tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50896951204214388992024-03-08T01:42:47.919-08:00Health Care 2013Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.comBlogger359125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-39254961982726537112019-04-01T18:16:00.000-07:002019-04-01T18:17:20.568-07:00Treasury yields rise after stronger manufacturing, construction data <p>U.S. government debt yields rose Monday as strong manufacturing data in the United States and China triggered a pivot toward riskier assets.</p> <p>The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 6 basis points 2.483 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond climbed to 2.876 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices.</p> <p>Yields rose in early trading Monday after a U.S. manufacturing industry report showed that activity rose slightly more than expected in March as production, new orders and hiring all accelerated.</p> <p>The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity rose to 55.3 from 54.2 in February, the lowest level since November 2016. The reading was slightly above expectations of 54.5 from a Reuters poll of 69 economists.</p> <p>Meanwhile, U.S. construction spending rose for a third consecutive month in February, bolstered by private and public construction projects. The Commerce Department said that spending rose 1 percent to a nine-month high.</p> <p>"The recent data are promising — they suggest that things were finally bottoming out at the end of the first quarter. Now the question is whether there will be enough momentum in the system to lift growth, particularly in the manufacturing sectors," Nathan Sheets, chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income, wrote in an email. </p> <p>In China, a report showed that its manufacturing activity expanded unexpectedly in March, a private survey showed, at its fastest pace in eight months. The reports of better-than-expected manufacturing activity helped ease some fears of a widespread growth downturn that has dampened markets in recent weeks.</p> <p>The U.S. and China have also concluded their latest round of trade talks last week, and are due to meet for further discussions in Washington this week. U.S. officials last week said that China had made proposals on various issues, including forced technology transfers, that go further than previous commitments.</p> <p>"All eyes will be on the data from China over the next couple of months," Sheets added. "How much stimulus is there in the pipeline? And how will it affect the Chinese economy and the global economy?"</p> <p>— CNBC's Ryan Browne contributed reporting.</p> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-15764700593872146092019-03-28T18:53:00.000-07:002019-03-28T18:54:39.425-07:00From Lyft to Airbnb, new round of IPOs is no market top: Nick Colas <p>Nick Colas asserts the rush of tech IPOs does not point to a market bubble, and he has data to help prove it.</p> <p>The DataTrek Research co-founder lists historical trends one of two reasons why a free fall is unlikely.</p> <p>"We haven't had a lot of tech IPOs. There were just 52 last year. In the heyday in the 1990s, we got over 250 tech IPOs every year through the back half of that cycle," he said Friday on CNBC's "Trading Nation. "So, even though this feels like a big calendar coming up, it really isn't buy historical norms — particularly those norms that we worry about in terms of tech cycle tops and peaks."</p> <p>His second reason: Valuations.</p> <p>"Tech is trading 18 times earnings. That's a little bit rich for the S&P at 16.3 [times], but not as rich as the consumer staples or discretionary or utilities or a couple of other sectors," added Colas. "So tech is a little bit rich, but not as rich as it was in the '90s. It doesn't feel like a set-up like it was in the late 90s."</p> <p>The year's first major technology IPO is Lyft, which prices on Thursday. Its ride-sharing competitor Uber is due to list on the NYSE the week of April 1. Wall Street is also expecting Airbnb and Pinterest in the coming weeks.</p> <p>"For the moment, current market valuations should support broadly what these companies are asking for. The issue is going to be both market dynamics," said Colas. "How's the market is behaving? Where's the VIX? Where are the last three IPOs trading?"</p> <p>His comments came as Wall Street was coping with a steep sell-off. The major stock market indexes saw their worst daily performance since January third on Friday.</p> <p>Even though Colas is confident there's no bubble, he acknowledges investors could face big disappointments.</p> <p>"These companies are all remarkably unprofitable. Lyft lost $900 million plus last year, and all of these are cyclical companies, as well, unproven by an economic downturn," Colas said. "Ultimately, buying an IPO is one of the riskiest things that an investor could do."</p> show chapters <img src="https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2019/03/22/105809773-15532834506ED2-REQ-032219-TNLyfttoAirBNB.600x337.jpg?v=1553283450" alt="From Lyft to Airbnb, investors shouldn't worry the newest tech IPO rush signals a market top: Nick Colas" title="From Lyft to Airbnb, investors shouldn't worry the newest tech IPO rush signals a top: Nick Colas" width='600' height='337' /> From Lyft to Airbnb, investors shouldn't worry the newest tech IPO rush signals a top: Nick Colas 3:44 PM ET Fri, 22 March 2019 | 03:53 Disclaimer Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-36607749253341454112019-03-21T21:21:00.000-07:002019-03-21T21:23:00.467-07:00Industrials could outperform as their earnings beat the broader market's <p>Buying industrial stocks could be a winning strategy for investors as the sector gets a boost from strong earnings growth trends that are expected to help it outpace the broader market.</p> <p>Profit growth for the S&P 500 industrials sector is expected to be twice as strong as growth for the S&P 500 itself, FactSet data show. Industrials as a sector are also trading at a slight discount relative to the broader market.</p> <p>The sector fell 15 percent last year, its worst annual performance since the financial crisis. Concerns over U.S.-China trade negotiations as well as fear of an economic slowdown kept the group under pressure last year. Some of these worries are receding, however.</p> <p>Earnings growth for the sector is expected to be 8.4 percent for 2019, the highest among all S&P 500 sectors, according to FactSet. In contrast, earnings for the S&P 500 overall are expected to increase 3.8 percent. Last year, S&P 500 earnings increased by at least 13 percent in all four quarters.</p> <p>"Industrials are at least showing above-average growth," said John Davi, chief investment officer at Astoria Portfolio Advisors. "We're living in a world where growth is declining. S&P 500 earnings are de-accelerating, so if you can get stocks that have above-average growth to the S&P, then that's really attractive."</p> <p>The industrial sector is among the three-best performing in the S&P 500 this year, rising 15.7 percent to date. The gains have largely been led by General Electric, which is up more than 40 percent this year after a dreadful 2018.</p> <p>GE lost more than 56 percent of its value last year as investors worried about weakness in some of its key businesses and the company's ability to possibly sell those businesses. So far this year, however, investors have cheered the leadership of new CEO Larry Culp for his transparency in the company's turnaround process. Investors also feel the stock may have bottomed after hitting a low of $6.40 per share on Dec. 11.</p> <img src="https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2019/03/15/105796032-1552649502156img_7688r.530x298.jpg?v=1552649711" alt="Larry Culp, CEO, General Electric" data-enlarged-image="https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2019/03/15/105796032-1552649502156img_7688r.1910x1000.jpg?v=1552649711" width='530' height='298'/> Scott Mlyn | CNBC Larry Culp, CEO, General Electric <p>Other companies driving the gains in the industrials sector are Masco and TransDigm Group, which are up at least 30 percent this year and are among the 10 best-performing stocks in the space.</p> <p>Masco's 33 percent surge is driven by strong quarterly results and investors cheering the company for pursuing strategic alternatives for its cabinet and window business. TransDigm — which makes commercial and military aerospace components — is also being lifted by better-than-expected earnings as well as the acquisition of Esterline Technologies, which closed earlier this month.</p> <p>Other companies rounding out the top 10 industrial stocks this year are Dover Corp., Jacobs Engineering, Roper Technologies, Quanta Services, Copart, Cintas and Fortive.</p> <p><img src="https://fm-static.cnbc.com/awsmedia/chart/2019/2/19/industrials.1552997317974.png" class="inlineChart"></img></p> <p>"You want to own higher-quality stocks with above-average growth estimates," said Davi. "The call from us hasn't been to necessarily plow money into the defensive sectors like utilities and staples, but to have companies with strong balance sheets and above-average growth."</p> Boeing, possible economic slowdown are risks <p>However, the sector's gains and earnings growth could be capped if Boeing continues to struggle. Boeing shares are down more than 7 percent since last week, when a 737 Max 8 plane crashed. The crash was the second in less than six months involving the 737 Max.</p> <p>Several countries, including the United States, grounded all flights that use the aircraft.</p> <p>"Boeing (BA) represents 10% of the sector, and the overhang from several countries grounding the 737 Max could weigh on the sector near term," Savita Subramanian, equity and quantitative strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, wrote in a note Friday, adding that Boeing's troubles are keeping the sector "grounded."</p> <p>Subramanian added, however, that "other high-quality industries within the Industrials sector could benefit from Boeing outflows translating into inflows." She also said the industrial sector is the bank's top ranked on a tactical basis, citing "strong performance and earnings revisions."</p> <p>Another risk facing industrials is the possibility of a global economic slowdown. While some of those concerns have dissipated, economic data remain mixed at best.</p> <p>Industrial production is among the weak data. It rose just 0.1 percent last month, well below expectations. The disappointing number was largely attributed to a decline in manufacturing activity. There were some bright spots in the data, however. Overall industrial production is up 3.5 percent over the past 12 months as mining and defense activity increased more than 11 percent each.</p> <p>The Citi Economic Surprise Index, a barometer of how economic data fare relative to expectations, reached its lowest level since August 2017 earlier this month and remains well in negative territory. That indicates the data are largely underperforming economist expectations, a sign that the Street's optimism may have to be reined in.</p> <p>"We remain skeptical about the ability of industrial stocks to sustainably outperform amid the ongoing sluggish global growth environment and recent weaker readings in leading indicators of U.S. factory activity," Salvatore Ruscitti, U.S. equity strategist at MRB Partners, said in a note. "Against this backdrop, we believe earnings expectations for the sector are too optimistic relative to other cyclical groups. Downgrades to relative earnings are likely in the coming months, which will weigh on relative performance. Accordingly, we recommend maintaining an underweight stance."</p> <p>Still, industrials could get a boost if China and the U.S. reach a trade deal. The world largest economies have been engaged in a trade war for the better part of a year, raising concern over global growth and thus pressuring industrials. However, the two countries are expected to strike a trade deal sometime between late March and April, potentially removing a headwind for the group.</p> <p>Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.</p> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-6446179047374217172019-03-20T23:00:00.000-07:002019-03-20T23:01:16.601-07:00How to Handle a Stock for Maximum Profit Potential When the Unthinkable Happens </p> <p>This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.</p><img src="https://moneymorning.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/11/Retina_Headshots_KeithFitzGerald.jpg" alt="Keith Fitz-Gerald" width="105" height="123">Keith Fitz-Gerald<p>Folks know to look out for events like earnings, for example, or FOMC meetings, or the regular release of economic data – dates you can look ahead to and circle on a calendar.</p> <p>But most investors never give a thought to those unpredictable, unthinkable events that don't show up next week in your planner, but explode across global markets in minutes or even seconds flat.</p> <p>Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) is a great example.</p> <p>It's a key defense contractor, and the very definition of a "must have" stock – one that's tied into several key Unstoppable Trends: including technology; war, terrorism, and ugliness; and demographics.</p> <p>Of course, the company's under extreme pressure at the moment, and existing shareholders have taken a $26.6 billion buzz cut they didn't sign up for.</p> <p>One day, they buy a company based on super results, super products, or just super potential. Then… WHAM… it gets pounded.</p> <p>For most investors, a situation like this is unthinkable. For investors like us who have prepared ahead of time, however, a stock like this represents a significant upside opportunity…</p> <p>Join the conversation. Click here to jump to comments…</p> <img src="https://moneymorning.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2018/11/Retina_Headshots_KeithFitzGerald.jpg" alt="Keith Fitz-Gerald" width="105" height="123">Keith Fitz-Gerald<p>About the Author</p>Browse Keith's articles | View Keith's research services<p>Keith Fitz-Gerald has been the Chief Investment Strategist for the Money Morning team since 2007. He's a seasoned market analyst with decades of experience, and a highly accurate track record. Keith regularly travels the world in search of investment opportunities others don't yet see or understand. In addition to heading The Money Map Report, Keith runs High Velocity Profits, which aims to get in, target gains, and get out clean, and he's also the founding editor of Straight Line Profits, a service devoted to revealing the "dark side" of Wall Street... In his weekly Total Wealth, Keith has broken down his 30-plus years of success into three parts: Trends, Risk Assessment, and Tactics – meaning the exact techniques for making money. Sign up is free at totalwealthresearch.com.</p> <p>… Read full bio</p> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-18914486428197648192019-03-19T01:58:00.000-07:002019-03-19T02:00:00.196-07:00Shale drillers give shareholders what they want, then get punished <p>In recent months U.S. shale drillers have answered investors' calls to tighten their belts, showing they are finally willing to do what's necessary to return cash to shareholders.</p> <p>In return, investors sold off their stocks.</p> <p>The latest episode in the American shale revolution shows that shale drillers — and their stock prices — are entering a transition period. Drillers are exercising the financial discipline that could generate a return on investment, but shareholders are now seeing the production growth that first attracted them to the stocks fade.</p> "Today our dilemma is that as a sector, we have destroyed a lot of trust in the investment community over the last decade." -Lee Tillman, Marathon Oil chairman and CEO <p>That trend came to a head over the last month, when many drillers cut spending and lowered production guidance for 2019.</p> <p>The title of a recent research note by Simmons Energy summed up the the response: "No Good Deed Unpunished." Simmons analysts called the reaction from investors "nothing short of punishing."</p> <p>Though it's rallying this week, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration and Production exchange-traded fund tumbled 8 percent between the start of the drillers' earnings season in February and the end of last week. During the same time, the S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent.</p> <p>But it's not as simple as saying investors sold the stocks because production growth forecasts fell, said Osmar Abib, chairman of global energy at Credit Suisse. The space is also on shaky ground because investors aren't yet sure drillers will hold the line on spending.</p> <p>"I would say it's a bit of a 'show me' situation, and so one quarter isn't long enough," he told CNBC on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by IHS Markit energy conference in Houston. "I think investors need to see a little bit more time, a little bit more evidence, and I think there's still concern that if oil prices go back up, that some of this discipline might erode to a certain degree."</p> show chapters <img src="https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2019/03/12/105788622-15523952863ED2-REQ-031219-YerginFULL.600x337.jpg?v=1552395287" alt="" title="Watch CNBC's interview with Dan Yergin from CERAWeek" width='600' height='337' /> Watch CNBC's interview with Dan Yergin from CERAWeek 9:22 AM ET Tue, 12 March 2019 | 03:50 <p>Investors have good reason to be wary. Throughout much of the last decade, shale drillers borrowed heavily to underwrite spectacular production growth. But few companies have proven they can reliably generate free cash flow or meaningful returns for investors.</p> <p>"Today our dilemma is that as a sector, we have destroyed a lot of trust in the investment community over the last decade," Lee Tillman, chairman and CEO of Marathon Oil, said during a panel on shale drilling at CERAWeek on Tuesday.</p> <p>Exercising fiscal discipline means throttling back spending, which translates into lower production growth. That lower growth in turn makes stock price valuations look less attractive.</p> <p>"I'd say there's a recalibration of stock prices going on with the shale drillers," Hess CEO John Hess told CNBC at CERAWeek.</p> <p>Hess is one of the companies that produces oil in North Dakota's Bakken shale fields, where drillers use advanced methods like hydraulic fracturing to free fossil fuels from rock formations. These "frackers" have to constantly reinvest because shale wells produce a burst of oil at first, but then output declines sharply.</p> show chapters <img src="https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2019/01/25/105700874-154843837758120151217-2-1852-14.600x337.jpg?v=1548438415" alt="John Hess, CEO of Hess Corporation" title="Investment is key challenge for oil and gas industry, says Hess CEO" width='600' height='337' /> Investment is key challenge for oil and gas industry, says Hess CEO 9:23 AM ET Tue, 12 March 2019 | 04:57 <p>"It's very capital intensive, and I think investors started to realize this and said, wait a second, I'm not going to pay you a multiple of 10 for that because I'm never going to see any return. In fact, I'm incentivizing you to grow if it's a 10," Hess said.</p> <p>Shale drillers also face competing priorities from different kinds of investors, said Abib.</p> <p>"They're getting a lot of different feedback depending on who that particular investor is. Certainly folks that are more focused on the short-term, generally hedge funds, have a very different perspective than a long-term, value-only fund, and so they're trying to address all these different constituencies," he said.</p> <p>How shale drillers respond to investor demands in the coming years could have major implications for the wider oil market. Not only is shale driving the boom in American output, but the U.S. is expected to deliver about 70 percent of growth in global oil production over the next five years.</p> <p>Doug Suttles, CEO of shale driller Encana, said frackers certainly need to exercise discipline, but he also turned the message around on investors.</p> <p>"We actually need discipline coming from investors as well," he said during the CERAWeek shale panel on Tuesday. "Otherwise what we will create is — longer-term — complete lack of investment in other oil and gas projects that will ultimately be needed at some point in the future."</p> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-54132236940330173422019-03-15T01:08:00.000-07:002019-03-15T01:09:45.593-07:00Sun Pharma Advanced gains 3% on research collaboration with Chinese firm <p>Share price of Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company gained 3.4 percent intraday on March 13 after the company entered into research collaboration with a Chinese firm.</p><p>HitGen, with headquarters and main research facilities based in Chengdu, China and with a subsidiary in the USA and Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company (SPARC) announced a research collaboration to identify novel small molecule leads for targets of interest, as per company's release.</p><p>Under this collaboration, HitGen will apply its advanced technology platform, based on DNA-encoded library design, synthesis and screening, to discover novel leads for SPARC.</p> <p>Under the terms of the agreement, HitGen will receive upfront payment and will be eligible for certain milestone payments, the company added.</p> related news Ramco System surges 5% after Opteon Solutions selects co to digitise payroll operations Jet Airways, SpiceJet stocks slip after DGCA grounds Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank rise as Bank Nifty hits all-time high <p>Anil Raghavan, CEO of SPARC, "We believe Hitgen's unique DNA-encoded library based screening platform combined with SPARC's in-house research expertise, shall accelerate our drug discovery efforts. We look forward to collaborating with Hitgen to bring innovative medicines for patients with serious medical conditions."</p><p>At 0958 hours, Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company was quoting at Rs 200.60, up Rs 3.90, or 1.98 percent on the BSE.</p>For more market news, click here First Published on Mar 13, 2019 10:16 am Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-63782178246301792322019-03-14T03:14:00.000-07:002019-03-14T03:15:58.416-07:00Twilio Stock Still Has Plenty of Room to Grow, but Has to Cool Down First <p>A little over a year ago, cloud communications leader Twilio (NASDAQ:TWLO) was still suffering from a major blow after one of its major customers, Uber, began distancing itself from the platform and building out its own communication tools. At that point in time, investors were questioning the company’s long term growth narrative, there were fears that other big tech giants would follow in Uber’s footsteps, and Twilio stock had flat-lined around $25.</p> <img src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif" data-lazy-src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/twlomsn-compressor-300x165.jpg" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1196357" alt="Twilio Stock Is Ready to Top Out, but Keep Your Eyes Peeled for a Big Dip" width="300" height="165" /><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1196357" src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/twlomsn-compressor-300x165.jpg" alt="Twilio Stock Is Ready to Top Out, but Keep Your Eyes Peeled for a Big Dip" width="300" height="165" />Source: Web Summit Via Flickr <p> </p> <p>What a difference a year makes.</p> <p>Now, Twilio has completely shook off the Uber hangover, and is firing on all cylinders as the company has become the distinguished leader in the rapid growth Communication Platforms-as-a-Service (CPaaS) market. Investors are salivating over the long term growth narrative, there aren’t any fears that customers are going to leave, and Twilio stock has roared to $125.</p> <p>That’s a five-fold increase in TWLO in just over a year. To put that in perspective, the S&P 500 is flat during that same stretch. Naturally, one has to ask: how much higher can Twilio go?</p> <p>In the long run, much higher. This is a secular growth company that checks off every box that a long term winner needs to check off, meaning that Twilio stock has tremendous upside in a multi-year window. But, in the near term, I’d be hesitant to commit new money to the rally right now.</p> <p>The stock has come very far, very fast, and the valuation seems stretched. As such, I’d wait for a pullback before either buying in or adding more.</p> Long Term Fundamentals Are Strong <p>The long term fundamentals underlying TWLO are healthy, and support the stock heading meaningfully higher in a multi-year window.</p> <p>Twilio has emerged as the leader in the CPaaS market. Broadly speaking, this market comprises companies of all shapes and sizes integrating real-time communication solutions into their suite of offerings. Case in point: when Uber or Lyft sends you a text that your ride is close. The technology underlying that communication is provided by CPaaS companies.</p> <p>This space has huge growth potential. Consumers are more digitally engaged through mobile phones than ever before. Thus, businesses have to find a way to reach their customers through their phones, and CPaaS solutions give them a method to do that through personalized mobile communication.</p> <p>As such, demand in this space will grow by leaps and bounds over the next several years, and the big players will turn into big long term winners.</p> <p>The biggest player in the space is Twilio. Following the Uber fallout, Twilio has launched a suite of new products and solutions while doubling down on marketing to grow into the unchallenged CPaaS leader. So long as Twilio can maintain this leadership position (and all signs point to the thesis that it can), then TWLO stock will head higher as the CPaaS market booms globally. </p> <br> Compare Brokers<br> Long Term Boxes Checked Off <p>It is important to note that as Twilio has morphed into a CPaaS leader, the company has checked off all the boxes that a big growth company should check off, such as:</p> Consistent big revenue growth that isn’t slowing (Twilio’s revenue growth rates are 50%-plus and accelerating higher). Robust customer that also isn’t slowing (Twilio’s customer growth rates have been persistently north of 30%). Strong customer retention and loyalty (Twilio’s retention rates are north of 95%, and Dollar-Based Net Expansion Rate of current customers is consistently north of 100%). Big and stable gross margins (gross margins have been stable around 55% for several quarters). Falling opex rates (revenue growth is outpacing expense growth, and opex rates are trending downward). <p>Overall, it seems like Twilio is positioned as big growth company for a lot longer, implying big upside for Twilio stock in a multi-year window.</p> TWLO Is Stretched Here <p>Although Twilio stock has big upside in a long term window, the stock looks unnecessarily overbought here and now.</p> <p>First, the valuation is extended. At 14x forward sales, Twilio stock is starting to look expensive even for a high-growth cloud software company. Many other stocks in this space trade at high single digit to low double digit forward multiples. But, a low-teens forward sales multiple puts TWLO stock at the expensive end of the group.</p> <p>Second, the technicals aren’t favorable. Over the past six months, the 50-day moving average has turned into a solid line of support for this stock. TWLO tends to rally in a big way, cool off, drop to the 50-day, and then bounce back. Right now, we appear to be in the “cooling off” phase. But, Twilio is still roughly 10% above its 50-day, so the technicals imply some room to fall in the near future.</p> <p>Overall, while Twilio has robust long term upside, investors should exercise patience before buying in or adding exposure.</p> Bottom Line on Twilio Stock <p>Twilio stock belongs in the class of forever stocks to buy and hold for the long haul. But, buying or adding more here seems unnecessarily risk in the near term. It increasingly appears that a pullback is on the horizon. When that pullback happens, that will be the time to buy in or add more.</p> <p>As of this writing, Luke Lango wa Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-6662140775590127502019-03-13T06:52:00.000-07:002019-03-13T06:53:27.560-07:00Why Microsoft Is a Must-Buy Stock on a Pullback <p>While we’ve seen a robust recovery in the stock market, many investors expected more out of big tech. Companies like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) have done well, certainly, but they have not been the market leaders many would have thought on a ~20% rebound in the S&P 500. While Amazon is up about 24% in that span, AAPL, GOOGL and MSFT stock are up about 18% apiece.</p> <p> </p> <img src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif" data-lazy-src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/MSFTMSN-300x165.jpg" class="alignright wp-image-738406 size-medium" alt="Why Microsoft Is a Must-Buy Stock on a Pullback" width="300" height="165" /><img class="alignright wp-image-738406 size-medium" src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/MSFTMSN-300x165.jpg" alt="Why Microsoft Is a Must-Buy Stock on a Pullback" width="300" height="165" /> Source: Mike Mozart Via Flickr <p> </p> Again, that’s not bad. But we’re seeing FAANG and Microsoft simply match the market’s performance, not lead it higher like we’ve seen in years past. That could either bode quite well for investors as a rotation into these large-cap names could drive even more upside. On the downside, if these names continue to track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, it could spell trouble moving forward. <p>Finally — and, admittedly, this is a bit of speculation on my end — these names could act as a “source of funds” when some of the larger IPOs come down the road later this year. Investors may not need to sell Apple or Microsoft stock to free up extra funds for Lyft. But what about fund managers looking for a $1 billion+ stake in Uber, which is likely to eclipse the $100 billion market cap threshold when it debuts?</p> <p>What about Airbnb and Palantir, two names that could easily push past $40 billion (the latter already has). There’s a number of $5 billion to $10 billion names in the pipeline too. It doesn’t mean big tech will get hit, but it’s something to think about.</p> Valuing Microsoft Stock <p>Some people may be turned off by Microsoft — which is quietly holding the top spot as the most valuable publicly traded company — because of its seemingly high valuation. But I don’t think that should be the case. The company is incredibly consistent and has several additional assets that warrant a premium.</p> <p>First, analysts expect double-digit sales growth for the rest of this year and next year. Estimates call for 12.4% growth this year and 10.4% in 2020. The same can be said for earnings growth, with estimates calling for 14.2% growth and 12.6% growth this year and next, respectively.