In his annual shareholder letter, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon pointed to data showing a radically shrinking U.S. stock market, echoing an increasingly common refrain on Wall Street and in corporate America. Dimon is working alongside business luminaries such as Warren Buffett, BlackRock’s Larry Fink and GM CEO Mary Barra to promote long-term stock market investment and regulations that will make it easier and more rewarding for companies to sell their shares on public markets.
On Wednesday morning, the U.S. markets lost another stock when European consumer products conglomerate JAB Holding agreed to buy Panera Bread for $7.5 billion, ending the popular soup, sandwich and salad chain’s stellar over-quarter century run on public markets. There are many causes of the shrinking stock market, for instance the administrative costs of being publicly traded and strict regulations surrounding investor communications, but JAB’s emergence and its deal for Panera Bread points to the biggest culprit.
check stock: PacWest Bancorp(PACW)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Ben Levisohn]
The twenty stocks in Worth’s basket are: Ameriprise Financial (AMP) Bank of America, Banner (BANR), Citigroup, Citizens Financial Group (CFG), East West Bancorp (EWBC), First NBC Bank Holding (FNBC), HFF (HF), KeyCorp(KEY), Legacy Texas Financial Group (LTXB), Lincoln National (LNC), Morgan Stanley, Old National Bancorp (ONB), PacWest Bancorp (PACW), PNC Financial Services Group (PNC), Principal Financial Group (PFG), Stifel Financial (SF), SVB Financial Group (SIVB), TCF Financial (TCB), and Wells Fargo.
check stock: Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.(ALXN)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Paul Ausick]
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) posted a new 52-week low of $98.63 on Wednesday, down about 5.7% compared with Tuesday’s closing price of $04.64. The stock’s 52-week high is $157.02. Volume totaled about 8.5 million shares, around 4 times the daily average of about 3 million. The company announced several executive changes on Tuesday and the fallout has continued.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) soared to the top of the S&P 500 today after its audit committee found no need to restate the company’s financials.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Alexion Pharmaceuticalsgained 9.5% to $139.18 today, while the S&P 500 dipped 0.1% to 2,269.00.
Morgan Stanley’sMatthew Harrison and team argue that the audit committees report is “lifting a cloud” over Alexion, but they still have their concerns:
Without significant fireworks mgt. has filed the 10-Q lifting a cloud around the details on the potential wrong doing and its impact. While the “pull-in” sales had less than a 1% impact and do not appear pervasive in use as evidenced by the limited amount outside of 4Q15, we do wonder how the increased scrutiny will impact the selling organization and the potential increased conservatism among personnel going forward. We look forward to 2017 guidance and updates to MG filing and 1210 enrollment at the 4Q16 call.
Alexion’s market capitalization rose to $31.2 billion today from $28.5 billion yesterday. It reported net income of $144 million on sales of $2.5 billion in 2015.
- [By Lisa Levin] Related Chardan Analyst Suggests An AveXis-Ionis Pair Trade Why The Biogen-Ionis News Is A Boon For AveXis AveXis' (AVXS) CEO Sean Nolan on Q4 2016 Results – Earnings Call Transcript (Seeking Alpha)
Related CLBS Earnings Scheduled For March 17, 2017 15 Biggest Mid-Day Gainers For Thursday Caladrius Biosciences beats by $0.07, beats on revenue (Seeking Alpha) Gainers
Caladrius Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ: CLBS) shares rose 20.2 percent to $6.13 in pre-market trading after the company reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss.
Arbutus Biopharma Corp (NASDAQ: ABUS) rose 12.3 percent to $3.20 in pre-market trading after the company disclosed that it has licensed LNP delivery technology to Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) for use in single messenger RNA product candidate.
AveXis Inc (NASDAQ: AVXS) rose 12.2 percent to $81.66 in pre-market trading after the company reported topline data from Phase 1 trial of AVXS-101.
TOP SHIPS Inc (NASDAQ: TOPS) shares rose 10.5 percent to $2.43 in pre-market trading after surging 109.52 percent on Thursday.
ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC. (NASDAQ: IMOS) rose 9.8 percent to $17.45 in pre-market trading after declining 0.44 percent on Thursday.
Sino-Global Shipping America, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SINO) rose 8.3 percent to $3.38 in pre-market trading after climbing 23.81 percent on Thursday.
Diana Containerships Inc (NASDAQ: DCIX) rose 7.6 percent to $2.99 in pre-market trading after surging 12.55 percent on Thursday.
Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) rose 5.2 percent to $37.25 in pre-market trading. Steel Dynamics expects Q1 earnings of $0.77 to $0.81 per diluted share. The company also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.1550 per common share.
Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE) - [By Ben Levisohn]
Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) sunk to the bottom of the S&P 500 today, a drop that is being attributed to revelations on Wednesday night that it had to delay its 10-Q because of a whistle blower investigation into its sales practices.
Getty Images
Shares of Alexion Pharmaceuticals tumbled 10% to $$113.62 today, while the S&P 500 dipped 0.1% to 2,164.45.
