Reviewing Ichor (ICHR) and Amkor Technology (AMKR)

Ichor (NASDAQ:ICHR) and Amkor Technology (NASDAQ:AMKR) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Valuation & Earnings

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This table compares Ichor and Amkor Technology’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ichor	$823.61 million	0.60	$57.88 million	$2.79	7.75
Amkor Technology	$4.32 billion	0.52	$127.09 million	$0.53	17.62

Amkor Technology has higher revenue and earnings than Ichor. Ichor is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Amkor Technology, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Ichor and Amkor Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ichor	7.03%	30.78%	12.90%
Amkor Technology	2.94%	7.14%	2.87%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

98.7% of Ichor shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.0% of Amkor Technology shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Ichor shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 57.9% of Amkor Technology shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Ichor has a beta of 2.9, indicating that its stock price is 190% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amkor Technology has a beta of 1.92, indicating that its stock price is 92% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Ichor and Amkor Technology, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ichor	0	1	4	0	2.80
Amkor Technology	1	3	0	0	1.75

Ichor presently has a consensus price target of $29.00, indicating a potential upside of 34.07%. Amkor Technology has a consensus price target of $7.00, indicating a potential downside of 25.05%. Given Ichor’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Ichor is more favorable than Amkor Technology.

Summary

Ichor beats Amkor Technology on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

Ichor Company Profile

Ichor Holdings, Ltd. engages in the design, engineering, and manufacture of fluid delivery subsystems and components for semiconductor capital equipment in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea. It primarily offers gas and chemical delivery subsystems that are used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. The company's gas delivery subsystems deliver, monitor, and control gases used in semiconductor manufacturing processes, such as etch and deposition; and chemical delivery subsystems blend and dispense the reactive liquid chemistries used in semiconductor manufacturing processes comprising electroplating and cleaning. It also manufactures precision machined components, weldments, and proprietary products for use in fluid delivery systems. Ichor Holdings, Ltd. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Fremont, California.

Amkor Technology Company Profile

Amkor Technology, Inc. provides outsourced semiconductor packaging and test services in the United States and internationally. The company offers turnkey packaging and test services, including semiconductor wafer bumps, wafer probes, wafer back-grinds, package design, packaging, and test and drop shipment services. Its packages employ wirebond, flip chip, and copper clip and other interconnect technologies. The company also provides semiconductor testing services, such as wafer testing or probe, and final test services; flip chip scale package products for use in smartphones, tablets, and other mobile consumer electronic devices; flip chip stacked chip scale packages that are used to stack memory, and as applications processors in mobile devices; and flip chip ball grid array products for various networking, storage, computing, and consumer applications. In addition, it offers wafer-level CSP packages used in power management, transceivers, sensors, wireless charging, codecs, and specialty silicon; Wafer-level fan-out packages used in ICs; and silicon wafer integrated fan-out technology that replaces a laminate substrate with a thinner structure. Further, the company provides leadframe packages that are used in electronic devices for low to medium pin count applications; substrate-based wirebond packages, which are used to connect a die to a substrate; micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) packages that are miniaturized mechanical and electro-mechanical devices; and advanced system-in-package modules, which are used in radio frequency and front end modules, baseband processing, connectivity, fingerprint sensors, display and touch screen drivers, sensors and MEMS, and NAND memory and solid state drives. It primarily serves integrated device manufacturers, fabless semiconductor companies, and contract foundries. Amkor Technology, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.

Stock Market News: Nike, J&J Face Potential Product Problems

The stock market lost ground on Thursday morning, failing to take any reassurance from the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting Wednesday afternoon. Negative reports from some key companies showed that trade relations between the U.S. and China have caused problems, and the lack of a quick resolution could create more pain for companies with global operations. As of shortly before 11:30 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES:^DJI) was down 95 points to 25,860. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) gave up 10 points to fall to 2,775, while the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) dropped 33 points to 7,456.

One risk that often goes unnoticed for consumer goods companies is product liability. If something goes wrong with a popular product, then customers won't just stop buying it -- they'll also look to the producer to fix the problem and pay for any resulting damages. News on the product front helped send shares of Nike (NYSE:NKE) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) lower today, and it could be years before the issues come to a final resolution.

Nike deals with Duke fallout

Nike shares fell 1.5% after a rising star in college basketball had what some could call a major wardrobe malfunction. Zion Williamson, who plays for the Duke Blue Devils, had his shoe split open during a game, and following the incident, Williamson left the game with a knee sprain.

Image source: Nike.

Nike prides itself on getting star players and teams to wear its products, but this was a situation in which the success of that strategy backfired on the athletic shoe and apparel giant. The injury happened in a rivalry game between Duke and the North Carolina Tar Heels. Duke was ranked No. 1 going into the game, and the team ended up losing the game following Williamson's departure. Moreover, there were notable people in attendance at the game, including former President Barack Obama and prominent filmmaker Spike Lee.

Now, broader concerns about product quality could plague Nike for months or even years to come. For a stock that's mounted an impressive recovery in the past couple of years following a big rise in competition, Nike could now have to prove to investors all over again that it has what it takes to remain the leader of the athletic apparel industry.

