Category: Stock Market News

Penske Automotive Group said Friday it has reached an agreement to acquire CarShop, a U.K. retailer of used vehicles for an undisclosed sum. Penske said it expects the deal to add 7 cents to 9 cents to per-share earnings and generate $340 million in revenue on an annualized basis. CarShop has five large-scale retail locations in Cardiff, Swindon, Northampton, Norwich and Doncaster, as well as a 15-acre vehicle preparation center in Leighton Buzzard, a town in Bedfordshire. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter. Penske shares were not yet active in premarket trade, but have gained 41.8% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained about 14%.

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Shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. were halted in the extended session Thursday while shares of Amgen Inc. rallied after a federal judge said Regenron had to pull its competing cholestrol drug off the market as a penalty in a patent lawsuit. Regeneron shares were halted at $376.61, down 1.1% after hours, while shares of Amgen jumped 4.6% to $160. On Thursday, a federal judge blocked sales of Regeneron’s cholesterol treatment Praluent, stating that “irreparable harm” had been done to Amgen’s Repatha.

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Enbridge Inc. said late Thursday its board of directors has authorized a 10% dividend increase, setting the dividend at 58.3 cents a share and payable March 1 to shareholders of record Feb. 15. The increase is independent of the company’s planned acquisition of Spectra Energy Corp. and as previously announced Enbridge expects to increase its dividend by about 15% once the deal closes, the company said. “The merger with Spectra Energy brings together the highest quality liquids and natural gas infrastructure franchises in North America with the largest and most diversified growth projects in the industry,” CEO Al Monaco said in a statement. “The strength of this opportunity set gives us confidence that, following a 15 percent increase in 2017, we will be able to extend our industry leading dividend growth rate of 10-12 percent per annum through 2024.” Enbridge and Spectra Energy announced their intention to merge in September, and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter.

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Stemline Therapeutics Inc. shares surged in the extended session Thursday after the microcap drug developer said it has progressed in its bid to get its leukemia drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Stemline shares rose 15% to $13.11 after hours. The company said it entered an agreement with the FDA to support the filing of a marketing application in the second half of 2017 for SL-401, a treatment candidate for blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm, an aggressive form of leukemia, which currently has no approved treatment. Stemline said it hopes to launch the treatment in 2018.

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Ruby Tuesday Inc. fell in the extended session Thursday after the casual-dining chain reported a wider loss following a double-digit drop in revenue. Ruby Tuesday shares fell 19% to $2.87 after hours. The company reported a wider adjusted second-quarter loss of 18 cents a share, compared with 4 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. Ruby Tuesday reported second-quarter revenue of $214.7 million, a decline of nearly 18% from the year-ago quarter.

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Shares of Gap Inc. rose more than 10% late Thursday after the retailer reported growing holiday sales. Gap said its net sales were up 1% and comparable sales up 2% for the November and December holiday season, compared with the 2015 season. Net sales for the five-week period ended Dec. 31 rose 3% to $2.07 billion, compared with $2.01 billion for the five-week period ended Jan. 2, 2016, the company said in a statement. The owner of Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic stores upped its full-year per-share earnings expectations, saying it now expects earnings to be “modestly above the high end of our previous adjusted guidance range of $1.92.” Good news at Gap contrasted with lower holiday sales disclosed Wednesday by Kohl’s Corp. and Macy’s Inc., which has dragged on their shares. Gap stock had ended the regular trading day down 3.9%.

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Shake Shack Inc. shares fell 3% late Thursday after news Chief Financial Officer Jeff Uttz will retire this year. In the same statement, the fast-casual chain named Zach Koff its first chief operating officer. Uttz will remain CFO until March so to complete the 2016 reporting period, and the company has started the search for his replacement. Koff has been with the company since 2010, in roles that included senior VP of operations. Shares of Shake Shack had ended the regular trading day up 1.8%.

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T-Mobile US Inc. said Thursday it expects full-year net customer additions to total 8.2 million, after it added 2.1 million net new customers in the fourth quarter. The number matches the FactSet consensus for net customer additions. The company said it added 1.2 million branded postpaid net customers in the fourth quarter and 933,000 branded postpaid phone net customers. Churn, or turnover, fell 18 basis points to 1.28%. The company is scheduled to report fourth-quarter numbers in February. Shares were down 2.3% in afternoon trade, but have gained about 42% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 12%.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Shares of both Time Warner and AT&T saw pressure after Bloomberg News reported that President-elect Donald Trump still is opposed to the two companies merging, a view he expressed during the campaign. The report cited unnamed people close to the president-elect. The report didn’t say whether Trump’s view was shared by his nominee to be attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions. Time Warner fell as much as 3.8% but recently was down 1.5%. AT&T fell as much as 0.6% but recently was down 0.3%.

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Gold futures rallied Thursday to finish at the highest level since late-November, finding support from a weaker U.S. dollar and uncertainty surrounding the pace of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate increases. February gold tacked on $16, or 1.4%, to settle at $1,181.30 an ounce. That was the highest finish since Nov. 29, according to FactSet data.

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