Category: stock advisory

Posted on

Bye Bye bebe!

The once high flying fashion maker bebe stores $bebe announced that it will close all of its stores.  The company disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday: “On April 18, #bebe stores entered into a Consulting Agreement with Great AmeBebe-Storesrican Group, an affiliate of #B.Riley & Co., the Company’s financial advisor, and Tiger Capital to, among other things, sell all merchandise and inventory owned by the Company and certain of its subsidiaries located in its existing retail stores and certain furnishings, trade fixtures, equipment and improvements to real property with respect to the Stores. We may incur a loss in connection with this sale of our merchandise and inventory, but we cannot estimate such loss at this time…

The Company currently anticipates that it will close all of the Stores by the end of May. The Company expects to recognize an impairment charge of approximately $20M, net of deferred rent and other credits, as a result of closing the Stores. This impairment charge will be recorded in the third and fourth quarters of fiscal year 2017.” The retailer is hoping that its online stores would bring life to its brand..

To read more, visit Stockwinners

Posted on

President Comments Move Stocks!

Here is a re-cap of how President Trump’s comments moved stocks last week:

1. STEEL SECTOR: On Thursday, Donald Trump met with several steel company CEOs at the White House to discuss the state of the industry and the administration’s plans to crack down on steel dumping. Following the sit down, he signed a memorandum related to section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and said he has directed the Commerce Department to launch an investigation into whether or not foreign companies, particularly those from China, are dumping steel on the U.S. market. Publicly traded companies in the steel space include Steel Dynamics $STLD , AK Steel $AKS , U.S. Steel $X and Nucor $NUE .TrumpHouseLogo_FINAL-1

2. HOSPITALS: Earlier this week, hospital stocks were under pressure following reports of Health bill progress. CNBC tweeted, “NEW: If health care changes in MacArthur memo are in bill text, they’d get 18-20 new @freedomcaucus votes. Brings total to
25-30, per source.” Publicly traded companies in the space include Community Health $CYH , HCA Holdings $HCA LifePoint $LPNT , Tenet $THC and Universal Health $UHS .

3. TECH COMPANIES: According to a news report by Recode, tech companies such as Amazon $AMZN , Apple $AAPL , Facebook $FB , Google $GOOG; $GOOGL , and Microsoft $MSFT have focused some of their lobbying sums in Washington over the past three months on fighting President Trump, as he looked toward major changes to the U.S. tax code and placed new restriction on foreign immigrants. Both issues are present on many companies’ first quarter lobbying reports, the publication notes.

4. HUMANA: On Friday, Jefferies downgraded Humana $HUM to Hold and lowered his price target on the shares to $221 from $237. The analyst told investors that he views the shares as expensive and pointed out that 2018 premium growth under President Trump is lower than 2017 under Obama. Events that would enhance Medicare Advantage decidedly above Medicaid and Commercial “are not blossoming,” Windley contended.

5. FINANCE-RELATED EXECUTIVE ORDERS: President Trump signed two finance-related executive orders on Friday aimed at unwinding regulations put into place after the financial crisis. The directives target “living wills” that banks must formulate to show how they would be broken up it there is danger of failure. Alongside banking measures, the administration is ordering a review on rules regarding inversions. Publicly traded money center banks include Bank of America $BAC , Citi $C , Goldman Sachs $GS , JPMorgan $JPM , Morgan Stanley $MS , U.S. Bancorp $USB and Wells Fargo $WFC .

6. TAX REFORM: On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said during the International Finance Washington Policy Summit that the Trump administration is close to bringing forward “major tax reform.” The following day, Trump told Associated Press that he will unveil a tax plan next week that includes “massive” tax cut for individuals and businesses.

To read more, please see Stockwinners

Posted on

GM ceases operations in Venezuela

General Motors #Venezolana $GM is forced to cease operations in Venezuela after 60 years due to seizure of its assets. On Wednesday, GMV’s plant was unexpectedly taken by the public authorities, preventing normal operations.gm-logo

In addition, other assets of the company, such as vehicles, have been illegally taken from its facilities. The seizure was granted and enforced in total disregard of GMV’s right to due process, causing irreparable damage to the company, its 2,678 workers, its 79 dealers, and to its suppliers.

