Tag: stock market

Sales at privately-held company LunaPads, which makes menstrual products, increased by 25% last month. In mid-March, competitor Thinx weathered a scandal about workplace culture and a former employee charged that Thinx’s founder had sexually harassed her. Vancouver, Canada-based LunaPads, which has been making menstrual underwear since 2000, told MarketWatch it expects greater sales growth to come. Customers of start-up Thinx, which also makes menstrual underwear, told MarketWatch last month that they were disillusioned about the company, and weren’t sure they’d purchase its products again.

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Shares of Victoria’s Secrets parent L Brands Inc. were trading up 10% to lead S&P 500 gainers on Thursday, a surprising move coming after the company reported a 10% decline in March same-store sales. L Brands, which also owns Bath and Body Works, said net sales fell 7% to $951.4 million, hurt by a timing shift for Easter this year. Sales for the nine-week period to April 1 fell 8%, while same-store sales were down 11%. “For the nine week period, the exit of the swim and apparel categories had a negative impact of 6 percentage points and 9 percentage points to total company and Victoria’s Secret comparable sales, respectively,” the company said. Cowen & Co. analyst Oliver Chen said the numbers were “likely better than feared”, but that the stock was probably also the subject of short covering. Short interest in the stock has climbed to 9.2 million shares, according to FactSet data. “Cowen remains very cautious on Victoria’s Secrets sports transition, bralette risk factors, and beauty turnaround – also, store footprint could become an issue if mall traffic weakness accelerates and digital importance increases,” Chen wrote in a note. Shares have fallen 28% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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Dustin Johnson has pulled out of The Masters, on the first day of the golf world’s first major tournament of 2017. Johnson had been set to tee off at 2.03 p.m. at Augusta National in Georgia but withdrew following a fall down a flight of stairs that injured his back on the eve of the historic tournament, according to reports. Besides being the top-ranked golfer, Johnson had entered the tournament on a three-gaming winning streak on the PGA tour and was a prohibitive favorite to don the “green jacket,” conferred upon the winner of the event that started in 1934 and is one of golf’s four major tournaments.

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Gold settled higher Thursday, its fourth gain out of five sessions, ahead of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and on concerns that tax reform faces a rockier-than-expected road. Gold for June delivery settled up $4.80, or 0.4%, at $1,248.50 an ounce, on the heels of a surge following late Wednesday comments from House Speaker Paul Ryan that tax reform efforts could prove to be difficult. Silver for May delivery settled up 5.9 cents, or 0.3%, at just under $18.25 an ounce.

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Constellation Brands Inc. stock soared 7% Thursday, after the distributor of wine, spirits and Corona beer beat earnings estimates for the fourth quarter and offered upbeat guidance for fiscal 2018. Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog cited that outlook, along with margin expansion and strong volume growth in beer, as key positives in the report in a quick take note on the numbers. Herzog rates the stock outperform. Constellation Brands beat EPS estimates by 12 cents, while sales came in 2.4% above consensus, based on FactSet data. Beer shipment volumes rose 8.7% and pricing rose 4.6% to push beer sales growth to 10%, said Herzog. “We continue to think STZ has significant momentum and are encouraged by this quarter’s strong underlying results and FY18 outlook,” she wrote. Constellation Brands remains her top beverage stock pick, she said. Shares have gained about 13% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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Aetna Inc. said Thursday that it will not be selling Affordable Care Act plans in Iowa in 2018. The development, which was first reported by Modern Healthcare, a health care publication, was prompted by “financial risk and an uncertain outlook for the marketplace,” Aetna said. The health insurer, which sold ACA plans in 2017 in four states, Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska and Virginia, said it is still evaluating its participation in the three remaining states. Aetna’s decision follows an exit from the ACA exchanges by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Iowa’s largest insurer, which was announced earlier this week. The third insurer that currently has offerings on the Iowa exchanges is non-profit Medica. Health insurers have until June 21 to submit their bids for 2018, and have been contending with tremendous uncertainty around the future of the ACA, also called Obamacare. Though Republicans pulled their plan to repeal the ACA from a House of Representatives vote late last month, they’ve said they plan to try again, and it’s unclear how the law would fare under a hostile administration. Aetna shares have risen 3.0% over the last three months, compared with a 3.7% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Shares of Imax Corp. fell nearly 2% in early trade on Thursday, a day after the film exhibitor’s Chinese arm said two of its original private equity investors sold their 5.9% post-IPO stake to an investment bank for HK$39.72 per share. Imax owns 68.2% of Imax China. CMC Capital Partners and FountainVest Partners, the two original investors, took a stake in Imax China ahead of its Hong Kong IPO in 2015. B. Riley analyst Eric Wold wrote in a note to clients the news should amount to nothing more than noise for U.S.-based Imax investors, but also that it wouldn’t be a surprise if it caused weakness in shares on Thursday seeing as the decline in Imax China shares on the Hong Kong exchange would equate to roughly a 5% decline in Imax’s consolidated valuation. “While we cannot speak to the reasons for these two investors monetizing their stakes in Imax China, we believe their partnerships with Imax will continue to be instrumental in furthering Imax China’s relationship with the Chinese government as in the advancement of its China film fund,” Wold wrote. He also said that with any weakness in Imax shares investors should add to stakes in the company ahead of a Imax-friendly film slate and expansion in 2017. Shares of Imax have gained nearly 8% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 index is up 14% during the same period.

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Shares of Advanced Micro Devices fell more than 8% on Thursday after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on the stock with a sell rating. Analyst Toshiya Hari slapped an $11 12-month price target on the stock, which implies 22% downside from Wednesday’s close price of $14.17. While Hari acknowledged the strides AMD has made under Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su since she was appointed in 2012, he said the stock seems to have already priced in a sharp improvement in its competitive and financial position. He finds current valuation metrics difficult to justify and expects shares to underperform the market after AMD’s analyst day in May. Among the problems facing AMD is competition from Intel Corp. and Nvidia Corp. , which Hari said will likely offset any meaningful traction AMD gets with new products. Shares of AMD have increased 25% in the past three months and more than 400%in the past year, vastly outperforming the S&P 500 , up 3% and 14%, respectively.

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Shares of Virginia-based Hooker Furniture Corp. surged more than 20% in early trade Thursday, after the designer and importer of furniture for the residential, hospitality and contract markets blew past per-share earnings estimates for its fourth quarter. The company said it had net income of $11 million, or 95 cents a share, for the quarter, up from $4.1 million, or 38 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales rose to $173.9 million from $60.6 million, boosted by the acquisition of Home Meridian International which closed on Feb 1, 2016. Sales from that business were not included in the year-earlier results. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 66 cents. Chief Executive Paul Toms said earnings were driven by Home Meridian’s “significant backlog” at the end of the third quarter, which led record shipments in the fourth quarter. “With sales recovering at both Home Meridian and Hooker legacy brands, we demonstrated the significant earnings leverage possible with our asset-light, low fixed cost business model,” he said. Hooker Furniture designs and imports casegoods, or wooden and metal furniture, leather furniture and furniture upholstered with fabric. Shares are down 0.4% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 5%.

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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes will temporarily step aside from a probe into Russian meddling into the 2016 election, Politico reported. The probe includes possible contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. The investigation will be taken over by three other Republican congressmen, Politico said.

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