Berkshire’s Warren Buffett donates $3.17 billion in shares

Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett converted a block of his class A shares into class B shares and donated them to various foundations, the firm said late Monday. Buffett converted 12,500 class A shares into about 18.8 million class B shares, with a current value of $3.17 billion, and donated them to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation. Including the current donation, Buffett has provided more than $27.5 billion in shares since 2006 to these foundations, according to Berkshire Hathaway. After hours, class B shares declined 0.2% to $170, while class A shares were unchanged at $255,400.

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J.C. Penney’s CFO to step down

J. C. Penney Co. Inc. said late Monday Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Edward Record will step down effective Tuesday “to pursue other interests.” Record will remain with the company until Aug. 7 to assist with the transition while a search for his replacement is conducted, the company said in a statement. Chief Accounting Officer and Controller Andrew Drexler will become interim CFO along with his other duties. Record joined the company as CFO in March 2014. Shares of J. C. Penney fell more than 1% in the late session, and ended the regular trading day down 1.5%.

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Adam Symson to become Scripps CEO Aug. 8

Adam Symson will become president and chief executive of The E.W. Scripps Co. on Aug. 8, the company said in a statement late Monday. He will replace CEO Rich Boehne, who will continue as Scripps’ chairman. Symson was promoted to chief operating officer in November, overseeing day-to-day operations of the company’s broadcast TV, digital media and radio divisions. Shares of Scripps were flat in late trading, and ended the regular session up 2.1%.

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Citrix shares down 1% after company ‘s CEO ousted

Shares of Citrix Systems Inc. fell more than 1% late Monday after the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company said its board of directors has appointed David J. Henshall, Citrix’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer, as the company’s president and chief executive officer, in addition to board member, effective immediately. Henshall’s appointment follows the “mutual separation decision” between the board and CEO Kirill Tatarinov, the company said in a statement. “The Citrix board has identified the leadership team to drive the company’s long-term strategy and growth, led by David Henshall,” the company said. Citrix is committed to operational efficiency and value creation, and this includes “a series of strategic initiatives intended to drive operating margin expansion, increase capital return and facilitate further investment in accelerating Citrix’s transformation to a cloud-based subscription business and in high-growth areas, such as data security and analytics services,” it said. The company will discuss its plan at its second-quarter earnings call. Citrix is scheduled to report results on July 26. The stock had ended the regular session up 0.8%.

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Barracuda beats revenue expectations, matches adj. EPS forecast, but shares fall

Shares of Barracuda Networks Inc. fell more than 5% late Monday after the cloud security and storage company reported fiscal first-quarter per-share earnings in line with expectations. Barracuda said it earned $2.7 million, or 5 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $2.8 million, or 5 cents a share, in the first quarter of fiscal 2017. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned $10 million, or 18 cents a share, compared with $10.7 million, or 20 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 9% to $94.2 million, compared with $86.7 million in the first quarter of last fiscal year. Gross billings reached $105.2 million, while the number of active subscribers grew 17% to more than 335,000, the company said in a statement. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted per-share earnings of 18 cents on sales of $91.2 million for the quarter. Billings were pegged at $104 million. The shares ended the regular session up 0.6%.

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Arena Pharmaceuticals stock skyrockets on positive hypertension-drug study

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. shares jumped 35% in late trading Monday after the company announced positive results from a drug study. The San Diego company said that a phase 2 study of a drug targeted at pulmonary arterial hypertension, a disease that causes high blood pressure in the lungs, showed “a statistically significant absolute change from baseline.” In a study of 61 patients, those that received the drug, called ralinepag, showed 29.8% greater improvement than patients in a placebo group and 20.1% improvement compared with the baseline, the company said. Arena stock topped $25 in after-hours trading immediately following the announcement, after closing with a 4.5% decline at $18.39; Arena shares have not hit $25 in regular trading since 2015. Arena planned a conference call to discuss the results for 4:30 p.m. Eastern time Monday.

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White House says it wants tax plan by August recess

The Trump administration is aiming to come to an agreement on a draft tax plan with the House and Senate before the August recess, with the goal of beginning legislative action after the break, a top official said Monday. White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short told reporters the administration is continuing to have discussions with lawmakers and would “hopefully” have a plan “locked in place” before the recess. Both President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are seeking tax cuts for businesses and individuals. Short did not provide a desired timetable for a final vote.

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U.S. consumer credit climbs at seven-month high rate of 5.8%

U.S. consumer credit rose at a 5.8% clip, or by $18.4 billion, in May, the Federal Reserve said Monday. That’s the fastest rate in seven month, and comes as revolving credit like credit cards jumped 8.7%. Nonrevolving credit, typically auto and student loans, rose 4.7%.

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Fertilizer stocks surge to lead S&P 500 gainers as corn prices jump to 13-month high

Shares of fertilizer companies were sharply higher Monday, as a spike higher in prices for corn, which is used to develop fertilizer, helped fuel and support the gains. CF Industries Holdings Inc.’s stock shot up 7.1% toward a three-month high, enough to make it the biggest percentage gainer in the S&P 500 index. Fellow fertilizer maker Mosaic Co.’s shares were the second biggest S&P 500 gainer, as they ran up 6.5% to a two-month high. Helping fuel the gains, corn futures soared over 2% to settle above $4.00 a bushel for the first time since June 2016, amid concerns over supply in the face of a drought and rising temperatures in the Great Plains region. Rising prices for corn and fertilizer could help fertilizer companies’ result. Among other fertilizer companies, shares of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. climbed 6.8%, also boosted by reports of an upgrade at Scotiabank, and Agrium Inc. hiked up 7.1%. Meanwhile, CF Industries’s stock was still down 4.8% year to date, while Mosaic shares had tumbled 18%, the SPDR Materials Select Sector ETF had closed 9.9% and the S&P 500 had advanced 8.5%.

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