As a consequence, GMV announces the immediate cessation of its operations in the country, and ensures payment of the employees’ separation benefits arising from the termination of the employment relationships due to causes beyond the parties’ control. GMV strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights. The company is confident that justice will eventually be served, and looks forward to continue leading the Venezuelan market. In the meantime, GMV, through its dealers, will continue to provide aftermarket service and parts for its customers.

See Stockwinners
to read more..

 

Posted on

POTUS calls for steel probe!

The White House published President Trump’s request today for an investigation into steel imports. The document states: “As imports of #steel to the United States continue to rise, an examination of foreign practices is urgently needed… President Donald J. #Trump is taking action to ensure America’s steel industry comes first, in addition to his Buy American and Hire American policies.panel-okays-20-provisional-safeguard-duty-on-steel-products

Today, the President signed a Presidential Memorandum prioritizing an investigation initiated by the Secretary of Commerce into whether steel imports threaten to impair the national security… By law the investigation must be concluded and a report submitted within 270 days. If the report concludes that steel imports threaten to impair the national security, and the President concurs, he may take several actions, including #tariffs.”

Publicly traded companies in the steel space include Steel Dynamics $STLD , AK Steel $AKS , U.S. Steel $X and Nucor $NUE $ZEUS

To read more, visit Stockwinners.

Posted on

$ARWR Arrowhead presents ARC-520, ARC-521 data at International Liver Congress

Stockwinners: stocks to buy, stocks to watch, upgrades, downgrades, earnings, Stocks to Avoid

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals presented clinical data from a Phase 2 study of ARC-520 and a Phase 1/2 study of ARC-521, the company’s prior generation investigatory medicines that were being studied for the treatment of chronic #hepatitis B virus infection, at The International Liver Congress 2017, the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver.

The studies show that RNAi interference as a mechanism can rapidly and significantly reduce HBV viral antigens.

In addition, #RNAi appears to synergize with current standard-of-care nucleotide and nucleoside analogues to rapidly lower serum levels of HBV DNA. Arrowhead is currently developing ARO-HBV, a follow-on product candidate that utilizes the company’s next generation, proprietary subcutaneously administered delivery vehicle, as a potentially curative therapy for patients with chronic hepatitis B infection.

Another stock to watch $ICPT

To read more, see Stockwinners

c7x19.9.RNAi.

Posted on

UMB Financial to sell Scout Investments to Carillon Tower Advisers for $172.5M

Stockwinners: stocks to buy, stocks to watch, upgrades, downgrades, earnings, Stocks to Avoid

UMB Financial $UMBF announced the execution of an agreement to sell 100% of the stock of Scout Investments, its institutional investment management subsidiary with $27.3B in assets under management, to Carillon Tower Advisers, a unit of Raymond James Financial $RJF , for $172.5M in cash, subject to purchase price adjustments at closing.

The company plans to use the proceeds from the transaction to support its current growth strategies. “The decision to sell Scout Investments comes at a time when our company has evolved,” said Mariner Kemper, chairman and CEO of UMB Financial Corporation. “This transaction allows us to invest more time, energy and capital resources into our core businesses. We’re excited by this opportunity and what it means to be a relationship-based, diversified financial services company with a focus on enhancing long-term profitability.”

The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors at both companies, is anticipated to close by the end of the calendar year and is subject to customary closing conditions, including mutual fund board approval and consents of the mutual fund shareholders and certain advisory clients.

See Stockwinners for additional information.

Posted on

AbbVie $ABBV says Study did not meet its end result

AbbVie announced that two Phase 3 studies evaluating #veliparib did not meet their primary endpoints. The studies evaluated veliparib in combination with the chemotherapy regimen carboplatin and paclitaxel in patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer and triple negative breast cancer.