</p> <p>Based purely on the growth, some might argue that MSFT stock is not worth 25 times this year’s earnings. But then you consider the fact Microsoft has beat earnings estimates for 14 straight quarters. Or the fact that it has $127.6 billion in short-term cash and investments vs. just $4.9 billion in short-term debt. Or that its total current assets outweigh total current liabilities $156.8 billion to $50.3 billion. Then, one realizes just how powerful this company is from a balance sheet perspective.</p> <p>While free cash flow has stagnated over the last 12 months, the trailing 12 months of operating cash flow (OCF) has solid growth. Up about 10% over the past year, MSFT has more than $46 billion in trailing OCF. That figure is up almost 45% over the past three years.</p> <p>Microsoft has become a cash-flow giant with a massive balance sheet and solid growth. Plus, it’s not afraid of M&A. This tech titan will be around for a while and deserves its blue-chip premium.</p> Trading MSFT Stock <p><img src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif" data-lazy-src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-300x224.png" class="size-medium wp-image-1337502 aligncenter" alt="chart of MSFT stock" width="300" height="224" srcset="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-300x224.png 300w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-768x574.png 768w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-200x150.png 200w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-400x300.png 400w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-116x87.png 116w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-100x75.png 100w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-167x125.png 167w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-67x50.png 67w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-78x58.png 78w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-632x474.png 632w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-536x402.png 536w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1.png 900w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><img class="size-medium wp-image-1337502 aligncenter" src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-300x224.png" alt="chart of MSFT stock" width="300" height="224" srcset="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-300x224.png 300w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-768x574.png 768w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-200x150.png 200w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-400x300.png 400w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-116x87.png 116w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-100x75.png 100w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-167x125.png 167w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-67x50.png 67w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-78x58.png 78w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-632x474.png 632w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1-536x402.png 536w, https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/MSFT1.png 900w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><br> Click to Enlarge</p> <p>On the charts, Microsoft stock made a beautiful mid-February break higher. After coiling under $107, shares burst higher and ran to $113. Now consolidating, investors would love to pick this name up on a discount.</p> <p>We’re not likely to see $94 on MSFT stock again, but a decline into this $108 to $109 area wouldn’t be bad. If it holds as support, it validates that prior downtrend resistance (blue line) is now acting as support and can give buyers comfort that more upside could be on the way.</p> <p>If the markets are entering a pullback phase, though, MSFT stock may not hold up at this level. If that’s the case, a dip to the $104 to $105 area would likely be met with a bevy of buyers. With the 50-day, 100-day and 200-day moving averages all within 40 cents of $105.50, it’s hard to imagine Microsoft stock not finding support — at least temporarily — in this region.</p> <p>Either way, until the technicals change, I remain bullish on MSFT stock.</p> <p>Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. As of this writing, Bret Kenwell is long AAPL, AMZN and GOOGL. </p> Compare Brokers Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-60439951551933217992019-03-12T01:51:00.000-07:002019-03-12T01:52:37.575-07:00Top 5 Penny Stocks To Buy For 2019tags:NYMT,TIS,ADM,SORL,NRG, <p>In a little more than three weeks, Canada is set to make history by becoming the first industrialized country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana. This big step, which will occur on Oct. 17, should result in billions of dollars flowing into the legal Canadian weed industry, and perhaps make investors in marijuana stocks a pretty (green) penny.</p> <p>But as we approach legalization, we're liable to see Wall Street and investors shift their attention in regard to how they evaluate pot stocks. Despite capacity expansion being all the rage during the first half of the year, Canadian growers are going to need to do a lot more than just grow a lot of weed in order to stand out. Wall Street and investors will be looking for unique, differentiating factors when considering marijuana stocks for investment going forward.</p> <p>Though the cannabis space remains highly fluid, the following five growers each offers something unique that may be of interest to investors.</p> <p>Image source: Getty Images.</p><h3>Top 5 Penny Stocks To Buy For 2019: New York Mortgage Trust Inc.(NYMT)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>ValuEngine cut shares of NY Mtg Tr Inc/SH (NASDAQ:NYMT) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report issued on Thursday morning.</p> <p>Several other research firms also recently commented on NYMT. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH downgraded shares of NY Mtg Tr Inc/SH from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, August 6th. BidaskClub downgraded shares of NY Mtg Tr Inc/SH from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Saturday, September 15th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of NY Mtg Tr Inc/SH from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 25th. Finally, Maxim Group restated a buy rating and issued a $6.75 price target (up previously from $6.25) on shares of NY Mtg Tr Inc/SH in a research note on Friday, August 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $6.35.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>NY Mtg Tr Inc/SH (NASDAQ:NYMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 2nd. The real estate investment trust reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.05. NY Mtg Tr Inc/SH had a net margin of 24.78% and a return on equity of 17.07%. The business had revenue of $17.50 million during the quarter. analysts anticipate that NY Mtg Tr Inc/SH will post 0.24 EPS for the current year. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Motley Fool Transcribers]</b> <p>New York Mortgage Trust Inc (NASDAQ:NYMT)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 22, 2019, 9:00 a.m. ET</p> Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: <p>Operator</p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on NY Mtg Tr Inc/SH (NYMT)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 Penny Stocks To Buy For 2019: Orchids Paper Products Company(TIS)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Paul Ausick]</b> <p>Orchids Paper Products Co. (NYSEAMERICAN: TIS) dropped more than 12% Monday to set a new 52-week low of $0.70. Shares closed at $0.80 on Friday and the stock’s 52-week high is $15.47. Volume totaled around 15 million, about 60 times the daily average of around 250,000. The company had no specific news. Shares have made a massive comeback and are on track to close at $2.47, up more than 200%.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>Orchids Paper Products (NYSEAMERICAN:TIS) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,241,555 shares, a drop of 14.0% from the August 15th total of 2,605,776 shares. Currently, 22.9% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 967,446 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Lisa Levin]</b> Gainers SemiLEDs Corporation (NASDAQ: LEDS) shares rose 35.8 percent to $4.55. EVINE Live Inc. (NASDAQ: EVLV) gained 28.8 percent to $1.04. The pay-TV home shopping company was named as a potential acquisition target by TechCrunch. According to the publication, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is exploring ways of marketing its products and services to consumers beyond the internet. Sanmina Corp (NASDAQ: SANM) shares surged 19.1 percent to $33.00 as the company reported stronger-than-expected earnings for its second quarter on Monday. Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. (NASDAQ: HSII) gained 14.9 percent to $37.22 as the company posted upbeat results for its first quarter. Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC) shares climbed 14 percent to $17.90 following upbeat quarterly earnings. Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. (NYSE: HLX) climbed 14 percent to $7.12 following strong quarterly results. Check-Cap Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHEK) gained 13.6 percent to $8.25. Atossa Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: ATOS) rose 11.8 percent to $3.34. Atossa Genetics disclosed that it has Received positive interim review from the Independent Safety Committee in Phase 1 Topical endoxifen dose escalation study in men. Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) gained 11.6 percent to $40.99 after the company posted upbeat Q1 results and issued a strong Q2 forecast. Genprex, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNPX) climbed 11.2 percent to $4.9363. Mitel Networks Corporation (NASDAQ: MITL) rose 10.5 percent to $11.23 after the company agreed to be acquired by affiliates of Searchlight Capital Partners for $2.0 billion. Systemax Inc. (NYSE: SYX) rose 10.2 percent to $30.86. Sidoti & Co. upgraded Systemax from Neutral to Buy. Orchids Paper Products Company (NYSE: TIS) surged 9.2 percent to $7.13. Orchids Paper Products is expected to report its Q1 financial results on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (NYSE: EDU) rose</li> <li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>An institutional investor recently bought a new position in Orchids Paper Products stock. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Orchids Paper Products (NYSEAMERICAN:TIS) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 44,304 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,000. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. owned about 0.42% of Orchids Paper Products as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. </p> ILLEGAL ACTIVITY WARNING: “Short Interest in Orchids Paper Products (TIS) Decreases By 12.2%” was first reported by Ticker Report and is owned by of Ticker Report. If you are accessing this report on another publication, it was copied illegally and reposted in violation of United States & international copyright law. The legal version of this report can be viewed at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4184470/short-interest-in-orchids-paper-products-tis-decreases-by-12-2.html. <p> Orchids Paper Products Company Profile</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 Penny Stocks To Buy For 2019: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company(ADM)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> <li> <b>[By Logan Wallace]</b> <p>LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Archer Daniels Midland Co (NYSE:ADM) by 10.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 109,682 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 10,740 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Archer Daniels Midland were worth $4,757,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Lord Abbett & CO. LLC trimmed its position in Archer Daniels Midland Co (NYSE:ADM) by 14.3% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 896,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 149,800 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC’s holdings in Archer Daniels Midland were worth $38,860,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Cambridge Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Archer Daniels Midland Co (NYSE:ADM) by 2.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 139,463 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,768 shares during the period. Archer Daniels Midland comprises about 3.3% of Cambridge Financial Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding. Cambridge Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Archer Daniels Midland were worth $6,049,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Jon C. Ogg]</b> <p>Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) was raised to Buy from Hold at Stifel. ADM shares closed down 1.1% at $41.40 on Thursday and were indicated up 0.8% at $41.70 on Friday. The consensus target price is $53.40.</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 Penny Stocks To Buy For 2019: SORL Auto Parts Inc.(SORL)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Lisa Levin]</b> Gainers Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited (NASDAQ: CLWT) shares climbed 70.3 percent to $5.45 after reporting 2017 year-end results. MEDIGUS Ltd/S ADR (NASDAQ: MDGS) surged 39.8 percent to $1.58 in reaction to its Monday announcement of a distribution agreement. The medical device company said it reached an agreement to distribute its minimally invasive medical devices in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: RKDA) gained 25.6 percent to $11.50. Arcadia Biosciences reported that Albert D. Bolles, Ph.D. has joined its board of directors. Aytu Bioscience Inc (NASDAQ: AYTU) shares jumped 21.8 percent to $0.4798 after the company late Monday reported lighter-than-expected Q1 loss. Hollysys Automation Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HOLI) shares gained 21.1 percent to $26.77 following Q3 results. Pfenex Inc. (NYSE: PFNX) rose 16.8 percent to $7.1271 after the company announced the positive top-line PF708 study results in Osteoporosis patients that showed no imbalances in severity or incidence of adverse events. MEI Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEIP) rose 13.8 percent to $2.88. Red Violet, Inc. (NASDAQ: RDVT) jumped 13.1 percent to $6.41 after reporting Q1 results. SORL Auto Parts, Inc. (NASDAQ: SORL) shares gained 12 percent to $5.87 after reporting upbeat Q1 results. Bovie Medical Corporation (NYSE: BVX) gained 8.4 percent to $3.96 after reporting a first-quarter sales beat. Rosehill Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: ROSE) surged 8.4 percent to $7.90 after announcing Q1 results. LiqTech International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIQT) rose 8.1 percent to $0.5171 following Q1 results. ProPhase Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRPH) rose 7.7 percent to $5.6103 following Q1 results. Nine Energy Service, Inc. (NYSE: NINE) shares climbed 7.4 percent to $35.90. Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: XENE) rose 6.7 percent to $6.40 after the company presented XEN901 Phase 1 clinical update and XEN1101 TMS pharmacodynamic Phase 1 data. MYnd</li> <li> <b>[By Lisa Levin]</b> Gainers Red Violet, Inc. (NASDAQ: RDVT) rose 75.31 percent to close at $9.94 after reporting Q1 results. Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited (NASDAQ: CLWT) shares jumped 40.62 percent to close at $4.50 on Tuesday after reporting 2017 year-end results. MEI Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEIP) gained 34.39 percent to close at $3.40. MEDIGUS Ltd/S ADR (NASDAQ: MDGS) gained 32.74 percent to close at $1.50 in reaction to its Monday announcement of a distribution agreement. The medical device company said it reached an agreement to distribute its minimally invasive medical devices in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Pfenex Inc. (NYSE: PFNX) surged 31.15 percent to close at $8.00 after the company announced the positive top-line PF708 study results in Osteoporosis patients that showed no imbalances in severity or incidence of adverse events. Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: RKDA) rose 21.07 percent to close at $11.09. Arcadia Biosciences reported that Albert D. Bolles, Ph.D. has joined its board of directors. Genprex, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNPX) rose 20.23 percent to close at $10.58. Turtle Beach Corporation (NASDAQ: HEAR) shares gained 17.62 percent to close at $17.82. Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: APVO) rose 17.1 percent to close at $5.82. Phoenix New Media Limited (NYSE: FENG) shares jumped 16.23 percent to close at $4.87 following Q1 earnings. Stein Mart, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMRT) rose 16.04 percent to close at $3.69. PPDAI Group Inc. (NASDAQ: PPDF) climbed 15.99 percent to close at $7.98 following Q1 results. Tyme Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: TYME) rose 15.93 percent to close at $3.42. LiqTech International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIQT) gained 15.59 percent to close at $0.5532 following Q1 results. Sophiris Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPHS) gained 13.92 percent to close at $3.52 on Tuesday following Q1 results. Euroseas Ltd. (NASDAQ: ESEA) jumped 13.4 percent to close at $2.37. Iteris, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITI) shares surged 13.05 percent to close</li> <li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>These are some of the news articles that may have impacted Accern Sentiment Analysis’s analysis: </p> Get Innovative Industrial Properties alerts: Return on Equity (ROE) under Consideration Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. (NYSE:IIPR), Neonode Inc … (stocksnewspoint.com) Morning Miraculous Stocks: Taseko Mines Limited (NYSE:TGB), WMIH Corp. (NASDAQ:WMIH), Innovative Industrial … (journalfinance.net) Dazzling Stocks: Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. (NYSE:IIPR), SORL Auto Parts, Inc. (NASDAQ:SORL), ReWalk … (thestreetpoint.com) Head-To-Head Contrast: Kennedy-Wilson (KW) vs. Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR) (americanbankingnews.com) Innovative Industrial (IIPR) versus Colliers International Group (CIGI) Financial Contrast (americanbankingnews.com) <p>A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Zacks Investment Research raised Innovative Industrial Properties from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 16th. ValuEngine raised Innovative Industrial Properties from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 2nd.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>Shares of Sorl Auto Parts, Inc. (NASDAQ:SORL) reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $3.75 and last traded at $3.81, with a volume of 6029 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $4.15.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>SORL Auto Parts (NASDAQ: SORL) and Modine Manufacturing (NYSE:MOD) are both small-cap auto/tires/trucks companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations and risk. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Logan Wallace]</b> <p>News coverage about Sorl Auto Parts (NASDAQ:SORL) has trended somewhat positive recently, Accern reports. The research firm identifies negative and positive press coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Sorl Auto Parts earned a coverage optimism score of 0.12 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave press coverage about the company an impact score of 48.4932889103567 out of 100, meaning that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the next few days. </p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 Penny Stocks To Buy For 2019: NRG Energy Inc.(NRG)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) and NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Shane Hupp]</b> <p>NRG Energy Inc (NYSE:NRG) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday after Bank of America raised their price target on the stock from $40.00 to $42.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. NRG Energy traded as high as $37.32 and last traded at $37.21, with a volume of 143112 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $36.45.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Matthew DiLallo]</b> <p>Shares of NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE:NRG) rose 10.9% in August, buoyed by its second-quarter results and an analyst upgrade.</p> So what <p>"Our business performed exceptionally well during the second quarter," stated CEO Mauricio Gutierrez in the company's earnings press release. Driving that view is that income from continuing operations rose from $99 million in the year-ago period to $121 million in this year's second quarter. Powering the company's improvement was its retail segment, where adjusted EBITDA came in at $298 million, which was $94 million higher than the second quarter of last year. The company's generation business also delivered stronger results as adjusted EBITDA rose $45 million to $197 million. Those dual fuels enabled the company to reaffirm its full-year outlook for adjusted EBITDA between $2.8 billion to $3 billion.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Energi (CURRENCY:NRG) traded up 0.2% against the U.S. dollar during the twenty-four hour period ending at 19:00 PM Eastern on September 15th. Over the last seven days, Energi has traded 14.2% higher against the U.S. dollar. Energi has a market capitalization of $1.61 million and $2,597.00 worth of Energi was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One Energi coin can now be purchased for $0.32 or 0.00004969 BTC on exchanges including CoinExchange, Cryptopia and CryptoBridge. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Jon C. Ogg]</b> <p>NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $37 price objective (versus a $33.15 close) at Merrill Lynch.</p> <p>Oasis Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OAS) was reiterated as Overweight and the target price was raised to $17 from $13 at Morgan Stanley.</p></li> </ul> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-37437519946565148752019-03-10T03:18:00.000-07:002019-03-10T03:19:58.211-07:00Constellation Brands Stock Looks Even More Compelling Now <p>There has been a lot of talk about Canadian cannabis companies over the past several months. Most of that talk has been positive, and a lot of it has centered around Canadian cannabis leader Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC). Consequently, over the past year, CGC stock has rallied more than 75%.</p> <img src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif" data-lazy-src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/stzmsn-compressor-300x165.jpg" class="alignright wp-image-1211071 size-medium" alt="STZ Stock Looks Even More Compelling Now" width="300" height="165" /><img class="alignright wp-image-1211071 size-medium" src="https://investorplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/stzmsn-compressor-300x165.jpg" alt="STZ Stock Looks Even More Compelling Now" width="300" height="165" />Source: Shutterstock <p> </p> <p>But, no one ever seems to talk about the company behind Canopy — Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ). To kick-start the entire cannabis craze, Constellation Brands poured $4 billion into Canopy in 2018 to gain ample exposure to the cannabis industry. Despite that big investment, while CGC stock is up 75% over the past year, STZ stock is down 25%.</p> <p>That’s 100 points of divergent performance. That doesn’t make sense, considering Constellation owns more than 30% of outstanding common CGC shares. It also doesn’t make sense considering that the global alcohol industry will keep growing over the next several years, even as the cannabis market goes global.</p> <p>As such, CGC looks compelling on this dip. I’m a buyer here and lower, all else equal.</p> The Alcohol Industry Is Stable <p>The big reason behind the recent selloff in STZ stock has to do with cannabis. Namely, the consensus thesis out there is that as the recreational cannabis market becomes increasingly legal, convenient and large, it will take share from the alcoholic beverage market. As that happens, STZ’s sales will drop, margins will come under pressure, and profit growth will fall flat. That’s why STZ stock has dropped 25% over the past month, as the cannabis craze has picked up steam.</p> <p>But, that thesis is flawed.</p> <p>To be sure, there is an overlap between the pot smoking and beer drinking crowds. And, as weed becomes more easily accessible and legal, there will be a handful of consumers who choose to smoke weed rather than drink beer. But, data suggests that this is a small portion of the market, and that most adult users will both drink beer and smoke pot.</p> <p>According to detailed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), marijuana usage rates among U.S. adults age 18 or older have climbed from 6% in 2002 to nearly 10% in 2017. During that same stretch, cigarette smoking usage rates among the same cohort have dropped from 27.5% to below 20%. Meanwhile, alcohol consumption rates have actually increased from 54.9% to 55.9%.</p> <p>There are many things at play here, but the broad takeaway is clear. As marijuana consumption has risen, it has taken share from the tobacco industry, not the alcoholic beverage industry. Instead, alcohol consumption rates have actually slightly risen over the past two decades as marijuana usage has become more prevalent. From this perspective, it shouldn’t be surprising that alcoholic beverage sales are not down in U.S. states that have legalized cannabis.</p> <p>If you extrapolate this out, it’s easy to see that fears related to a big slowdown at STZ as a result of widespread cannabis legalization and usage are overblown. Constellation’s alcohol sales will be just fine over the next several years. Meanwhile, the company will win big thanks to its 30%-plus ownership stake in Canopy as the cannabis market grows by leaps and bounds. Altogether, then, Constellation actually has healthy growth prospects over the next several years.</p> <br> Compare Brokers<br> Valuation Is Anemic <p>The opportunity in STZ stock is that healthy growth is far from priced in today. Thus, as healthy growth materializes over the next several years, it will converge on a discounted valuation, and result in a pop in STZ stock.</p> <p>At the current moment, STZ stock trades nearly 30% off all-time highs. It’s also well below all of its major moving averages, and trades at just 17X forward earnings, versus a five-year average forward multiple of nearly 23. All other major valuation multiples are also currently at a discount to their five-year averages.</p> <p>In other words, what you have with STZ is a really beaten up and lowly valued stock with depressed investor sentiment. That is the sort of set up that lends itself to a big rally in the event that fundamentals improve, which they will over the next several quarters and years.</p> Bottom Line on STZ Stock <p>Constellation Brands has been unfairly beaten up on irrational concerns that the alcoholic beverage market will be eaten alive by the cannabis market. These irrational concerns won’t last forever, so investors should take advantage of this near-term disconnect between price and reality.</p> <p>As of this writing, Luke Lango was Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-65044049039465142892019-03-09T05:05:00.000-08:002019-03-09T05:06:56.360-08:00Wipro falls 5% after a block deal worth nearly Rs 700 crore <p>Wipro shares plunged 5 percent intraday on Friday after nearly Rs 700 crore worth of shares changed hands in a block deal on March 8.</p><p>The stock was quoting at Rs 257.45, down Rs 11.35, or 4.22 percent on the BSE, at 12:25 hours IST.</p><p>About 2.67 crore shares changed hands in a single block deal on the BSE at Rs 260 per share, reports CNBC-TV18.</p> <p>The trading volumes jumped by more than 32-fold to 10,37,549 shares, compared to its five day average of 32,044 shares on the BSE.</p> <p>The Azim Premji Trust, part of the promoter group that owns 74.3 percent in the software services provider, plans to sell a minimum of 0.29 percent, or 1.78 crore shares through block deals, BloombergQuint said quoting people familiar the news. The term sheet has a greenshoe option allowing a total sale of 0.44 percent or up to 2.67 crore shares, it added.</p>Among stocks available in the Nifty IT index (which was down 0.7 percent), Wipro was the biggest loser, followed by HCL Technologies (down 1.65 percent) and Infosys (0.86 percent). First Published on Mar 8, 2019 01:59 pm Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-60225588955466509022019-03-08T08:38:00.000-08:002019-03-08T08:39:37.781-08:00Employees Retirement System of Texas Boosts Stake in Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (AAP) <p><img src="https://www.americanbankingnews.com/wp-content/timthumb/timthumb.php?w=250&zc=1&src=https://www.marketbeat.com/logos/advance-auto-parts-inc-logo.jpg" alt="Advance Auto Parts logo" title="Advance Auto Parts logo" class="companylogo" />Employees Retirement System of Texas grew its position in shares of Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (NYSE:AAP) by 13.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 51,044 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,000 shares during the quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas owned about 0.07% of Advance Auto Parts worth $8,037,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. </p> <p>Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AAP. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in Advance Auto Parts by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,089,102 shares of the company’s stock worth $801,330,000 after buying an additional 534,863 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in Advance Auto Parts by 417.5% in the fourth quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 560,510 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,250,000 after buying an additional 452,190 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Advance Auto Parts by 892.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 430,256 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,425,000 after buying an additional 386,910 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Advance Auto Parts by 138.7% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 532,494 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,634,000 after buying an additional 309,406 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Advance Auto Parts by 1,434.5% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 190,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,007,000 after buying an additional 178,150 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.51% of the company’s stock. </p> Get Advance Auto Parts alerts: <p>AAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Advance Auto Parts from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 26th. Credit Suisse Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $195.00 target price on shares of Advance Auto Parts in a research note on Tuesday, February 19th. UBS Group increased their target price on Advance Auto Parts from $190.