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Sen. Ron Johnson, one of half a dozen holdouts, will vote for the Senate Republican tax package after securing more favorable treatment for “pass-through” entities that pay taxes through the returns of individual owner, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing an aide.
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Shares of Macy’s Inc. rose 0.8% in premarket trade Friday, after the department store chain said it plans to hire an additional 7,000 seasonal employees for its Macy’s stores during the holiday season, following what it said was a “great start” to the season. Macy’s had previously said it would hire 80,000 seasonal workers, which was down from 83,000 a year ago. “Due to the strong traffic in our stores, we are adding associates in our stores across the country to ensure that customers continue to receive the high level of service they have come to expect from us,” said Chief Stores Officer John Harper. “We are excited to be further expanding our seasonal workforce.” Macy’s stock has tumbled 34% year to date through Thursday, but had climbed 11% over the past three months. In comparison, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has rallied 10% over the past three months and the S&P 500 has gained 6.9%.
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Blank-check company Regalwood Global Energy Ltd. priced its initial public offering at $10 a share late Thursday, selling 30 million units to raise $300 million. The shares are expected to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange later Friday under the ticker symbol “RWGEU.” Citigroup and J.P. Morgan were lead underwriters on the deal.
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Ulta Beauty Inc. shares slid 5% in premarket trade Friday, after the specialty cosmetics retailer reported third-quarter per-share earnings that surpassed Wall Street expectations but same-store sales growth slowed and the fourth-quarter outlook was mixed. J.P. Morgan analysts said they expect the stock to suffer only minor pressure given the quarterly beat, the outlook for “relatively improved” merchandise margin performance in the fourth quarter and re-commitment to 20% plus growth in 2018. “This will likely stave off what could have been a tough day for the stock given the 110-bp decline in gross margin,” they wrote in a note. “That been said, the uncertainty on gross margin and what we view as a lost opportunity to lower the sales bar could leave the stock in the show me camp until we get clarity on 4Q and gross margin in 1H18.” J.P. Morgan rates the stock overweight. Raymond James analyst Joseph Altobello reiterated his market perform rating on the stock. “While valuation appears somewhat attractive given the stock’s pronounced pullback in recent months, we believe the recent slowdown in comps (with another tough compare coming in 4Q) and ongoing margin pressures, coupled with investor concerns over heightened competitive activity within the beauty retail space is likely to limit meaningful upside and exacerbate volatility in the shares in the near-term,” he wrote in a note. Shares are down 13% in 2017 through Thursday, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.
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Hamburger chain Wendy’s Co. said Friday it is partnering with DoorDash to offer customers door-to-door delivery. “Rolling out delivery has quickly progressed, along with demand for convenience and delivery trends,” said Liz Geraghty, vice president of customer activation, in a statement. DoorDash will use thermal bags to keep food hot or cold. The two companies completed a pilot program earlier this year in Columbus, Ohio and Dallas, Texas, across 135 restaurants. Wendy’s shares were slightly higher premarket, and have gained 10% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.
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Amazon.com Inc. had its stock price target raised above $1,300 by yet another Wall Street analyst, bringing the total to 16, or 34%, of the 47 analysts surveyed by FactSet. Oppenheimer’s Jason Helfstein raised his target to $1,330 from $1,165, while reiterating his outperform rating, citing a more upbeat outlook for the e-commerce giant’s cloud business, Amazon Web Services, following this week’s AWS re:Invent conference. “Conversations with ASW users highlighted continued strong demand, with expertise/app porting acting as the bottleneck,” Helfstein wrote in a note to clients. “AWS’ dominance in serverless, global databases and [artificial intelligence] is creating unique new services in an accelerated basis, driving unpredictable services/growth.” Helfstein’s target was above the FactSet average target of $1,274.26, which is 8.3% above Thursday’s closing price of $1,176.75. The stock slipped 0.4% in premarket trade Friday, amid a broad market selloff, but has soared 57% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.
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Financial services firm Cowen Inc. said Friday it has appointed Jeffrey Solomon as its next chief executive, effective Dec. 27. Solomon, who is currently president of the firm, is replacing Peter Cohen, who has been CEO since 2009 and was founder of its predecessor firm, Ramius Capital. Cohen will remain chairman. Shares were not yet active premarket, but have fallen 4% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.
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The Dow Chemical Co. said Friday it has completed the sale of part of its Brazil Dow AgriSciences’ corn seed business to CITIC Agri Fund for $1.1 billion. The sale is part of the required regulatory remedies of Dow’s merger with DuPont to form DowDuPont, which closed on Aug. 31. Shares of the net entity were not yet active premarket, but have gained 28% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.
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American Woodwork Corp. said Friday it agreed to buy kitchen and bath cabinet maker RSI Home Products Inc. for $486 million in cash and stock. Including $589 million in debt, the would be deal valued at $1.075 billion. Under terms of the deal, the company will pay $346 million in cash and issue $140 million worth of American Woodmark stock to RSI shareholders. The deal is expected to add immediately to earnings. The company said it will suspend its share repurchase program. Separately, American Woodmark reported fiscal second-quarter net income that rose to $19.8 million, or $1.21 a share, from $17.6 million, or $1.07 a share, in the same period a year ago. That beat the FactSet earnings-per-share consensus of $1.20. Revenue rose to $274.8 million from $264.1 million, but missed the FactSet consensus of $280.6 million. The stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has rallied 32.4% year to date, while the S&P 500 has climbed 18.3%.
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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC on Friday said it was cutting 680 jobs, as more customers are turning to online banking. After a review, the bank said it will close 62 Royal Bank of Scotland branches and 197 NatWest branches. “Since 2014 the number of customers using our branches across the UK has fallen by 40% and mobile transactions have increased by 73% over the same period. Over 5 million customers now use our mobile banking app and one in five only bank with us digitally,” a spokesperson for the bank said in a statement. Shares of RBS dropped 1.4% in London.
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