Ant Financial Services Group, operator of China’s biggest online payment platform by market share, Alipay, has closed its latest funding round having raised $10 billion from a clutch of global and local investors, five people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Ant’s first fundraising targeting global money values the firm at $150 billion, the people said, compared with about $60 billion after its previous fundraising in April 2016.
A number of global sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms joined the fundraising as main investors. They include Singapore’s sovereign fund GIC Pte Ltd and state investor Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd, as well as U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC [WP.UL], the people said.
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Ant Financial nears $10 billion equity raise, sources tell CNBC 2 Hours Ago | 01:45
Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd has also joined as a major investor, one of the people said.
Top 10 Value Stocks To Own Right Now: Microsoft Corporation(MSFT)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By ]
Founded in 1993, the tech giant produced the graphics hardware for both Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox and Sony’s (SNE) Playstation 3.
Nvidia’s performance has seen the company’s stock shoot up from $12 per share when it first went public to over $200 per share.
- [By Daniel Sparks]
Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) has been firing on all cylinders. In its third quarter of fiscal 2018, revenue and earnings per share soared 16% and 36%, respectively.In addition, the company was able to return $6.3 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the period. Then there’s Microsoft’s impressive strength in its commercial cloud revenue, which mainly consists of Office 365 commercial, Azure, and Dynamics 365. Commercial cloud revenue in the third quarter soared 58% year over year to $6 billion,accounting for 22% of Microsoft’s total revenue.
- [By Money Morning Staff Reports]
“Millionaire-Maker”: A potential upgrade taking place behind the scenes could send the Bitcoin price to unprecedented highs. Few people even know about this game-changer. Click here to learn how you could make millions…
Even though Bitcoin prices have been rocky in 2018, one bull is doubling down on a bold BTC price prediction. Thomas Lee of Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC believes one Bitcoin will be worth $25,000 by the end of the year. From today’s price, that’s a potential return of 302.94%. There was fear India may issue a sweeping ban on cryptocurrencies, but it looks like country officials may just regulate them as commodities instead, according to a com report. The government now seems more interested in setting up regulations to deter money laundering than a direct ban. Finally, a new startup wants to use blockchain technology to create trustworthy collaborative databases for consumers and businesses, according to Forbes. The idea is platform users can vote on the accuracy of published information. The company is called DIRT Protocol, and its founder has an impressive history. Yin Wu is a serial entrepreneur, and she sold a mobile notification startup to Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) in 2015.
The Shocking Reason Why We Think Bitcoin Could Hit $100,000 - [By Keith Noonan, Daniel Miller, and Maxx Chatsko]
Eleven years after the company’s 1975 founding, Bill Gates and the team at Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) took the company public. If you had invested $1,000 in Microsoft on the day of its March 13, 1986 initial public offering, settled in for the long haul, and reinvested your dividends, your stock would be worth roughly $1.5 million today.
- [By ]
On a side note, even tech giants — ones that do have massive amounts of cash on their balance sheet, such as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) or Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) — have borrowed (sold bonds) to take advantage of the recent record-low interest rates. But I digress.
Top 10 Value Stocks To Own Right Now: Credit Suisse Asset Management Income Fund, Inc.(CIK)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Shane Hupp]
Credit Suisse AM Inc Fund Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:CIK) announced a monthly dividend on Wednesday, June 27th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 11th will be given a dividend of 0.0225 per share on Tuesday, July 17th. This represents a $0.27 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 10th. This is an increase from Credit Suisse AM Inc Fund’s previous monthly dividend of $0.02.
Top 10 Value Stocks To Own Right Now: lululemon athletica inc.(LULU)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Max Byerly]
ValuEngine lowered shares of Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Wednesday.
- [By Shane Hupp]
Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) had its price target boosted by MKM Partners from $120.00 to $128.00 in a research report report published on Friday. They currently have a buy rating on the apparel retailer’s stock.
- [By JJ Kinahan]
It’s hard to blame people for feeling like retail earnings go on and on, but the end of the road is in sight. Today’s earnings from Foot Locker (FL) mean we’re almost there, but that doesn’t mean investors can necessarily take their eyes off the road. For instance, Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) and lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) are both scheduled to report next week, marking two more chances to get a sense of how consumers are doing. So far, they seem to be faring pretty well, if you look at the majority of retailers reporting this quarter and April retail sales. Consumer discretionary was one of the few sectors to post gains Thursday. One question, however, is if the rise in gas prices to $3 a gallon this spring might put a brake on consumer spending.
