Redfin’s stock debuts 30% above its IPO price

Shares of Redfin Corp. debuted Friday on the Nasdaq with a bang, opening at $19.56 at 11:05 a.m. ET, which was 30% above the $15 initial public offering price. The stock has since added to gains be up 35% in morning trade. The real-estate company, which mixes online technology with traditional agents, had priced its IPO above the previously expected range of $12 to $14. The company sold 9.23 million shares to raise over $138 million, and granted underwriters the option to buy an additional 1.38 million shares. The stock was listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol “RDFN.” The stock debuted on a day that the SPDR Real Estate Select Sector ETF was up 0.1% and the S&P 500 was down 0.4%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Hilltop’s Mortgage Earnings, Originations Up

A quarter-over-quarter gain was reported for mortgage earnings and originations at Hilltop Holdings Inc. Year-over-year gains, however, were lacking as servicing shrunk.

Before income taxes, Hilltop earned $89 million during the three months ended mid-2017. Earnings improved from $50 million during the same three months last year.

The Dallas-based parent of PrimeLending disclosed the details along with other operational and financial results in its second-quarter 2017 earnings report.


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From:: Financing

Invisalign maker Align stocks surge 8% after earnings blow past estimates

Align Technology Inc. shares surged 8% Friday, after the maker of Invisalign dental braces blew past second-quarter earnings estimates. San Jose, California-based Align said late Thursday it had net income of $69.2 million, or $85 cents a share, in the quarter, up from $50.1 million, or 62 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose to $356.5 million from $176.9 million. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 72 cents and revenue of $344 million. North American shipments rose 27.6% while international shipments jumped 37%. The company said Invisalign shipments to the teen market rose 37.6%, after hitting a milestone of 1 million teen patients. The company said it now expects net revenue of $355 million to $360 million in the third quarter, and EPS of 78 cents to 81 cents. The FactSet consensus is for EPS of 81 cents and revenue of $359 million. Leerink analysts welcomed the progress made in the key teen market. “Our recent diligence suggests that orthodontists see Invisalign potentially capable of addressing 60+% of their Teen cases, which would be well-above our 8% estimated penetration into Align’s North American teen TAM (“fully loaded” ~3.94M cases) by 2020,” they wrote in a note. Align shares have gained 77% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 11%.

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FDA says it plans to lower nicotine in cigarettes to non-addictive levels

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday announced a new plan to lower the nicotine levels in cigarettes to non-addictive levels. Because almost 90% of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18, lowering nicotine levels could decrease the likelihood that future generations become addicted to cigarettes and allow more currently addicted smokers to quit, the FDA said. The news crushed the stock of cigarette producers including British American Tobacco , Altria Group and Philip Morris International .

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Minor lift for final consumer sentiment reading in July as partisan divide remains

The final reading of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey for July was lifted to 93.4 from a preliminary 93.1. That’s a decline, however, from June’s level of 95.1. The difference on the expectations index between Democrats and Republicans was 45 index points, the University of Michigan said.

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From:: Stock Market News

Bojangles’ shares sink after revenue miss, guidance cut

Bojangles’ Inc. shares sank 10.1% in early Friday trading after second-quarter revenue missed expectations and the company cut guidance. Net income reported late Thursday was $8.6 million, or 22 cents per share, down from $10.0 million last year, or 27 cents per share. Adjusted EPS was 23 cents, beating the 22-cent FactSet consensus. Revenue was $134.4 million, up from $131.6 million but below the $135.0 million FactSet consensus. System-wide same-restaurant sales were down 1.4%. Company-operated comps were down 3.3% while franchised restaurants were down 0.1%. Bojangles now sees fiscal-year 2017 revenue of $549.0 to $553.0, down from previous guidance of $560.0 to $569.0, and adjusted EPS of 81 cents to 84 cents, down from a previous 87 cents to 93 cents. System-wide same-store sales are expected to be negative low-single digits versus previous guidance of negative low-single digits to flat. RBC Capital Markets maintained its sector perform rating on Bojangles shares, but cut the price target to $16 from $20, writing in a note that competitive discounting is a risk. Analysts at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey maintained their buy rating, but also cut the price target to $21 from $24. “Bojangles is pivoting toward value shortly and we expect the promotional environment to become more balanced in coming months, both of which should drive accelerating same-store sales in the second half of 2017 and 2018,” SunTrust analysts wrote. Bojangles shares are down nearly 25% for the year so far while the S&P 500 index is up 10.3% for the period.

