Tag: stock market

Netflix Inc. international subscribers are less likely to abandon the streaming platform if it were to raise prices again, according to a survey done by analysts at PiperJaffray. The analysts also raised their 12-month price target for Netflix to $319 from $281. Shares of Netflix were up 2% in early trade. Analysts surveyed Netflix subscribers in seven international markets and found a 15% decline in the percentage of people who would cancel their subscription if Netflix raised prices by about 20%. “International Netflix subs are becoming less price sensitive. We believe this may be due to the strides the company has made to bolster its international content library,” lead analyst Michael Olson wrote in a note to investors. “The results give us further confidence that Netflix can continue to grow both international subscriber count and revenue per international subscriber.” Olson said he expects Netflix’s total addressable market outside of the U.S. to be around 765 million broadband subscribers by the end of 2020. Shares of Netflix are up 99% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 index is up more than 15%.

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U.S. stock benchmarks kicked off trade slightly higher, struggling to gain altitude, as investors were reluctant to make substantial bets ahead of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January meeting. With inflation fears and worries about borrowings costs, the market will look for clues about the central bank’s inflation outlook and the pace of rate hikes when the minutes are released at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was trading 0.1% higher at 24,984, while the S&P 500 opened 0.1% higher at 2,720. The technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.3% to 7,255. In individual stocks, shares of LendingClub Corp , Devon Energy and pay-TV provider Dish Network Corp slipped following their fourth-quarter earnings reports.

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Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Studios said on Wednesday that it’s acquired global TV rights the first novel in famed Scottish writer Iain M. Banks’s Culture series, “Consider Phlebas.” British writer Dennis Kelly (“Matilda the Musical”) will write the series with Plan B Entertainment producing. The series is a kinetic, action-packed adventure in a fictional interstellar utopian society, according to a news release. It centers around Horza, a rogue agent tasked with an impossible mission to recover an artificial intelligence thousands of times smarter than any human, Amazon said. The cost of the acquisition wasn’t disclosed. “We revere the work of Iain Banks and continue to be moved by his inimitable spirit and his commitment to imagining a better future even in the darkest of times,” Plan B said in a statement. “‘Consider Phlebas,’ simultaneously explores the deepest questions concerning humanity and our future.” Banks’s estate will serve as executive producer. The sci-fi writer died in 2013. Shares of Amazon are up more than 71% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 index is up nearly 15% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 20%.

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Shares of Match Group Inc. are down 2.4% in premarket trading Wednesday after analysts at J.P. Morgan downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight. The analysts, led by Doug Anmuth, think that the current stock price “reflects a more balanced risk/reward profile” given a huge run-up over the past year, including a 34% gain just since the start of 2018. Anmuth notes that Match has seen paying subscriber additions for its Tinder property grow at a far higher rate than normal in the last couple of quarters following the launch of its new Tinder Gold option, but he thinks that net additions will head back toward historical levels in the first half of the year. Tinder’s “next monetization push” won’t happen until the second half of the year, he wrote. “While we continue to believe Tinder has significant room for paid sub penetration going forward (~30M+ MAUs, ~3M subs), we expect Tinder net adds to trend down in 1H18 as the Gold surge fades and with fewer expected product catalysts,” Anmuth wrote. Match shares are up 147% over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 15%.

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Shares of Palo Alto Networks Inc. gained 2.5% in premarket trading Wednesday after Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Anne Meisner upgraded her rating on the stock to positive from neutral. ” With an increasing proportion of revenue coming from recurring subscription, overall revenue growth should show much more gradual deceleration going forward,” she wrote. “We look for a stabilization of total revenue growth in the high-teens range beyond FY18.” Meisner’s channel checks show growing interest in products such as Global Protect Cloud and its Traps “advanced endpoint protection” service, she wrote, adding that in general the checks were encouraging for the fiscal second quarter, which the company is due to report results for on Feb. 26. Meisner also likes the stock’s valuation relative to peers. It trades at 5.5 times Susquehanna’s estimates for calendar 2018 enterprise value to revenue, “a slight discount to the mean of our coverage universe despite having a slightly higher than average growth rate.” Shares are up 4.6% in the past 12 months, compared with a 15% gain for the S&P 500 Index .