J&J's talc problems go a step further

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson saw its stock drop more than 1%. The healthcare giant disclosed in its 10-K annual report filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that a U.S. Senate committee had subpoenaed J&J to produce documents in connection with product liability suits. In addition, the SEC and the Department of Justice were also seeking information about the incidents.

A news report in December raised new issues in long-standing concerns about Johnson & Johnson's baby powder and other talc-containing products. J&J had already faced paying substantial damages in connection with the talc products, with a jury last July awarding a nearly $4.7 billion verdict to a group of almost two dozen plaintiffs alleging that the products caused cancer. But the report suggested that the risk of asbestos contamination was one that Johnson & Johnson might have known about for decades.

Johnson & Johnson says that it is cooperating with the SEC, DOJ, and Senate inquiries and will produce documents to respond to the subpoena requests. Where things go from there remains to be seen, but the possibility that J&J might have known about problems and failed to take adequate action to resolve them could open a new chapter in the healthcare giant's litigation history.

Dupont Capital Management Corp Buys Shares of 6,975 Healthcare Services Group, Inc. (HCSG)

Dupont Capital Management Corp bought a new position in Healthcare Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCSG) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 6,975 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $280,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of HCSG. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in Healthcare Services Group by 58.9% in the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 226,063 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,083,000 after acquiring an additional 83,839 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Healthcare Services Group by 291.5% in the 4th quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,740 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $432,000 after acquiring an additional 7,997 shares during the last quarter. Bridge City Capital LLC grew its holdings in Healthcare Services Group by 117.6% in the 4th quarter. Bridge City Capital LLC now owns 82,655 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,321,000 after acquiring an additional 44,674 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in Healthcare Services Group by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 52,968 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,128,000 after acquiring an additional 609 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Healthcare Services Group by 30.4% in the 4th quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 469,557 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $18,866,000 after acquiring an additional 109,561 shares during the last quarter.

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In related news, Director Robert J. Moss sold 2,000 shares of Healthcare Services Group stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.55, for a total transaction of $95,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $95,100. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Dino D. Ottaviano sold 700 shares of Healthcare Services Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.98, for a total transaction of $32,886.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $58,443.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

HCSG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. ValuEngine lowered shares of Healthcare Services Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Healthcare Services Group in a report on Saturday, February 2nd. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Healthcare Services Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 29th. Finally, BidaskClub lowered shares of Healthcare Services Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.86.

Shares of HCSG opened at $40.29 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.97 billion, a PE ratio of 35.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.89. Healthcare Services Group, Inc. has a 1-year low of $35.04 and a 1-year high of $49.42.

Healthcare Services Group (NASDAQ:HCSG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 5th. The business services provider reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $496.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $507.45 million. Healthcare Services Group had a net margin of 4.16% and a return on equity of 20.09%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Healthcare Services Group, Inc. will post 1.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.1963 per share. This is a positive change from Healthcare Services Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 14th. This represents a $0.79 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Healthcare Services Group’s payout ratio is presently 70.54%.

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About Healthcare Services Group

Healthcare Services Group, Inc provides management, administrative, and operating services to the housekeeping, laundry, linen, facility maintenance, and dietary service departments to nursing homes, retirement complexes, rehabilitation centers, and hospitals in the United States. It operates through two segments, Housekeeping and Dietary.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding HCSG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Healthcare Services Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:HCSG).

Four Takeaways From Walmart's Q4 Earnings

&l;p&g;&l;img class=&q;dam-image getty wp-image-1060058446 size-large&q; src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/1060058446/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;631&q; data-width=&q;960&q;&g; Walmart stock jumped to its highest level in 2019 after the retailer&s;s holiday quarter results topped expectations.

Walmart shares jumped 3.6% Tuesday to their highest level this year after the world&a;rsquo;s largest retailer reported better-than-expected holiday quarter sales and profit and kept its outlook for the year.

The company said its comparable sales in the U.S., its top market and a key investor focus, rose 4.2%, helped by a 43% jump in online sales. On a two-year stack basis, Walmart said its U.S. comparable sales posted the biggest growth in nine years.&l;span&g;&a;nbsp; &l;/span&g;

Walmart&s;s results also gave some comforting signs about the general U.S. retail outlook and painted&a;nbsp;a mixed picture of winners and losers after the U.S. Commerce Department recently reported an unexpected decline in December retail sales and after holiday sales from retailers like Macy&a;rsquo;s fell short.

Here are some other key takeaways:

&l;strong&g;Walmart&a;rsquo;s key weapon against Amazon will continue to be groceries.&a;nbsp;&l;/strong&g;Expanded grocery pickup and delivery, on top of a broader assortment, played a key part in the 43% jump in Walmart&a;rsquo;s U.S. e-commerce sales, the company said, adding that it&a;rsquo;s gained grocery market share. Walmart plans to increase grocery pickup by 1,000 locations this year, to 3,100, and double grocery delivery to 1,600 locations.