- [By Lisa Levin] Gainers
Co-Diagnostics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CODX) jumped 88 percent to $5.4500 after falling 13.17 percent on Thursday. Co-Diagnostics reported its participation in a research project with the Stanford University.
Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited (NASDAQ: CLWT) climbed 40.3 percent to $5.40 after the company declared a $0.70 per share special dividend.
Future FinTech Group Inc. (NASDAQ: FTFT) rose 27 percent to $2.73. Future FinTech disclosed a strategic transformation plan including expanding on current blockchain business while also becoming a blockchain incubator, investment and asset management, training, and management consulting.
SELLAS Life Sciences Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SLS) gained 14.7 percent to $5.9522 after the company disclosed that its Phase 2b trial of NeuVax in combo with Trastuzumab in HER1+/2+ breast cancer patients met key clinical objectives.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) shares climbed 14.6 percent to $120.4224 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter. The company also raised its FY18 earnings and sales guidance.
FTE Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNW) gained 10.5 percent to $20.9399.
T2 Biosystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTOO) rose 9 percent to $8.07. Leerink Swann upgraded T2 Biosystems from Market Perform to Outperform.
Zuora, Inc. (NYSE: ZUO) shares rose 8.3 percent to $24.01 after the company reported upbeat Q1 earnings and issued strong outlook.
VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) rose 7.7 percent to $148.07 as the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter on Thursday.
Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMBC) gained 7.5 percent to $19.91. Ambac Financial will replace Integra Lifesciences Holdings in the S&P SmallCap 600 on Tuesday, June 5.
Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNAT) gained 7 percent to $4.60.
Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. (NASDAQ: KNSA) climbed 6.6 percent to $18.23.
Franklin Street Properties Corp. (NYSE: FSP) gained 5.7 perce - [By Chris Lange]
When Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) released its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday, the company said that it had $0.55 in earnings per share (EPS) and $649.7 million in revenue. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters had called for $0.46 in EPS on revenue of $616.31 million. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $0.32 and $520.31 million in revenue.
Top 10 Value Stocks To Own Right Now: Visa Inc.(V)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Eric Volkman]
“Steering” refers to the practice of merchants encouraging customers to use one (or more) method(s) of payment in favor of another, either through discounts or direct requests (“Bob’s Beanz Prefers Visa and Mastercard”). The process tends to be at AmEx’s expense because the company charges its merchantshigher per-transaction feesthan its eternal rivals Visa (NYSE:V) and Mastercard (NYSE:MA).
- [By Leo Sun]
Square tethers those devices to a growing ecosystem of services for managing payrolls, inventories, customer relationships, shopping data, deliveries, website design, and financing. These services are turning Square into a “one-stop shop” that helps smaller merchants digitize their businesses. Square also offers Square Cash, which eMarketer ranks asthe third most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) payments app in America. Square recently added bitcoin transactions to the app, and partnered with Visa (NYSE:V) to launch a physical debit card forSquare Cash users.
- [By Ethan Ryder]
Dowling & Yahnke LLC reduced its position in Visa (NYSE:V) by 1.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 92,831 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,395 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 1.0% of Dowling & Yahnke LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. Dowling & Yahnke LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $11,104,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Top 10 Value Stocks To Own Right Now: Gap, Inc. (GPS)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Leo Sun]
Shares of Gap (NYSE:GPS) tumbled 15% on May 25, after the apparel retailer posted mixed first-quarter results. Its revenue rose 10% year over year to$3.78 billion, beating estimates by $180 million. Its comparable-store sales rose 1%, marking its sixth straight quarter of comps growth.
- [By Lisa Levin]
Check out these big penny stock gainers and losers
Losers
Zoe's Kitchen, Inc. (NYSE: ZOES) fell 27.8 percent to $10.45 in pre-market trading after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings for its first quarter. The company also lowered its FY18 sales outlook from $358million-$368 million to $345 million-$352 million.
Hibbett Sports, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIBB) shares fell 15.6 percent to $24.50 in pre-market trading after the company reported weaker-than-expected results for its first quarter.