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 14th. Bank of America increased their target price on Advance Auto Parts from $177.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Advance Auto Parts to $195.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Advance Auto Parts currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $187.76.</p> <p> AAP stock opened at $157.97 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 1.57. Advance Auto Parts, Inc. has a twelve month low of $102.15 and a twelve month high of $186.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.04. </p> <p>Advance Auto Parts (NYSE:AAP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 19th. The company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.10 billion. Advance Auto Parts had a return on equity of 14.64% and a net margin of 4.42%. The business’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.77 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Advance Auto Parts, Inc. will post 8.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. </p> <p>The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 21st. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.15%. Advance Auto Parts’s dividend payout ratio is currently 3.37%. </p> <p>WARNING: This story was originally posted by Ticker Report and is the property of of Ticker Report. If you are viewing this story on another domain, it was illegally stolen and republished in violation of United States and international trademark & copyright law. The correct version of this story can be viewed at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4203146/employees-retirement-system-of-texas-boosts-stake-in-advance-auto-parts-inc-aap.html. </p> <p>About Advance Auto Parts</p> <p>Advance Auto Parts, Inc provides automotive replacement parts, batteries, accessories, and maintenance items for domestic and imported cars, vans, sport utility vehicles, and light and heavy duty trucks. It offers battery accessories, belts and hoses, brakes and brake pads, chassis and climate control parts, clutches and drive shafts, engines and engine parts, exhaust systems and parts, hub assemblies, ignition components and wires, radiators and cooling parts, starters and alternators, and steering and alignment parts.</p> <p>Featured Article: Quiet Period Expirations Explained</p> <p><img src='https://www.marketbeat.com/scripts/SECFilingChart.ashx?Prefix=NYSE&Symbol=AAP' alt='Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Advance Auto Parts (NYSE:AAP)' title='Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Advance Auto Parts (NYSE:AAP)' /></p> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-17314284422615821892019-03-05T10:42:00.000-08:002019-03-05T10:43:25.497-08:00Best Stocks To Own Right Nowtags:UBSI,KBR,PSXP, <p>Wall Street brokerages predict that BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI) will report earnings per share (EPS) of $0.21 for the current fiscal quarter, according to Zacks. Seven analysts have provided estimates for BJ’s Restaurants’ earnings, with the lowest EPS estimate coming in at $0.18 and the highest estimate coming in at $0.24. BJ’s Restaurants reported earnings per share of $0.15 during the same quarter last year, which indicates a positive year over year growth rate of 40%. The business is expected to issue its next earnings results on Thursday, October 25th.</p> <p>According to Zacks, analysts expect that BJ’s Restaurants will report full year earnings of $2.12 per share for the current financial year, with EPS estimates ranging from $2.03 to $2.17. For the next financial year, analysts expect that the company will report earnings of $2.34 per share, with EPS estimates ranging from $2.23 to $2.41. Zacks Investment Research’s earnings per share averages are an average based on a survey of sell-side analysts that that provide coverage for BJ’s Restaurants.</p><h3>Best Stocks To Own Right Now: United Bankshares Inc.(UBSI)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>BidaskClub upgraded shares of United Bankshares (NASDAQ:UBSI) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Shane Hupp]</b> <p>Shares of United Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:UBSI) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $39.33. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Shane Hupp]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on United Bankshares (UBSI)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> </ul><h3>Best Stocks To Own Right Now: KBR, Inc.(KBR)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Logan Wallace]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on KBR (KBR)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> <li> <b>[By Logan Wallace]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on KBR (KBR)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> <li> <b>[By ]</b> <p>KBR (NYSE: KBR)<br> Though an under-the-radar name, KBR was the construction arm of oilfield services giant Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) before being spun off. With a consolidated market cap of $2.6 billion, KBR describes itself, per its website, as a "global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies… within the Government Services and Hydrocarbon sectors."</p></li> <li> <b>[By Shane Hupp]</b> <p>These are some of the news headlines that may have impacted Accern Sentiment Analysis’s analysis: </p> Get KBR alerts: Zacks: Analysts Anticipate KBR, Inc. (KBR) Will Announce Quarterly Sales of $1.31 Billion (americanbankingnews.com) Brokerages Anticipate KBR, Inc. (KBR) to Announce $0.39 Earnings Per Share (americanbankingnews.com) Should Value Investors Buy KBR Inc. (KBR) Stock? (zacks.com) Court says Swiss can help French in probe of alleged Unaoil corruption (finance.yahoo.com) F-Score Review on These Stocks: KBR, Inc. (NYSE:KBR), Luceco plc (LSE:LUCE) (vassarnews.com) <p>Shares of KBR stock opened at $20.57 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. KBR has a 12-month low of $14.40 and a 12-month high of $21.69. The company has a market cap of $2.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.20. </p></li> </ul><h3>Best Stocks To Own Right Now: Phillips 66 Partners LP(PSXP)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Phillips 66 Partners (NYSE:PSXP) had its price target reduced by stock analysts at Credit Suisse Group from $61.00 to $59.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the oil and gas company’s stock. Credit Suisse Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 17.04% from the stock’s previous close.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Matthew DiLallo]</b> <p>While those customer commitments were hard to come by over the past few years due to the turbulence in the oil market, energy companies are beginning to grow more optimistic about the future. Because of that, Phillips 66 Partners (NYSE:PSXP) and several other partners were able to secure the necessary commitments to move forward with the Gray Oak Pipeline, which will transport oil out of the fast-growing Permian Basin. That project will enable these companies to generate more income, likely allowing them to boost their already above-average payouts.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Reuben Gregg Brewer]</b> <p>There was a similar trend for smaller midstream player Phillips 66 Partners LP (NYSE:PSXP). It was down 19% in 2018 and rose 16% in January. But the trend didn't hold for Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN), which distributes gasoline. This limited partnership was off by 4% in 2018, two percentage points less than the broader market, and up 12% in January. Cheniere Energy Partners LP (NYSEMKT:CQP) and Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG) were even further from the pack, up 12% and 11%, respectively, in January after posting gains of 21% and roughly 10%, respectively, in 2018.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Travis Hoium, Matthew DiLallo, and Todd Campbell]</b> <p>We asked three of our Foolish contributors for their top dividends today and Phillips 66 Partners (NYSE:PSXP), Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS), and Hess Midstream Partners (NYSE:HESM) were at the top of the list. And these are very different dividends indeed. </p></li> </ul> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-71476638092635714612019-03-04T13:46:00.000-08:002019-03-04T13:47:10.418-08:00Top 5 China Stocks To Invest In Right Nowtags:BIDU,NTES,TISA,FMCN,ATAI, </p> <p>On Jan. 24, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a new 30% tariff on solar panel imports. Since China is the leading exporter of solar panels, Trump's solar tariffs meant the death knell of Chinese solar stocks.</p> <p>At least, that's what the talking heads on TV said. But they were wrong…</p> <p>Publications including Time and Forbes were unified that the solar tariffs would harm China's solar industry.</p><h3>Top 5 China Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Baidu Inc.(BIDU)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Motley Fool Staff]</b> <p>Dylan Lewis: This property just got spun out of Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) fairly recently. Shares have not been trading all that long. And in that time, we've seen the usual fluctuations that you might expect from a new issuance hitting the public markets. Some of that is due to some recent developments that are helping the company out.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>California Public Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in Baidu Inc (NASDAQ:BIDU) by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 487,282 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,450 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Baidu were worth $118,410,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Keith Noonan]</b> <p>When iQiyi (NASDAQ:IQ) had its market debut in March after being spun off from Chinese search-engine giant Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), the stock stumbled out of the gate. It lost roughly 14% of its value on the first day of trading and briefly derailed some of the excitement surrounding the new streaming and multimedia offshoot. That didn't last too long, however.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Danny Vena]</b> <p>Video streaming company iQiyi (NASDAQ:IQ) recently spun off from Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), and the market is taking notice. In this week's episode of Industry Focus: Tech, host Dylan Lewis and Motley Fool contributor Danny Vena explain why iQiyi is so exciting and what investors should know about the company before digging in.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Leo Sun]</b> <p>Shares of Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) recently rallied after the Chinese tech giant posted an impressive first quarter. Its revenue rose 31% annually to 20.9 billion RMB ($3.33 billion), topping estimates by $140 million and marking the company's strongest growth since the fourth quarter of 2015.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Douglas A. McIntyre]</b> <p>The United States is only one problem of many Ford faces. Among others is tumbling sales in China, the world’s largest car market. It has set a partnership with Chinese tech company Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU). From the Ford press release, it is hard to see how this will work:</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 China Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Netease.com Inc.(NTES)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its stake in NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) by 26.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 128,173 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 46,859 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.10% of NetEase worth $35,938,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Leo Sun]</b> <p>NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) reported its fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 20. Its revenue rose 36% annually to RMB 19.84 billion ($2.89 billion), which missed the USD guidance by $20 million but marked its third straight quarter of accelerating sales growth.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Dan Caplinger]</b> <p>Even the best growth stocks have slumps from time to time, and Chinese video game giant NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES) has gone through a particularly tough environment lately. Since last December, the company's shares have lost more than a third of their value, and macroeconomic concerns about the trade relationship between China and the U.S. have weighed on investor sentiment about Chinese stocks more generally.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Here are some of the news stories that may have effected Accern Sentiment’s rankings: </p> Get NetEase alerts: NetEase Inc (NTES) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts (americanbankingnews.com) NetEase Inc (NTES) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest (americanbankingnews.com) Hot Stock’s Trend Recap – NetEase Inc (NASDAQ: NTES) (stockspen.com) Switching Three Stocks: The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES), CBRE Group … (thestreetpoint.com) US benchmarks shake off G7 jitters, ending the day on a positive note (proactiveinvestors.co.uk) <p>A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. BidaskClub lowered shares of NetEase from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 27th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of NetEase from $335.00 to $310.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of NetEase in a report on Thursday, April 12th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $240.00 price target on the stock. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of NetEase from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 8th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of NetEase from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $327.21.</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 China Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Top Image Systems Ltd.(TISA)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Top Image Systems (TISA)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Top Image Systems (TISA)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> <li> <b>[By Money Morning Staff Reports]</b> <p>Before we get to our latest pick, here are last week's top-performing penny stocks:</p> Penny Stock Sector Current Share Price Last Week's Gain Melinta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: MLNT) Healthcare $1.74 104.01% Pernix Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PTX) Healthcare $0.83 84.40% Top Image Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ: TISA) Healthcare $0.82 59.85% Jason Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: JASN) Healthcare $2.21 58.99% Maxwell Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MXWL) Financial $4.66 51.79% Marathon Patent Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) Healthcare $0.52 51.47% Forward Pharma A/S (NASDAQ: FWP) Basic Materials $1.53 43.57% Dixie Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DXYN) Healthcare $1.40 42.86% Trevena Inc. (NASDAQ: TRVN) Services $1.41 39.60% Alliance MMA Inc. (NASDAQ: AMMA) Healthcare $4.95 36.18% <p>Don't Miss Out: The Treasury is sitting on an $11.1 billion cash pile, and a loophole entitles Americans to a sizable portion. Some are collecting $1,795, $3,000, or $5,000 every month thanks to this powerful investment…</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 China Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Focus Media Holding Limited(FMCN)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>An issue of Focus Media Holding Limited (NASDAQ:FMCN) bonds fell 0.9% against their face value during trading on Monday. The high-yield debt issue has a 7.25% coupon and will mature on April 1, 2023. The bonds in the issue are now trading at $99.13 and were trading at $98.13 last week. Price moves in a company’s bonds in credit markets sometimes anticipate parallel moves in its share price. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>An issue of Focus Media Holding Limited (NASDAQ:FMCN) debt fell 1.1% against its face value during trading on Tuesday. The debt issue has a 7.5% coupon and is set to mature on April 1, 2025. The debt is now trading at $97.63 and was trading at $98.50 last week. Price changes in a company’s debt in credit markets sometimes anticipate parallel changes in its stock price. </p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 China Stocks To Invest In Right Now: ATA Inc.(ATAI)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Paul Ausick]</b> <p>ATA Inc. (NASDAQ: ATAI) traded down about 14% Monday to set a new 52-week low of $0.82, based on revalued shares that closed at $0.72 on Friday but traded up about 250% on Monday at $2.53. Volume was more than 200 times the daily average of around 42,000. You’re on your own here to figure this one out.</p></li> </ul> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-83872830624238219012019-03-03T01:45:00.000-08:002019-03-03T01:46:46.809-08:00Flexion Therapeutics Inc (FLXN) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript <img alt="Logo of jester cap with thought bubble." src="https://g.foolcdn.com/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fg.foolcdn.com%2Feditorial%2Fimages%2F514454%2Ftranscripts-logo.png&w=700&op=resize"/> <p>Image source: The Motley Fool.</p> <p>Flexion Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:FLXN)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 28, 2019, 4:30 p.m. ET</p> Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: <p>Operator</p> <p>Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Flexion Therapeutics Conference Call. My name is Latif, and I will be your coordinator today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will be facilitating a question-and-answer session at the end of today's call. (Operator Instructions)</p> <p>I'll now turn the call over to the company.</p> <p>Scott Young -- Vice President of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations</p> <p>Good afternoon. This is Scott Young Vice President for Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. Both the earnings release we issued this afternoon and an archive of this conference call can be found on the Company's website at flexiontherapeutics.com.</p> <p>Today's call will be led by Flexion's Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Michael Clayman; and he is joined by Dan Deardorf, Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations; and David Arkowitz, Flexion's Chief Financial Officer.</p> <p>On today's teleconference, we will be making forward-looking statements that include commercial, financial, clinical and regulatory projections. Statements relating to future financial or business performance, conditions or strategies and other business matters, including expectations regarding net sales, operating expenses, cash utilization, clinical, regulatory and commercial developments and anticipated milestones are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.</p> <p>Flexion cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to various assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change over time. Additional information on the factors and risks that could affect Flexion's business, financial conditions and results of operations are contained in Flexion's Form 10-K for the ended December 31, 2018, filed with the SEC today, and other filings, which are available at www.sec.gov, as well as Flexion's website. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this call, and Flexion assumes no duty to update such statements.</p> <p>I will now turn the call over to Flexion's CEO, Mike Clayman.</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Thanks, Scott, and thank you all for joining our fourth quarter and full year 2018 earnings call. Today, we'll provide an update on ZILRETTA's launch and our commercial progress, review our clinical development and lifecycle management activities and discuss our financial performance in the fourth quarter and full year 2018. We will then open up the call for Q&A.</p> <p>To begin, in early January of this year, we held a conference call on which we discussed ZILRETTA's 2018 performance in detail. On that teleconference, I described the factors that made 2018 a foundational year for ZILRETTA and we were very pleased with its performance in the market. As reported today, we recorded full year product revenue of $22.5 million, which is a very solid start for our novel buy and bill product entering the orthopedic space.</p> <p>Importantly, we established a strong base to build upon as we execute the next phase of our commercial strategy, which we believe will result in building sales momentum throughout the course of 2019 and beyond. In that vein, on our last call, we also provided estimated 2019's ZILRETTA revenue guidance of $65 million to $80 million. As we discussed in January, we believe that ZILRETTA's dedicated J code J3304 is essential to the long-term success of the product and we have tremendous confidence that ZILRETTA will become an impactful product for the treatment of OA knee pain.</p> <p>However, the introduction of the J code should not be seen as flipping of a switch, rather it gives prescribers additional confidence that they will be reimbursed swiftly and with a defined reimbursement amount. And critically it enables us to now access a meaningful number of accounts, which were previously closed due to the absence of a J code. While still early days, we can report that we have already seen the J code open doors to some major accounts, which conduct thousands of our intra-articular injections each year and have the potential to make sizable purchases.</p> <p>That said, it is important to understand that those practices are now just beginning the adoption process, a process that includes clinical, reimbursement and operational adoption. This process varies from practice to practice and can be remarkably complex, taking weeks or often months before ZILRETTA is fully accessible to patients.</p> <p>That's why we have an outstanding team of field sales reps known as musculoskeletal business managers or MDMs and also field access managers who are deeply knowledgeable reimbursement experts. Reflecting our Company values, these professionals are focused, innovative and tenacious, as they walk prescribers and key decision-makers through each step. As for ZILRETTA's clinical performance, we could not be more pleased with the beneficial impact its having on patients confronting OA knee pain. I am routinely contacted by patients, physicians, colleagues and even investors, who have experienced ZILRETTA firsthand and want to share their stories about the impact it has had on them. They often use the words like amazing and unbelievable, which are heartfelt and moving to all of us at Flexion.</p> <p>These stories serve as a poignant reminder of just how many people suffer from this incurable disease and how large of the potential market is for ZILRETTA. Each year physicians and physician extenders administer approximately 8 million intra-articular injections for knee OA, and we believe that ZILRETTA has the potential to be a first-line treatment for many of these patients. Dan will share more details, but we have been busy executing our commercial plans to support our long-term goal of making ZILRETTA the leading branded intra-articular product for OA knee pain in the U.S. And to this end, we have also been diligently working to optimize the product label.</p> <p>Specifically, as I mentioned on the last call, we submitted a supplemental NDA with compelling data from our repeat administration trial in December. The data indicated that repeat administration of ZILRETTA for treatment of OA knee pain was generally safe and well tolerated with no deleterious impact on cartilage or joint structure observed through x-ray analysis. The data also indicate that the magnitude and duration of pain relief experienced by patients after both the first and second injections was consistent with the clinical benefit of ZILRETTA in the pivotal Phase 3 trial.</p> <p>The goal of the sNDA is to revise the product label and remove the limitation of used statement that currently exists. And just this week, we received the Day 74 letter from FDA informing us that they've accepted the sNDA and we have a PDUFA date of October 14, 2019. Additionally, in February, the agency informed us that the labeling supplement we filed in August had an interim step to address the LOU has been subsumed into the sNDA. While we clearly would have preferred a quicker decision on the labeling supplement, we remain optimistic about the eventual FDA decision.</p> <p>While we do not expect to have the agency's decision on the sNDA until the fourth quarter, we are very pleased that the results from the repeat administration trial were published in the peer-reviewed medical journal, Rheumatology and Therapy. With this publication, our MDMs can proactively provide the reprint to prescribers, our market access team can proactively share the data with payers and our Medical Science Liaisons or MSLs and medical information experts can address any questions about the data and repeat administration.</p> <p>While OA knee pain presents the largest opportunity for ZILRETTA, we believe the product holds great potential in other indications, including hip and shoulder OA pain and adhesive capsulitis also known as frozen shoulder. As we previously reported, in December, we enrolled a first patient in a double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3b trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ZILRETTA in patients with hip OA. The initiation of that trial was supported by findings from a Phase 2 randomized, open-label, pharmacokinetic study in the shoulder and hip joints, known as the SHIP study in which ZILRETTA appeared generally safe and well tolerated, and the PK profile of ZILRETTA observed in both joints was consistent with previous PK studies in the knee. We expect the hip OA trial to complete in 2020. And we intend to initiate Phase 2 studies in shoulder OA and adhesive capsulitis later this year.</p> <p>Finally, with respect to FX201, our intra-articular gene therapy product candidate. We previously announced that GLP toxicology studies were initiated in October 2018 and pending positive results from these preclinical studies we anticipate filing an Investigational New Drug application and initiating first-in-human clinical trials in the second half of 2019. Additionally, on February 11, 2019, the Company received a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a U.S. patent application covering FX201 and we look forward to the issuance of the patent, which will provide protection to 2033 without any extensions.</p> <p>In summary, across all areas of Flexion, our teams are doing outstanding work to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the patients we serve, while maximizing value for our shareholders, and without their support, we simply could not advance our important mission.</p> <p>I'll now turn it over to Dan.</p> <p>Dan Deardorf -- Senior Vice President, Commercial</p> <p>Thanks, Mike. To begin, I'd like to stress just how pleased we are with the progress our commercial team is making across multiple dimensions, prescriber awareness and clinical interest, market access of physician reimbursement support and patient awareness and demand. I'll touch on each of these as I walk through the usual launch metrics.</p> <p>For context, we have been reporting a set of metrics since launch to provide our investors and analysts with a better sense of how this launch is advancing in the absence of reliable script data from the usual third-party sources. By the end of 2018, our Musculoskeletal Business Managers and Field Access Managers had conducted product preparation training or held in-depth reimbursement discussions at 88% of our approximate 3,700 target accounts. As a reminder, we view this as a key leading indicator since it indicates an account has a serious clinical interest in using the product. Correspondingly, as of December 31st, 90% of our target accounts had either purchased or received samples of ZILRETTA since launch. Furthermore, by the end of the fourth quarter, 69% of ordering accounts have placed at least one reorder for additional product since we launched ZILRETTA.</p> <p>With respect to reimbursement, at the end of the third quarter, I mentioned that we had already had interactions with commercial payers covering the vast majority of patients in the country. So not surprisingly that metric was essentially unchanged in the fourth quarter. In total, our market access team has engaged with 48 key commercial insurers, who represent 225 million people or 75% of all commercially covered lives in the U.S. We continue to monitor all other targeted plans and we will engage them as appropriate.</p> <p>Additionally, the commercial insurance coverage for ZILRETTA continue to be strong throughout the fourth quarter, with more than 95% of benefits verifications processed through FlexForward, indicating coverage of ZILRETTA. While these last two metrics gave important insights early on, we recognize that they are providing limited value at this stage. Going forward, we will stop reporting these until we are identifying new metrics which we believe will provide deeper insights into how the launch is progressing.</p> <p>With respect to our marketing efforts, our comprehensive multipronged direct-to-patient strategy continue to build momentum throughout the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first two months of 2019. Our digital presence is driving traffic to zilretta.com and that volume has exceeded our expectations. Additionally, we recently launched a physician locator to help patients identify doctors in their area who offer ZILRETTA in their practice. In advanced of unveiling that we invited physician practices with ZILRETTA experience to add their information to a database and it's fair to say that we've been very pleased with the response.</p> <p>By their nature, orthopedists tend to be highly competitive and seeing another local practice on the physician finder can serve us an institutional motivator to adopt ZILRETTA. Importantly, the physician finder was activated concurrent with our direct-to-patient television ad pilot which kicked off for January this year.</p> <p>As a reminder, our TV pilot is a targeted and cost-efficient campaign with a total expense of under $1 million. The sponsor currently running in three test markets that are match the three control markets which mirror the demographics of the test markets. This pilot will run for several months and as is the case with television ads, it takes some time to see potential uplift. This is especially true with viable products since patients need to see the ads, take action to go to the website, find a physician, make an appointment and ultimately to get treated.