&a;ldquo;The mix of new customers in online grocery is positive and encouraging,&a;rdquo;&a;nbsp;Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon said on a conference call Tuesday.&a;nbsp;&a;ldquo;Those who shop both in store and online spend twice as much in total and spend more in stores.&a;rdquo;

&l;strong&g;Expect more Walmart action on the apparel and home front. &l;/strong&g;While Walmart is counting on e-commerce to be a key U.S. growth driver, management acknowledged losses from the online business will continue to increase this year. What may change that? Walmart has &a;ldquo;a great sense of urgency to increase sales&a;rdquo; in areas like the home and apparel categories, which are more profitable, CFO Brett Briggs said on the call. A case in point, on Walmart.com, Ellen DeGeneres&a;rsquo; new exclusive fashion line, EV1, was featured at the top of the&a;nbsp;home page. Also prominently showcased was Walmart&a;rsquo;s &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenshoulberg/2019/02/08/walmart-goes-modrn-two-years-too-late/&q;&g;new furniture and home furnishings line MoDRN&l;/a&g;.

&l;strong&g;Walmart&s;s $16 billion purchase of the Indian&a;nbsp;online retailer Flipkart remains a point to watch.&l;/strong&g;&a;nbsp;With&a;nbsp;India&a;nbsp;&l;a href=&q;https://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-tighter-e-commerce-rules-frustrate-amazon-and-walmart-plans-11545907173?mod=article_inlinetighten%20ecommerce%20rules%20to&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;reportedly&l;/a&g;&a;nbsp;having begun to forbid foreign companies like Walmart and Amazon to sell their own products through their affiliated entities in the country&a;mdash;where both retailers have placed big bets&a;mdash;the potential Flipkart impact was a key discussion point on the conference call. Briggs said that while there was &a;ldquo;some disruption to business,&a;rdquo; Walmart doesn&a;rsquo;t &a;ldquo;currently expect there&a;rsquo;ll be any significant impact.&a;rdquo;

&a;ldquo;We remain optimistic about the e-commerce opportunity in India given the size of the market&a;rdquo; and low penetration of e-commerce, McMillon said on the call, adding that Walmart plans to work with the&a;nbsp;Indian government on &a;ldquo;pro-growth&a;rdquo; initiatives. &a;ldquo;We are disappointed with the recent change in law and lack of consultation. &a;hellip; We hope for a collaborative regulatory process to result in a level playing field.&a;rdquo;

Walmart projects its consolidated operating income this year will decline because of the Flipkart acquisition.

&l;strong&g;Expect to see more robots at Walmart stores.&l;/strong&g;&a;nbsp;In another sign that &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2019/01/20/six-key-retail-tech-trends-to-watch-for-2019-and-its-not-just-about-amazon/#3a25733c66fc&q;&g;retailers will use technology&l;/a&g;&a;nbsp;to help free up employees from menial tasks so they can spend more time servicing customers, Walmart said it had used more robots at its stores for tasks including scanning inventory on shelves and &l;a href=&q;https://blog.walmart.com/innovation/20181004/youll-never-believe-whos-scrubbing-the-floors-at-walmart&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;cleaning floors&l;/a&g;. And the company said that last year it had added 17,000 virtual reality devices to train employees. &a;ldquo;We are using technology to change the way we work,&a;rdquo; McMillon said. It&s;s the&a;nbsp;&q;g&l;span&g;amification of educational experience.&q;&l;/span&g;

Perhaps even more importantly, the company expects these tools to help it &q;leverage&q; expense.

&l;em&g;&l;strong&g;Related: &l;/strong&g;&l;/em&g;&l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2019/01/20/six-key-retail-tech-trends-to-watch-for-2019-and-its-not-just-about-amazon/#3a25733c66fc&q; target=&q;_self&q;&g;&l;em&g;&l;strong&g;Six retail tech trends to watch in 2019 that go beyond competing with Amazon&l;/strong&g;&l;/em&g;&l;/a&g;

&l;strong&g;&l;em&g;Related: &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/andriacheng/2019/01/13/why-amazon-go-may-soon-change-the-way-we-want-to-shop/#26fca6fc6709&q; target=&q;_self&q;&g;Why Amazon Go may soon change the way we shop&l;/a&g;&l;/em&g;&l;/strong&g;&l;/p&g;

$103.36 Million in Sales Expected for Physicians Realty Trust (DOC) This Quarter

Analysts expect Physicians Realty Trust (NYSE:DOC) to announce sales of $103.36 million for the current fiscal quarter, Zacks Investment Research reports. Five analysts have made estimates for Physicians Realty Trust’s earnings, with the lowest sales estimate coming in at $102.58 million and the highest estimate coming in at $104.55 million. Physicians Realty Trust reported sales of $97.32 million during the same quarter last year, which would suggest a positive year-over-year growth rate of 6.2%. The business is expected to report its next earnings report before the market opens on Wednesday, February 27th.

On average, analysts expect that Physicians Realty Trust will report full year sales of $419.10 million for the current financial year, with estimates ranging from $410.55 million to $421.79 million. For the next year, analysts expect that the company will report sales of $425.16 million, with estimates ranging from $413.77 million to $440.08 million. Zacks’ sales averages are an average based on a survey of analysts that follow Physicians Realty Trust.

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A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Physicians Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 13th. ValuEngine raised Physicians Realty Trust from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 8th. Finally, B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Physicians Realty Trust in a research note on Monday, November 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Physicians Realty Trust currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.58.

