Category: Stock Market News

Campbell Soup Co. shares slumped nearly 1% in pre-market trade Friday after the company reported a second-quarter profit miss and earnings beat. Earnings for the latest quarter fell to $205 million, or 33 cents per share, from $414 million, or 85 cents per share in the year-earlier period. Adjusted earnings-per-share were 91 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 88 cents. Revenue fell to $2.17 billion from $2.20 billion, below the FactSet consensus of $2.22 billion. Chief Executive Officer Denise Morrison said she was “not satisfied with our sales performance this quarter,” attributing the decline to the Campbell Fresh segment, which performed below expectations. The segment, which caused troubles last year too, will take longer to recover the originally planned and is not expected to grow this fiscal year, Morrison said. Still, she said the company is confident in the growth potential of this category. Campbell shares have risen 15.4% over the last three months, compared with a 7.3% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Shares of both Kraft Heinz Co. and Unilever N.V. rose in Friday premarket trading after Kraft announced that it made a merger proposal to Unilever that was declined. Shares of Unilever shot up 8.1% while Kraft Heinz stock rose 3.1%. “While Unilever has declined the proposal, we look forward to working to reach an agreement on the terms of a transaction,” Kraft Heinz said in the statement. Kraft brands include Oscar Meyer, Velveeta and Jell-O. Dove, Lipton and Vaseline are among Unilever’s brands. Kraft stock is up 17.6% for the past year, Unilever shares are down 1.4% for the period, and the S&P 500 index is up 21.8% for the last 12 months.

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Shares of J.M. Smucker Co. fell 2.8% in light premarket trade on Friday after the food and fruit spread company reported fiscal third-quarter sales that missed Wall Street expectations. Net income for the quarter was $134.6 million, or $1.16 per share, compared with $185.3 million, or $1.55 per share during the same quarter a year ago. Adjusted earnings per share were $2.00, which was in line with FactSet’s consensus. J.M. Smucker sales hit $1.88 billion, down from $1.97 billion during the year-earlier period, and below FactSet’s $1.92 billion consensus. The company said it expects 2017 sales to decrease 5% from fiscal 2016, excluding divestiture, net sales are forecast to decrease 3%. J.M. Smucker had previously forecast a 0% to 1% decrease in net sales. The company also said full year 2017 EPS should fall in the range of $7.60 to $7.70. Analysts tracked by FactSet expect J.M. Smucker to report full-year per-share earnings of $7.68. Shares of J.M. Smucker have gained 8% in the trailing 12-month period. By comparison, the S&P 500 Index has gained nearly 22% in the same time frame.

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Shares of Deere & Co. surged 2.8% in premarket trade Friday, after the maker of construction and agricultural equipment beat fiscal first-quarter profit and sales expectations and provided an upbeat outlook. Earnings for the quarter to Jan. 29 fell to $193.8 million, or 61 cents a share, from $254.4 million, or 80 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. The FactSet earnings-per-share consensus was 56 cents. Net sales slipped to $4.70 billion from $4.77 billion, but was above the FactSet consensus of $4.62 billion, as agriculture and turf and construction and forestry sales both topped expectations. Total revenue rose to $5.63 billion from $5.52 billion, beating expectations of $5.41 billion. Looking ahead, Deere expects 2017 revenue growth of 4%, while the FactSet consensus implies flat revenue. The stock has rallied 19% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 has gained 7.3%.

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President Donald Trump’s replacement for national security adviser Michael Flynn has rejected the offer, according to media reports late Thursday. Vice Admiral Robert Harward, a former Navy SEAL, was offered the job by Trump following the resignation of Flynn because of his controversial communications with Russian officials. CBS News reported Harward turned down the job because he and “the administration had a dispute over staffing the security council.” The Financial Times reported that Harward turned down the job because of his perceived conflict “between the call of duty and the obvious dysfunctionality” of the White House. Both CBS and FT cited two unnamed sources close to the situation.

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Shares of Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. sank in Thursday’s extended session after the skin-care products company reported lower revenue in most markets except Europe, Middle East and Africa. Nu Skin said its fourth-quarter earnings rose to $38.2 million, or 69 cents a share, from $35.8 million, or 62 cents a share, a year earlier. The result includes 10 cents a share tax charge stemming from a regulatory change. Revenue fell to $531.3 million from $572.2 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 79 cents a share and revenue of $561 million. The company said it will name a successor to replace Chief Financial Officer Ritch Wood, who is slated to take over as chief executive later this year, but did not elaborate further. Separately, the company hiked its quarterly dividend to 36 cents from 35.5 cents a share. Nu Skin skidded more than 8% after hours.

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Arista Networks Inc. shares rallied in the extended session Thursday after the cloud-networking software company’s quarterly results and outlook topped Wall Street estimates. Arista shares surged 9.3% to $109.48 after hours. The company reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings of $1.04 a share on revenue of $328 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of 82 cents a share on revenue of $317.1 million. For the first quarter, Arista sees revenue of $320 million to $330 million, while analysts have estimated $304.7 million. Arista’s results come after its larger competitor Cisco Systems Inc. reported healthy growth in software revenue late Wednesday.

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Shares of WebMD Health Corp. were halted late Thursday after the online company said it had started to look into “strategic alternatives,” which could include selling itself or part of itself. WebMD has no timeline for the process and has made no firm decision, the New York-based company said in a statement. The stock ended the regular trading day up 0.4%.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record for a sixth session in a row while the broader market faltered on weak energy and consumer discretionary shares. An announcement by President Donald Trump that a new health plan to replace the Affordable Care Act is likely by March ahead of his proposed tax reform also dampened sentiment. Investors had been bidding up stocks in anticipation of Trump’s tax cuts which are widely viewed as pro-business and supportive of the economy. The Dow rose 8 points to finish at 20,620. The S&P 500 fell 2 points to close at 2,347 while the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 4 points to close at 5,814.

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Oil prices settled modestly higher Thursday, as a report that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries may extend its production cut agreement with non-OPEC members, helped prices rebound from earlier losses. The news from Reuters was seen as a “bullish development as traders were beginning to have doubts about future compliance among those who agreed to cut production, especially in the face of rising U.S. output,” said Tyler Richey, co-editor of The 7:00’s Report. March West Texas Intermediate crude rose 25 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $53.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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