Rockwell Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: RMTI) fell 15.5 percent to $5.02 in the pre-market trading session after the company disclosed that its President and CEO Robert Chioini was terminated.
BG Staffing Inc (NYSE: BGSF) shares fell 12.7 percent to $19.00 in pre-market trading after reporting a common stock offering.
8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT) fell 9.3 percent to $20.00 in pre-market trading after reporting downbeat quarterly earnings.
Asia Pacific Wire & Cable Corporation Limited (NASDAQ: APWC) fell 7.7 percent to $2.35 in pre-market trading after rising 3.88 percent on Thursday.
Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS) shares fell 7.5 percent to $30.49 in pre-market trading after the company posted downbeat earnings for its first quarter on Thursday. Comps were up 1 percent in the quarter.
California Resources Corporation (NYSE: CRC) fell 6.4 percent to $33.91 in pre-market trading.
Buckle Inc (NYSE: BKE) fell 4.9 percent to $24.50 in pre-market trading following weak quarterly sales.
China Rapid Finance Limited (NYSE: XRF) shares fell 4.9 percent to $3.13 in pre-market trading after climbing 11.53 percent on Thursday.
Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST) fell 4.8 percent to $78.98 in pre-market trading. Ross Stores reported upbeat earnings for its first quarter, but issued weak forecast for the current quarter.
Callon Petroleum Company (NYSE: CPE) shares fell 4.7 percent to $11.90 in pre-market trading after the company reported pricing of common - [By ]
For an “Executive Decision” segment, Cramer sat down with Art Peck, president and CEO of Gap Inc. (GPS) , the bricks-and-mortar retailer that saw its shares rise over 50% last year, only to slip this year, down 9%.
- [By Chris Lange]
Watch for Gap Inc.’s (NYSE: GPS) first-quarter report on Thursday. The consensus forecast is $0.46 in EPS on $3.6 billion in revenue. Shares closed at $31.57. The consensus price target is $34.02, and shares have traded between $28.06 and $31.98 in the past 52 weeks.
- [By Lisa Levin]
Breaking news
Foot Locker, Inc. (NYSE: FL) reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter.
Hibbett Sports, Inc. (NASDAQ: HIBB) reported weaker-than-expected results for its first quarter.
Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST) reported upbeat earnings for its first quarter, but issued weak forecast for the current quarter.
Gap Inc (NYSE: GPS) posted downbeat earnings for its first quarter on Thursday. Comps were up 1 percent in the quarter. - [By Chris Lange]
Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was maintained as Hold at Deutsche Bank and assigned a $33 price target (versus a $32.95 close).
Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) was maintained as Neutral at Buckingham Research and assigned a price target of $32 (versus a $35.42 close).
Top 10 Value Stocks To Own Right Now: Garrison Capital Inc.(GARS)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Shane Hupp]
Garrison Capital (NASDAQ:GARS) was upgraded by equities researchers at ValuEngine from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday.
- [By Shane Hupp]
Garrison Capital (NASDAQ: GARS) and PennantPark Investment (NASDAQ:PNNT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.
- [By Joseph Griffin]
Garrison Capital (NASDAQ: GARS) and Amern Cap Sr Fl/COM (NASDAQ:ACSF) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings and profitability.
- [By Ethan Ryder]
Garrison Capital (NASDAQ:GARS)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by stock analysts at National Securities in a research report issued on Monday. They currently have a $10.00 target price on the investment management company’s stock. National Securities’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 18.91% from the stock’s current price.
Top 10 Value Stocks To Own Right Now: DoubleLine Opportunistic Credit Fund(DBL)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Logan Wallace]
Doubleline Opportunistic Credit Fund common stock (NYSE:DBL) announced a monthly dividend on Friday, June 1st, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Thursday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.167 per share by the investment management company on Friday, June 29th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.41%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 13th.
- [By Max Byerly]
News headlines about Doubleline Opportunistic Credit Fund common stock (NYSE:DBL) have been trending somewhat positive on Monday, according to Accern Sentiment. Accern identifies positive and negative news coverage by reviewing more than twenty 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. Doubleline Opportunistic Credit Fund common stock earned a news impact score of 0.04 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave media stories about the investment management company an impact score of 47.2090833571026 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near term.