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DOC. Macroview Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Physicians Realty Trust during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. We Are One Seven LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Physicians Realty Trust during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Physicians Realty Trust during the fourth quarter worth $42,000. Quantamental Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Physicians Realty Trust during the fourth quarter valued at $75,000. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Physicians Realty Trust during the third quarter valued at $109,000. 92.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Shares of DOC traded up $0.11 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $18.78. The stock had a trading volume of 1,641,345 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,153,704. Physicians Realty Trust has a 52 week low of $14.13 and a 52 week high of $18.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.89. The company has a market capitalization of $3.39 billion, a PE ratio of 18.06 and a beta of 0.65.

About Physicians Realty Trust

Physicians Realty Trust is a self-managed healthcare real estate company organized to acquire, selectively develop, own and manage healthcare properties that are leased to physicians, hospitals and healthcare delivery systems. The Company invests in real estate that is integral to providing high quality healthcare.

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Hot Safest Stocks To Invest In Right Now

tags:XOXO,XON,MEIP,APOG, How to play the turnaround in the Brazilian economy

Investing in emerging markets always has a heightened amount of risk associated with it. However, large and mid-cap stocks can help mitigate the heightened amount of risk. This is why I believe that the iShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ) is the safest way to play the turnaround in the Brazilian economy. The MSCI Brazil 25/50 Index is designed to measure the performance of the large and mid cap segments of the Brazilian market. As of February 1st, 2018 EWZ had the following sector weightings in its portfolio:

A rebounding economy and an uptick in commodity prices bode well for the fund's top holdings.

Hot Safest Stocks To Invest In Right Now: XO Group, Inc.(XOXO)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Steve Symington]

  Shares of XO Group Inc. (NYSE:XOXO) were up 26% as of 3:00 p.m. EDT Tuesday after the parent company of The Knot agreed to merge with WeddingWire, Inc. in a deal valued at $933 million. 

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  SinglePoint (OTCMKTS:SING) and XO Group (NYSE:XOXO) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends and risk.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  SinglePoint (NYSE: XOXO) and XO Group (NYSE:XOXO) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, dividends and analyst recommendations.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  SinglePoint, Inc. Common Stock (NYSE: XOXO) and XO Group, Inc. Common Stock (NYSE:XOXO) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk and institutional ownership.

• [By Max Byerly]

  ValuEngine upgraded shares of XO Group (NYSE:XOXO) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  SinglePoint, Inc. Common Stock (NYSE: XOXO) and XO Group, Inc. Common Stock (NYSE:XOXO) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Hot Safest Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Intrexon Corporation(XON)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Keith Speights]

  Shares of Intrexon Corporation (NYSE:XON) were up 28.5% as of 11:19 a.m. on Monday. The biotech announced what it said were "advances in production of medical cannabis." In particular, Intrexon stated that its scientists had engineered a yeast strain that could be used in a microbial fermentation process to produce cannabinoids at low cost.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Friday was a relatively quiet day on Wall Street, with major market benchmarks finishing narrowly mixed for the session. Weekly gains were still substantial for the indexes, however, as investors grew confident that the economy is walking the fine line between avoiding a recession and growing so fast that it spurs the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy aggressively. Yet even though most stocks held up well, some individual companies had bad news that sent their shares lower. Ultra Petroleum (NASDAQ:UPL), Intrexon (NYSE:XON), and News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWSA) were among the worst performers on the day. Here's why they did so poorly.

• [By Keith Speights]

  Shares of Intrexon Corporation (NYSE:XON) slipped as much as 12.9% on Friday morning and were down 7.9% as of 11:40 a.m. EDT due to a surprise delay in reporting its second-quarter financial results. The biotech was scheduled to announce its Q2 earnings results on Aug. 9, 2018, but instead said it wouldn't report the final results and would also delay the filing of its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

• [By Peter Graham]

  Small cap synthetic biology Intrexon Corp (NYSE: XON) has elevated short interest of 33.93% according to Highshortinterest.com. Intrexon Corp says its "powering the Bioindustrial Revolution with Better DNA to create biologically-based products that improve the quality of life and the health of the planet." The Company's integrated technology suite provides its partners across diverse markets with industrial-scale design and development of complex biological systems delivering unprecedented control, quality, function and performance of living cells. 

• [By Todd Campbell]

  After the company reported disappointing first-quarter financial results, including worse-than-expected revenue performance, shares in Intrexon Corp. (NYSE:XON) were down by 20% at 3:15 p.m. EDT Friday.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Intrexon Corp (NYSE:XON) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders purchased 3,153 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 3,699% compared to the typical volume of 83 put options.

Hot Safest Stocks To Invest In Right Now: MEI Pharma, Inc.(MEIP)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Money Morning News Team]

  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…

  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%

  These gains are incredibly exciting. However, not all penny stocks are equally strong investments.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Headlines about MEI Pharma (NASDAQ:MEIP) have been trending somewhat negative on Friday, according to Accern. Accern ranks the sentiment of press coverage by reviewing more than twenty million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. MEI Pharma earned a coverage optimism score of -0.06 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave media stories about the company an impact score of 45.5534769772513 out of 100, meaning that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the near term.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on MEI Pharma (MEIP)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Lisa Levin] 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

Hot Safest Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Apogee Enterprises, Inc.(APOG)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ]

  Engaged Capital's Glenn Welling plans shortly to launch an activist campaign at Apogee Enterprises Inc. (APOG) , a maker of glass and non-residential construction products for skyscrapers, a person familiar with the situation told Orol.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  The stock market performed well on Tuesday, including gains of nearly 200 points for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and similarly positive moves for other major benchmarks. At first glance, decisions from the U.S. and China to impose new tariffs on each other might have seemed like bad news, but investors were pleased that the actual tariff rates on the goods covered by the measures were less severe than initially feared. Even with that as a positive backdrop, some companies weren't able to avoid bad news that sent their shares lower. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Apogee Enterprises (NASDAQ:APOG), and General Mills (NYSE:GIS) were among the worst performers on the day. Here's why they did so poorly.

