Tag: stock market

Shares of NCI, Inc. fell 13% in premarket trade Monday after the company said its controller had embezzled $18 million from the company over six years. NCI, a provider of information technology and professional services for U.S. government agencies, said it had fired the controller and has begun an internal investigation into the issue. The company believes it will be able to recover a large portion of the stolen money. NCI said it believes the controller was acting alone and had taken about $5 million in 2016 and $13 million over the prior five years. The company said this money showed up as expenses in NCI’s financial statements and that the unadited financial statements in the company’s form 10-Q’s for the first three quarters of 2016 cannot be relied on. NCI is working with legal counsel and federal authorities on the matter. Shares of NCI have gained 21% in the past three months, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 6%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Sprint Corp. said on Monday it’s acquiring 33% of Jay Z’s music streaming service Tidal. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sprint plans to make Tidal available to its 45 million post and prepaid customers. “Sprint shares our view of revolutionizing the creative industry to allow artists to connect directly with their fans and reach their fullest, shared potential,” Jay Z said in statement. “[Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure] understood our goal right away and together we are excited to bring Sprint’s 45 million customers an unmatched entertainment experience.” Tidal has had a rocky start since Jay Z bought the company for $56 million in March of 2015. The music streaming platform, touting high quality audio and artist exclusive content, launched with a much-criticized concert and has since shuffled numerous top executives out the door. With the deal, Sprint Chief Executive Marcelo Claure will sit on the Tidal board. Sprint shares are up 211% in the trailing 12-month period, outperforming the S&P 500 Index , which is up 19%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

McDonald’s Corp. shares are nearly flat in Monday premarket trading after the fast-food giant reported earnings that beat expectations. Net income for the fourth quarter totaled $1.19 billion, or $1.44 per share, compared with $1.21 billion, or $1.31 per share, for the same period last year. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of $1.41. Sales for the quarter were $6.03 billion, down from $6.34 billion and beating the $6.00 billion FactSet consensus. Global same-store sales increased 2.7%, though same-store sales in the U.S. fell 1.3%. The FactSet consensus was for a 1.4% decline in U.S. same-store sales. McDonald’s attributes the U.S. same-store sales decline to a tough comparison with last year’s all-day breakfast launch. Fourth-quarter same-store sales rose 4.7% in the high growth segment, led by China. And same-store sales rose 11.1% in foundational markets, led by Japan and some Latin American markets. McDonald’s shares are up 3.3% for the last year while the the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 23.2% for the same period.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Wells Fargo analysts downgraded Verizon Communications Inc. stock to market perform from outperform Monday morning, as they believe the company’s outperformance since the presidential election, up 10% vs. the S&P 500 Index up 5%, isn’t sustainable given growth headwinds in 2017. “While we still favor Verizon’s network superiority and free cash flow generation, we struggle with near term catalysts,” wrote senior analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in a note to Wells Fargo clients. “We believe Street estimates for 2017 revenue are too high and do not fully factor in headwinds.” Since the election, Verizon stock has benefited from expectations of corporate tax reform, which Fritzsche writes will likely happen, but the timing and impact is still uncertain. In the near term, Fritzsche says Verizon’s emerging businesses in digital media and the internet of things lack required scale and the company has been feeling increased competition from the likes of T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. . Shares of Verizon are up 12% in the trailing 12-month period, while the S&P 500 Index is up more than 19% in the same time.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

WestRock Co. announced Monday a deal to sell its home, health and beauty business to Silgan Holdings Inc. for $1.025 billion, plus the assumption of $25 million in foreign pension liability. WestRock said it expects to receive net proceeds $1 billion from the sale. “We have a constant strategic focus at WestRock on aligning our portfolio and resources around our core paper and packaging solutions businesses, and the sale of our Home, Health and Beauty business is the next step in this process,” said WestRock Chief Executive Steve Voorhees. The deal is expected to close during the current quarter. Silgan expects the deal to add to earnings, and will add more to earnings over time as synergies, which are expected to be $15 million within 24 months, are phased in. WestRock’s stock has soared 53% over the past 12 months, while Silgan shares have tacked on 3.3% and the S&P 500 has gained 19%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Kroger Co. said Monday that it will fill 10,000 permanent positions across its supermarket divisions. In 2016, the grocer hired 12,000 associates, and said it has created 86,000 permanent jobs over the last eight years. In total, Kroger has 443,000 associates and says about 70% of its store managers started as part-time clerks. Kroger shares are up 0.8% in premarket trading, but are down 8.2% for the last year. The S&P 500 index is up 19.1% for the past 12 months.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

AMC Entertainment Holding Inc. announced Monday a deal to buy Stockholm-based Nordic Cinema Group Holding AB for the equivalent of $292 million in cash. The deal comes one-month after the movie theater operator completed its $1.1 billion buyout of Carmike Cinemas. Buying Nordic would give AMC the largest theater operator in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the second largest in Norway. Nordic will keep its headquarters in Stockholm, but will operate as a subsidiary of London-based Odeon Cinemas Group, which AMC acquired in November 2016. “For the third time in the past twelve months, we believe we have discovered a substantial acquisition that gives AMC yet another opportunity to further expand and diversify our geographic reach and more firmly establish AMC as the undisputed leader in movie exhibition worldwide,” said AMC Chief Executive Adam Aron. The deal is expected to close in June 2017. AMC’s stock, which was still inactive in premarket trade, has rallied 70% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 19%.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

Forbes Energy Services Ltd. said Monday it has filed for bankruptcy, in the southern district of Texas-Corpus Christi. The oilfield services contractor said it has ample liquidity to support its business during the chapter 11 reorganization, which provides for a facility of $50 million to be funded by certain bondholders to ensure working capital. The stock, which traded on the OTC Pink Sheets, had tumbled 58% over the past three months.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

A unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is buying a German maker of pipe components, Willhelm Schulz GmBH, according to a report in the Handelsbatt newspaper on Monday. In a comment to the newspaper, Mark Donegan, the chief executive officer of Berkshire’s Precision Castparts, said the company doesn’t comment on individual transactions, “but PCC has negotiated an agreement to take over the Schulz Group.” There was no immediate response from an email inquiry to Precision Castparts and a spokesperson from Willhelm Schulz could not immediately be reached for comment.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News

All United Airlines domestic flights were grounded for about two hours Sunday night due to a computer glitch. “We have issued a ground stop for all domestic mainline flights due to an IT issue,” United Continental spokeswoman Maddie King said in a statement. The “ground stop” was lifted just after 9 p.m. Eastern, according to a tweet from the airline, and “we’re working to get flights on their way.” While United planes flying within the U.S. could not take off, the grounding did not apply to United sub-carriers. United did not immediately say how many flights were affected, nor what exactly the problem was.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

…read more

From:: Stock Market News