Top 10 Value Stocks To Own Right Now: Tengasco, Inc.(TGC)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Logan Wallace]
Tigercoin (TGC) is a proof-of-work (PoW) coin that uses the SHA256 hashing algorithm. It launched on September 6th, 2013. Tigercoin’s total supply is 43,536,800 coins. The official website for Tigercoin is tigercoin.wordpress.com. Tigercoin’s official Twitter account is @TigerCoin.
- [By Max Byerly]
Tigercoin (CURRENCY:TGC) traded 12.1% lower against the US dollar during the 1-day period ending at 23:00 PM E.T. on May 6th. One Tigercoin coin can now be bought for $0.0077 or 0.00000083 BTC on popular cryptocurrency exchanges. In the last week, Tigercoin has traded 6.4% lower against the US dollar. Tigercoin has a total market cap of $334,680.00 and approximately $64.00 worth of Tigercoin was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours.
Top 10 Value Stocks To Own Right Now: Transocean Inc.(RIG)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Shane Hupp]
Transocean LTD (NYSE:RIG)’s share price shot up 1.5% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $13.60 and last traded at $13.39. 771,349 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 94% from the average session volume of 13,165,396 shares. The stock had previously closed at $13.19.
- [By Jason Hall]
Frankly, today’s big drop shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone. The company told us many months agothat common equity investors would only retain 2% — at most — of the company when it completed its bankruptcy proceedings, yet investors continued to pay a price for its stock that, at one point, would have made Seadrill worth nearly as much as competitorsTransocean(NYSE:RIG),Diamond Offshore(NYSE:DO),andNoble Corporation(NYSE:NE)combined. But a relatively steady decline in the share price, combined with today’s big drop, seems to be finally putting Seadrill more in line with its peers.
- [By Logan Wallace]
American International Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Transocean LTD (NYSE:RIG) by 7.7% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 872,019 shares of the offshore drilling services provider’s stock after buying an additional 62,611 shares during the quarter. American International Group Inc.’s holdings in Transocean were worth $8,633,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- [By Jason Hall]
So what’s an investor to do? Owning the companies best-positioned to profit is a great place to start. Consider two of Big Oil’s finest inRoyal Dutch Shell plc (ADR)(NYSE:RDS-A)(NYSE:RDS-B)andTotal SA (ADR)(NYSE:TOT), offshore drillerTransocean LTD(NYSE:RIG) and natural gas for transportation specialistClean Energy Fuels Corp(NASDAQ:CLNE).
- [By Spencer Israel]
Oil companies were popular sells for the month, including ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), BP p.l.c. (NYSE: BP), and Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) all net sold. Investors also net sold Alcoa Corp. (NYSE: AA), Starbucks Corporation (NYSE: CMG). and Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) in the midst of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before Congress.
- [By Joseph Griffin]
Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Transocean (RIG)
For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com
Top 10 Value Stocks To Own Right Now: Enerplus Corporation(ERF)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Max Byerly]
Enerplus (TSE:ERF) (NYSE:ERF) had its target price hoisted by CIBC from C$19.00 to C$20.00 in a research note published on Friday morning.
Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. CSFB upped their price objective on shares of Enerplus from C$17.00 to C$20.00 in a report on Friday, April 13th. GMP Securities upped their price objective on shares of Enerplus from C$17.00 to C$18.00 in a report on Thursday, March 1st. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Enerplus from C$18.00 to C$20.00 in a report on Monday, February 26th. Canaccord Genuity upped their price objective on shares of Enerplus from C$16.50 to C$17.00 in a report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Desjardins upped their price objective on shares of Enerplus from C$16.00 to C$17.50 in a report on Monday, February 26th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, The stock has an average rating of Buy and an average price target of C$18.29.
- [By Ethan Ryder]
Enerplus (NYSE:ERF) (TSE:ERF) – Stock analysts at National Bank Financial reduced their FY2018 earnings estimates for Enerplus in a research note issued on Thursday, May 3rd. National Bank Financial analyst T. Wood now forecasts that the oil and natural gas company will earn $1.13 per share for the year, down from their previous estimate of $1.27. National Bank Financial also issued estimates for Enerplus’ FY2019 earnings at $1.96 EPS.