• [By Garrett Baldwin]
  The price of Bitcoin surged more than 17% to top $8,000 in a rapid move that surprised many investors this morning. The sudden rally appears to be the result of a short squeeze, according to CNBC contributor Brian Kelly. This means that investors who had been betting on a decline in the price of the world's largest cryptocurrency had been forced to jump back and buy the currency again. A lot of people have been betting on a decline in the price of Bitcoin heading toward the April 17 tax deadline. The expectation is that many people will need to sell their Bitcoin in order to raise cash to meet tax obligations. Here's our latest daily insight on why the Bitcoin bear market may end very soon. Markets gains have been capped by concerns about the latest news out of the Federal Reserve. On Wednesday, minutes from the Fed's most recent meeting indicated that policy makers are prepared to raise interest rates several more times in the coming months in order to stave off concerns about inflation. Four Stocks to Watch Today: BLK, FB, DAL Shares of BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) are on the move after the company reported earnings before the bell. The firm reported earnings per share (EPS) of $6.70. Analysts projected the firm would report EPS of $6.45 on top of $3.28 billion in revenue. The firm topped revenue expectations. The firm noted that an increase in its consulting fees and the recent tax reform bill helped bolster its profitability by 27%. The stock of Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) has climbed more than 6% since Tuesday. Investors cheered the testimony of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who appeared before Congress for two days to discuss his company's privacy policies. The CEO and his firm have been under intense scrutiny since news broke that 87 million user accounts had been accessed without permission by consulting firm Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 election season. The firm had ties to President Trump's campaign. Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) reported ea
• [By Max Byerly]

  BidaskClub upgraded shares of Apogee Enterprises (NASDAQ:APOG) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning.

• [By Garrett Baldwin]

  Money Morning Special Situation Strategist Tim Melvin provides his latest list of stocks that will help you get rich… and stay rich. Check them out right here.

  Stocks to Watch Today: V, MA, AAPL, GOOGL Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) and Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) are under the microscope this morning. Both payment processing giants have signed a settlement agreement over a merchant lawsuit filed back in 2005, but originally settled in 2012 over merchant swiping fees. Visa will pay an additional $600 million to the original settlement. Mastercard will pay an additional $108 million. Although President Trump plans to hit China with new tariffs, at least one company won't face the full cost: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). According to reports, the Apple Watch is among a list of consumer tech gadgets that will receive exemptions from the latest round of tariffs on imports. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) announced it will install its Android operating system into automobiles manufactured by Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Renault. The operating system – set for distribution in 2021 – will include Google Maps, Google Assistant, and Google Play. The three manufacturers combined sold 10.6 million vehicles in 2017. Look for earnings reports from AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO), General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS), Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. (NASDAQ: CBRL), and Apogee Enterprises Inc. (Nasdaq: APOG).

  Follow Money Morning on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Apogee Enterprises (APOG)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Corporate Office Properties Trust (OFC) Cut to Sell at Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report released on Saturday.

According to Zacks, “Corporate Office Properties Trust is a fully-integrated and self-managed real estate investment trust that focuses principally on the ownership, management, leasing, acquisition and development of suburban office buildings located in select submarkets in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Corporate Office Properties operates three real estate service companies: Corporate Development Services, Corporate Office Services and Corporate Management Services. “

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Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 8th. ValuEngine lowered shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Friday, November 16th. Wells Fargo & Co set a $25.00 price objective on shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 16th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Bank of America lowered shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $31.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Friday, November 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised Corporate Office Properties Trust from a sell rating to a hold rating and set a $22.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Corporate Office Properties Trust currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $27.00.

NYSE:OFC traded up $0.31 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $26.16. The stock had a trading volume of 707,401 shares, compared to its average volume of 783,416. Corporate Office Properties Trust has a 12-month low of $20.03 and a 12-month high of $31.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.92. The firm has a market cap of $2.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.04.

Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE:OFC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 7th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50. Corporate Office Properties Trust had a net margin of 12.49% and a return on equity of 4.64%. The firm had revenue of $138.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $152.94 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. Corporate Office Properties Trust’s quarterly revenue was down 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Corporate Office Properties Trust will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other Corporate Office Properties Trust news, Director Robert L. Denton sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.65, for a total value of $38,475.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 280,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,182,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Stephen E. Budorick bought 4,023 shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust stock in a transaction on Monday, November 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $24.90 per share, with a total value of $100,172.70. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 110,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,752,147.20. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders acquired 17,243 shares of company stock valued at $395,348. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust by 142.9% during the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,700 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust by 2,069.0% during the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 864,333 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 824,484 shares during the last quarter. Fort L.P. raised its stake in shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust by 420.6% during the 4th quarter. Fort L.P. now owns 2,150 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 1,737 shares during the last quarter. Quantamental Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust during the 4th quarter worth $91,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Corporate Office Properties Trust during the 3rd quarter worth $210,000. 97.47% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Corporate Office Properties Trust Company Profile

COPT is a REIT that owns, manages, leases, develops and selectively acquires office and data center properties in locations that support the United States Government and its contractors, most of whom are engaged in national security, defense and information technology (?IT?) related activities servicing what it believes are growing, durable, priority missions (?Defense/IT Locations?).