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Shares of Devon Energy Corp. fell 6% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the company posted weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings late Wednesday and offered downbeat production guidance for 2018. Cowen analysts said the company’s earnings call later Wednesday “should focus more on DVN’s potential for cash return in dividends and share repurchases after it pays down debt. Asset sales, which we see the Eagle Ford as a potential candidate, could accelerate cash returns.” Cowen has an outperform rating on the stock. Susquehanna said the weak production guidance was partly impacted by winter weather in the U.S. and Eagle Ford well completion timing (no well completions until 2Q), but said it views the guidance as conservative and expects it may be raised during the year. Shares have fallen 23% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 has gained 15%.

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Broadcom Ltd. announced early Wednesday that it would be lowering its hostile takeover bid for Qualcomm Inc. , following Qualcomm’s decision to raise its own bid for NXP Semiconductors NV . Broadcom is now seeking to acquire Qualcomm for $79 per Qualcomm share, consisting of $57 in cash and $22 in Broadcom shares. The company previously said it was prepared to acquire Qualcomm for $82 a share, made up of $60 in cash and $22 in Broadcom shares. Broadcom announced that it would revert to that initial bid “in the event that Qualcomm is unable to complete the NXP acquisition.” The company’s revised offer comes a day after Qualcomm raised its bid for NXP, prompting Broadcom to say that it was “evaluating its options” for its own deal. Qualcomm shares are down 1.2% in premarket trading, while Broadcom shares are up 0.9%. They’re up 13% and 17%, respectively, over the past 12 months, while the S&P 500 Index has gained 15%.

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Priceline Group Inc. said Wednesday that it is changing its name to Booking Holdings Inc., effective today. The company will change its ticker to “BKNG” effective February 27. The company has grown from the Priceline website to six brands with operations around the world, the company’s Chief Executive Glenn Fogel said in a statement. Its largest brand is Booking.com with more than 1 million bookings each day and a “significant majority”of its gross bookings and operating profit. The company is “[m]aking this change to more accurately align our company name with our largest business,” he said. Other Booking brands include Kayak and OpenTable. The company headquarters will remain in Norwalk, Conn. Priceline shares are indicating higher in premarket trading, and are up 15% for the past year. The S&P 500 index is also up nearly 15% for the last 12 months.

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AbbVie Inc. and Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. shares rose 1.7% and 1.1% respectively in premarket trade Wednesday after the companies announced that their drug met its primary endpoint in a phase 3 trial testing it in women with uterine fibroids. The therapy, elagolix, combined with low-dose hormone therapy reduced heavy menstrual bleeding in 68.5% of women, compared with 8.7% of women on the placebo. The phase 3 trial, ELARIS UF-I, is the first of two late-stage studies, and the Wednesday release was based on topline results from a six-month primary analysis. Uterine fibroids affect an estimated 7.5 million U.S. women, and consist of growths in the uterus that can cause heavy bleeding, pain and bladder problems. Other companies are also developing drugs in this area, includingMyovant , Allergan and the biotech ObsEva . AbbVie and Neurocrine’s elagolix is also being developed for endometriosis with associated pain, and is being reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration for that indication. AbbVie shares have surged 24.6% over the last three months, and Neurocrine shares have surged 14%, compared with a 4.5% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Popular Christian evangelist preacher Billy Graham, known for tent revivals and, eventually, sermons delivered in filled-to-capacity stadiums and across television broadcasts, has died at age 99, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association told NBC News early Wednesday. “God has sent me out as a warrior … ,” he once said. Graham, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, became internationally recognized with his “crusades” from about 1949 on. He was known to meet and consult with American presidents from both parties. His son, Franklin Graham, tweeted on Presidents Day earlier this week that his father had met every U.S. president from Harry Truman to Donald Trump.

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