</p> <p>As a result, we won't have a deep understanding of the ROI on this initiative until the second half. However, that said, we are seeing a significant initial lift in web traffic from the test markets which give us an early belief that the TV ads may already be having an impact in activating patients to seek more information about ZILRETTA online.</p> <p>With that, I'll wrap up my comments by saying that we are very pleased with our progress in 2018, and we're excited about executing our commercial plans in 2019.</p> <p>I'll now turn it over to David.</p> <p>David Arkowitz -- Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Thanks, Dan. I'll briefly review the financial results for full year 2018, which we included in the press release we issued this afternoon and in our 10-K. We reported a net loss of $169.7 million for full year 2018 as compared to a net loss of $137.5 million for full year 2017. Net sales of ZILRETTA in the fourth quarter of 2018 were $9.5 million and the total for full year 2018 was $22.5 million, while the cost of sales for full year 2018 was $7.3 million. The full year net sales reflect a gross-to-net reduction of 9%, which is consistent with our gross-to-net percentage reductions reported in the first, second and third quarters of 2018.</p> <p>The gross-to-net reduction is primarily comprised of distributor fees, returns reserve and mandatory government discounts and rebates, such as Medicaid 340B institutions, Veterans Administration and Department of Defense. As we don't provide any customer rebates or discounts, we expect our gross-to-net percentage reduction to be in the low teens over the ensuing quarters.</p> <p>Research and development expenses were $53.1 million and $51.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. The increase in research and development expenses of $1.8 million in 2018 as compared to 2017 was primarily due to an increase in salary and other employee-related costs for additional headcount stock-based compensation expense and an increase in expenses related to our pipeline program and other program costs, partially offset by a decrease in ZILRETTA clinical development expenses.</p> <p>Selling general and administrative expenses were $121.3 million and $78.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. Selling expenses were $87.3 million and $45.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. The $41.4 million increase in selling expenses was primarily due to salary and other employee-related costs associated with additional headcount and costs related to the establishment of commercial marketing and sales capabilities.</p> <p>General and administrative expenses were $34 million and $32.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 respectively, which represents an increase of $1.1 million year-over-year.</p> <p>Interest expense was $15.7 million and $11.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. As of December 31, 2018, the Company had approximately $258.8 million in cash equivalents and marketable securities compared with $423.9 million as of December 31, 2017.</p> <p>We believe that our current cash balance with the expected future sales of ZILRETTA and the ongoing prudent management of our expenses will bring us to profitability. We expect that our operating expenses will continue to increase primarily driven by commercial activities in support of ZILRETTA, line extension clinical trials for ZILRETTA in OA of the hip and shoulder continued development of FX201 and preclinical and development activities associated with future additions to the pipeline.</p> <p>At this point, I would ask the operator to please open the line for questions.</p> Questions and Answers: <p>Operator</p> <p>(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of David Maris of Wells Fargo.</p> <p>David Maris -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst</p> <p>Great. Thank you for taking the question. It might seem like an odd question, but I do so two things. First, any contemplation of partnering ex-U.S. and where that might stand? And then separately, when you think of your comments about -- you couldn't be more pleased with how things are going and things are great, was that in contemplation of the quarter that just ended, or now that were two months into the -- does that still stand for where we are today?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>So, David, we are, as we said all along, we are open to partnerships outside the U.S. We are actively exploring. And if and when we proceed with the partnership, we will certainly be sure that you're among the first to know. As it relates to the comments about being pleased with progress that is through 2018, we are not commenting on how we're doing in 2019 and that will be the subject of our Q1 earnings call.</p> <p>David Maris -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst</p> <p>All right. Thank you very much.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Our next question comes from Randall Stanicky of RBC Capital Markets.</p> <p>Randall Stanicky -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Great, thanks. Mike, two questions. Can you just maybe elaborate any early observations in terms of how or what impact if any of the J code is having? Are you seeing an increase in reorder rates or size of orders? Is there anything even though it's early that you could provide that could give us some color around that? That's number one.</p> <p>And the number two do you have a sense of what percent of your patience or the patients taking ZILRETTA are getting repeat doses of ZILRETTA? And where do you think that goes once the sNDA is approved?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Yes. So regarding the J code, Randall, what we're gratified by is the number of examples of practices, some large group practices for which the J code has opened the door, a door previously close to us and that now allows us to be in the process of getting on formularies. So as we said in our prepared comments, it's not like flipping a switch. It's certainly directionally it instills confidence, greater confidence for those who are ordering that the reimbursement process will be that much more straightforward. I think that particular upside of the J code will play out in the course of the year.</p> <p>In terms of repeat dose, as we've said before, the LOU does some confusion among clinicians out there, particularly as it relates to the possibility of reimbursement. And this is a top of mind issue for us. The reality is that reimbursement is straightforward for the vast majority of patients, who do get a second or third or fourth dosing. We have know -- we know of many patients who have gotten repeat doses and practices being appropriately reimbursed. But it's still something to work through. And I have no doubt that removal of the LOU will contribute to the momentum that we have for this product.</p> <p>Randall Stanicky -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Great. Thank you.</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Thank you.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Our next question comes from Gary Nachman of BMO Capital Markets. Your question please.</p> <p>Gary Nachman -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Hi, good afternoon, guys. To the large physician practices that have consolidated and were a bit of a hurdle for you last year, have you been improving penetration of these accounts? Are you opening doors there with the J code? And have you seen that having a repeat dose data published? Is that helping with payers yet?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Yeah, with respect to large practices, Gary, we're clearly continuing to make progress there. On an ongoing basis, we are having formulary wins, we are getting access. In fact, this is of all sizes. All target practices of ours, but certainly some large practices. So we continue to see wins on an ongoing basis and will continue to do so. The second part of her question was.</p> <p>David Arkowitz -- Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Repeat data.</p> <p>Gary Nachman -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Yeah. The repeat -- having it published, are you seeing that benefit yet when you have conversations with payers? I know it's early, but...</p> <p>Dan Deardorf -- Senior Vice President, Commercial</p> <p>Yeah. It's frankly just too early. I mean, we're at a week or so into it. We will -- but we will be very aggressively disseminating and discussing that data with payers moving forward.</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Yeah. I mean, as you know, Gary, we can proactively discuss the data with payers. And we will be doing that and we're certainly optimistic that that will have a positive impact.</p> <p>Gary Nachman -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Okay. And then last question Just how much of the diabetic angle has been resonating with physicians? We hear that a lot in our conversations. And I know last year was a little bit back and forth in terms of how much of a benefit you thought that was. So what's the latest on that?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Yeah. It's clearly a patient type or a patient population that has could receive a differential benefit from a safety perspective with ZILRETTA. So that's certainly an important patient type if you will that physicians that migrate toward. That said, we're interested in all patients. We're interested in the week and weary so to speak. The patient who is toward the end of their disease has run out of option. So those are all patients for us, but the diabetic patient certainly an important one, certainly one that our representatives utilize to open the door in many accounts to get some patients started to be treated and then expand the usage of the patient types beyond there.</p> <p>We don't have a hard data since this is a viable product. We do not get patient-specific data to be able to tie it to diabetic patients. But if you were to ask me based on what I've heard anecdotally speaking with physicians and our sales reps, I would say, we've got somewhat disproportionate use of ZILRETTA to patients, but very difficult to quantify.</p> <p>Gary Nachman -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Okay, thanks.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Your next question comes from Elliot Wilbur of Raymond James.</p> <p>Elliot Wilbur -- Raymond James and Associates -- Analyst</p> <p>Good afternoon. Maybe just start with a couple of financial questions for David. I guess, with respect to trends in SG&A and in R&D. SG&A can just sort of tick lower each quarter over the course of 2018. R&D continued to move incrementally higher each quarter. And I guess sort of given the plans in place for 2019 how should we be thinking about those measures on an aggregate basis? And then should we be thinking about sort of SG& A continuing to move lower or moves higher, essentially same pattern we saw in 2018?</p> <p>And then also on gross margin, which has continued to move up with volume, but assuming in fact you do reach kind of the low end or midpoint of your 2019 revenue guidance, where would gross margins be at? I guess, my assumption it would be in excess of 80% but maybe I'm not so sure that kind of pace in the last couple of quarters.</p> <p>David Arkowitz -- Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Great. Elliot, yeah, this is David. So let me take the operating expense question first. And let me break it into three buckets: R&D, selling expenses and then G&A and give a little color on each of those. So as we look forward for R&D expenses, we do expect those to continue to increase as we're conducting additional clinical trials for ZILRETTA, specifically the hip and the shoulder OA trials. We're going to be conducting further preclinical and clinical development activities for our portfolio, including FX201. So that's that will be increasing.</p> <p>For the selling expenses, the S part of the SG&A, think about that in two pieces: the first piece is our sales and marketing personnel and their related costs. That's piece one. And the second piece is the external marketing spend. The sales and marketing personnel piece, that should grow nominally as we're basically rightsized from a personnel standpoint. And that piece currently is a little bit more than half of our total selling expense. The external marketing piece that's going to be increasing for a variety of reasons. We've got campaigns -- marketing campaigns that we introduced in 2018 that we're going to see annualization of those in '19. We're going to introduce new campaigns in 2019. Then we've also got some spend-related activities that will grow hand in hand with sales growth. So you're going to see, again, you're going to see some growth on the marketing external marketing expense side of things. And then finally, G&A. We really expect that to just grow increase minimally in the future. We're kind of rightsized as it relates to the G&A piece as well.</p> <p>So let me now answer your question on the gross margin. So, yeah, as you indicated gross margin has ticked up over the last several quarters. In 2018, gross margin percentage was 78% in Q4 of '18 and you're going to see it continue to improve over time. We're not in a position at this point just given that we're still relatively early from a production standpoint and reaching steady-state to give you specific numbers. But once we achieve steady state, we feel very confident that we're going to see a gross margin percentage in the 90% range.</p> <p>Elliot Wilbur -- Raymond James and Associates -- Analyst</p> <p>Okay. And just one follow-up question for Dan, and maybe Mike as well. So if you think about the pattern of use or pattern of prescribing among your -- among current utilizers of the product, I mean is it possible to characterize it in terms of you're seeing use your limit use by a large number of physicians, who are kind of slowly, but surely adopting the product and maybe reimburse with sort of the hurdle to more widespread use? Or is this a situation where some of the thought leaders and the high prescribers have kind of really gotten behind the product and are accounting for the majority of volume and then go ultimately sort of kind of lead the way in terms of driving additional utilization?</p> <p>Dan Deardorf -- Senior Vice President, Commercial</p> <p>Yeah. I think, thanks Elliot. I'll probably start by saying that across all of our accounts, even in our largest accounts, we're just beginning to scratch the surface with respect to the potential in these accounts. In a number of these accounts -- larger accounts it's generally there are a few physicians within the Group that have kind of taken it on to be the initial users to gain the experience on behalf of the Group and to take that experience back to their peers. So at this point in time, we still have a great opportunity from a breadth perspective, breadth within accounts as well as across accounts and then ultimately a lot of room to grow on the depth front within any given clinician's practice and within any given practice more broadly.</p> <p>Elliot Wilbur -- Raymond James and Associates -- Analyst</p> <p>All right. Thanks for taking the questions.</p> <p>Dan Deardorf -- Senior Vice President, Commercial</p> <p>Thanks Elliot.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Our next question comes from the line of Patrick Trucchio of Berenberg Capital Management. Your line is open.</p> <p>Patrick Trucchio -- Berenberg Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Thanks. Hey, good afternoon. I have a follow-up regarding the sNDA under revision for ZILRETTA label. It is an either or situation and that either you will get the labeling supplement or you will get the label to allow for repeat administration or you would get neither? And then can you provide us some context regarding discussions around this sNDA, in particular the data requirements for the filing and your level of confidence that the filing meets the agency's requirements for the label change?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Yeah. So, Patrick, let me start with an answer to the second part of the question. We take some degree of confidence and comfort in the Day 74 letter, which the agency -- in which the agency indicates their support for the filing, specifically that they've seen no major deficiencies. And frankly, if they were design issues that's the kind of thing that should come out in Day 74 letter as potential a review issue and that there was no such commentary.</p> <p>So we are proceeding with confidence that these data should prove reassuring to the agency and provide a basis for removing the LOU and the not intended for repeat administration phrase. Having said that, it's impossible to predict exactly where the agency is going to go. We do believe that data provide a compelling logic for removal of the LOU in this language, but that's in front of us. And the agency can figure out a lot of different ways to proceed. The most obvious straightforward and rational way to proceed here is to remove the LOU and to remove the language about not intended for repeat administration.</p> <p>Patrick Trucchio -- Berenberg Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>So then just a follow-up on the Phase 3 hip study. Just want to make sure I understand the design of the study. The primary in the study is the change in the WOMAC-A pain score, which I believe is different from the primary and the knee study the average daily pain score. So it looks like the dosage is the same as for knee 32 milligram, yeah. So I'm wondering were the findings from the PK study were informed the dosage being used in this Phase 3 study for the hip or how that dosage was decided on?</p> <p>And then secondly, can you discuss the choice to change the primary for the hip study in terms of one discussions with the agency and then two, how clinicians view WOMAC-A pain score endpoint in hip OA?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Yeah. So the dose in hip was determined with a couple of considerations in mind. Really, probably the most commonly used dose of KENALOG in hip is 40 milligram. So there's a parallel construction. There are some positions use AD, but we started there. And we also kind of made a pharmacologic argument that said, the side the actual a volume of the hip joint is very comparable to the volume of the knee joint. And if in fact, what we want to do is a fact a therapeutic concentration of drug over time, you can make a reasonably straightforward argument about doing that in the same volume joint. So we thought for a couple of reasons. The 32 milligrams that works so nicely in knee was the right dose to use in hip.</p> <p>Why WOMAC-A? WOMAC-A has consistently demonstrated the benefit of ZILRETTA over placebo and over immediate-release steroid. It is a well-accepted measure by the agency. And it's also much more familiar to particularly orthopedics than ADP. So for a variety of reasons, we felt that that was the appropriate primary endpoint to hang our head on. We felt that the only reason we stay with ADP through the registration trials was the commitment to clearly identify onset of action, which you can do with ADP, but you can't do with WOMAC.</p> <p>Patrick Trucchio -- Berenberg Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Got it. That's helpful. Thank you.</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Thank you, Patrick.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Our next question comes from Serge Belanger of Needham & Company. Your line is open.</p> <p>Serge Belanger -- Needham & Company -- Analyst</p> <p>Good afternoon. Just a couple of questions. First one for Dan. You mentioned in the prepared remarks that 95% of claims processed with FlexForward are approved. Just wanted to get an idea how much of the overall volume of ZILRETTA comes through FlexForward? Is it half or, I guess, an approximation what that number is? And do we have an idea of what the percentage of claims processed are rejected outside of FlexForward?</p> <p>Dan Deardorf -- Senior Vice President, Commercial</p> <p>So the last part first. We don't for our practices that submit their own claims due to our own benefit verifications. In the likelihood, we just don't have any insight into that. With respect to how many of the claims -- how many claims or benefits verifications we processed through FlexForward versus where we are from a sales perspective, I would say, it is certainly a majority that are going through FlexForward at this point in time.</p> <p>Serge Belanger -- Needham & Company -- Analyst</p> <p>Okay. And then a question for Mike. We've now seen three trials post-approval of ZILRETTA: the diabetic study, the repeat dose and the synovial fluid inflammation trial is ongoing. What are your plans for additional small trials? I know in the past you've talked about potentially looking at opioid usage introduction? Is that still in the cards? And what else can we see in the future?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Yeah. So I think what's in front of us, Serge, is in particular, in addition to what you have just cited here are shoulder studies. Shoulder OA and adhesive capsulitis separate studies adhesive capsulitis/frozen shoulder. So that's what we're particularly focused on. Opioid sparing is continues to be a topic of interest for us, identifying a design that will reliably and ethically deliver the kind of data that we would need to see to be able to make an appropriate assessment. Frankly, it's still in front of us. But, I would say, stay tuned. I'm not promising that we're going to go ahead with that study, but it is a topic an area of interest in ongoing internal discussion.</p> <p>Serge Belanger -- Needham & Company -- Analyst</p> <p>Thank you.</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Thank you.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Our next question comes from Carl Byrnes of Northland Securities. Your question please.</p> <p>Carl Byrnes -- Northland Securities, Inc. -- Analyst</p> <p>Great, thanks. Congratulations on the progress. Just quickly, when do you anticipate the top line readout Phase 3 hip OA study, given that you expect completion in 2020? Thanks.</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Yeah. Well, top line will be in 2020. And we won't get into much more granular detail than that, but it's entire regional to expect that we will have the data in hand and we will be communicating top line data in 2020.</p> <p>Carl Byrnes -- Northland Securities, Inc. -- Analyst</p> <p>Great, thanks.</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Thank you.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Our next question comes from Francois Brisebois of Laidlaw. Your line is open.</p> <p>Francois Brisebois -- Laidlaw & Company -- Analyst</p> <p>Hey, thanks for taking the questions. Just a couple of here on the J code. Can you comment on the amount of accounts that were closed before the J code? And kind of how that affects whether the large accounts are more comfortable versus the smaller accounts for that?</p> <p>Dan Deardorf -- Senior Vice President, Commercial</p> <p>Yeah. We're not going to quantify that number. And frankly it's hard to quantify what exactly did close mean. Do close mean that would get some experience with samples last year, but we're waiting for the J code in order to activate, or was the door truly close to us at that point in time. So difficult to quantify. I will say that it is certainly a meaningful number of accounts that we now have access to that we did not have access to prior to that.</p> <p>Francois Brisebois -- Laidlaw & Company -- Analyst</p> <p>Okay, great. And in terms of repeat dosage, is there a difference between inaccuracy for X-ray versus MRI? And does the FDA care, which one is more accurate? Are they going for X-ray versus MRI?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Well, there is no validated -- regulatory really validated endpoint that MRI basis relates to new architecture in cartilage volume. So the only validated regulatory endpoint in terms of imaging is X-ray. So that's the -- from our perspective, the most prudent way to go, and that's why we rely on that and the repeat dose study.</p> <p>Francois Brisebois -- Laidlaw & Company -- Analyst</p> <p>Okay, great. And then maybe for Dan on the launch metrics. You mentioned 75% covered lives. Is that -- can remind us of the historical kind of trend there percentage coverage through the quarters? Has that grown a lot or is it kind of what it's been?</p> <p>Dan Deardorf -- Senior Vice President, Commercial</p> <p>That's been flat for the last couple of quarters. One thing to take into account. We've -- as we indicated, we've we had interactions with 48 commercial payers. We have more than 48 target plans that we monitor. But plans come in different shapes and sizes and what their approach is to new products. So there are certainly some commercial payers out there, frankly kind of sitting back if you will and not proactively engaging them is the best strategy. We continue to monitor all of those. But that's the reason that we have decided to retire that metric is we've engaged with the 48, there are some other target plans that we will continue to monitor and engage when the time is right.</p> <p>Francois Brisebois -- Laidlaw & Company -- Analyst</p> <p>Okay, great. And that's it. Just a quick follow-up just the last one on that. Any color you mentioned you're thinking of giving you metrics, is there something we can expect on the first quarter 2019 call? And any color at all in terms of what kind of metrics you're looking at here?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>That's work in process at this point in time, so premature for us to comment to anything at this point.</p> <p>Francois Brisebois -- Laidlaw & Company -- Analyst</p> <p>Okay, great. Thank you.</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Thanks Franc.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Our next question comes from Bruce Jackson of Benchmark.</p> <p>Bruce Jackson -- Benchmark -- Analyst</p> <p>Hi, thank you for taking the question. With regard to the trial on shoulders, is that on a similar development pathway as hips? Is it going to go to Phase 3? And when do you think it might complete Phase 3 if you're going to Phase 3?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Well, our commitment is to use the data to expand the label with full intention of having that label expansion to -- in the future include hip OA and shoulder OA and very possibly adhesive capsulitis. The difference is that we've moved directly into hip registration trial. And later this year, we will move into Phase 3 trials in shoulder OA and shoulder adhesive capsulitis/frozen shoulder. So the shoulder indications are on a longer time line. I'm not going to provide specific color on when they would deliver in registration sense. But I will provide you the rationale for why we would go directly to hip registration trial and not go directly into a shoulder registration trial.</p> <p>And that's because the literature on hip OA clinical trials gives us a base to provide confidence that we understand whether an intra-articular placebo injection will yield in terms of response. The literature on shoulder is much more sparse. And as a result, that same level of confidence doesn't exist. And we thought the most prudent thing was to generate those data ourselves as a basis for designing the most credible and likely to succeed trial in shoulder. So that's why they are on different timelines.</p> <p>Bruce Jackson -- Benchmark -- Analyst</p> <p>Okay, that's helpful. Thank you.</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Thank you, Bruce.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back over to Mike Clayman for any closing remarks. Sir?</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining us today. That concludes our discussion and we look forward to speaking with you again on our first quarter results call this spring.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Have a wonderful day.</p> <p>Duration: 45 minutes</p> Call participants: <p>Scott Young -- Vice President of Corporate Communications & Investor Relations</p> <p>Mike Clayman -- Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder</p> <p>Dan Deardorf -- Senior Vice President, Commercial</p> <p>David Arkowitz -- Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>David Maris -- Wells Fargo Securities -- Analyst</p> <p>Randall Stanicky -- RBC Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Gary Nachman -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Elliot Wilbur -- Raymond James and Associates -- Analyst</p> <p>Patrick Trucchio -- Berenberg Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Serge Belanger -- Needham & Company -- Analyst</p> <p>Carl Byrnes -- Northland Securities, Inc. -- Analyst</p> <p>Francois Brisebois -- Laidlaw & Company -- Analyst</p> <p>Bruce Jackson -- Benchmark -- Analyst</p> <p>More FLXN analysis</p> <p>Transcript powered by AlphaStreet</p> <p>This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.</p> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-90818062134005631372019-03-01T22:09:00.000-08:002019-03-01T22:10:28.851-08:00Top buy and sell ideas by Ashwani Gujral, Mitessh Thakkar, Prakash Gaba for short term <br></p><p>The Nifty50 managed to settle the volatile expiry session as well as February series marginally lower on Thursday. Weak global cues weighed on the market sentiment, but hope of unlikely escalation of geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan limited downside.</p><p>The index formed bullish candle which resembles a 'Bearish Belt Hold' kind of pattern on the daily charts.</p><p>A 'Bearish Belt Hold' pattern is formed when the opening price becomes the highest point of the trading day (intraday high) and the index declines throughout the trading day making up for the large body. The candle will either have a small or no upper shadow and a small lower shadow.</p> <p>The Nifty50 opened sharply higher at 10,865.70, which was also an intraday high, but immediately fell and remained rangebound between 10,785 to 10,850 zones for rest of the February settlement day. It closed 14.20 points lower at 10,792.50 on February 28 and lost 0.4 percent in February series.</p> related news Editor's Take | GDP growth decelerates to 6.6% in Q3FY19 Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal agrees to step down as chairman: Sources Commodities@Moneycontrol | Roundup of key happenings in the commodity market Experts said VIX has to cool down below 16-15 zones to get the smooth ride in the market else restricted upside could continue to keep pressure on the<p>market.</p><p>In an interview to CNBC-TV18, top market experts recommend which stocks to bet on for good returns:</p><p>Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com</p><p>Buy Motherson Sumi Systems with a stop loss of Rs 157, target of Rs 172</p><p>Buy ONGC with a stop loss of Rs 144, target of Rs 158</p><p>Buy Voltas with a stop loss of Rs 562, target of Rs 578</p><p>Buy Titan Company with a stop loss of Rs 1010, target of Rs 1065</p><p>Buy Reliance Industries with a stop loss of Rs 1215, target of Rs 1265</p><p>Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.