Further Reading: Stock Symbols Definition, Examples, Lookup

Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Corporate Office Properties Trust (OFC)

For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Waste Connections Inc (WCN) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Waste Connections Inc (NYSE:WCN) has been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $88.80.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on WCN shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $80.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Zacks Investment Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Waste Connections in a research note on Saturday, November 17th. UBS Group set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Waste Connections and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $87.00 price objective on shares of Waste Connections and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 31st.

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Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WCN. Lindbrook Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Waste Connections during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Resources Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Waste Connections during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Essex Savings Bank purchased a new stake in Waste Connections during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group increased its holdings in Waste Connections by 3,300.0% during the fourth quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 442 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 429 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Waste Connections by 49.0% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 465 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. 81.68% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Shares of WCN traded up $1.82 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $82.82. 1,173,507 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 768,466. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.87, a PEG ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Waste Connections has a 12 month low of $68.57 and a 12 month high of $85.06.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 13th. The business services provider reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.02. Waste Connections had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 10.49%. The firm had revenue of $1.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Waste Connections will post 2.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 28th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Waste Connections’s payout ratio is 25.40%.

Waste Connections Company Profile

Waste Connections, Inc, a solid waste services company, provides waste collection, transfer, disposal, and recycling services in the United States and Canada. The company operates through six segments: Southern, Western, Eastern, Canada, Central, and Exploration and Production (E&P). It offers collection services to residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, and E&P customers; landfill disposal services; and recycling services for various recyclable materials, including compost, cardboard, office paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals.

See Also: Bear Market – How and Why They Occur

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Own Right Now

tags:BDX,CRM,WRD,RDY,CALM,

North America's legal marijuana market is expected to soar 145%, from $10 billion in 2017 to $24.5 billion by 2021. With such tremendous profit potential, we're bring you the best marijuana stock to buy this year to help you profit from this booming industry.

While there are several marijuana stocks poised to gain from cannabis' gradual legalization, we've found a company that's generating staggering profits from the most robust sector of the current marijuana industry – medical marijuana.

You see, while only a nine U.S. states have legalized marijuana for recreational use, 29 states and the District of Columbia have approved medical marijuana sales and use.

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Own Right Now: Becton, Dickinson and Company(BDX)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) by 12.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,558 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,768 shares during the quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Becton Dickinson were worth $3,371,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By John Ballard]

  Shares of Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) gained 10.7% last month, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. After falling with the broader market in late 2018 over concerns about the economy, investors breathed a sigh of relief when the company announced positive preliminary results for its first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company's actual fiscal first-quarter earnings report on Feb. 5 was as solid as expected. 

• [By Keith Speights]

  Dividend Yield

  Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Drugs $109 billion 19.37 1.88% AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) Drugs $93 billion 19.70 3.97% Becton Dickinson and Co. (NYSE: BDX) Medical supplies $60 billion 17.74 1.29% DexCom (NASDAQ: DXCM) Medical devices $8 billion N/A N/A Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY) Drugs $85 billion 14.91 2.77% Insulet (NASDAQ: PODD) Medical devices $5 billion 273.03 N/A Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) Drugs, medical devices $325 billion 14.16 2.57% Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LXRX) Drugs $1 billion N/A N/A MannKind (NASDAQ: MNKD) Drugs $270 million N/A N/A Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) Medical devices $117 billion 15.36 2.14% Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) Drugs $159 billion 12.99 3.22% Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) Drugs $116 billion 18.29 2.61% Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) Drugs $209 billion 11.62 3.82% Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: REGN) Drugs $32 billion 13.95 N/A Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) Drugs $95 billion 10.75 4.64% Senseonics Holdings (NYSEMKT: SENS) Medical devices $447 million N/A N/A Tandem Diabetes Care (NASDAQ: TNDM) Medical devices $711 million N/A N/A

  Data source: Yahoo! Finance. P/E = price-to-earnings ratio; N/A = not applicable. Data as of May 25, 2018.

• [By Motley Fool Transcription]

  Becton Dickinson and Co. (NYSE:BDX)Q1 2019 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 5, 2019, 8:00 a.m. ET

  Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

  Operator

• [By Brian Feroldi]

  Here's are some of the biggest and best-know publicly traded diabetes companies:

  Company Ticker Market Cap Products  Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) $126 billion Continuous glucose monitor AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) $95 billion Pharmaceuticals Becton, Dickinson (NYSE: BDX) $70 billion Diagnostic and delivery devices DexCom (NASDAQ:DXCM) $12.7  billion Continuous glucose monitor Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) $106 billion Insulin and pharmaceuticals Insulet   (NASDAQ:PODD) $6.1 billion Insulin pump Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) $375 billion  Glucose monitor and pharmaceuticals Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LXRX) $1.2 billion Pharmaceuticals MannKind (NASDAQ: MNKD) $291 million Inhaled insulin Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) $133  billion Insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitor Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) $116 billion Insulin and pharmaceuticals Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) $108 billion Insulin and pharmaceuticals Senseonics Holdings (NYSEMKT: SENS) $834 million Continuous glucose monitor

  DATA SOURCE: YAHOO! FINANCE. MARKET CAP DATA AS OF 9/25/2018. 

