Category: Stock Market News

Shares of Snap Inc. fell another 7% on Tuesday, putting the stock on track for its second down day since Thursday’s initial public offering. The social media stock slid to $22.11 a share in morning trade, after closing down more than 12% on Monday. Last week, the stock priced at $17 a share. The declines follow a wave of bearish analyst notes that have hit Snap, which calls itself a camera company, since its market debut. The average rating on the stock is the equivalent to sell, while the average price target is $16.50, according to a FactSet survey of 8 analysts. Many of the analysts have been warning clients that Snap stock is overvalued. Others have cited the company’s shaky fundamentals, with its widening losses and slowing user growth offsetting strong revenue gains.

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U.S. stocks opened lower on Tuesday, indicating a second straight day of mild declines as investors took a breather from recent gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 24 points, or 0.1%, to 20,932. The S&P 500 lost 3 points to trade at 2,371, a decline of 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 12 points to 5,837, a decline of 0.2%. The benchmark S&P 500 has hit a series of records of late, and it is also coming off a six-week streak of gains. The rally has raised concerns that the move was too much, too quickly, and that equities could be vulnerable to a pullback in the near-term, particularly with the Federal Reserve widely expected to raise interest rates at its upcoming meeting. Among the biggest decliners of the day were health care stocks, after President Donald Trump tweeted that he was working on a new system to increase drug industry competition and reduce drug pricing. Ionis Pharmaceuticals lost 2.1% while Sage Therapeutics slid 2%.

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Walt Disney Co.’s live -action reimaginning of the animated 1991 Best-Picture nominated “Beauty and the Beast” is outpacing advance ticket sales of “Captain America: Civil War,” according to Fandango, owned by Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal. For comparison, “Captain America: Civil War” opened with $179 million in box office receipts and went on to gross $1.2 billion worldwide. “Beauty and the Beast,” starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, hits theaters nationwide this weekend. The new version of the famed fairy tale, one of the most-anticipated films of the year, is the fastest-selling family film, according to Fandango, beating out last year’s “Finding Dory.” Disney shares have gained more than 11% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 18% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 23% during the same period.

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Pharmaceutical and biotechnology shares slumped in pre-market trade Tuesday after President Donald Trump tweeted that he was working on a new system to increase drug industry competition and reduce drug pricing. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceutical ETF slumped 0.6% and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF declined 1.2% Tuesday pre-market. “Pricing for the American people will come way down!” Trump said, though he provided no detail as to how. Since the president met with pharmaceutical executives in late January and seemed to back away from previous statements about negotiating drug prices, the SPDR S&P Pharmaceutical ETF and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF rebounded and then some. The president’s tweet follows the release of House Republicans’ health care plan Monday evening, whichmade no mention of drug prices. The SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF has surged 7.9% over the last three months and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF has surged 14.5% over the last three months, compared with a 6.0% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Sterling Bancorp announced Tuesday a deal to buy Astoria Financial Corp. in a stock deal valued at about $2.2 billion, to create a regional bank serving the New York City metropolitan area. Under terms of the deal, Sterling will exchange 0.875 of its shares for each Astoria share outstanding. Based on Monday’s closing prices, the deal values Astoria shares at $21.92 each, or an 18.6% premium. After the merger closes, which is expected in the fourth quarter of 2017, Sterling shareholders will own 60% of the combined company, which will be known as Sterling Bancorp. The deal is expected to boost Sterling’s tangible book valued per share by 12%, increase earnings per share by 9% in 2018 and by 16% in 2019, and generate $100 million synergies. Astoria’s stock surged 8.6% in premarket trade after a halt was lifted, while Sterling shares were still inactive. Over the past three months through Monday, Astoria’s stock has gained 4.2%, Sterling shares have tacked on 3.5%, the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF has climbed 5.1% and the S&P 500 has advanced 6%.

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Brown-Forman Corp. said Tuesday it had net income of $182 million, or 47 cents a share, in its fiscal third quarter to Jan. 31, after earnings of $190 million, or 47 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. The distributor of Jack Daniel’s whiskey and Finlandia vodka said sales fell to $808 million from $809 million. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 48 cents and sales of $802 million. “The company believes that fiscal 2017 is on track to be another year of continued growth in underlying net sales and operating income, despite the significant uncertainty that currently exists around the global economic and geopolitical environment, not to mention foreign exchange volatility,” the company said in a statement. It is now expecting 2017 sales growth of 3% to 4% and EPS of $1.71 to $1.76. The FactSet consensus is for 2017 EPS of $1.84. Shares were not yet active in premarket trade, but are up 44% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained about 19%.

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Shares of Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. fell more than 6% after the company reported earnings for the fourth quarter and presented guidance below Wall Street expectations. The company reported net income of $90.2 million, or 81 cents per share, down from $129.0 million, or $1.13 per share during the same period a year ago. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.32, above the FactSet consensus of $1.29. Revenue for the quarter hit $2.5 billion, compared with $2.2 in the year-earlier period. Analysts tracked by FactSet had forecast for revenue of $2.5 billion. And fourth quarter same-store sales were up 5%. Looking to the first quarter, Dick’s expects per-share earnings to be between 48 cents to 53 cents, below FactSet’s expectation of 61 cents. The company expects same-store sales to increase 3% to 4%. Shares of Dick’s Sporting Goods are up 18.7% in the trailing 12-month period. The S&P 500 index is also up 18.7% during the same time frame.

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ProPetro Holding Corp. said Tuesday in filing that its 20 million-share initial public offering is expected to price between $16 share and $19 a share, which would raise up to $380 million. Of the total, 10.6 million shares are being sold by the Texas-based hydraulic fracturing services company, which would bring in up to about $201.4 million for the company, and 9.4 million shares are being sold by selling shareholders. The stock has been approved to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “PUMP.” The company will grant the underwriters of the IPO options to buy up to an additional 3 million shares from the selling shareholder. Goldman Sachs and Barclays are the lead underwriters. The IPO is coming at time when the energy sector has been underperforming the broader stock market, as the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF has lost 5% over the past three months while the S&P 500 has gained 6%.

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Media and publishing company Gannett Co. Inc. said on Tuesday it expects revenue for 2017 to land in the range of $3.15 billion to $3.22 billion. That range is within FactSet expectations, where analysts forecast revenue will hit $3.19 in the year. The USA Today owner also said it expects capital expenditures of roughly $65 million to $75 million, not including real estate projects. “While we anticipate more challenging year-over-year comparisons in the first half of this year due to certain strategic investments and the negative impact resulting from the weaker British pound, we expect our cost operational improvements to more meaningfully impact the second half of the year,” Gannett Chief Executive Robert Dickey said in a statement. Shares of Gannett were inactive in premarket trade on Tuesday, but have fallen more than 47% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 18% during the same period.

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The Michaels Cos. shares jumped 7% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the company beat fourth-quarter earnings estimates and offered a higher-than-expected outlook for 2017. The arts and crafts store chain said it had net income of $195.3 million, or 95 cents a share, in the quarter, up from $183.7 million, or 87 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted per-share earnings came to 96 cents, ahead of the FactSet consensus of 95 cents. Sales rose 4.1% to $1.8 billion, matching the FactSet consensus. For 2017, the company is expecting sales growth of 2.5% to 4.0% and same-store sales to be flat to up 1.5%. It’s expecting 2017 EPS to range from $2.05 to $2.17. For the first quarter, the company is expecting same-store sales to be flat to down 1% and for EPS of 38 cents to 40 cents. The FactSet consensus is for full-year EPS of $2.02 and first-quarter EPS of 39 cents. Shares have fallen 14% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 19%.

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