Full results will be presented at upcoming medical meetings or published in a peer-reviewed journal. “Research shows there is a role for PARP inhibitors in cancers associated with DNA repair deficits, such as those with BRCA mutations.

In these clinical trials, we wanted to explore whether a PA527178_434502233267150_400064991_nRP inhibitor could augment chemotherapy in patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer and triple negative breast cancer by disrupting the repair of cancer cells,” said Gary Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., vice president, oncology clinical development, AbbVie. “Unfortunately, these data do not support the use of veliparib in combination with chemotherapy in these patients.”

For more information, see Stockwinners.

Posted on

Pfizer receives grand jury subpoenas from DOJ

Pfizer $PFE confirmed that the company had received grand jury subpoenas from the U.S. Justice Department as part of an antitrust investigation focused onpfizer-logo intravenous saline solution makers, said Reuters.

Note that in a regulatory filing last night, ICU Medical $ICUI disclosed that on April 18, in connection with the Hospira Infusion Systems business that the company acquired in February 2017 from Pfizer.

See Stockwinners.com to read more.

ICU Medical received a grand jury subpoena issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in connection with an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.

See Stockwinners for additional information

Posted on

Oppenheimer bullish on Visa, MasterCard ahead of results

cropped-527178_434502233267150_400064991_n.jpg

The analyst is encouraged by “solid” January intra-quarter volume growth, improving gas price trends, strong retail sales growth, and broadly positive card issuer trends.

Further, Greene continues to believe that MasterCard and Visa are attractive at current levels, given their defensible market positions and strong long-term prospects. Nonetheless, he prefers Visa relative to MasterCard at present given the continuing U.S. volume boost from the Costco $COST wins and JPMorgan Chase $JPM Sapphire Reserve momentum, apparent conservative guidance, and Visa Europe accretion benefits.

See Stockwinners.com to read more.

Posted on

Earnings Raise Red Flag for Stocks

A review of latest quarterly results from corporate America pointing to a slowing economy. Several key companies have either missed their results or have lowered their forward looking guidance. On April 18, 2017, several major corporations just did that. Much of the today’s market weakness was attributed to the price decline in both Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Goldman Sachs images

(GS) following their earnings reports. The weakness in those bluechips caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) to underperform the other major averages and struggle all day. The market action was
an auspicious start to the earnings season, which has been anticipated with great optimism by investors since the November election. Shares of Goldman Sachs fell nearly 5% after reporting downbeat quarterly results, which is exceedingly rare for the investment bank. Commenting on the quarter, Goldman chairman and chief executive officer Lloyd Blankfein called the quarter’s operating environment “mixed,” with client activity “challenged in certain market-making businesses.”jnj

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) shares dropped 3% after the healthcare giant posted better than expected profits but lower than expected quarterly sales.  Meanwhile, shares of Netflix (NFLX) declined over 2.5% after the company mixed Q1 report and Q2 guidance.

Industrial goods seller, Grainger (GWW) shares dropped to their 52-weeks low after the firm cut its full year Earnings per Shares (EPS) view to $10.0grainger0-$11.30 from $11.30-$12.40. The firm also lowered its  FY17 sales growth view to 1%-4% from 2%-6%. The firm blamed the pricing acceleration and a 1% reduction in sales from foreign exchange as the culprit for the miss.

Among the notable losers on the day was Barracuda (CUDA), which dropped 17% after it reported quarterly results and provided lowered guidance for the first quarter and fiscal 2018. Also lower was Cardinal Health (CAH), which fell 11.5% after announcing that it will acquire a patient product portfolio from Medtronic (MDT) for $6.1B and warning that it now sees its FY18 EPS to be flat to down mid-single digits, citing the impact of generic deflation and other factors.

Stockwinners.com is one of the oldest stock and option advisory sites on the web. We have been providing winning picks since 1998. A 2-week Free Trial Membership is available at https://stockwinners.com/Information/Pricing .

Translate »