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Own Right Now: Salesforce.com Inc(CRM)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ]

  China's President Xi Jinping did his part to support the bull market in stocks via a conciliatory trade speech on Monday night, and now embattled Facebook (FB)  founder Mark Zuckerberg has to follow course. By now, seemingly ever pundit and journalist has weighed in how the camera-averse Zuckerberg will perform over the next two days in front of savage lawmakers. So there isn't much new to add until we watch him sit down and do battle. But one gets the sense that lawmakers won't have any clue what to truly ask Zuck in the attempt to send his stock price down the tubes again (because they would secretly love nothing better than to hit Zuck in his digital wallet, naturally). Sure, they may get under his notoriously thin skin, but investors worried about a full-on stock price rout should rest somewhat easy. The Facebooks evolution that is well underway, and which is being accelerated post the Cambridge Analytica debacle, will over time erode the company's highly lucrative business model. You probably won't see any evidence of the derision in the first-quarter results or perhaps even the rest of 2018. It's happening as we speak though, and should be something Zuck reflects in 2019 profit guidance (which should be issued) at some point later this year. In the meantime, enjoy the great theater and tread easily with Facebook's stock off the March mini-rally. Better trades into this spectacle if you haven't put them on already: big data business plays such as Dropbox (DBX) , Salesforce (CRM) , and Action Alerts PLUS holdings Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA) .   

• [By ]

  Disney (DIS) , Expedia (EXPE) , Turner, Comcast (CMCSA) , GoDaddy (GDDY) , GE (GE) , Capital One (COF) , Netflix (NFLX) (yes, Netflix) Salesforce.com (CRM) and Workday (WDAY) disclosed similar moves in the past. While other business units and large enterprises followed the same path, but chose to keep them private.

• [By Daniel Sparks]

  Cloud-based sales platform Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) announced on Monday that it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire the artificial intelligence-powered marketing and analytics platform Datorama. By providing marketing insights for over 3,000 global agencies and brands, including PepsiCo, Trivago, and Unilever, Datorama can help Salesforce build on its strong momentum in its fast-growing marketing and commerce cloud.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) CEO Keith Block sold 2,160 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.05, for a total value of $319,788.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 23,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,528,919.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

• [By Daniel Sparks]

  Amid the S&P 500's nearly 5% gain over the past six months, one subsector has done exceptionally well: software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks, particularly those providing platforms and applications to help businesses. The market seems head over heels for these stocks. Cloud-based customer relationship management company salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), financial software company Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU), e-commerce platform Shopify (NYSE:SHOP), and payment processor Square (NYSE:SQ) have all soared 30% or more during the last six months alone.

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Own Right Now: WildHorse Resource Development Corporation (WRD)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Matthew DiLallo]

  Shares of WildHorse Resource Development Corp. (NYSE:WRD) fell more than 13% by 11 a.m. EDT on Wednesday after the Eagle Ford shale driller posted disappointing second-quarter results.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on WildHorse Resource Development (WRD)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Wildhorse Resource Development Corp (NYSE:WRD) – Equities research analysts at Capital One Financial lowered their FY2018 earnings per share estimates for Wildhorse Resource Development in a research note issued to investors on Monday, August 20th. Capital One Financial analyst B. Velie now forecasts that the oil and natural gas company will post earnings of $1.59 per share for the year, down from their previous estimate of $1.87. Capital One Financial also issued estimates for Wildhorse Resource Development’s Q4 2018 earnings at $0.39 EPS and FY2019 earnings at $2.07 EPS.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Wildhorse Resource Development Corp (NYSE:WRD) shares dropped 5.3% on Monday . The stock traded as low as $18.40 and last traded at $18.66. Approximately 1,428,160 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 28% from the average daily volume of 1,115,212 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.71.

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Own Right Now: Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd(RDY)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories (NYSE:RDY) was upgraded by analysts at ValuEngine from a sell rating to a hold rating.

  Regenxbio (NASDAQ:RGNX) was upgraded by analysts at ValuEngine from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating.

• [By Keith Speights]

  Investors' biggest worry about Celgene is that it might not have as much time as hoped to replace the revenue that Revlimid generates: Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (NYSE:RDY) is challenging Celgene's patents for Revlimid.

• [By Keith Speights]

  The third reason behind Celgene's low valuation is a potential threat to the biotech's top drug Revlimid. Celgene is fighting a patent challenge over Revlimid from Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (NYSE:RDY). The hematology drug currently generates 63% of Celgene's total revenue. 

