A story published by Forbes on Tuesday tracked what it portrayed as a web of deception spun by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. But the story also cast a critical shadow over Forbes’ own reporting, and raises serious questions about the credibility of the magazine’s widely-cited ranking of billionaires.
The article, a 3,000-word feature written by Forbes reporter Dan Alexander, alleges that Ross repeatedly embellished his net worth by crediting himself with his investors’ money. Alexander’s digging apparently began last month, when the magazine told Ross that he was being taken off The Forbes 400, an annual ranking of the richest people in America.
Financial disclosure forms filed after Ross’ nomination to the Commerce Department showed he had less than $700 million in assets, far lower than the $2.9 billion Forbes had listed as his net worth a year earlier. And Alexander claims he ultimately found that Ross had been inflating his worth dating back to 2004, when he had first cracked The Forbes 400.
Top Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc.(LLL)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Paul Ausick]
Five teams are expected to compete for the contract: Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) has joined with Saab to offer a clean-sheet design; Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) has teamed up with BAE Systems and L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL) on another clean-sheet design; Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) are going with a modified KAI T-50; Raytheon Corp. (NYSE: RTN) has joined with Italy’s Leonardo and Canada’s CAE Inc. (NYSE: CAE) on a version of Leonardo’s M-346 trainer that it calls the T-100; and privately held Sierra Nevada has partnered with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) on another clean-sheet design.
- [By Peter Graham]
Headquartered in New York City, large cap L3 Technologies Inc (NYSE: LLL) employs approximately 38,000 people worldwide and is a leading provider of a broad range of communication, electronic and sensor systems used on military, homeland security and commercial platforms. L3 is also a prime contractor in aerospace systems, security and detection systems, and pilot training. The Company reported 2016 sales of $10.5 billion.
- [By Peter Graham]
A long term performance chart shows ViaSat, Inc plus mid to large cap communications stockslikeHarris Corporation (NYSE: HRS) and L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc (NYSE: LLL)had been moving in tandem until last yearwhile small cap Gogo Inc has underperformed:
Top Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: Abbott Laboratories(ABT)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By WWW.THESTREET.COM]
In the Lightning Round, Cramer was bullish on Abbott Laboratories (ABT) , Dycom Industries (DY) and Howard Hughes (HHC) .
Cramer was bearish on Headwaters (HW) , EnergySolutions (ES) , Western Refining (WNR) and Horizon Pharmaceuticals (HZNP) .
- [By Matt Hogan]
AbbVie has distributed a significant amount of its earnings in the form of dividends (~60 percent) since the company spun off from Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) in 2013. The company appears to be trading at a 10 percent discount to fair value when applying similar assumptions in the 5-year dividend discount model as shown below.
- [By Sean Williams]
Finally, and as the icing on the cake, Wall Street uncovered via a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) sold 44 million shares of Mylan stock at $41.60, reducing its remaining position in the company to 25.75 million shares, or about 4.8% of its outstanding shares. Considering all the issues Mylan has had recently, the fact that Abbott substantially pared its large holding in the company is a bit worrisome.
Top Financial Stocks To Watch Right Now: Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc.(RARE)
Advisors’ Opinion:
- [By Johanna Bennett]
Nothing guts a drug stock like bad clinical trial data. Shares of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical (RARE) fell as much as 10% after a seizure medication failed in a phase II study.
Trading at a recent $72.22, the shares were down 7.7% after earlier falling as much as 10% to $70.51
The seizure drug UX007 was tested as a treatment for glucose transporter type-1 deficiency syndromeor Glut1 DSamong a small group of patients. Data released Wednesday showed that it only cut the rate of seizures in the drug arm by 13.4% compared to the placebo arm, falling short of statistical significance.
Investigators, though, teased out a clinically — though not statistically — significant benefit for patients experiencing what are called absence seizures. Ultragenyx now intends to focus on that in a Phase III pivotal trial.
Leerik analyst Joseph Schwartz called the selloff a buying opportunity.
We had been cautious on this asset (and its two programs – G1DS and long-chain fatty acid oxidation disorder/LC-FAOD; LINK) – but believe the selling pressure after mkt. presents a buying opportunity ahead of a more de-risked X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) Ph.3 data in 1H17.
Cowen analyst Eric Schmidt remained convinced of RAREs long-term prospects thanks to a diversified orphan disease pipeline. And analysts at Credit Suisse see more catalysts ahead in 2017.
We are buyers on a pullback and we like RAREs setup for the remainder of 2017…Remaining 2017 catalysts keep us buyers on a pullback: We see Q2:17 KRN23 ph3 adult XLH data, H1:17 rhGUS FDA/EMA submission, potential KRN23 CHMP decision in mid-17 (based on late-2016 EMA submission/validation), H2:17 Ace-ER ph3 GNEM data, and potential KRN23 FDA submission in late-17/early-18 as upcoming catalysts worth owning for.
- [By Lisa Levin] Related Mid-Afternoon Market Update: CytomX Therapeutics Climbs Following Bristol-Myers Squibb Partnership; Medgenics Shares Slide 15 Biggest Mid-Day Losers For Monday Cerulean Pharma's (CERU) CEO Chris Guiffre on Cerulean and Dar茅 Proposed Transaction (Transcript) (Seeking Alpha)
Related Mid-Afternoon Market Update: Cancer Genetics Gains After Q4 Results; Heat Biologics Shares Slide Mid-Day Market Update: Dow Rises Over 50 Points; Tandem Diabetes Care Shares Plunge Tandem Diabetes prices stock offering at $1.25; shares off 19% premarket (Seeking Alpha)
Cerulean Pharma Inc (NASDAQ: CERU) shares dipped 27 percent to $0.817. Cerulean Pharma shares have dropped 60.28 percent over the past 52 weeks, while the S&P 500 index has gained 15.31 percent in the same period.
Tandem Diabetes Care Inc (NASDAQ: TNDM) shares tumbled 24.2 percent to $1.17. Tandem Diabetes Care priced 18 million share offering at $1.25 per share.
Alphatec Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: ATEC) shares fell 21.1 percent to $2.10 as the company reported a $18.9 million private placement.
Heat Biologics Inc (NASDAQ: HTBX) shares dropped 15.5 percent to $0.870. Heat Biologics priced its 5 million share offering at $0.80 per share.
Rave Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ: RAVE) shares fell 15 percent to $1.76.
QuickLogic Corporation (NASDAQ: QUIK) shares declined 12.2 percent to $1.58. QuickLogic priced its 10 million share offering at $1.50 per share.
Orion Engineered Carbons SA (NYSE: OEC) shares dropped 9.5 percent to $19.10. Orion Engineered Carbons reported a 5 million common stock secondary offering.
Interpace Diagnostics Group Inc (NASDAQ: IDXG) shares fell 8.7 percent to $2.61 after the company reported debt restructuring and agreed to eliminate its royalty and mileston - [By Jon C. Ogg]
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: RARE) was indicated down 7% at $72.85 on Thursday due to results from a seizure medication study. It was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Jaffray, and Wedbushlowered its target for the stock.
