Mattel upgraded at Stifel on better-than-expected holiday results

Mattel Inc. stock is up 6.5% in premarket trading after Stifel upgraded it to buy from hold based on the toy company’s better-than-expected holiday results for its core brands, especially Barbie and Fisher-Price. Mattel reported fourth quarter 2015 earnings Monday night. The bank set a price target of $33 in a note published Tuesday. Mattel shares closed at $26.76 on Monday. Same-store sales for Mattel’s core brands grew 2%, the first positive result since the fourth quarter of 2011. Stifel analysts also believe upcoming DC Entertainment licenses and the retention of Pixar licenses, including “Cars 3” in 2017, will be a boon for the company. Mattel management expects “Cars 3” licenses to generate $350 million in incremental sales. Mattel shares are up 7.2% for the past three months while the S&P is down 7.8% for the period.

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From:: Stock Market News

Sirius XM reports solid Q4 earnings, expects slowed 2016 subscriber growth

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. said Tuesday it had net income of $135 million, or 3 cents per share during its fiscal fourth quarter. That’s compared with net income of $143 million, or 3 cents a share in the year-prior period. The FactSet consensus for earnings was 3 cents per share. Revenue for the quarter hit $1.2 billion, up from $1.1 billion the previous year and in-line with the FactSet consensus of $1.2 billion. Sirius added 2.3 million net new subscribers over the course of 2015, the company’s largest growth since 2007, according to a news release. The company spent $369 million to buy back 92 million shares and in January bought back an additional 52 million shares, spending $200 million. Looking to 2016, Sirius is expecting subscriber growth to slow to 1.4 million for the full year and for revenue to be $4.9 billion, in-line with FactSet’s consensus of $4.9 billion and up from $4.6 billion for 2015. The FactSet 2016 consensus for revenue is . Sirius shares were down 0.3% in pre-market trade.

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From:: Stock Market News

Twitter shares fall after the stock is downgraded to sell at Stifel

Twitter shares fell 3% Tuesday morning after Stifel analysts downgraded the stock to sell from hold. The analysts said they had previously had the sell rating based on potential product changes that could boost the stock, but now they have failed to see that change materialize. Shares of Twitter have fallen 39% in the past three months compared with the S&P 500’s drop of 8%. The analysts cite concerns including a slowing monthly active user growth, Facebook’s dominance over advertising revenue and time spent per user and Twitter’s over-monetization of a smaller audience compared to Facebook. “Twitter is a product that has never fully developed into a sustainable public company due to either poor strategy, poor execution or that it was never destined to be one,” the analysts wrote. The analysts set a price target of $14.

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From:: Stock Market News

Tempur Sealy to shrink board of directors to 7 members from 12

Tempur Sealy International said five current members of its 12-person board of directors have chosen not to stand for re-election. The bedding company, which is in the process of refreshing its board, said in a Tuesday release that these directors would retire after the company’s annual stockholders meeting on May 5. On the recommendation of the board’s nominating and corporate governance committee, the company will shrink its board to seven directors for re-election at the annual meeting, saving about $1 million annually. One of the retiring directors, Lawrence Rogers, will be brought on as a consultant and board member for two of Tempur Sealy’s joint ventures. The company is also moving its stockholder meetings to the company’s headquarters of Lexington, KY from Boston. Finally, Richard Neu has been apppointed to the company’s audit and compensation committees, effective immediately, and will serve as lead director of the board, effective upon completion of the annual meeting. Tempur Sealy shares are inactive in premarket trading, but down 22% over the past three months. The S&P 500 is down 7.8% for the past three months.

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From:: Stock Market News

Pfizer beats profit expectations, but provides downbeat outlook

Pfizer Inc. reported on Tuesday fourth-quarter earnings of $613 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with $1.228 billion, or 19 cents per share the same period a year ago. The latest results include three months of legacy Hospira global operations, Pfizer said. Adjusted EPS was 53 cents per share, above the FactSet consensus of 52 cents per share. Revenue rose to $14.05 billion from $13.12 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $13.58 billion. For 2016, the company said it expects “significant negative currency impact related to Venezuela.” Not including the effects of its pending inversion with Allergan plc, Pfizer said it expects adjusted EPS of $2.20 to $2.30, including the impact of currencies, compared to the FactSet consensus of $2.38 per share. Revenue in 2016 is expected to be $49 to $51 billion including the currency impact, compared to the FactSet consensus of about $53 million. Pfizer stock slipped 0.6% in pre-market trade. The stock had lost 14% in the last three months through Monday, while the S&P 500 has declined 7.83%.

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From:: Stock Market News

Archer Daniels misses on fourth-quarter sales and profit

Archer Daniels Midland, a food processing and commodities trading company, missed fourth-quarter sales and earning expectations Tuesday. The company reported net income of $718 million, or $1.19 a share, up from $701 million, or $1.08 per share, in the year-earlier period. Archer Daniels reported adjusted earnings per share of 61 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 64 cents. The company reported revenue of $16.45 billion, down from $20.89 billion in the year-earlier period and below the FactSet consensus of $19.4 billion. The company CEO cited the global economy’s effect on U.S. agriculture, U.S. ethanol and international soybean industry for the lower profits. For 2016, the company raised its dividend by 7% to 30 cents a share with share repurchases between $1 billion and !1.5 billion.

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From:: Stock Market News

Move’s Reesio partnering with zipLogix to simplify transaction process

As part of an effort to simplify the real estate transaction process, Move Inc., which operates Realtor.com for the National Association of Realtors, recently announced an agreement with zipLogix that will bring the zipForm digital library of transaction documents to the Reesio platform, which is a document and transaction management platform that allows the entire real estate transaction to be done online. …read more

From:: Real Estate Wire