After speaking with Alexion CEO Vika Sinha, Citigroup’s Robyn Karnauskas and Mohit Bansal see a buying opportunity. “As we highlighted in our previous note, we cannot envision anything that changes numbers fundamentally and see this weakness as buying opportunity,” they write. They also write that they looked at the companies past financials and saw no red flags, while noting that Soliris, the drug that is causing all the problems, “is sold on named patient basis, therefore, chances of fake sales are very minimal.”
Alexion Pharmaceuticals market capitalization fell to $25.4 billion today from $28.5 billion yesterday.
- [By Paul Ausick]
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) posted a new 52-week low of $102.47 on Tuesday, down more than 11% compared with Monday’s closing price of $115.42. The stock’s 52-week high is $157.02. Volume totaled more than 16 million shares, nearly 6 times the daily average of about 3 million. The company announced several executive changes this morning.
check stock: ENI S.p.A.(E)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Dustin Parrett]
Specifically, the oil supermajors are ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), BP Plc. (NYSE: BP), Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (NYSE ADR: RDS.A), Conoco Phillips (NYSE: COP), Eni SpA (NYSE ADR: E), and Total SA (NYSE ADR: TOT).
- [By Dustin Parrett]
Big Oil stocks are the seven “oil supermajors” that do everything from oil drilling to refining to retail sales. This is a list of the Big Oil companies:
Big Oil CompanyShare PriceYTDMarket CapExxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM)$83.44-7.58%$353.13BChevron Co. (NYSE: CVX)$113.56-3.5%$217.62BConocoPhillips Co. (NYSE: COP)$48.21-3.78%$61.42BRoyal Dutch Shell Plc. (NYSE ADR: RDS.A)$52.35-3.82%$221.08BBP Plc. (NYSE ADR: BP)$34.12-8.71%$112.69BTotal SA (NYSE: TOT)$50.26-1.35%$124.6BEni SpA (NYSE: E)$31.51-2.3%$58.69B
Despite being huge global oil companies, shares of Big Oil stocks are all in the red this year. Those losses have all happened even as the Dow is smashing record highs and trading up 6.4% year to date.
- [By Paul Ausick]
Reuters reported last week that the company is considering selling its 2,500 service stations in Italy for a tidy 500 million (about $538 million). The rumored buyer is private equity giant Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE: APO), also rumored to be interested in buying 2,600 Italian service stations from a joint venture between Italy’s Eni SpA (NYSE: E) and Total SA (NYSE: TOT).
check stock: Mitek Systems, Inc.(MITK)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Lisa Levin]
In trading on Monday, technology shares fell 0.65 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Ultra Clean Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: UCTT), down 4 percent, and Mitek Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MITK), down 7 percent.
- [By Lisa Levin]
In trading on Thursday, technology shares fell by 0.32 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included Mitek Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MITK), down 13 percent, and Formula Systems (1985) Ltd. (ADR) (NASDAQ: FORTY), down 8 percent.
- [By U.S. News]
In at least one Texas bank and one Ohio credit union, 3D video banking is currently undergoing testing, according to TheFinancialBrand.com, a website for bank and credit union marketing executives. Three-dimensional video banking is similar to a consumer video conference with a bank representative –- only in this case, the executive looks like a living, breathing person sitting across from you. Thanks to theater surround sound, the representative also sounds as if they’re in the same room. And since the consumer is interacting with a real person and not an automated hologram, the experience apparently isn’t much different than the real thing.
Banking and managing money isn’t what it used to be. The 1970s and 1980s brought us the rise of the ATM. Consumers became acquainted with online banking during the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s. The 2010s are shaping up as the era of mobile banking.
That was underscored Sept. 10-11 in New York City when Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK), a San Diego-based technology company, debuted its Mobile Photo Account Opening product at Finovate, a trade show where banking tech products are often unveiled. The product allows consumers to open a bank account within 60 seconds. If you have your bank’s app, you can use your smartphone’s camera to take a photo of the front and back of your driver’s license, and presto, your new checking, savings or credit card account is open.
Here’s a look at other financial products and services personal financial experts think we’ll be using in the future.
Within 10 years. “The economic payments system will begin to ‘know us,’ either through biometrics, optical sensor or facial recognition,” says Joshua Siegel, managing principal of StoneCastle Partners, a New York-based asset management firm that invests in banks.
That’s already happening to some extent with smartphones –- the new Apple (AAPL) iPhone 5S, for example, uses fingerprint scanning to unlock the phone. Meanwhile, some fi
check stock: Allot Communications Ltd.(ALLT)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Lisa Levin]
Telecommunications services shares gained around 0.98 percent in trading on Thursday. Meanwhile, top gainers in the sector included Telefonica S.A. (ADR) (NYSE: TEF), and Allot Communications Ltd (NASDAQ: ALLT).
check stock: Kronos Worldwide Inc(KRO)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Monica Gerson]
Kronos Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: KRO) is projected to post a quarterly loss at $0.13 per share on revenue of $308.50 million.
Energen Corporation (NYSE: EGN) is estimated to post a quarterly loss at $0.67 per share on revenue of $122.91 million.
