scottish independence ballot in 2014, the country chose not to split from the U.K., with 55% choosing to remain. The pound rose to $1.2230, up from $1.2168 late Friday in New York.

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