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From:: Stock Market News

Treasury to wind down the myRA retirement savings program

The Treasury Department on Friday announced that it will begin to wind down the myRA program. A program created under the Obama administration, myRA was intended for people who don’t have workplace savings programs. The Treasury Department said the program, which cost nearly $70 million since it was created, was not cost effective. Participants in the myRA program are being notified of the upcoming changes, including information on moving their myRA savings to another Roth IRA. Some 20,000 people were enrolled in the program, according to media reports.

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From:: Stock Market News

Consumer-discretionary sector slides as Amazon shares drop on results

The consumer-discretionary sector fell on Friday, a day after Amazon.com reported disappointing quarterly results that sent shares of the online retail giant sharply lower. The sector, as measured by the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR ETF fell 1% in its biggest one-day percentage drop since July 6. Amazon is the largest component of the ETF by far, accounting for nearly 16% of the portfolio, according to FactSet data. Shares of Amazon fell 4.2%, their biggest one-day slide since October. Despite the declines on the day, the ETF remains up 12% for 2017 thus far, while Amazon is up more than 30%. In its results, Amazon reported a 77% plunge in second-quarter earnings, though sales came in ahead of forecasts. Also weighing on the sector was Mattel Inc. and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. , both of which also sold off sharply following their own results. Mattel was down 8.8% while Goodyear tumbled 13%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Stock market opens lower as Wall Street resumes tech selling

U.S. stock benchmarks opened modestly lower on Friday after a key measure of U.S. economic growth showed improvement, but also highlighted stubbornly low inflation. A second-quarter reading on gross domestic product rose 2.6%, below the 2.8% expected by economists polled by MarketWatch, showed that wages are accelerating more slowly than hoped, signaling the economy may still not be improving, but not running at full tilt. The Dow Jones Industrial Average –coming off its record close on Thursday–was trading flat, as corporate quarterly results from Dow components Exxon Mobil Corp. disappointed Wall Street, while Merck & Co. Inc. reported better-than-expected results. The S&P 500 index was off 0.2% at 2,469, weighed by a 1% drop in the consumer-discretionary sector. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index , which commenced a downdraft midday Thursday added to its losses, down 0.7% at 6,338. In more corporate news, Starbucks Corp. shares fell after the coffee giant posted earnings above expectations. For the week, the Dow was on pace for a 0.9% gain, while the S&P 500 index was on track for a 0.2% weekly fall. The Nasdaq was looking at a weekly slide of 0.6%, its worst week since the period ended June 30, according to FactSet data.

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From:: Stock Market News

Destination Maternity plummets toward record low after merger deal terminated

Shares of Destination Maternity Corp. plummeted 38% toward a record low in early trade Friday, enough to be the biggest decliners on the Nasdaq exchange, after the maternity apparel seller said the deal to be acquired by France-based Orchestra-Premaman SA has been terminated. The company said the deal was terminated given the difficulties of satisfying regulators in France and the U.S., and given the uncertainty over whether regulatory requirements could be satisfied without unreasonable effort and expense. The companies had announced on Dec. 20, 2016 that Orchestra-Premaman would buy Destination Maternity for an implied price of $7.05 a share, which represented just a 0.4% premium to the Dec. 19 closing price. The stock had tumbled 58% since the merger announcement through Thursday, while the S&P 500 had climbed 9.4%.

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From:: Stock Market News