Tag: stock market

Shares of Progress Software Corp. rose 9.2% in premarket trade Thursday, after the company beat fourth-quarter earnings estimates and offered upbeat guidance on its conference call. Benchmark analyst Mark Schappel reiterated their buy rating on the stock, but said although it was a good quarter, it didn’t change his investment opinion of the stock. “The company continues to move forward with its machine learning-based Cognitive Apps “growth” strategy while at the same time attempting to keep activist shareholders at bay through prudent cost disciplines and allocating capital through dividends and share repurchases,” Schappel wrote in a note. Progress Software has come under pressure from hedge fund Praesidium Investment Management, its third biggest shareholder, according to FactSet, which has urged it to replace its chairman. The company reported EPS of 34 cents, after a loss of $1.52 a share a year ago. Adjusted per-share earnings came to 67 cents, above the 61 cents consensus. Revenue fell 1.4% to $116.1 million, but topped the consensus of $114.3 million. Shares have gained 38% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 21%.

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Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. shot up 3.7% in premarket trade Thursday, after the air carrier reported fourth-quarter profit and sales that beat expectations. Net income for the quarter to Dec. 31 fell to $572 million, or 80 cents a share, from $622 million, or 84 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to 96 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 88 cents. The company recognized a one-time charge of $150 million during the quarter as a result of tax reform legislation. Total revenue rose 8% to $10.25 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $10.13 billion, amid a 7% rise in total passenger revenue and a 18% jump in other revenue. Load factor improved to 85.2% from 85.1%. Looking ahead, the company expects first-quarter total unit revenue growth of 2.5% to 4.5%. The stock has rallied 5.3% over the past three months, while the NYSE Arca Airline Index has gained 3.3% and the S&P 500 has climbed 7.6%.

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Shares of Boston Scientific Corp. rose 1.7% in premarket trade Thursday, after the company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved its Spectra WaveWriter spinal cord simulator system, a non-opioid treatment for chronic pain. “It is the first and only system approved by the FDA to simultaneously provide paresthesia-based and sub-perception therapy,” the company said in a statement. The system sends low electrical pulses to the spinal cord to interrupt pain signals. “Paresthesia-based therapy provides pain relief with a light tingling sensation while sub-perception therapy works without that sensation,” said the statement. Patients can combine therapies to best manage multiple areas of pain. More than 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, which is the leading cause of disability in adults. Shares have gained 18% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 21%.

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Shares of DST Systems Inc. jumped 3.3% in premarket trade Thursday, after the information processing and servicing company agreed to be acquired by SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. in a deal valued at $5.4 billion, including debt. SS&C shares were still inactive. Under terms of the deal, SS&C will pay $84 a share in cash for each DST share outstanding, which implies a market value of about $5.06 billion for DST. SS&C, a provider of software services for the financial services industry, plans to fund the acquisition, which is expected to close during the third quarter, with a combination of debt and equity. SS&C expects the deal to add immediately to adjusted earnings per share, and result in $150 million in annual cost savings, to be achieved by 2020. DST’s stock has run up 44.5% over the past 12 months, while SS&C shares have soared 52.1% and the S&P 500 has gained 20.8%.

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YouTube said Wednesday it has cut business ties with popular vlogger Logan Paul following a controversial video he posted that showed a dead body in a Japanese forest. “In light of recent events, we have decided to remove Logan Paul’s channels from Google Preferred,” a YouTube spokesperson said, according to a report by Variety. “Additionally, we will not feature Logan in Season 4 of ‘Foursome’ and his new originals are on hold.” Google Preferred is the company’s top-tier ad platform, and “Foursome” is a comedy on the YouTube Red channel. Paul has about 15 million subscribers to his channel, which has not been taken down. Days after posting the video, Paul apologized and took it down after a harsh outcry, but YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, was silent for 11 days, finally saying Tuesday that Paul’s channel violated community guidelines and promising “further consequences.” In a tweet Tuesday, YouTube said: “We’ll have more to share soon on steps we’re taking to ensure a video like this is never circulated again.”

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Shares of KB Home rose 3% late Wednesday after the homebuilder reported fourth-quarter earnings above Wall Street forecasts and said it expects “solid demand for housing” this year. KB Home earned $84.3 million, or 84 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $37.5 million, or 40 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue rose 18% to $1.40 billion, compared with $1.19 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected per-share earnings of 77 cents on sales of $1.35 billion. The company pinned its optimism for housing demand in 2018 on “healthy employment, rising household incomes and strong consumer confidence, and continued limited supply,” Chief Executive Jeffrey Mezger said in a statement. Shares ended the regular session up 0.4%.

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U.S. stock-market indexes closed slightly lower on Wednesday as investors grew cautious following a temporary jump in the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, prompted by a report that China is considering halting purchases of U.S. debt. Investors dumped bond-proxies, or stocks such as utilities, real estate and telecoms. Meanwhile financials stocks were the only bright spot on Wall Street, rising along with the yields. The S&P 500 fell 3.06 points, or 0.1%, to 2,748.23, breaking a six-day winning streak. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index declined by 10.01 points, or 0.1%, to 7,153.57, also breaking its six-day advance and retreating from records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 16.67 points, or less than 0.1%, to 25,369.13. Among the best performers on Wall Street, shares of Eastman Kodak Co. soared 57%, building on a 119% surge from Tuesday when the image-technology company said it is launching a cryptocurrency and would begin a “major blockchain initiative.”

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President Donald Trump said Wednesday it’s “unlikely” he would answer questions from Special Counsel Robert Mueller since “there was absolutely no collusion” between his campaign and Russia. At a White House news conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Trump said “it seems unlikely that you’d even have an interview.” Mueller has reportedly told Trump’s lawyers he may want to interview the president.

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Exchange-traded funds that track both Canada’s and Mexico’s stock markets fell on Wednesday, following a report that suggested U.S. President Donald Trump may announce a withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement. The iShares MSCI Mexico ETF sank 2.5% while the iShares MSCI Canada ETF lost 1.1%. The S&P 500 fell 0.2%. According to Reuters, which cited two Canadian government officials, Canada is increasingly convinced that President Donald Trump will announce that the U.S. will exit Nafta. The trade pact is currently being renegotiated with the latest round of talks scheduled for later this month in Montreal. A dissolution of Nafta is seen as detrimental to both Mexico and Canada, which benefit from free trade with the world’s largest economy.

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Oil prices on Wednesday settled above $63 a barrel for the first time in more than three years after the Energy Information Administration reported an eighth-straight weekly decline in U.S. crude supplies, along with a fall in weekly production. February West Texas Intermediate crude rose 61 cents, or 1%, to settle at $63.57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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