</p><p>Mitessh Thakkar of mitesshthakkar.com</p><p>Buy Bharat Electronics with a stop loss of Rs 81 and target of Rs 86</p><p>Sell Eicher Motors with a stop loss of Rs 21250 and target of Rs 20100</p><p>Sell HDFC Bank with a stop loss of Rs 2091 and target of Rs 2050</p><p>Buy Voltas with a stop loss of Rs 554 and target of Rs 590</p><p>Prakash Gaba of prakashgaba.com</p><p>Buy Allahabad Bank with target at Rs 53 and stop loss at Rs 47</p><p>Buy Apollo Tyres with target at Rs 225 and stop loss at Rs 215</p><p>Buy Havells India with target at Rs 730 and stop loss at Rs 703</p><p>Sell Adani Enterprises with target at Rs 122 and stop loss at Rs 132</p>Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com/CNBC-TV18 are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. First Published on Mar 1, 2019 08:23 am Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-26253059205263782632019-02-27T22:19:00.000-08:002019-02-27T22:20:19.623-08:00Why is The SEC Picking on Elon Musk Instead of Mark Zuckerberg? &l;p&g;Investors around the globe look to the SEC to properly supervise public companies and take enforcement action when necessary.&a;nbsp; The SEC is supposed to instill confidence in American markets.&a;nbsp; The problem is: the SEC&s;s enforcement is so inconsistent it is confusing.&a;nbsp; Take for example, the erratic nature of its fines and its complete lack of patience with Elon Musk compared to its apparent unending patience with Mark Zuckerberg.&a;nbsp; </p><p>Just consider what we know about Facebook.&a;nbsp; A &l;a href=&q;http://securities.stanford.edu/filings-documents/1065/FI00_17/20181015_r01c_18CV01725.pdf&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;consolidated class action suit&l;/a&g; filed on October 15, 2018, against Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, and CFO David Wehner alleges the defendants made &q;materially false and misleading statements and omissions concerning Facebook&s;s privacy and data protection practices,&q; &q;employed devices, schemes and artifices to defraud...and engaged in acts, practices, and a course of business that operated as a fraud or deceit,&q; impacting the company&s;s stock price and impacting its investors.&a;nbsp; Far from puffery, in July 2018, Facebook &l;a href=&q;https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-stock-price-plummets-largest-stock-market-drop-in-history/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;lost $119 billion&l;/a&g; in market value in one day -- the single largest drop in the U.S. stock market history, following an earnings call which revealed a decline in Facebook users and a lack of readiness to comply with the EU&s;s General Data Protection Regulation.</p><p>The class action complaint also alleges the three executives violated insider trading laws, detailing Zuckerberg&s;s sale of more than 29.4 million Facebook shares for nearly $5.3 billion, Sandberg&s;s sale of over 2.5 million shares worth $389 million, and Wehner&s;s trades totaling $21 million.&a;nbsp; The 164-page &l;a href=&q;http://securities.stanford.edu/filings-documents/1065/FI00_17/20181015_r01c_18CV01725.pdf&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;complaint&l;/a&g; is eye-opening and worth a read.</p><p>Following Mark Zuckerberg&s;s testimony to Congress in April 2018, numerous &l;a href=&q;https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-data-scandal-lied-congress-david-cicilline-a8384261.html&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;media reports&l;/a&g; speculated whether he had possibly lied to Congress; the Washington Post ran a &l;a href=&q;https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/business/facebook-zuckerberg-apologies/?utm_term=.07422754e4b4&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;story &l;/a&g;detailing 14 years of Zuckerberg repeatedly apologizing for privacy lapses and then promising to do better.&a;nbsp; Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Zuckerberg&s;s testimony, we &l;a href=&q;https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/07/02/federal-investigators-broaden-focus-facebooks-role-sharing-data-with-cambridge-analytica-examining-statements-tech-giant/?noredirect=on&a;amp;utm_term=.576879c3a88a&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;learned &l;/a&g;that the SEC, FTC, Department of Justice, and FBI were investigating Facebook over its sharing of personal user data and other actions and statements by officers.&a;nbsp; Since then, there has been no further news about the SEC&s;s investigation.&a;nbsp; It is apparently progressing, but certainly not swiftly.&a;nbsp; (In contrast, &l;em&g;The Washington Post&l;/em&g; &l;a href=&q;https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/14/us-government-facebook-are-negotiating-record-multi-billion-dollar-fine-companys-privacy-lapses/?utm_term=.7280a026700e&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;reported &l;/a&g;recently that the FTC was negotiating a &q;multi-billion&q; dollar fine with Facebook for violating its 2011 Consent Order about protecting personal data.)</p><p>There is another very important point to make here: the SEC is the only entity that can rein in Mark Zuckerberg. He &l;a href=&q;https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/20/shareholders-wont-force-zuckerbergs-hand-in-facebook-management.html&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;owns 60% of the stock and 70% of the voting rights&l;/a&g;.&a;nbsp; Neither the board nor the shareholders can curb his greed or errors in management.&a;nbsp; The only entity who can be the parent to Zuckerberg and protect shareholders is the SEC, and they have failed to take action.</p><p>Let&s;s look at a couple of other SEC enforcement actions to get a clearer picture of the uneven nature of its enforcement actions.&a;nbsp; In April 2018, the SEC took action against Yahoo for failing to notify investors of a 2014 breach that involved personal data on 500 million users.&a;nbsp; (It is unclear why the SEC took no action regarding a 2013 breach that also was not reported, but which involved 3 times the number of users...1.5 billion Yahoo account holders.)&a;nbsp; In addition to the 2014 breach that was undisclosed to Yahoo users, the SEC found that Yahoo misled Verizon in its due diligence. The &l;a href=&q;https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2018/33-10485.pdf&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;SEC Order&l;/a&g; states:</p><p>&l;/p&g;&l;blockquote&g;&l;span&g;Although Yahoo &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;was &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;aware of additional evidence in the &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;first half of 2016 indicating that its user database had been &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;stolen&l;/span&g;&l;span&g;, Yahoo &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;made affirmative representations denying the existence of any &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;significant data &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;breaches &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;in a &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;July 23, 2016 &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;stock purchase agreement with Verizon&l;/span&g;&l;span&g;, &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;by which Verizon was to &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;acquire Y&l;/span&g;&l;span&g;ahoo&a;rsquo;s operating business for &l;/span&g;&l;span&g;$4.825 billion. &l;/span&g;&l;/blockquote&g;</p><p>Yeow!&a;nbsp; That is a serious misrepresentation.&a;nbsp; The SEC ultimately &l;a href=&q;https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-71&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;fined Altaba&l;/a&g; (the name of the company holding the remaining Yahoo shares that Verizon did not purchase) a paltry $35 million.&a;nbsp; One may ask why the SEC did not go after Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo who managed these incidents. &q;We do not second-guess good faith exercises of judgment about cyber-incident disclosure,&q; Steven Peikin, a codirector of the SEC&s;s Enforcement Division, &l;a href=&q;https://www.businessinsider.com/yahoo-hack-35-million-sec-fine-for-not-telling-investors-about-russian-hack-2018-4&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;said in a statement&l;/a&g;.</p><p>Also consider the &l;a href=&q;https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-41&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;action that the SEC took&l;/a&g; against Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes and the company&s;s president &q;Sunny&q; Balwani, charging that they raised &q;more than $700 million from investors through an elaborate, years-long fraud in which they exaggerated or made false statements about the company&a;rsquo;s technology, business, and financial performance.&q;&a;nbsp; Holmes&s;s &l;a href=&q;https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-41&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;settlement with the SEC &l;/a&g;amounted to a $500,000 penalty and disbarment from serving as an officer or director of a public company for 10 years.&a;nbsp; She also had to return shares she obtained during the fraud and voting control of the company.</p><p>Now, contrast all of this with the SEC&s;s swift action against Elon Musk for tweeting on August 7 that he was taking his company, Tesla, private.&a;nbsp; The very next day, on August 8, the &l;em&g;Wall Street Journal &l;/em&g;&l;a href=&q;https://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-has-made-inquiries-to-tesla-over-elon-musks-taking-private-tweet-1533757570&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;reported &l;/a&g;that the SEC was making inquiries into the truthfulness of Mr. Musk&s;s statements.&a;nbsp; On September 27, 2018, the &l;a href=&q;https://www.wsj.com/articles/secs-musk-lawsuit-highlights-dangers-of-social-media-disclosures-1538102470?mod=article_inline&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;SEC filed suit &l;/a&g;against Elon Musk that sought civil penalties and asked the court to bar Mr. Musk from serving as an officer or director in a public company, noting the stock price fell 16% after he pulled back from his statement that he was taking the company private.</p><p>Mr. Musk caved to the pressure and within two days reached a &l;a href=&q;https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2018-226&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;settlement with the SEC&l;/a&g; that required him to step down as chairman for 3 years, add two new independent directors to the board, put new controls in place, and he and Tesla would each pay a $20 million fine.&a;nbsp; That is a $40 million penalty contrasted with a $500,000 penalty against Holmes for massive fraud and a $35 million penalty against Altaba for the worst data breach in history and an attempt to defraud a $5 billion purchaser.</p><p>Plus, as John Reed Stark, who has 20 years of experience in the SEC&s;s Enforcement Division, noted so well in &l;a href=&q;https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/secmusktesla-settlement-dawning-new-era-sec-internet-john-reed-stark/?published=t&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;one of his own posts&l;/a&g;:</p><p>&l;blockquote&g;The SEC does not typically file SEC enforcement actions like the one against Musk.&a;nbsp;Indeed, a close reading of the SEC&a;rsquo;s complaint against the celebrated billionaire finds a litany of glaring absences within the SEC&a;rsquo;s allegations, including: &l;ul&g;&l;li&g;No alleged profits or other ill-gotten gain earned by Musk;&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;No alleged scheme conducted by Musk;&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;No alleged market manipulation orchestrated by Musk;&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;No alleged pump and dump ploy executed by Musk;&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;No alleged conspiracy between Musk and anyone else;&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;No alleged evidence of scienter or intent by Musk;&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;No alleged false filing or other false or inaccurate Tesla report to the SEC by Musk;&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;No alleged violation of any sort of required SEC &a;ldquo;&l;a href=&q;https://www.sec.gov/fast-answers/answersquiethtm.html&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;nofollow noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;quiet period&l;/a&g;&a;rdquo; by Musk; and&l;/li&g; &l;li&g;No concrete evidence of an alleged motive attested to Musk (though not required in SEC enforcement actions, motive is typically pled or implied in some way, shape or form).&l;/li&g; &l;/ul&g;&l;/blockquote&g;</p><p>This week, we were greeted with the news that the SEC filed &l;a href=&q;https://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-asks-manhattan-federal-court-to-hold-elon-musk-in-contempt-11551137500&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;another court action&l;/a&g; against Musk, claiming that he had violated the terms of his settlement because he tweeted on February 19, 2019 (after the market closed), about planned production without getting the tweets approved by the SEC.&a;nbsp; Let this soak in...within one week the SEC rushed to court to hold Elon Musk in contempt, &l;em&g;yet it has failed to take any action against Facebook, Zuckerberg, or Sandberg for 164 pages of alleged shenanigans, public statements, and $119 billion drop in market value.&l;/em&g;&a;nbsp; The agency is letting the shareholders do all of the heavy lifting, with a heavy burden of proof in pleading securities fraud.</p><p>It is also important to note that the impact of Elon Musk&s;s tweets on Tesla&s;s stock was not long term or significant.&a;nbsp; In fact, the SEC&s;s action may have harmed investors more than it helped them.&a;nbsp; A &l;a href=&q;https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/history/&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;historical review&l;/a&g; of Tesla&s;s stock price indicates the stock closed on August 6 at $341.99; on August 7 it (day of the tweet) it closed at $379.57 and on August 8 at $370.34. So, it spiked a little after the tweet-to-go-private, but then it dropped and on September 7 it closed at $263.24.&a;nbsp; On September 27 (the day SEC filed) it closed at $307.52, and the SEC and Musk settled on Saturday, September 29.&a;nbsp; On Monday, October 1, the stock closed at $264.77 and slid further to close on October 8 at $250.56.</p><p>Prior to the SEC&s;s second filing on February 25, 2019, Tesla&s;s shares had been on a steady rise since February 21, but &l;em&g;The&l;/em&g; &l;em&g;Wall Street Journal &l;/em&g;&l;a href=&q;https://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-asks-manhattan-federal-court-to-hold-elon-musk-in-contempt-11551137500&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;reported&l;/a&g; that the shares &q;were off 4% after hours following the SEC filing.&q;&a;nbsp;&a;nbsp; Nevertheless, the stock closed at $297.86, just slightly down from the prior day.</p><p>I wonder...did the SEC think about how much Tesla investors would be harmed if Mr. Musk was actually removed from the company?&a;nbsp; He is the brain trust, force of innovation, and driver of that company.&a;nbsp; (Don&s;t fool yourself...we don&s;t have three clones waiting in the wings.)&a;nbsp; If, by SEC orders, he is forced to keep his companies private, we all lose because he will not have investor money to grow them and America -- including our economy -- won&s;t get maximum benefit from his genius. He is a cowboy, but he is much less of a cowboy than Zuckerberg and much less of a fraudster than Holmes.&a;nbsp; The SEC is handling this all wrong.</p><p>Either Elon Musk made some bureaucrat terribly mad at the SEC or their enforcement division is mismanaged and seemingly oblivious to its own erratic behavior and the message that it sends to the market.&a;nbsp; It can&s;t justify these discrepancies as Celebrity Fines that set a precedent and send a message because that is laughable in the face of the Theranos fraud and Yahoo&s;s attempt to hide the worst breach in history during a $4.8 billion bid for the company, which it &l;a href=&q;https://www.wsj.com/articles/yahoo-triples-estimate-of-breached-accounts-to-3-billion-1507062804&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;later acknowledged &l;/a&g;was a breach of&a;nbsp; personal data on 3 billion accounts.</p><p>We can&s;t look to administrative solutions here.&a;nbsp; Congress needs to investigate what is going on at the SEC Enforcement Division and introduce legislation that reins in this erratic enforcement bureaucratic behavior.</p><p>&a;nbsp; Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-51099417148548362942019-02-23T14:52:00.000-08:002019-02-23T14:53:59.817-08:00D-Street Buzz: Oil & gas stocks gain led by HPCL, IOC; Wipro at new 52-week high, Suzlon rallies <p>The Indian benchmark indices continues to trade in the red in this afternoon session with the Nifty50 down 10 points, trading at 10779 while the Sensex shed 63 points and was trading at 35,834 mark.</p><p>Bank Nifty was down over half a percent dragged by Kotak Mahindra Bank which fell close to 4 percent followed by HDFC Bank, Federal Bank and Axis Bank.</p><p>From the oil & gas space, the top losers were Reliance Industries which shed 1 percent followed by GAIL India, Asian Oil, MRPL and Chennai Petro among others.</p> <p>However, Nifty Auto was up 1 percent led by Motherson Sumi Systems which jumped 5 percent followed by Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki and Ashok Leyland.</p> related news Prabhat Dairy jumps 2% on approval of merger with Cheese Land Agro Dr Reddy's gains 2% as USFDA completes audit of US plant with no observations <p>Selective metal stocks were trading higher led by Jindal Stainless, JSW Steel, MOIL, Vedanta and Coal India.</p><p>Nifty Realty was trading in the green led by Unitech which jumped 4 percent followed by Oberoi Realty, DLF, Indiabulls Real Estate and Prestige Estates.</p><p>Selective pharma stocks were buzzing led by Piramal Enterprises, Glenmark Pharma, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy's Labs.</p><p>From the BSE midcap space, the top gainers were Reliance Infra which spiked 9 percent followed by Reliance Nippon Life, KIOCL, Reliance Capital, Reliance Power and Castrol India while from the BSE smallcap space, the top gainers were Suzlon Energy which zoomed 18 percent followed by GVK Power, HCL Infosystems, Reliance Communications and TVS Electronics.</p><p>The top gainers from NSE included Indian Oil Corporation which jumped 4 percent followed by HPCL, Vedanta, BPCL and Indiabulls Housing Finance while the top losers included Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance Industries, Cipla, HDFC Bank and Asian Paints.</p><p>The most active stocks were Kotak Mahindra Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, YES Bank, Reliance Industries and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund.</p><p>Aavas Financiers, Bata India, Balrampur Chini, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Wipro and Refex Industries have hit new 52-week high in this afternoon session.</p><p>45 stocks have hit new 52-week low on the NSE including names like Mcnally Bharat Engineering, Shilpi Cable, Simbhaoli Sugars, Vardhman Holdings and Visagar Polytex among others.</p><p>The breadth of the market favoured the advances with 1170 stocks advancing and 495 declining while 395 remained unchanged. On the BSE, 1471 stocks advanced, 731 declined and 122 remained unchanged.</p><p>Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.</p>For more market news, click here First Published on Feb 22, 2019 12:25 pm Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-53887217481017884192019-02-22T01:04:00.000-08:002019-02-22T01:05:21.989-08:00Sprouts Farmers Markets (SFM) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript <img alt="Logo of jester cap with thought bubble with words 'Fool Transcripts' below it" src="https://g.foolcdn.com/misc-assets/transcripts-logo.png"/> <p>Image source: The Motley Fool.</p> <p>Sprouts Farmers Markets (NASDAQ:SFM) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 21, 2019 10:00 a.m. ET</p> Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: <p>Operator </p> <p>Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Sprouts Farmers Market fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 earnings conference call. [Operator instructions] As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Susannah Livingston.</p> <p>Ma'am, please proceed when you're ready.</p> <p>Susannah Livingston -- Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury</p> <p>Thank you and good morning, everyone. We are pleased you have taken the time to join Sprouts on our fourth-quarter 2018 earnings call. Jim Nielsen, interim co-CEO, president and chief operating officer; and Brad Lukow, interim co-CEO and chief financial officer, are also on the call with me today. The earnings release announcing our fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 results, our 10-K and the webcast of this call can be accessed through the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.sprouts.com.</p> <p>During this call, management may make certain forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our 2019 expectations and guidance. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in our SEC filings along with the commentary on forward-looking statements at the end of our earnings release issued today. In addition, our remarks today include references to non-GAAP measures.</p> <p>For a reconciliation of our non-GAAP measures to the GAAP figures, please see the tables in our earnings release. In the fourth quarter of 2018, we made a voluntary change to our consolidated statements of income, reclassifying occupancy cost and buying cost from cost of sales to selling, general and administration. As well, we reclassified depreciation and amortization from direct store expense and SG&A to a separate financial statement line item and combined DSE and store preopening costs with SG&A. These reclassifications had no impact on sales, income from operations, net income or earnings per share.</p> <p>We made this voluntary change in presentation because we believe that the exclusion of occupancy and buying cost from cost of goods sold provides a more meaningful presentation of our gross profit. These changes also enhance the comparability of our financial statements with many of our industry peers and align with how we internally manage and review costs and margin. We have applied this change retrospectively and have included a reconciliation in our earnings release filed today as well as on our website at investors.sprouts.com. With that, now let me hand it over to Brad.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Thank you, Susannah. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call today. In 2018, we continued to evolve and improve the Sprouts business model by focusing on the latest consumer and industry trends. Our focus on product innovation, guest experience and ongoing training and development of our team members continue to underpin the success and growth of the Sprouts brand across the country.</p> <p>This focus drove top-line sales growth of 12% to $5.2 billion for the year. Comparable store sales growth of 2.1%, above our expectations and another strong vintage of new stores with new store productivity in the low 80s. Traffic and tonnage remained positive, supporting our sales performance and resulting in adjusted EBITDA growth of 7%. Throughout the year, our strategic initiatives continued to enhance our business, leading to solid financial results.</p> <p>Private label sales grew by 26% in 2018, now at 13% of total company sales. More than half of our stores' delis have been remodeled with expanded offerings, providing even more convenient meal options for our customers. Our partnership with Instacart has expanded to more than 200 stores, providing quick home delivery of Sprouts' healthy and affordable products at a click of a button. Our strong cash flow generation allowed us to invest $10 million or approximately a third of our 2018 tax reform savings in our team members, which has led to an increase in retention levels.</p> <p>Our technology investments are establishing a strong foundation that will enable us to scale efficiently. Our brand awareness also continues to strengthen as we expand across the country, leading to continued strong new store productivity in both new and existing markets. For the fourth quarter, we ended the year with net sales of $1.3 billion, up 11% compared to the prior year. Comparable store sales were 2.3%, driven by positive traffic in basket along with less product deflation, which resulted in a two-year comp stack of 6.9%.</p> <p>We continued to see growth across the store, particularly in nonperishable departments, supported by strong private-label performance. Fourth-quarter sales were also strengthened by another successful holiday program. We continued to raise the bar for our holiday offerings each year. And in 2018, we saw strong results from key holiday categories along with attribute-driven products supported by new trends and flavors.</p> <p>This was backed by excellent store-level execution across the country. During the fourth quarter, we opened two new stores, bringing our total new store openings to 30 for the year. And we closed two stores in December. We ended the year with 313 stores in 19 states and have a robust pipeline of new stores for 2019 and beyond.</p> <p>Sprouts will expand to three new states this year: New Jersey, Virginia and Louisiana, expanding our geographic reach in the mid-Atlantic markets and the Southeast. Over the past few years, we have continued to refine our site selection process with the addition of more sophisticated data analytics and tools that allow us to more accurately pinpoint our core customers. These insights, combined with a more robust marketing and advertising program, have resulted in stronger sales performance in new markets. This gives us the confidence to open a greater number of stores in new markets this year.</p> <p>We expect our split to be roughly 50-50, existing versus new markets for 2019, versus a historical split of 70-30, respectively. We remain confident in our long-term unit growth in new markets supported by our on-trend business model, community engagement and a strong and growing brand awareness. I'll now pass the call over to Jim to discuss the competitive landscape and to elaborate on our 2019 initiatives. I'll return later to discuss our financials in greater detail afterwards.</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>Thank you, Brad, and hello, everyone. 2018 solid performance was a result of continued improvement in our retail execution and tailwinds from our strategic initiatives, driving enhanced and differentiated in-store experience. This combined with our proven pricing strategies and innovative promotions resulted in a 2.1 comp despite a consistently competitive retail landscape. We expect competitive landscape in 2019 to be similar to 2018 with the assumption of a relatively benign inflationary environment.</p> <p>Starting in the fourth quarter and in line with industry, we experienced slight margin pressure from rising transportation cost. Looking forward to 2019, we expect to see continued cost increases throughout the first half of the year and then tapering off in the back half. Now let me move to the 2019 strategic priorities. Before jumping into those priorities themselves, I want to reiterate that both the culture of Sprouts and our strategic direction has always been driven by our passion statement: to inspire, educate and empower every person to eat healthier and live a better life.</p> <p>Our strategic initiatives are focused on four key areas: the implementation of foundational systems that will improve our business and support our future growth; continued evolution of product offerings, focus on differentiated products; enhancements to our customer experience; and ongoing development of our valued team members. We plan to complete the implementation of fresh item management in 2019, assisting fresh departments with production planning and order management. With each department rollout, we continue to learn more and improve our operational execution. Fresh item management will allow us to optimize sales and strength through an improved in-stock position which will deliver a more consistent experience for our customers each and every day.</p> <p>The vast majority of expense associated with this system implementation is training, with most expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter, resulting in a higher expected training cost in 2019. With respect to product, we've become a trusted resource for families across the country who want to live a healthier life. Our family of Sprouts brand, private-label products is comprised of a wide range of household staples and uniquely curated items that taste great and are made with ingredients you can trust. Our private-label sales grew 26% year over year driven by a basket size that's 50% larger than our average basket.</p> <p>We continue to see a balance of both the number of items and the number of private-label items in those baskets. This loyalty to the Sprouts branded products is not only driving traffic, but is reinforcing our authority in healthy living. Today, nearly 70% of our private-label products are non-GMO or organic. We are confident that there are many more years of growth ahead of us and that private-label sales will exceed 16% of total company sales.</p> <p>Customer shopping preferences and healthy eating trends are changing at a fast pace. And our guest experience and product innovation teams are focused on staying ahead of those trends. Three years ago, we embarked on a journey to elevate our deli offering with a greater selection of what customers desire. Meal solutions that are convenient, fresh and healthy.</p> <p>These convenient offerings including salad bars, meal solutions and freshly squeezed juice are now in over half of our stores. These customer-centric elements are even more evident in our new prototype stores. In these locations, we take guest experience to a whole new level particularly in deli and meat where design and merchandising enhancements truly highlight our differentiation, making these departments a true destination. Our new prototype will be showcased in approximately a third of our stores in 2019.