Tag: stock market

Laptop Magazine said Apple Inc. has fallen from its top position on its 10 best and worst brands ranking for 2017 to fifth place, after the iPhone maker drew “modest” review scores. The publication evaluates the 10 biggest laptop brands and decides which offer the best combination of quality, innovation, support, design and value. “Because of its modest review scores, expensive products and lack of ports, Apple fell all the way down to fifth place after receiving top honors every year since the Best and Worst Brands debuted in 2010,” the magazine wrote. Lenovo took top spot, followed by Asus, Dell and HP . Apple tied with Acer for fifth place on the list. Lenovo “leaped into first place on the strength of its many highly-rated laptops, groundbreaking technologies and vastly improved customer support,” the magazine wrote. Apple shares were flat in premarket trade, but have gained 24% in 2017, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 4.5%.

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Starbucks Corp. said Tuesday that it will offer an insurance plan for the parents of eligible full-time workers in mainland China that covers critical illness. The Starbucks China Parent Care Program will extend to more than 10,000 parents, the company said. Parents must be below the age of 75 to qualify, and other conditions may apply. The program will cover the treatment of 30 common critical illnesses among the elderly in China. The Starbucks Caring Unites Partners Fund launched in China in 2010, which provides financial assistance to workers during times of hardship, and found that more than 70% are concerned with their parents’ health. Single workers, who make up 80% of the staffers in China, are concerned about their ability to cover long-term care costs. Starbucks has more than 2,600 stores across 127 cities and nearly 40,000 employees in China. Starbucks shares are inactive in premarket trading, and are up 4.4% for the year so far.

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Shares of online business reviewer Yelp Inc. climbed 2.6% in premarket trade Tuesday, after Pacific Crest upgraded the stock to the equivalent of buy and said it has an “underappreciated core franchise.” Analysts led by Brad Erickson said competitive concerns about Yelp’s relevance are overdone, “while self-serve’s ease and utility are underappreciated.” Self-serve is a tool that allows businesses drive their own advertising. The analysts said his channel checks suggest that Yelp is insulated from Google and delivering value to its customers. The company is well positioned to attract a part of the more than $60 billion in local ad spending that is shifting online, he said. Erickson raised his 2017 and 2018 revenue estimates. Shares are down 14% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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United Airlines parent United Continental Holdings Inc.’s stock price target was raised at Cowen & Co., which cited upbeat traffic data, but made no mention of the incident over the weekend in which a passenger was dragged off a plane. The air carrier reported late Monday March traffic that rose 3%, while load factor declined slightly. Analyst Helane Becker raised her first-quarter earnings-per-share estimate to 42 cents from 24 cents, compared with the FactSet consensus of 35 cents. Becker said that while capacity increased more than expected, it was because of a better completion factor. “We expect the company to guide to sequential improvement in unit revenue from 1Q17 to 2Q17,” Becker wrote in a note to clients. The stock, which slumped 2.4% in premarket trade, has lost 1.9% year to date through Monday, while the NYSE Arca Airline Index has eased 0.2% and the S&P 500 has gained 5.3%.

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Conyers Park Acquisition Corp. and Atkins Nutritionals Inc. have agreed to merge and create a new holding company called The Simply Good Foods Co. with an enterprise value of about $856 million. Atkins is owned by affiliates of private-equity firm Roark Capital Group. The new entity will be listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “SMPL”. The deal will be funded using a mixture of cash, stock and debt. Atkins owners will receive $730 million in total, including 10.3 million shares of Simply Good Foods valued at $10 a share. Conyers Park has $402.5 million in cash in its trust account, as well as commitments for $100 million stock private placement at $10 a share. The deal is expected to close in June. Conyers shares were halted premarket, but have gained 2% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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Supervalu Inc. said late Monday it will acquire grocery distributor Unified Grocers for $114 million. Under the agreement, approved by both company boards, Supervalu will also assume and pay off $261 million in United Grocer debt. The companies expect the deal to close in the mid-to-late summer. Shares of Supervalu rose 2.6% to $3.89 after hours.

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Supervalu Inc. said late Monday it will acquire grocery distributor Unified Grocers for $114 million. Under the agreement, approved by both company boards, Supervalu will also assume and pay off $261 million in United Grocer debt. The companies expect the deal to close in the mid-to-late summer. Shares of Supervalu rose 2.6% to $3.89 after hours.

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United Continental Holdings Inc. late Monday said its March traffic rose 3% to 17.61 billion revenue passenger miles from a year earlier. A revenue passenger mile is equal to one passenger flown one mile. Total capacity last month increased 3.4% to 21.66 billion available seat miles. However, load factor, or the percentage of available seats filled with passengers, fell 0.3% to 81.3%. The data release comes amid mounting negative publicity for the airline over an incident in which a passenger had to be forcibly removed from an overbooked United flight. Shares of United slipped 0.2% after hours.

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RetailMeNot Inc. , an online coupon site specializing in promotional codes for e-commerce, has agreed to be acquired for $11.60 a share, roughly 50% higher than its closing price of $7.75. Harland Clarke Holdings Corp., a subsidiary of Ronald Perelman’s MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., agreed to acquire the company to pair with a more traditional coupon business it acquired in 2013, Valassis Communications Inc. “RetailMeNot provides a new global digital channel to distribute our clients’ offers that perfectly complements Valassis’ current digital, mobile, mail and other print networks,” Victor Nichols, chief executive of HCH, said in the announcement. HCH, which plans a tender offer for shares at the announced amount with a second-step merger at the same price for any shares not procured in the tender, expects the deal to close in the current quarter. RetailMeNot will be a private company after the acquisition and will not release earnings guidance moving forward, the companies said. RetailMeNot went public in 2013 for $21 a share and shares sold for more than $40 at times on the public market; shares were halted ahead of the announcement, and were expected to begin trading again at 1:45 p.m. Pacific time.

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Shares of Hub Group Inc. were halted in the extended session Monday after the transportation management company forecast earnings well below Wall Street estimates. Hub Group shares were halted at $47.25, following a 1.8% rise in the regular session. The company forecast earnings of 30 cents to 32 cents a share for the first quarter, and $1.60 to $1.80 for the year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated first-quarter earnings of 45 cents a share, and full-year earnings of $2.39 a share. “We are experiencing a soft pricing environment due primarily to excess truck capacity and extraordinarily aggressive intermodal pricing,” the company said in a statement.

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