Another major Apple analyst shrinks iPhone estimates

Shares of Apple Inc. rose 2% in premarket trade Tuesday despite PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster, among Wall Street’s most bullish analysts on Apple with a $179 stock price target, lowering his iPhone unit estimates for the second quarter, which ends in March. Munster still expects the company to deliver a better-than-feared outlook for the second quarter, since expectations are already so low. He believes shares will reset as long as the company delivers a guidance on iPhone unit sales of at least 45 million, which would only be slightly higher than the 44 million it reported in the year-earlier period, and sharply below the 56 million analysts on average are expecting, according to FactSet. A number of analysts have reeled in iPhone unit estimates in recent weeks, yet the average rating on the stock remains the equivalent to buy, while the average 12-month price target sits at $140.55, which represents a 43% increase from Monday’s closing price. Shares of Apple have fallen 12% over the last three months.

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Coca-Cola shares up 1.1% after upgrade to buy at Stifel

Coca-Cola Co. shares are up 1.1% in premarket trading after the beverage giant was upgraded to buy from hold at Stifel, with analysts citing expectations of improved organic growth. The bank established a price target of $54. Stifel forecasts 5% annual growth “for the foreseeable future,” with Latin America a global highlight. Analysts also believe the company could eliminate an additional $4.3 billion to $6.1 billion in costs. Coca-Cola announced a cost-cutting program, with a goal of $3 billion in savings by 2019. Coca-Cola shares are down 2.5% over the past 12 months. The S&P is down 5.2% for the same period.

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Intel’s stock climbs after bullish analyst call

Intel Corp. shares rose 1.4% in premarket trade Tuesday, after J.P. Morgan placed a bullish rating on the chipmaker, saying strength in its data center and Internet of Things businesses should offset continued lackluster PC demand. Analyst Harlan Sur moved to an overweight rating from a “not rated” designation, and placed a price target of $40 on the stock, which is 25% above Monday’s closing price of $32.06. Sur said he believes the enterprise storage market is an “underappreciated growth engine” for Intel, as the company holds the No. 1 market share position in the $6 billion market. Sur is also confident that Intel’s data center business will see strong revenue growth through the cloud, virtualization and high-performance computing markets. And while the PC business should remain weak during the first half of this year, Sur sees potential upside in the second half on improved demand from businesses and gaming. The stock has slipped 0.5% over the past three months through Monday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 4.3%.

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Horizon Pharma’s stock surges after boosting sales outlook

Horizon Pharma PLC’s stock surged 3.9% in premarket trade Tuesday, after the drug maker raised its 2016 sales outlook, as a result of the expected close of the Crealta Holdings acquisition this week. Sales are now expected to be in the range of $1.025 billion to $1.05 billion, up from a previous outlook of $950 million to $975 million. The FactSet sales consensus was $987.3 million. The outlook for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was boosted to $505 million to $520 million from $460 million to $475 million. The stock has lost 5.4% over the past three months through Monday, while the S&P 500 has declined 4.7%.

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Rupert Murdoch announces engagement to Jerry Hall

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has announced his engagement to actress and model Jerry Hall, via a listing in the Births, Marriages and Deaths section of his Times of London newspaper Tuesday. It will be the fourth marriage for 84-year-old Murdoch and the first for 59-year-old Hall, who was the partner of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger for more than 20 years. Murdoch is the executive chairman of News Corp. , the owner of MarketWatch parent Dow Jones.

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Blast kills 10 in Istanbul’s tourist center: reports

An explosion in a historic part of Istanbul popular with tourists has left several people dead and wounded, media reports said Tuesday. The blast happened at about 10:20 a.m. local time in Sultanahmet Square, near the Topkapi palace and the Hagia Sophia attractions. The number of casualties is unclear, but some media outlets have reported the Governor’s Office of Istanbul as saying 10 are dead and 15 injured. There has been no official statement on the cause of the explosion from Turkish authorities, who have put a broadcast ban on news about the blast, the Guardian reported. Despite this, local television stations have shown images of emergency responders taking victims from the square to hospital.

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Dallas Fed’s Kaplan sees more ‘bankruptcies, mergers, restructurings’ in energy sector

WASHINGTON — The U.S. energy sector will see more “bankruptcies, mergers and restructurings” this year given the outlook for continued low oil prices, said Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan on Monday. “The overall tone in the oil and gas sector has soured, as expectations have decidedly shifted to an ‘even lower for even longer’ price outlook” in the wake of the December OPEC meeting, Kaplan said in a speech in Dallas. Economists at the Dallas Fed forecast that global excess inventories aren’t likely to begin falling until 2017, and there is a risk that it will take longer, he said. “Given the various cross-currents, the ultimate timing of reaching market production/consumption balance remains uncertain,” he added. Kaplan is not a voting member of the Fed policy committee this year. He said he was in favor of the December interest-rate increase, the first since 2006.

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Skullcandy shares drop 18% after fourth-quarter outlook cut

Skullcandy Inc. shares dropped in the extended session Monday after the headphone maker cut its guidance for the fourth quarter. Skullcandy shares, which had been halted at $4.60 before the announcement, fell 18% to $3.75 after hours. Skullcandy said it expects fourth-quarter earnings of 20 cents to 22 cents a share, down from its previous forecast of 38 cents to 40 cents a share, because of disappointing holiday sales and a shift in gross margins. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated earnings of 37 cents a share.

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Cray raises 2015 revenue outlook, maintains 2016 forecast

Cray Inc. late Monday said it raised its 2015 revenue outlook to a range of $720 million to $725 million from its previous target of $715 million and reiterated that it expects to be “solidly profitable.” The supercomputer company also maintained its revenue forecast of $825 million for 2016. Analysts surveyed by FactSet are projecting 2015 revenue of $716.8 million and $818 million this year. Shares of Cray fell 1.9% in after-hours trading.

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Burlington Stores shares rally 8% as company expects flat sales

Burlington Stores Inc. shares rose more than 8% in late trading Monday after the off-price retailer said it expects flat comparable-store sales in the fourth quarter, and forecast its net sales to increase by 3.7% in the quarter, at the lower end of its previous guidance of an increase between 3.7% and 4.7% in net sales. Burlington had expected comparable-store sales to be flat to up 1% previously. The company expects a fourth-quarter adjusted net income between $1.44 a share and $1.46 a share, compared with prior expectations of $1.44 a share to $1.48 a share. Increases in sales of gift items such as perfumes, bath and body items, and home goods have been offset by “headwinds” affecting cold-weather items such as coats and outerwear, Burlington said. Shares of Burlington ended Monday up 2.8%.

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