</p> <p>We continue to grow home delivery business, which is in more than 200 stores today and will be offered in all markets by the end of 2019. While home delivery remains a small percentage of sales today, we are continuing to see a very strong sequential growth. Home delivery sales in the fourth quarter were the highest to date which we attribute to the brand strength and health in value and strong operational execution. In addition, we have started to test click-and-collect in a handful of stores in multiple geographies in order to give customers the convenience of delivery or pickup.</p> <p>And when we think of marketing, customer engagement is always top of mind across all channels with relevant messaging and promotional invitations reaching our guests wherever they are. We've built a high-caliber digital and customer insights team and bolstered our internal capabilities through partnerships with industry-leading media companies. In 2019, we will continue to amplify our guest engagement with personalized offers and content, connecting with our customers wherever they are along their healthy living journey. We will also integrate our website and our mobile app to have a more unified shopping experience.</p> <p>These initiatives will reinforce our points of difference with all of our guest segments in both new and established markets. I left the most important focus area for last, and that is our team members. It's our team members who drive our results through their passion to empower our guests to eat healthier and live a better life. This is a noble work, and we do it in an engaging, approachable, authentic way.</p> <p>The Sprouts Way. We've enhanced pay and benefits, rolled out team member wellness programs and introduced career pathing tools and focused on providing every team member with an opportunity to build a career not just hold a job. To do this, training remains a top priority with the focus on people, products and processes. Now I'd like to turn the call back to Brad to cover financial results and our 2019 guidance.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Thank you, Jim. I'll highlight some of the business drivers for the fourth quarter and full year and then review our guidance for 2019. As Susannah mentioned, beginning in the fourth quarter, we reclassified certain expenses on our consolidated statements of income as we believe this presentation provides greater transparency of our results and enhances the comparability with many of our industry peers and better aligns to how we manage the business. We have applied this change retrospectively, so all comments today reflect these changes.</p> <p>For the fourth quarter, gross profit increased by 11% to $421 million and our gross margin rate decreased by 15 basis points to 33.2% compared to the same period last year. This deleverage was primarily due to promotional investments as well as higher distribution and transportation costs at the company's distribution centers. SG&A increased 11% to $353 million, an improvement of 10 basis points to 27.8% of sales compared to the same period last year. This leverage was primarily driven by lower workers' compensation expenses due to reduced benefit claims as well as a payroll tax benefit.</p> <p>During the fourth quarter, the State of California fully repaid its federal unemployment insurance loan, eliminating the requirement to pay a higher unemployment tax for California team members. This reduction in payroll tax resulted in a benefit in the fourth quarter of 2018. This was partially offset by planned wage investments in our team members as well as higher occupancy and advertising costs. For the fourth quarter, our depreciation and amortization cost increased 11% to $28 million or 2.2% of sales, flat compared to the same period in 2017.</p> <p>Store closure and other costs for the quarter were $12 million, compared to $0.1 million in the same period last year. This increase related to two special items including noncash charges of $8 million associated with the closure of two stores as well as onetime severance cost of $4 million associated with the resignation of our former chief executive officer. Excluding the impact of the two store closures and severance cost, adjusted EBITDA increased 9% in the fourth quarter to $69 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased by 10 basis points to 5.4% of sales when compared to the same period last year.</p> <p>The decrease in margin was mainly driven by the gross margin reduction and wage investments that I previously discussed. Net income for the fourth quarter was $13 million and diluted earnings per share was $0.10. Excluding special items, adjusted net income was $24 million and adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.19, an increase of $0.03 or 19% over the same period last year. This improvement is primarily due to higher sales, a lower effective tax rate, excluding special items of 26%, compared to 34%, and fewer shares outstanding due to our share repurchase program.</p> <p>For fiscal year 2018, net sales grew to $5.2 billion, up 12%. Gross profit increased 12% to $1.7 billion, resulting in a gross margin rate of 33.6%, equal to 2017 as merchandising strategies and initiatives, including private label and expansion of deli offerings, offset pressures in the competitive environment. SG&A increased 13% to $1.4 billion, an increase of 30 basis points to 27% of sales compared to last year. This increase was mainly attributed to our planned wage investments and higher occupancy and advertising costs.</p> <p>Adjusted EBITDA totaled $346 million, up $22 million or 7% compared to 2017. Excluding special items and onetime tax benefits, adjusted diluted earnings per share was $1.29, an increase of $0.28 or 28%. Now shifting to the balance sheet and liquidity. We continued to generate solid operating cash flows from operations with 2018 coming in at $294 million.</p> <p>We invested $154 million in capital expenditures net of landlord reimbursement, primarily for new stores. We ended the year with $2 million in cash and cash equivalents, $453 million borrowed on our $700 million revolving credit facility and a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 1.7x. Consistent with our capital allocation strategy, we continued returning capital to shareholders throughout 2018, repurchasing 11.1 million shares or 8% of the prior-year shares outstanding for a total investment of $258 million. We ended the year with $218 million available under our current share repurchase authorization.</p> <p>Year to date through February 18, we have repurchased 850,000 shares of common stock for a total investment of $20 million. Now before we turn to guidance for 2019, I wanted to say a few words about the impact of the new lease accounting standard that went into effect at the beginning of 2019. As we have spoken about previously, we leased all of our store properties and the vast majority are accounted for as operating leases with rent expense charged on a straight-line basis. Now under the new lease accounting standard, these leases will continue to be classified as operating, and we will record an asset and related obligation on the balance sheet of approximately $1.2 billion but there will be no change in the calculation of rent expense for these operating leases.</p> <p>Under the previous accounting standard, we had 45 store leases that were accounted for as financing leases. For these leases, the buildings and related improvements were reflected as assets on our balance sheet, and we recorded a depreciation charge and interest expense related to the asset and lease obligation, respectively. Under the new standard, all of these 45 financing leases have been reclassified to operating leases with rent expense now being recorded on a straight-line basis. This reclassification will result in an $18 million increase to our rent expense, thereby reducing EBITDA and a decrease of $11 million in interest expense going forward.</p> <p>These impacts are due to the change in expense recognition to a straight-line model compared to financing lease accounting under the previous standard and will result in a net incremental pre-tax expense of $7 million or $0.04 per share for 2019. Importantly, none of these accounting changes will have any impact on the future cash flows or liquidity of the company. Now let me turn to 2019 guidance. For the year, we expect net sales growth of between 9% to 10.5%, driven by new store growth and full-year comp sales growth in the range of 1.5% to 3%.</p> <p>We will open approximately 28 new stores. As well, we will have two stores whose leases will expire in 2019, one of which will be relocated to a new store location and the other will not be renewed. This will result in a net addition of approximately 27 stores. Net sales growth is also impacted by the two stores that we closed in December of 2018, which we previously announced.</p> <p>We expect a normalized tax rate of approximately 26% in 2019 and this is a 700 basis point increase from 2018, mainly due to cycling the exercise of expiring pre-IPO options. And we expect diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $1.16 to $1.24, which reflects both a noncash $0.04 negative impact from the change in lease accounting standard as well as the higher tax rate that I discussed. For comparability purposes, if 2018 results reflected the same lease accounting impacts and tax rate as 2019, adjusted diluted earnings per share for 2018 would have been $1.14 per share or $0.15 per share lower than our reported adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.29. We also expect our CAPEX to be in the range of $170 million to $175 million, net of landlord reimbursement.</p> <p>Now a few additional items to note on the full-year 2019 guidance. The midpoint of our comp sales guidance range would reflect a flat inflationary environment as compared to the prior year. The comp range above and below the midpoint would primarily be related to changes in the inflationary environment as well as the competitive environment. We continue to expect to open approximately 30 stores per year going forward.</p> <p>2019 openings are slightly below this level as fires in Northern California have slowed the construction and pushed one store opening into 2020. In addition, our store pipeline for 2019 will be more back-end loaded than in 2018. We plan to open eight stores in each of Q1 and Q2, with the majority of the remaining stores to be opened in the third quarter. This, coupled with the two fewer stores in 2019 will result in lower new store selling weeks compared to the prior year.</p> <p>We expect gross margins to be nearly flat year over year as the team improves promotional and pricing optimization, offset by increased costs at the company's distribution centers and higher transportation cost associated with more new stores in new markets. We expect deleverage in the SG&A line for the full year. Due to the adoption of the new lease accounting standard that began January 2019, occupancy expense which is now being reported in the SG&A line will delever by 35 basis points due to this change in accounting standard. In addition, we expect pressure from cycling the wage investment we made last year that began at the beginning of the second quarter of 2018, increased training associated with the fresh item management and other systems implementations, as well as increased health and benefit cost, which, in total, will account for an additional headwind of between 20 and 25 basis points for the full-year 2019.</p> <p>Being a growth company, we recognize that these technology investments are critically important as they will drive efficiencies and allow us to scale the business and position us well for long-term profitable growth. We expect depreciation and amortization to continue to deleverage in 2019, similar to 2018 due to higher construction and equipment cost in addition to more remodels in 2019. We expect interest expense to be approximately $21 million, reflecting the interest and the amortization of fees associated with our credit facility and the interest expense related to the lease obligation for the remaining four capital leases. The largest impact of the tax headwind will occur in the first quarter of 2019 as the first quarter of 2018 had a benefit of $0.08 per share from the exercise of the pre-IPO options.</p> <p>And as it relates to our capital structure, our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. First, unit growth; second, investments in the business; and third, returning capital to shareholders. As for share repurchases, we expect our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio to be in the range of approximately 1.2 to 1.5 times. This is the equivalent to our prior target range of 1.4 to 1.7 times adjusted for the reclassification of 45 financing leases to operating leases under the new accounting standard.</p> <p>And consistent with past practices, the net debt number excludes operating leases. In closing, we continue to evolve our unique model focused on health, value selection and service to meet the consumer needs today and into the future. We remain confident that our strategic investments are establishing a solid foundation, creating further differentiation and positioning us for continued strong financial results that will drive long-term shareholder value creation. With that, we'd like to open up the call for questions.</p> <p>Operator? </p> Questions and Answers: <p>Operator</p> <p>[Operator instructions] And our first question will come from the line of Scott Mushkin with Wolfe Research. Your line is open.</p> <p>Scott Mushkin -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst</p> <p>Hey, guys, thanks for taking my questions and thanks for all the detail. So I guess my first question, and it goes to something Jim said about testing the pickup. Where are we? I think, can you give us a little bit more of that? And how scalable is that for you guys? And it seems like that's almost becoming necessary. And is this something we should see a more aggressive rollout and what will it do to the financials?</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>Scott, it's Jim. As it relates to the test itself, it's in multiple markets. It's a fairly small set of stores but a big enough group for us to get a good indicator on the level of success. In terms of just overall EBITDA impact, somewhat in line with home delivery, slightly less.</p> <p>But our home delivery is performing extremely well and so we still see it as one, it's table stakes to have it but the real tailwind for us for sales will be on the home delivery front. So we will continue to keep you apprised of the performance as we move into the year. If we get great consumer response, we'll continue to accelerate and we're prepared to do that this fiscal year, if need be.</p> <p>Scott Mushkin -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst</p> <p>Perfect. Then my follow-up has to do with gross margins. As we go into next year in the competitive environment, how are you guys thinking about it? How is it right now trending? You obviously, got a lot of news coming out of CAGNY best more on the packaged food side. So how are we thinking about gross margins as we go through the year in the competitive environment? And has there been a material change of late?</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>As we talked about in the call, our projection is to be flat gross margins. We are seeing some cost increases on the nonperishable side related to freight. But all the initiatives that we've been working on with FIM, deal management, the MPNA Group will help offset any of those kind of margin pressures throughout the year. if you do recall last year though, we did have a nice beat in gross margin in Q1.</p> <p>So full year will be flat, driven by really the tailwinds from the strategic initiatives will offset some of the cost increases that we're experiencing in the first half of the year.</p> <p>Scott Mushkin -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst</p> <p>And the competitive environment?</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>Competitive environment promotionally is in line with prior years, prior quarters, anticipating to be the same throughout. At the shelf, as we've talked about some of the cost increases as it relates to freight in the industry, we are starting to see people pass those through. As you know, there is a bit of a squeeze. So the pass-through is -- does have a bit of a lag on it.</p> <p>So at the shelf, we're seeing some increases. We're not seeing people sharpen pricing. But we are seeing some pass-through and some cost increases.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kelly Bania with BMO Capital. Your line is open.</p> <p>Kelly Bania -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Hi, thanks for taking the question. Just to follow up on the click and collect. Is that something that you're testing with your own kind of network of employees? Or are you pursuing looking at that with Instacart's help? I guess I asked because some of the other food retailers or retailers are looking at different ways to leverage their digital platforms in terms of advertising and media spend. And just curious where Sprouts would stand on that longer term in terms of being able to participate in that as well.</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>Yes. So there's a lot of questions in there, Kelly. It's Jim. Let's step back for a second.</p> <p>We're not on a unified platform today. So when you go to the Sprouts app and you go to order home delivery, you go back to Instacart. First part of the back half of the year we'll be on a unified platform. So we will be able to have our own experience.</p> <p>So it will be more Sprouts reflective. And we'll also be able to give better content, personalization offers to our customers and partner with our vendor community to put the right type of promotions out there in order to offset some of these costs. So there is a nice opportunity as we look at the back half of the year, as we go to the white label and reunify that platform. Again as it relates to click and collect, we've got such a great in-store experience.</p> <p>If you go back and look at the people that do really well with click and collect today, it's generally some of those that don't. So click and collect for us, we would still anticipate it being table stakes over time. We are utilizing Instacart folks today to do the picking and execute that for us. But we'll give you guys more color at the back half of the year as it relates to the pace of rollout of click and collect.</p> <p>I want to go back and talk about home delivery because home delivery for us is -- the growth has been fantastic. And even though we're in just 200 stores and 70% coverage area today, back half of the year we'll be in 100% coverage area and the sequential sales growth is solid, over 50%, continues to accelerate, driven by a much stronger basket that we see in home delivery, closer to $80. And it's also being driven by our Net Promoter Score which is best-in-class for those on Instacart. So the app rating, 4.7, it's really about the execution.</p> <p>So between Net Promoter Score and the execution, we're seeing great success on the home delivery front.</p> <p>Kelly Bania -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>OK. That's very helpful. And then as we think about your comp guidance for the year, it sounded like the both sides of the ranges there had a little bit to do with inflation, I guess the competitive environment too. But can you maybe just help us understand what you are seeing in inflation, particularly in produce which sounds like had -- from others had flipped to inflation? Just how the market is there and what you're seeing into the first quarter?</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Kelly, it's Brad, I'll just start and I'll let Jim add on here. When we set our guidance range, really we're focused on 1.5% to 3% but sort of the midpoint of the range would reflect a neutral inflationary environment for the whole year. But we are starting to see a little bit of produce inflation because of some tightness in some components of produce. And maybe Jim you want to comment on that.</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>Yes, yes. So we would anticipate Q1 being slightly inflationary but again benign to full year. What we are seeing today is California and Mexico having some challenges with the veg side of the Mexico, so the fruit side out of Northern California. There's nothing new to us in the first quarter.</p> <p>As you guys all know, you've been through this before with us, it's the most challenging and it has the biggest variability due to weather. But we'd anticipate that improving as we progress through the back half of the quarter and into the second quarter. So anticipating just a slight inflation driven by produce becoming slightly inflationary in the quarter and then, as I mentioned before, we are seeing some of those cost increases in the nonperishable department.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Chuck Cerankosky with Northcoast Research. Your line is open.</p> <p>Chuck Cerankosky -- Northcoast Research -- Analyst</p> <p>Good morning, everyone. My question has been answered. Thank you.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. Our next question will come from the line of Edward Kelly with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.</p> <p>Edward Kelly -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst</p> <p>Hi, guys. Good morning. Just a follow-up quickly on the comp in the guide. Can you just talk about how the cadence of the comp looks throughout the quarter? And then what are you seeing so far in Q1? And if Q1 is modestly inflationary, does that mean that you are above the midpoint of the guidance to date in Q1?</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Yes. We are not going to comment on where we are in the specific quarter. We're comfortable that we've got a broad enough range for the full year. And we went broader this year because quite frankly, if you look at the last couple of years where we tried to accurately predict what would happen with inflation/deflation in our business where 23% of your sales are in produce and very difficult to predict beyond four to six weeks.</p> <p>So we took a different approach and really wanted a broader range. But again, for the full year, we would be expecting to be around the midpoint, maybe slightly higher in that full-year guidance range. And we'll have some variability, week-to-week, quarter to quarter, largely due to what happens in certain commodity markets.</p> <p>Edward Kelly -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst</p> <p>And then just with the inflation that you're seeing so far, is there any issue at all with pass-through? And what are you seeing in competition on that front?</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>As it relates to the -- as I said before on the nonperishable side, the freight increases that we're seeing, we're starting to see retailers pass those through. Again there's a bit of a lag. But some of the produce inflation you're seeing is just -- it's tight markets related to weather. And so those don't go up 1%, 2%, 3%.</p> <p>Some of those will go up 40%. So obviously, retailers are passing through those dollar for dollar. But they're very short windows of time. So we're seeing stuff being passed through as it relates to produce and the tightness we're seeing in the veg coming out of Mexico and some of the fruit is just putting tightness, giving you the inability to promote on some of the key items that you'd like to.</p> <p>Edward Kelly -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst</p> <p>And then just taking a step back real quick here. About a year ago, we were sort of thinking about 2019, I think you were asked on this call around returning to a more normal growth algorithm. And at that time, it was something that was in the cards. And even ex sort of tax and some other stuff -- the algorithm this year is still going to be below what I think would be normal.</p> <p>I guess, how are you thinking about how things have evolved and why you're still below that, I guess? And then what's the time frame look like in terms of you getting to a more normal algorithm again?</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Yes. It's Brad. In terms of the conversations that we've had, both with investors and internally around very important fresh item management implementation, we pushed out a little bit beyond what our original timing expectations were, and that's because we've had some great learnings as we started to roll the system out into bakery and then into meat. And so we didn't want to rush the implementation.</p> <p>It's too critically important to ensure we get the scalability and the efficiency throughout the organization across the store network. And so that pushes later into 2019. Also, there's a number of other, I think, very important initiatives that are going to drive long-term efficiency and connect us with our customers in a more meaningful way. Jim alluded to it earlier in terms of all the work that we're doing around digital, loyalty, customer, personalization.</p> <p>And so there's more cost in 2019 associated with standing that up. But that's going to put us in a very good place as we look beyond 2019. I'd say the last area of systems investments, just from a pure-foundational perspective, is we are going live with Workday Financials. It's been a pretty significant undertaking and we're going live in the second quarter of this year which is going to give us tremendous scalability for the organization going forward.</p> <p>So if we step back and you look through all of the 700 basis points swings in tax rate, beyond 2019 and into '20, we'll have a lot of the step-up, quite frankly, in the dollar spend on these strategic initiatives will flat line, which we'll then be able -- we will be able to scale and drive some leverage beyond 2019. So I think we step back as a management team and look at -- we're playing the long game here and there's some critical investments in infrastructure and technology that are really going to take us to the next level in terms of where we are from a scalability, efficiency and with our customer. And so we believe strongly in the long-term algorithm that this is an ongoing double-digit EPS growth once we get through '19 and through the first half of '20.</p> <p>Edward Kelly -- Wells Fargo -- Analyst</p> <p>Thank you.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>You're welcome.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Ken Goldman with JP Morgan. Your line is open.</p> <p>Ken Goldman -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst</p> <p>Hi, good morning. Thank you. You mentioned that a store would not be renewed. I don't want to make too big a deal out of it.</p> <p>But you are -- you did close two stores this past quarter. Could you help us out and tell us which part of the country is it or if it's public, which store is it? I'm just trying to figure out what the risk is really to the Southeast not working as well as you had hoped, just given that that's one of the concern on the stock right now.</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>Ken, it's Jim Nielsen. The two stores were in the Southeast. But I would want to back up and say that the Southeast is performing in line with our expectations. So it's driving our overall comp in Georgia as well as Alabama.</p> <p>Those were decisions we made -- we opened 170 stores in roughly seven years. So some of the process that we had in terms of real estate selection, some of the tempo in which we went into a market has changed dramatically over time, some great learnings as we entered the line-up. We went in probably too quickly. But those were just really good real estate or bad real estate decisions and the right decision today to take them out of the marketplace.</p> <p>So nothing wrong with the markets, both contributing in line with expectations and providing a tailwind for us to our overall comp.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>So, Ken, I will just add that we haven't disclosed or announced the location of the lease which is an old location. Because we haven't disclosed it, we wouldn't want to give the specific location. But the context is, this was associated with an acquisition from years and years ago. And at the time of the acquisition, the store was essentially on top, a very close proximity to an existing Sprouts location.</p> <p>So at the end of the -- in fact, two stores close by. So at the end of the day, we just rented out, from an economic standpoint, it made sense. So there's really consolidation play. So there's nothing systemic here whatsoever.</p> <p>Ken Goldman -- J.P. Morgan -- Analyst</p> <p>OK. So I guess for my follow-up, it will be a true follow-up on that one is which is should we be expecting, as years go forward here, that we really shouldn't see more than one or two maybe threee store closings a year? I'm just trying to get a sense of that because it is one of the bear thesis in the stock is that hey, maybe these guys are doing a deeper review of which stores are functioning well and which stores are not. I'm just trying to get a sense for your thoughts there.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Yes. So I would say there's been no change whatever in the company's ongoing review of performance assessment of the stores across the network. We had line of sight certainly on this new renewal that has come up and had plans for the last couple of years to not exercise. I think what we anchor on is the fact that we used to be 70-30 in terms of percentage of stores opening in existing versus new markets.</p> <p>And based on the performance that we've seen now a couple of years in a row of low 80s new store productivity, which is above our historical model of 75%, has really given us the confidence of accelerating that growth in new markets, and important long-term growth markets for us of scale is in the mid-Atlantic and Florida. And we see a great performance there. So I think we're feeling very bullish. The brand awareness is really resonating and improving as we get more and more stores opening up in Florida and the mid-Atlantic.</p> <p>So we're feeling really well about the long-term prospects for growth.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Mandeville with Jefferies. Your line is open.</p> <p>Chris Mandeville -- Jefferies -- Analyst</p> <p>Hey, good morning. On the comps, can I just ask how did the transition to Instacart influence numbers for the quarter? Maybe help us understand how that contributes to your guide for 2019? And then is there anything in terms of holiday shifts that we need to keep in mind for the first half of 2019?</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>Hey, Chris, it's Jim Nielsen. As far as the tailwind from the Instacart to home delivery, as we mentioned, we like the trajectory. It's not a material -- again, it's not a significant part of our business today. The top-line growth rate is significant and we like the trajectory.</p> <p>We like some of the additions we're going to be able to add here with the unified platform on the back half of the year. But it wasn't a material add to the overall comp.</p> <p>Chris Mandeville -- Jefferies -- Analyst</p> <p>OK. And then just a follow-up here, if I could. Brad, can you be more specific just with respect to what deflation was in Q4? When I think about the year-on-year comparison as we go through 2019 on the inflation front, it would seem to suggest kind of -- or maybe if you could help me think about the breakdown, is it fair to assume that the flip to flat to maybe modest benign inflation contributes maybe one to one and a half points to the comp with the remainder coming from just maybe contribution of Instacart as well as traffic and mix?</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Yes. So starting with the fourth quarter, we saw a little bit less deflation. We are around, from a cost point of view, about 100 basis points, which was slightly better than our full-year deflation which was slightly above 1%. What was baked into the midpoint to our comp guidance is assuming a neutral environment.</p> <p>And as Jim said, we're seeing a little bit of inflationary pressures in a few produce categories, which is driving some tightness in availability and as we witnessed in the fourth quarter, a little bit of a margin squeeze with regards to produce on those tight items. But our expectation in terms of flow is we'll get a bit of more inflation in the back half of the year. But again, we really wanted to come out with sort of a neutral call on inflation/deflation because we're so heavily skewed from a produce standpoint, very difficult to predict. But in the context of year over year, we don't see a significant move in cost from an overall total company point of view.</p> <p>Chris Mandeville -- Jefferies -- Analyst</p> <p>OK. Thanks.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Sure.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Trussell with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.</p> <p>Paul Trussell -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst</p> <p>Thank you. Good morning. You obviously, outlined some expense pressures from training and technology investments over the next 12 to 18 months and before we turn back to that kind of double-digit earnings algorithm. Just if you can help us understand what the comp threshold will be? Or how to think about what's needed to leverage SG&A? And then somewhat related to that, obviously, you've been embarking on a number of initiatives, deli, meat solutions, the fresh squeezed juice, etc.</p> <p>And I think early in the call, you mentioned that the offerings are now in over half of the stores. What's the performance difference in that group of stores versus the balance? And what -- how should we think about the future rollout into your latest customer-centric prototype?</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Sure. Thanks, Paul. So from a leverage standpoint with regards to SG&A, we're around 3% as we continue to invest in these important scaling solutions. Obviously, our core identical stores are leveraged at well below that 3%.</p> <p>And when we think about it in the context over the next couple of years and look back through 2017, we've really significantly increased our investment dollars to enable us to grow in scale. However, when we look at the dollars that we're spending in 2019, which is 7 to 8 basis points step-up from the prior year, as we look forward into 2020 and beyond, yes, we'll still have investment, but I would say it's more of a flat dollar amount of investment, sort of a run rate going forward, which as your base changes, should enable us to start leveraging at a lower comp. Plus, as we have grown out into these new markets, mid-Atlantic and Florida, we've really scaled up the operational field team to be able to service and execute really well into these new markets. And so that, as we densify in those markets, it's going to allow us to get some leverage.</p> <p>From a deli point of view, we're extremely pleased. Yes, we have about 50% of our stores who have that expanded offering. We are seeing a marked improvement in deli sales comps in those stores that have all the elements compared to those that do not. And I'd say what we are most excited about is the new enhanced prototype that we'll roll out in eight additional stores in 2019.</p> <p>And the stores that we have in place in this new enhanced proto really takes the customer experience and the presentation of the deli and meat and seafood to an entire new level of experience that has really resonated with the customer, and we're seeing marked increases in the dollar and penetration spend, both in deli and meat and seafood. So our full expectation is that that becomes our proto that's in every single store beyond 2020, and we're really excited about the results to date because it really puts us on trend with today's consumer in terms of meal solutions at lunchtime and dinnertime and allows us to cater to a much younger millennial population which we haven't historically overindexed in.</p> <p>Paul Trussell -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst</p> <p>Thank you for the color.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Thank you.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Wolf with Loop Capital Markets. Your line is open.</p> <p>Andrew Wolf -- Loop Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Thanks, good morning. Brad, sort of a follow-up to what you were just talking about on the new markets. I was wondering if you would comment on just either certain new markets or in aggregate. Are you seeing operating margin leverage in those markets, I think as you called it as they sort of densify? And what I'm getting at is the idea of the growth algorithm and you're basically putting it out there that mainly the deleveraging is coming from technology investments.</p> <p>Are your new markets giving you leverage in the sense that the margins are improving as you add more stores to leverage the scale?</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Sure. Thanks, Andrew. When we look at markets that we entered three years ago, we -- I think that we had some challenges as we went into Georgia. I think the team has done a fantastic job from an operational and merchandising standpoint, improving our go-to-market offering day in, day out, and we are seeing a nice maturation not only in comps but margin as well.</p> <p>In terms of margin pressure as we go into new markets that are large opportunities for us in terms of Florida and the mid-Atlantic, until you densify, you do have deleverage on advertising costs and operational costs. What we've seen from the beginning of entry into Florida to where we are now and why we're opening so many stores in Florida this year, we're very excited about the trend that we're seeing. So yes, over time, we're going to be -- as we densify, we will definitely see EBITDA leverage coming in those new stores. And eventually, we'll have densified areas like the mid-Atlantic where we can put in a new 3PL DC to service those stores which will obviously, take pressure off the longer hauls that we are doing today until we get the requisite number of stores to open that DC.</p> <p>Andrew Wolf -- Loop Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Got it. That helps. Just a quick follow-up is unrelated to this question, it's more of a housekeeping. Can you quantify how much the workers' comp coming in well helped the quarter as well as, I guess, the State of California lowering its insurance payroll tax?</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Sure. That was about $0.01 in the quarter.</p> <p>Andrew Wolf -- Loop Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>And does any of that go forward, like the payroll tax?</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Yes. So it was a onetime benefit because we've had that extra payroll tax for the last few years. And so then it would be apples-to-apples from 2018 to 2019. At least our expectation is that California remains on site and we wouldn't see that return to the extra unemployment tax.</p> <p>So that will be a neutral year over year from an '18 to '19 point of view. But it was a win in '18 over '17.</p> <p>Andrew Wolf -- Loop Capital Markets -- Analyst</p> <p>Got it. Thank you.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Carden with UBS. Your line is open.</p> <p>Mark Carden -- UBS -- Analyst</p> <p>Good morning. Thanks a lot for taking the question. So building a bit on the comp guidance on long-term algorithm questions. Can you guys talk a bit about why you elected not to go higher on your same-store sales outlook? I mean, you guys have historically talked about this being a three to five business and a 0 to two inflation environment.</p> <p>Is this mainly reflective of some conservatism around produce or have growth prospects fundamentally changed? Thanks.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Thanks, Mark. I think if we reflect back on 2018, our original guidance then contemplated some inflation in cost. And obviously that didn't play out, and we've really just sat back and said, look, it's really too difficult to try and predict. So we think it's more prudent to give a comp guidance range where the midpoint of the range would assume a 0 inflationary environment.</p> <p>And so we could take you higher two to three or maybe higher would be an inflationary environment whereby the competitive environment is such that you're able to pass that through. As Jim commented, when we saw some initial inflation or reduced deflation in the fourth quarter, that did put a bit of a squeeze on because it's always customary that there's some temporary squeeze. So I think we'd rather be prudent in the guidance that we give and have a sufficient range that we take into account any swings in inflation/deflation.</p> <p>Mark Carden -- UBS -- Analyst</p> <p>OK, great. And you guys seemed to have been having some good success with your new store prototype. Is there ability to accelerate pre-prototype sales and attract more millennial shoppers cause you to rethink your future store placement strategy beyond just spacing the stores further apart? For example, as you expand in more densely populated mid-Atlantic markets, could we see more stores opening in urban areas?</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>Yes. Actually, the new prototype, it does attract more millennial consumer. And when you think of the suburban versus urban, it gives us a great opportunity to perform much better in an urban environment. We've got two of those locations.</p> <p>We've done five total. Two are in what you would deem to be an urban environment and they're performing extremely well. So yes, it kind of -- it opens up more trade areas with that prototype specifically in urban markets.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Karen Short with Barclays. Your line is open.</p> <p>Karen Short -- Barclays -- Analyst</p> <p>Hi, thanks. I'm just curious because this wasn't mentioned. But wondering if you could just give a little update on the time line on the executive search and/or thoughts with respect to internal candidates?</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Karen, it's Brad. As we said on the last call after -- I guess it was in November, the board has embarked on the search externally and internal and has engaged a top-notch external firm to conduct the search. And so as we said before, it typically takes a range of six to nine months. In the meantime, Jim and I are just keeping our heads down and working together and running the business and keeping us on track absolutely on our strategic priorities.</p> <p>So when we have an update, you'll hear.</p> <p>Karen Short -- Barclays -- Analyst</p> <p>OK. And then just in terms of modeling I guess in general, wondering if you could just talk a little bit about the new store productivity on new prototypes? And then thinking forward, how that may kind of impact the comp waterfall? And then just on the model in general, can you just give a little color on how interest expense and rents may change as we go forward like fiscal '20 and beyond? Because I think both of those are going to be adjusted on an annual basis, so just any directional commentary would be helpful.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Sure. Certainly the new store productivity has accelerated from our historical model of 75% to the low 80s over the last couple of years. Too early to tell on impact of the comp waterfall for the new prototype because it's so young out there. But what we are seeing is both a very nice incremental lift in sales, particularly in meat, seafood, deli, also in bakery and an enhanced margin.</p> <p>So I think we are very bullish around the long-term prospects of how this will enhance the overall financial returns. And at the same time, certainly it's resonating across all of our demographics. But importantly, we are really attracting in these new locations a much more of a millennial crowd which is critically important for us. With regards to your interest expense question, was that to do with the lease accounting? I just want to clarify.</p> <p>Karen Short -- Barclays -- Analyst</p> <p>Yes.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>So two points maybe on interest expense. So as we mentioned, $11 million reduction in interest expense associated with those 45 financing leases from 2018 to 2019. If your question was more around interest expense as a whole for the company, our guidance is around $21 million this year and that includes about $1 million of amortization of the facility fees. We have roughly -- I think it's $250 million of debt that was hedged out, swapped out.</p> <p>And so our weighted average interest rate for this year would be roughly 3.8%. So we think we're well positioned. We expect to be -- 50% to 60% of our total net debt is swapped out in a five-year arrangement.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Prykull with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.</p> <p>Chris Prykull -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst</p> <p>Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I just wanted to clarify a comment that you made earlier I think in response to Ed's question, that you wouldn't expect a more normalized EPS growth rate algo until the back half of 2020. I guess why the ongoing pressure on that algo again in the first half? And then sort of as a follow-up, if you were to roll out click-and-collect more aggressively across the store base, like most of your peers already have, will that be margin-dilutive?</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer</p> <p>Yes. So just in terms of the algorithm, again, we're not finishing fresh item management until the end of the third quarter of 2019. And like any other pretty significant change management system implementation, you learn how to optimize that system over a period of time. Also, we'll be completing a lot of work on the updated digital customer loyalty initiative from a system standpoint in the back half of '19 and into '20.</p> <p>So I think when we look at total dollars spend in 2019, we'll be very equal to what we expect to spend in 2020. So I think at this point, we'd rather just sit back and be, I think, prudent in terms of our expectations on specific timing in which we return to double-digit EPS growth as we move through a number of these system implementations. And as we -- this is a big year in 2019 where we move from 70% of the new stores in existing markets to 50% in new. And that puts, as I said, pressure on advertising, deleverage in those markets and operational team.</p> <p>So I think from a long-term point of view, we are very bullish around our prospects of growing this company high-growth and we're still growing 9% unit growth and we see many more years of that. And these systems are just critically important from a foundational perspective and will really put us at a new level in terms of engagement with our consumers from a digital point of view. So as we said earlier, we're playing for the long term, and I think it's important that we don't get off of these investments. But yes, so that's what underpin the timing.</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>Chris, this is Jim. Just to follow up on your click-and-collect question, is it margin-dilutive. We're really early in the process to -- it's too early to tell whether it's margin-dilutive or not. As I said, as we get more data behind it and get more consumer response not only quantitative but also qualitative, we will give you guys more feedback in the calls upcoming.</p> <p>I would say that home delivery for us, as Brad mentioned, today is not margin-dilutive simply because of the providing the tailwind to comp and then the small pickup in gross margin that we see with that customer today. So...</p> <p>Chris Prykull -- Goldman Sachs -- Analyst</p> <p>Great. That's really helpful color. And then if could just squeeze one more in, I know we're past the hour. On freight cost, I guess how much -- what did you see in 2018? How much is the trucking market itself being a pressure? I mean, I know spot rates are down but contract rates are still up versus maybe just pressure from having to distribute to new markets versus existing markets.</p> <p>Just trying to understand why that would be an incremental pressure in '19 versus '18?</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>Yes. Internally for the company, for our company, for our produce distribution, the deleverage is primarily coming from the miles to service the new geographies. So it's primarily that with some small freight cost increases that were contract-based. But the majority of it is just miles.</p> <p>As it relates to just the market, the market in general and the overall impact to cost of goods, across of chain of produce, obviously there's been some relief there in terms of the miles that are allowed to drive with the VLD. So there's been some relief on that and so we're not seeing a negative impact there. But on the nonperishable side, most of those are just a tail that are flowing through now. They hit the distributor in terms of cost increases a little bit earlier back half of the year and some of these things are just now flowing through at retail.</p> <p>There's a level of timing and notification that they had to give at retail before we would accept a price increase. So the market this year is going to be relatively stable and some of this is just a carryover from 2018.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. And we have time for one further question. Our last question comes from the line of John Heinbockel with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is open.</p> <p>John Heinbockel -- Guggenheim Securities -- Analyst</p> <p>So two quick things, guys. When you think about the maturation of fresh item management and the impact on the P&L, so I mean I guess the cost part of the training goes off first. But in terms of sales and shrink, the shrink improve -- when you think of those two pieces, which improves first? I guess the sales would improve the most. But the shrink come before sales or the other way around?</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>John, it's Jim. The way we set it up organizationally because we are a sales-focused organization, is you kind of have to dial those estimates down in terms of your projections around minimum levels. And so we started with the idea of making sure that we optimize sales, so we're going to catch sales first and optimize kind of the shrink as kind of the secondary piece which we'll see happening throughout this year. So as we've gone and rolled out -- we've rolled up bakery, meat and deli -- as we rolled out the newer meat and deli, we're starting to see nice strong tailwinds from the FIM technology that are helping us drive sales.</p> <p>But the benefit of the shrink will be more, kind of, Q2 and then through Q4 as we optimize the on-hand levels.</p> <p>John Heinbockel -- Guggenheim Securities -- Analyst</p> <p>And then lastly, you talked about the private-label penetration in basket. So when you think about what is in a loyal private-label shopper -- shopper's basket versus non, does that have any impact on their desire, willingness to shop the fresh part of the store? Is that more prominent in the basket of a loyal private-brand shopper or no?</p> <p>Jim Nielsen -- Interim Co-CEO, President and Chief Operating Officer</p> <p>What fresh department-specific? I mean, 95% of our customers shop produce. So I mean, regardless of those are private-label or not, it's pretty likely that they're going to be experiencing our fresh department. So private label is not the gateway to fresh. Fresh is providing that gateway for private label and I think the experience that we're providing in the taste and the innovation is what's really creating the tailwind in private label.</p> <p>We didn't launch that many new items this year. We're being very thoughtful around the process and making sure it's through innovation, making sure we got better content, better messaging, better team member adoption around the high level awareness so we can engage our team members. So our growth is coming. We talked about that 20-plus percent top line, 10% comp, nice growth in penetration, all coming from new baskets and more items in baskets, not item growth.</p> <p>it's very thoughtful growth. So we are 50, 150 a year products is what you'll see over the course of the next three years.</p> <p>John Heinbockel -- Guggenheim Securities -- Analyst</p> <p>OK, thank you.</p> <p>Operator</p> <p>Thank you. And that concludes today's question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back to Mr. Brad Lukow for closing remarks.</p> <p>Brad Lukow -- Interim Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-82510438601511111792019-02-21T00:01:00.000-08:002019-02-21T00:02:09.400-08:00Version (V) Achieves Market Capitalization of $43,847.00 <p><img src="https://www.americanbankingnews.com/wp-content/timthumb/timthumb.php?w=250&zc=1&src=https://www.marketbeat.com/logos/cryptocurrencies/1702.png" alt="Version logo" title="Version logo" class="cryptologo" width='128px' />Version (CURRENCY:V) traded up 8.9% against the dollar during the twenty-four hour period ending at 16:00 PM Eastern on February 20th. One Version coin can now be bought for approximately $0.0001 or 0.00000002 BTC on popular cryptocurrency exchanges including YoBit and Cryptopia. During the last week, Version has traded 8.9% higher against the dollar. Version has a market capitalization of $43,847.00 and $40.00 worth of Version was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. </p> <p>Here’s how other cryptocurrencies have performed during the last 24 hours:</p> Get Version alerts: PetroDollar (XPD) traded 0.1% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.0159 or 0.00000400 BTC. UniCoin (UNIC) traded flat against the dollar and now trades at $0.18 or 0.00002715 BTC. SproutsExtreme (SPEX) traded flat against the dollar and now trades at $0.0001 or 0.00000001 BTC. Prototanium (PR) traded flat against the dollar and now trades at $0.63 or 0.00009595 BTC. AgrolifeCoin (AGLC) traded flat against the dollar and now trades at $0.0005 or 0.00000006 BTC. Jin Coin (JIN) traded flat against the dollar and now trades at $0.0033 or 0.00000090 BTC. Altcoin (ALT) traded flat against the dollar and now trades at $0.0202 or 0.00000565 BTC. Magnetcoin (MAGN) traded 6.1% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.0179 or 0.00000465 BTC. <p>Version Coin Profile</p> <p> V is a coin. Version’s total supply is 549,882,356 coins. The official website for Version is version2.org. Version’s official Twitter account is @VersionCrypto. </p> <p>Version Coin Trading</p> <p>Version can be traded on the following cryptocurrency exchanges: Cryptopia and YoBit. It is usually not possible to purchase alternative cryptocurrencies such as Version directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to trade Version should first purchase Ethereum or Bitcoin using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as Changelly, GDAX or Gemini. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Ethereum or Bitcoin to purchase Version using one of the exchanges listed above. </p> <p> </p> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-81665185475429637532019-02-20T00:48:00.000-08:002019-02-20T00:49:16.634-08:00Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Nowtags:CBD,FLO,VVUS,FUN,FWRD,TXMD,IID,NDSN,FB,BGT, <p>Few stocks can match the long-term performance of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) (NYSE:BRK-B). From the moment that CEO Warren Buffett took over the company, Berkshire started to deliver the amazing returns that have turned so many of its original investors into millionaires.</p> <p>Yet with Buffett now well into his 80s, some investors wonder whether Berkshire's magic will be able to outlive its leader and deliver market-beating performance for future generations. Buffett himself would urge investors to look at the company's fundamentals before deciding whether to buy the stock. No article this length could claim to do anything close to a complete review of Berkshire Hathaway, but it can at least offer a simple opinion about whether Berkshire's a buy right now -- as well as being a starting point for further research.</p> <p>Consumer-insurance giant GEICO is a key part of Berkshire. Image source: Berkshire Hathaway.</p><h3>Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao(CBD)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Logan Wallace]</b> <p>Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao (NYSE: CBD) and Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc Class B (OTCMKTS:ANCUF) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations and profitability. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Shane Hupp]</b> <p>Shares of Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao (NYSE:CBD) have received an average rating of “Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Companhia Brasileira de Distribuicao (NYSE:CBD) hit a new 52-week low on Friday . The company traded as low as $17.91 and last traded at $18.36, with a volume of 9820 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $18.40.</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Flowers Foods, Inc.(FLO)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>FLO (CURRENCY:FLO) traded up 7% against the U.S. dollar during the 1-day period ending at 16:00 PM ET on September 9th. FLO has a market capitalization of $5.25 million and approximately $19,383.00 worth of FLO was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. Over the last week, FLO has traded down 31.5% against the U.S. dollar. One FLO coin can now be bought for approximately $0.0359 or 0.00000561 BTC on exchanges including Trade By Trade and Bittrex. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>Novare Capital Management LLC lowered its holdings in Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE:FLO) by 35.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,835 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,115 shares during the quarter. Novare Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Flowers Foods were worth $281,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Flowers Foods (NYSE:FLO) posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.01), Bloomberg Earnings reports. Flowers Foods had a net margin of 3.83% and a return on equity of 15.17%. The firm had revenue of $1.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.25 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. </p></li> </ul><h3>Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: VIVUS, Inc.(VVUS)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Logan Wallace]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on VIVUS (VVUS)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> <li> <b>[By Logan Wallace]</b> <p>Media stories about VIVUS (NASDAQ:VVUS) have been trending somewhat positive recently, according to Accern Sentiment. The research group ranks the sentiment of news coverage by analyzing more than 20 million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. VIVUS earned a news impact score of 0.13 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave press coverage about the biopharmaceutical company an impact score of 47.022479468622 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the near term. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Money Morning Staff Reports]</b> <p>But Blink and our other penny stocks to watch are unlikely to continue to lock in such spectacular gains in June. After looking at our 10 top penny stocks to watch this month, we'll show you a small-cap stock with great profit potential in its future…</p> Penny Stock Current Share Price Law Month's Gain Blink Charging Co. (Nasdaq: BLNK) $7.07 439.85% Senes Tech Inc. (Nasdaq: SNES) $1.27 175.40% Vivis Inc. (Nasdaq: VVUS) $0.77 150.41% Adomani Inc. (Nasdaq: ADOM) $1.49 137.68% NF Energy Saving Co. (Nasdaq: NFEC) $2.34 134.88% Vaalco Energy Inc. (NYSE: EGY) $2.15 109.06% Heat Biologics Inc. (Nasdaq: HTBX) $2.35 99.12% ArQule Inc. (Nasdaq: ARQL) $4.88 90.74% LiqTech International Inc. (NYSE: LIQT) $0.66 85.60% Transenterix Inc. (NYSE: TRXC) $3.46 77.84% <p>While last month's gains are tremendous, they also illustrate the inherent dangers that come with investing in penny stocks.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on VIVUS (VVUS)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> <li> <b>[By Money Morning News Team]</b> <p>Seadrill's rally demonstrates how profitable penny stocks can be for savvy investors. With Seadrill's gains already on the books, we'll look at a stock that's on track to generate tremendous returns – a small cap that just completed a groundbreaking acquisition with huge profit potential…</p> Penny Stock Current Share Price Law Week's Gain Seadrill Ltd. (NYSE: SDRL) $0.58 98.74% Vivis Inc. (Nasdaq: VVUS) $0.83 59.97% MEI Pharma Inc. (Nasdaq: MEIP) $3.45 43.40% Transenterix Inc. (NYSE: TRXC) $3.15 35.72% Akers Biosciences Inc. (Nasdaq: AKER) $0.65 34.38% Galectin Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: GALT) $4.54 32.58% Phoenix New Media Ltd. (NYSE ADR: FENG) $5.65 32.22% Heat Biologics Inc. (Nasdaq: HTBX) $1.73 31.37% Bright Scholar Education Ltd. (NYSE ADR: BEDU) $18.51 29.03% 21 Vianet Group Inc. (Nasdaq: VNET) $7.36 28.72% <p>These gains are incredibly exciting. However, not all penny stocks are equally strong investments.</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Cedar Fair, L.P.(FUN)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Steve Symington, Jeremy Bowman, and Demitrios Kalogeropoulos]</b> <p>So to help get you started, we asked three top Motley Fool investors to each pick a stock with an annual dividend yield of at least 5%. Read on to learn why they like Oaktree Capital (NYSE:OAK), Ford Motor (NYSE:F), and Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN).</p></li> <li> <b>[By Shane Hupp]</b> <p>FunFair (CURRENCY:FUN) traded up 3.3% against the dollar during the 24 hour period ending at 0:00 AM ET on August 19th. FunFair has a market cap of $99.66 million and approximately $377,467.00 worth of FunFair was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One FunFair token can currently be purchased for approximately $0.0199 or 0.00000306 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges including Livecoin, OKEx, ZB.COM and HitBTC. In the last seven days, FunFair has traded 9.1% higher against the dollar. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>Macquarie upgraded shares of Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a report issued on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Joe Tenebruso]</b> <p>Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN) reported second-quarter financial results on Aug. 1.</p> <p>The amusement park master limited partnership experienced weaker-than-expected attendance during its early summer season, prompting the company to warn that it may miss its full-year financial targets. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Joe Tenebruso]</b> <p>Cedar Fair (NYSE:FUN) reported first-quarter financial results on May 2. The amusement park master limited partnership is enjoying strong early-season sales, and management is confident that it will hit its annual distribution growth targets.</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Forward Air Corporation(FWRD)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Motley Fool Transcribers]</b> <p>Forward Air Corp (NASDAQ:FWRD)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 08, 2019, 9:00 a.m. ET</p> Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: <p>Operator</p></li> <li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Forward Air (FWRD)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> <li> <b>[By Shane Hupp]</b> <p>Voya Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) by 10.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 11,947 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 1,324 shares during the period. Voya Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Forward Air were worth $706,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. </p></li> </ul><h3>Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: TherapeuticsMD, Inc.(TXMD)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>TherapeuticsMD (NASDAQ:TXMD) was given a $12.00 price target by analysts at Oppenheimer Holdings Inc.. The firm currently has a buy rating on the stock. </p></li> <li> <b>[By ]</b> <p>TherapeuticsMD (Nasdaq: TXMD) is a pharmaceutical company with an exclusive focus on products for women and advanced hormone therapies. Biotech stocks are often a target for short sellers because of the uncertainty around drug development and approvals.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Oppenheimer set a $14.00 target price on TherapeuticsMD (NASDAQ:TXMD) in a research report report published on Wednesday morning. The firm currently has a buy rating on the stock.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Logan Wallace]</b> <p>Swiss National Bank grew its position in shares of TherapeuticsMD Inc (NASDAQ:TXMD) by 4.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 301,400 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,600 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.14% of TherapeuticsMD worth $1,468,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>TherapeuticsMD Inc (NASDAQ:TXMD) – Equities researchers at Cantor Fitzgerald reduced their FY2018 earnings estimates for shares of TherapeuticsMD in a research report issued on Tuesday, August 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst W. Tanner now expects that the company will post earnings per share of ($0.68) for the year, down from their previous estimate of ($0.62). Cantor Fitzgerald currently has a “Overweight” rating and a $27.00 target price on the stock. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Lisa Levin]</b> Gainers TherapeuticsMD, Inc. (NASDAQ: TXMD) rose 7.3 percent to $6.90 in pre-market trading after the company reported the FDA approval of TX-004HR: IMVEXXY (estradiol vaginal inserts) for moderate to severe dyspareunia due to menopause. Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: UEPS) rose 6.1 percent to $10.50 in pre-market trading after falling 1.20 percent on Tuesday Movado Group, Inc. (NYSE: MOV) shares rose 5.7 percent to $44.60 in pre-market trading after the company reported better-than-expected Q1 results and raised its guidance. salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE: CRM) rose 5.4 percent to $133.67 in pre-market trading after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter and raised its forecast for the full year. Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) rose 5.3 percent to $7.35 in pre-market trading. PagSeguro Digital Ltd. (NYSE: PAGS) rose 5.3 percent to $33.50 in pre-market trading after reporting Q1 results. SpartanNash Co (NASDAQ: SPTN) rose 4.9 percent to $19.80 in pre-market trading after the company reported upbeat earnings for its first quarter on Tuesday. Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) rose 4.9 percent to $4.95 in pre-market trading. Dalian Wanda will set up a joint venture with Tencent and Groupon's former local unit, Reuters reported. Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA) rose 4.4 percent to $56 in pre-market trading after gaining 3.43 percent on Tuesday Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ: ESLT) rose 4.3 percent to $120.92 in pre-market trading after gaining 2.05 percent on Tuesday. STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE: STM) shares rose 3.7 percent to $23.78 in pre-market trading after falling 4.70 percent on Tuesday. EVINE Live Inc (NASDAQ: EVLV) shares rose 2.7 percent to $1.14 in pre-market trading after reporting Q1 results. <p> Find out what's going on in today's market and bring any questions you have to Benzinga's PreMarket Prep.</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Voya International High Dividend Equity Income Fund(IID)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Logan Wallace]</b> <p>ING International High (NYSE:IID) announced a monthly dividend on Wednesday, May 16th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 4th will be given a dividend of 0.052 per share on Friday, June 15th. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 1st. </p></li> </ul><h3>Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Nordson Corporation(NDSN)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Steve Symington]</b> <p>Nordson Corporation (NASDAQ:NDSN) announced solid fiscal second-quarter 2018 results on Monday after the market closed, including an expected decline in organic volume that was more than offset by acquisitive growth.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Here are some of the news stories that may have effected Accern’s analysis: </p> Get Nordson alerts: FY2019 EPS Estimates for Nordson Co. (NDSN) Raised by Analyst (americanbankingnews.com) Research Analysts Issue Forecasts for Nordson Co.’s Q1 2019 Earnings (NDSN) (americanbankingnews.com) Nordson Co. to Post Q1 2019 Earnings of $1.17 Per Share, Seaport Global Securities Forecasts (NDSN) (americanbankingnews.com) Here’s Why You Must Hold on to Nordson (NDSN) Stock for Now (finance.yahoo.com) Here's Why You Must Hold on to Nordson (NDSN) Stock for Now (finance.yahoo.com) <p>Shares of Nordson stock opened at $135.89 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.31, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.29. Nordson has a twelve month low of $107.16 and a twelve month high of $151.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 3.16. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Garrett Baldwin]</b> <p>Markets have been under pressure once again by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Inflation levels are going through the roof… but the people in charge of managing it have been lying to Americans for years. Now, it's time to get even. Money Morning Liquidity Specialist Lee Adler has the perfect way to make a lot of money when no one is looking. Read it here.</p> The Top Stock Market Stories for Monday Markets are cheering news that the supposed trade war between the United States and China is "on hold," according to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Mnuchin and U.S. President Donald Trump's top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, announced that both nations have reached an agreement, one that established a framework to help address ongoing trade imbalances between the two countries. The prices of crude oil is in focus after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro won reelection over the weekend. The election featured a very low turnout and a very large outcry that the vote was rigged. Maduro has a 75% disapproval rating and has been the face of the OPEC member's widespread mismanagement and economic collapse. Prior to the election, a member of the Trump administration said that the United States would not recognize the authenticity of the election. The United States is considering additional sanctions on Venezuela. Today is a major day for mergers and acquisition activity. Today, Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) announced plans to purchase U.S. hotel operator LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE: LHO) for a whopping $3.7 billion. The deal comes at a time that the travel industry is experiencing one of the best periods in a decade. If you're looking for a way to make money ahead of Memorial Day weekend, we show you how here. Four Stocks to Watch Today: GOOGL, GE, MBFI, FITB Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOGL) is under pressure this morning after a harsh piece aired last night on "60 Minutes." The segment discussed the organization's power and influence. It also featured inter</li> <li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Nordson Co. (NASDAQ:NDSN) – Investment analysts at KeyCorp raised their Q4 2018 earnings estimates for shares of Nordson in a research report issued on Tuesday, August 21st. KeyCorp analyst J. Hammond now anticipates that the industrial products company will post earnings per share of $1.48 for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of $1.47. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Motley Fool Staff]</b> <p>Nordson (NASDAQ:NDSN) Q2 2018 Earnings Conference CallMay. 22, 2018 8:30 a.m. ET</p> Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: <p>Operator</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Facebook, Inc.(FB)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Natalie Walters]</b> <p>The general narrative was that Snapchat was cool and used by younger people, while Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was lame and overrun with older folks. But that narrative hasn't led to Snap unseating Facebook as the best-in-class social media company for investors.</p></li> <li> <b>[By ]</b> <p>The first caller wondered whether tech companies could suffer in a trade war with China. Cramer said that while some, like Facebook (FB) and Alphabet (GOOGL) , two Action Alerts PLUS holdings, don't have any Chinese exposure, other tech giants certainly do.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>Park National Corp OH lowered its position in Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ:FB) by 6.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,682 shares of the social networking company’s stock after selling 342 shares during the quarter. Park National Corp OH’s holdings in Facebook, Inc. Common Stock were worth $909,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. </p></li> </ul><h3>Top 10 Warren Buffett Stocks To Own Right Now: Blackrock Global(BGT)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>Cornerstone Advisory LLP reduced its stake in shares of BlackRock Floating Rate Income Trust (NYSE:BGT) by 34.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 37,398 shares of the investment management company’s stock after selling 19,999 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Advisory LLP’s holdings in BlackRock Floating Rate Income Trust were worth $489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. </p></li> </ul> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-51957800603648502792019-02-18T23:01:00.000-08:002019-02-18T23:02:04.478-08:00Top 5 Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Nowtags:LTRX,MMSI,CTSO,CHY,FOMX, <p>Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) is set to report its fiscal 2018 fourth-quarter earnings on May 8, after the market close.</p> <p>Thanks to the popularity of the Ultimate Team digital card game, EA has been seeing strong engagement in its flagship sports titles, FIFA and Madden NFL. During the fourth quarter, EA launched esports events for both games that are designed to bring in more players to the base, to drive growth in digital revenue. So investors will be very interested to hear what management has to say about how these efforts are working.</p> <p>Here's what to watch:</p> <p>IMAGE mage source: EA.com.</p> Will FIFA and Madden deliver? <p>Superdata's March video game sales report once again showed FIFA 18 and Madden NFL 18 ranked among the top 10 games on console in digital spending. Both games were released more than seven months ago, and the NFL season is well over, which makes this latest sales report especially significant.</p><h3>Top 5 Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: Lantronix, Inc.(LTRX)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>Lantronix (NASDAQ:LTRX) was upgraded by equities research analysts at ValuEngine from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Echelon (NASDAQ: ELON) and Lantronix (NASDAQ:LTRX) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>Lantronix Inc (NASDAQ:LTRX)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $4.03 and last traded at $3.90, with a volume of 768 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $3.85.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Lantronix (NASDAQ:LTRX) shares hit a new 52-week high and low during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $3.24 and last traded at $3.20, with a volume of 2090 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $3.21.</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: Merit Medical Systems Inc.(MMSI)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MMSI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the fourteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $52.00. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Merit Medical Systems (MMSI)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> <li> <b>[By Motley Fool Transcribing]</b> <p>Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI) Q2 2018 Earnings Conference CallJul. 23, 2018 5:00 p.m. ET</p> Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks: <p>Operator</p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: Cytosorbents Corporation(CTSO)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Cytosorbents (CTSO)</p> <p>For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com</p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in Cytosorbents Co. (NASDAQ:CTSO) by 182.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 20,929 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,515 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN owned about 0.07% of Cytosorbents worth $136,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Cytosorbents Corp (NASDAQ:CTSO) COO Vincent Capponi sold 9,565 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.00, for a total value of $124,345.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 342,333 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,450,329. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. </p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: Calamos Convertible and High Income Fund(CHY)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>Calamos Convertible & Hi Income Fund (NASDAQ:CHY) was the target of a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 14th, there was short interest totalling 705,860 shares, a growth of 35.5% from the August 31st total of 521,121 shares. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 212,797 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Shane Hupp]</b> <p>Calamos Convertible & Hi Income Fund (NASDAQ:CHY) declared a monthly dividend on Monday, February 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 12th will be given a dividend of 0.085 per share by the investment management company on Wednesday, February 20th. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 11th. </p></li> </ul><h3>Top 5 Heal Care Stocks To Buy Right Now: Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd.(FOMX)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Press coverage about Foamix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:FOMX) has trended somewhat positive this week, according to Accern Sentiment. Accern identifies positive and negative media coverage by reviewing more than 20 million news and blog sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Foamix Pharmaceuticals earned a news impact score of 0.14 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned press coverage about the specialty pharmaceutical company an impact score of 45.4298608245084 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the near term. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>News headlines about Foamix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:FOMX) have trended somewhat positive recently, Accern reports. Accern rates the sentiment of media coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Foamix Pharmaceuticals earned a news impact score of 0.15 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned press coverage about the specialty pharmaceutical company an impact score of 48.1562748121044 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near term. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>Headlines about Foamix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:FOMX) have been trending somewhat positive recently, according to Accern. The research group rates the sentiment of press coverage by analyzing more than 20 million news and blog sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Foamix Pharmaceuticals earned a media sentiment score of 0.15 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news headlines about the specialty pharmaceutical company an impact score of 47.5479155329096 out of 100, indicating that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the immediate future. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Joseph Griffin]</b> <p>Foamix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:FOMX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by HC Wainwright in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $14.00 price objective on the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $12.00. HC Wainwright’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 122.22% from the stock’s current price.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Chris Lange]</b> <p>Foamix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ: FOMX) shares were last seen up early on Wednesday after the company announced a solid performance in its late-stage trial for moderate-to-severe acne.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Max Byerly]</b> <p>HC Wainwright set a $11.00 price target on Foamix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:FOMX) in a research note released on Tuesday. The firm currently has a buy rating on the specialty pharmaceutical company’s stock.</p></li> </ul> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-60181952852800026292019-02-17T19:03:00.000-08:002019-02-17T19:04:53.545-08:00Hot Bank Stocks To Watch Right Nowtags:CRCM,CHTR,EEFT, <p>SAN FRANCISCO — A former recruiter with banking company SunTrust used LinkedIn to send a sexually explicit photo to a prospective hire, a lawsuit claims.</p><p>LinkedIn is increasingly used by companies to recruit for white-collar positions. In the suit, filed Tuesday, the unnamed plaintiff — described as a successful financial services professional who works at a California-based Fortune 500 multinational — said she had been discussing a possible job at Atlanta-based SunTrust.</p><p>But the messaging conversation took an abrupt and unwanted turn. The recruiter, Aaron Eichler sent a nude photo of himself, exposing his genitals and suggesting the plaintiff and he "play" and that it would be a "late night secret," according to documents filed with the suit.</p><p>The suit seeks unspecified damages for sexual harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent retention against SunTrust Banks.</p><h3>Hot Bank Stocks To Watch Right Now: Care.com, Inc.(CRCM)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Logan Wallace]</b> <p>Laurion Capital Management LP boosted its position in Care.com Inc (NYSE:CRCM) by 10.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 47,031 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,633 shares during the quarter. Laurion Capital Management LP owned approximately 0.15% of Care.com worth $982,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Lisa Levin]</b> <p>Care.com, Inc. (NYSE: CRCM) shares shot up 19 percent to $18.8426 following Q1 earnings.</p> <p>Shares of ProPhase Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRPH) got a boost, shooting up 54 percent to $4.4302 after the company announced a special $1.00 per share cash dividend.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Stephan Byrd]</b> <p>Headlines about Care.com (NYSE:CRCM) have been trending somewhat positive recently, Accern reports. The research group rates the sentiment of press coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Care.com earned a news impact score of 0.04 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned news articles about the information services provider an impact score of 46.4871932873326 out of 100, indicating that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the company’s share price in the immediate future. </p></li> </ul><h3>Hot Bank Stocks To Watch Right Now: Charter Communications, Inc.(CHTR)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By WWW.GURUFOCUS.COM]</b> <p>For the details of CALEDONIA INVESTMENTS PLC's stock buys and sells, go to http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=CALEDONIA+INVESTMENTS+PLC</p>These are the top 5 holdings of CALEDONIA INVESTMENTS PLCMicrosoft Corp (MSFT) - 526,767 shares, 14.11% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 8.07%Oracle Corp (ORCL) - 862,500 shares, 10.32% of the total portfolio. Becton, Dickinson and Co (BDX) - 157,800 shares, 10.27% of the total portfolio. Philip Morris International Inc (PM) - 445,000 shares, 9.76% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 36.09%Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc (TMO) - 168,917 shares, 9.5%</li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) was downgraded by equities researchers at ValuEngine from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report released on Tuesday.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Joe Tenebruso]</b> <p>Shares of Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) jumped 16.2% last month, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, following the company's strong fourth-quarter financial results.</p></li> </ul><h3>Hot Bank Stocks To Watch Right Now: Euronet Worldwide Inc.(EEFT)</h3> <b>Advisors' Opinion:</b> <ul><li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT) had its price objective upped by SunTrust Banks to $155.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, The Fly reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the business services provider’s stock. SunTrust Banks also issued estimates for Euronet Worldwide’s Q1 2019 earnings at $0.77 EPS, Q2 2019 earnings at $1.49 EPS, Q3 2019 earnings at $2.82 EPS, Q4 2019 earnings at $1.51 EPS and FY2019 earnings at $6.60 EPS. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Travis Hoium]</b> <p>Shares of financial services company Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) jumped as much as 14.8% in early trading Monday after the company announced a big expected jump in 2019 earnings. Shares were maintaining a 12.5% gain on the day as of 11:20 a.m. EDT. </p></li> <li> <b>[By ]</b> <p>3. Look To The World<br>Euronet Worldwide (Nasdaq: EEFT) is everywhere. It has 61 offices in 41 countries and is primed to take advantage of the megatrend in mobile payments.</p></li> <li> <b>[By Ethan Ryder]</b> <p>Euronet Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:EEFT) CEO Michael J. Brown sold 25,000 shares of Euronet Worldwide stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.77, for a total value of $2,444,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,486,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $145,297,756.86. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. </p></li> <li> <b>[By Dan Caplinger]</b> <p>Most of the stock market posted solid gains on Monday after Canada joined the U.S. and Mexico in forging a renewed regional trade agreement. The Dow Jones Industrial Average quickly got out to a more than 200-point gain early in the session, as investors in many of the manufacturing companies that make up the Dow's 30 components have been especially nervous about the recent Trump administration strategy of imposing tariffs and threatening to end long-standing agreements. Interestingly, small-cap stocks lagged behind their megacap counterparts, sending the Russell 2000 index to a substantial loss. But some companies saw their shares soar on encouraging news. New Age Beverages (NASDAQ:NBEV), Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT), and Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY) were among the best performers on the day. Here's why they did so well.</p></li> </ul> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-3029484590186828222019-02-16T18:48:00.000-08:002019-02-16T18:49:58.589-08:00Halcyon Price Hits $0.0097 on Major Exchanges (HAL) <p><img src="https://www.americanbankingnews.com/wp-content/timthumb/timthumb.php?w=250&zc=1&src=https://www.marketbeat.com/logos/cryptocurrencies/545.png" alt="Halcyon logo" title="Halcyon logo" class="cryptologo" width='128px' />Halcyon (CURRENCY:HAL) traded flat against the US dollar during the 1 day period ending at 21:00 PM ET on February 14th. Halcyon has a market capitalization of $64,919.00 and $0.00 worth of Halcyon was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One Halcyon coin can now be purchased for $0.0097 or 0.00000259 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges. Over the last seven days, Halcyon has traded flat against the US dollar. </p> <p>Here is how similar cryptocurrencies have performed over the last 24 hours:</p> Get Halcyon alerts: Dash (DASH) traded down 3.7% against the dollar and now trades at $78.00 or 0.02156830 BTC. Decred (DCR) traded 0.5% lower against the dollar and now trades at $16.68 or 0.00461312 BTC. Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) traded 1.1% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.71 or 0.00019729 BTC. Hshare (HSR) traded down 29.9% against the dollar and now trades at $2.26 or 0.00034804 BTC. Aeternity (AE) traded down 0.8% against the dollar and now trades at $0.38 or 0.00010620 BTC. Stratis (STRAT) traded 2.2% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.86 or 0.00023813 BTC. PIVX (PIVX) traded 1.7% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.71 or 0.00019514 BTC. ReddCoin (RDD) traded 0.5% higher against the dollar and now trades at $0.0012 or 0.00000033 BTC. Enigma (ENG) traded up 0.4% against the dollar and now trades at $0.31 or 0.00008640 BTC. BitcoinDark (BTCD) traded flat against the dollar and now trades at $16.23 or 0.00246929 BTC. <p>About Halcyon</p> <p> Halcyon (HAL) is a PoW/PoS coin that uses the<br> X15 hashing algorithm. Its genesis date was July 16th, 2014. Halcyon’s total supply is 6,668,787 coins. Halcyon’s official website is halcyon.top. Halcyon’s official Twitter account is @halcyondev. </p> <p>Halcyon Coin Trading</p> <p>Halcyon can be traded on the following cryptocurrency exchanges: Cryptopia. It is usually not possible to buy alternative cryptocurrencies such as Halcyon directly using US dollars. Investors seeking to acquire Halcyon should first buy Bitcoin or Ethereum using an exchange that deals in US dollars such as Coinbase, Gemini or GDAX. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Bitcoin or Ethereum to buy Halcyon using one of the exchanges listed above. </p> <p> </p> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5089695120421438899.post-66197125586649252832019-02-15T17:34:00.000-08:002019-02-15T17:35:10.461-08:00Macatawa Bank Corp (MCBC) Files 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended on December 31, 2018 <p>Macatawa Bank Corp (NASDAQ:MCBC) files its latest 10-K with SEC for the fiscal year ended on December 31, 2018. Macatawa Bank Corp is a holding company of Macatawa Bank. It offers commercial and personal banking services, brokerage services, online banking and lending funds to individual customers and corporates through its subsidiary, Macatawa Bank. Macatawa Bank Corp has a market cap of $345.550 million; its shares were traded at around $10.15 with a P/E ratio of 13.01 and P/S ratio of 4.66. The dividend yield of Macatawa Bank Corp stocks is 2.56%.</p> <p>For the last quarter Macatawa Bank Corp reported a revenue of $20.0 million, compared with the revenue of $18.36 million during the same period a year ago. For the latest fiscal year the company reported a revenue of $77.1 million, an increase of 10.5% from last year. For the last five years Macatawa Bank Corp had an average revenue growth rate of 6.3% a year.</p><p> The reported diluted earnings per share was 78 cents for the year, an increase of 62.5% from previous year. The profitability rank of the company is 2 (out of 10).</p> <p>At the end of the fiscal year, Macatawa Bank Corp has the cash and cash equivalents of $40.5 million, compared with $34.9 million in the previous year. The long term debt was $41.2 million, compared with $41.2 million in the previous year. Macatawa Bank Corp has a financial strength rank of 4 (out of 10).</p> <p>At the current stock price of $10.15, Macatawa Bank Corp is traded at 100.2% premium to its historical median P/S valuation band of $5.07. The P/S ratio of the stock is 4.66, while the historical median P/S ratio is 2.33. The stock gained 6.35% during the past 12 months. </p> <p>Directors and Officers Recent Trades:</p>Director Robert L Herr bought 150 shares of MCBC stock on 02/08/2019 at the average price of $10.12. The price of the stock has increased by 0.3% since.Senior V.P. Retail Banking Jill A Walcott sold 2,818 shares of MCBC stock on 02/12/2019 at the average price of $10.09. The price of the stock has increased by 0.59% since.Senior V.P. Retail Banking Jill A Walcott sold 1,100 shares of MCBC stock on 02/05/2019 at the average price of $10.21. The price of the stock has decreased by 0.59% since. <p>For the complete 20-year historical financial data of MCBC, click here.</p> Lokehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07622797989240219593noreply@blogger.com0