• [By Lisa Levin] Companies Reporting Before The Bell Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (NYSE: AAP) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $1.97 per share on revenue of $2.91 billion. Kohl's Corporation (NYSE: KSS) is expected to report quarterly earnings at $0.5 per share on revenue of $3.95 billion. The TJX Companies, Inc. (NYSE: TJX) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $1.02 per share on revenue of $8.47 billion. AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE: AZO) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $13.01 per share on revenue of $2.72 billion. Dycom Industries, Inc. (NYSE: DY) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $0.7 per share on revenue of $734.86 million. Eaton Vance Corp. (NYSE: EV) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $0.79 per share on revenue of $425.42 million. Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLAB) is expected to report quarterly earnings at $0.07 per share on revenue of $124.17 million. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBRL) is estimated to report quarterly earnings at $1.93 per share on revenue of $715.15 million. Radcom Ltd. (NASDAQ: RDCM) is expected to post quarterly earnings at $1.96 per share on revenue of $718.59 million. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCO) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $0.04 per share on revenue of $718.96 million. CYREN Ltd. (NASDAQ: CYRN) is estimated to report quarterly loss at $0.08 per share on revenue of $7.72 million. Ferroglobe PLC (NYSE: GSM) is projected to report quarterly earnings at $0.16 per share on revenue of $559.15 million. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Limited (NYSE: RDY) is estimated to report earnings for its fourth quarter. BioLineRx Ltd. (NASDAQ: BLRX) is expected to report quarterly loss at $0.07 per share. Toll Brothers, Inc. (NYSE: TOL) is estimated to post quarterly earnings at $0.76 per share on revenue of $1.58 billion.

   

Top 5 Medical Stocks To Own Right Now: Cal-Maine Foods, Inc.(CALM)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  News headlines about Cal-Maine Foods (NASDAQ:CALM) have trended somewhat positive recently, Accern Sentiment reports. The research firm rates the sentiment of media coverage by monitoring more than twenty million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Cal-Maine Foods earned a news sentiment score of 0.21 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media stories about the basic materials company an impact score of 45.5279430715424 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the immediate future.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Monday was generally a good day for the stock market, although major benchmarks showed a considerable amount of variation in how they performed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 seemed to benefit the most from news that the U.S., Mexico, and Canada had resolved their trade differences and come to a trilateral agreement, but the Nasdaq Composite lagged, and small-cap stocks posted substantial declines. Also hurting the overall market were some disturbing developments regarding some key companies. Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN), Akorn (NASDAQ:AKRX), and Cal-Maine Foods (NASDAQ:CALM) were among the worst performers on the day. Here's why they did so poorly.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Cal-Maine Foods Inc (NASDAQ:CALM) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $52.15 and last traded at $52.25, with a volume of 5956 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $51.05.

• [By Garrett Baldwin]

  Get an exclusive invitation to meet Tim before everyone else right here.

  Three Stocks to Watch Today: LC, GE, GS General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) has ousted its CEO John Flannery. Shares are up more than 10% as investors celebrated the news. GE has been mired in a slump, particularly its turbine business. The firm's new CEO is H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., the former CEO of the industrial firm Danaher. Shares of LendingClub Corp. (NYSE: LC) are under pressure after the SEC charged one of the firm's divisions with mishandling client money. This weekend, the firm reached a settlement with regulators on charges that the firm inflated its revenue and made changes to products to make the firm look healthier than it is. As a result, the firm's board of directors forced CEO Renaud Laplanche to resign. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) has replaced CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who has stepped down after more than a decade at the helm at one of Wall Street's most iconic banks. David Solomon – who has previously served as the firm's president and COO – will now bet the new CEO. His tenure begins at a tough time for Goldman as the bank struggles with lower trading desk revenues. Look for earnings reports today from Cal-Maine Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: CALM) and Xcerra Corp. (NASDAQ: XCRA).

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Why Activision Blizzard Is the Best Video Game Stock After Earnings

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) released its most recent quarterly report after the markets closed on Tuesday. Of all the video game stocks, it seems that Activision is the only one to come out ahead after earnings. While Fortnite took its toll on all the major consoles, Activision is playing the long game.

This video game producer posted $1.29 in earnings per share (EPS) and $2.84 billion in revenue, which compared with Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $1.28 in EPS and $3.04 billion in revenue. In the fourth quarter of last year, Activision said it had EPS of $0.94 on $2.64 billion in revenue.

During the latest quarter, the Activision segment had 53 million monthly active users (MAUs), growing by a double-digit percentage quarter over quarter. Fourth-quarter segment revenues grew 6% year over year to $1.41 billion, and operating income increased 14% to $723 million.

At the same time, Blizzard had 35 million MAUs in the fourth quarter, as Overwatch and Hearthstone saw sequential stability, and World of Warcraft saw expected declines post-expansion-launch. Fourth-quarter segment revenues grew 15% year over year to $686 million, and operating income increased 51% to $241 million.

King had 268 million MAUs in the quarter, growing sequentially, driven by the successful launch of Candy Crush Friends Saga. Fourth-quarter segment revenues grew 5% to $543 million, and operating income increased 28% to $207 million.

Looking ahead to the first quarter, the company expects to see EPS of $0.63 and revenue of $1.72 billion. Consensus estimates call for $0.46 in EPS and $1.46 billion in revenue for the quarter.

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, commented:

While our financial results for 2018 were the best in our history, we didn't realize our full potential. To help us reach our full potential, we have made a number of important leadership changes. These changes should enable us to achieve the many opportunities our industry affords us, especially with our powerful owned franchises, our strong commercial capabilities, our direct digital connections to hundreds of millions of players, and our extraordinarily talented employees.

The stock was last seen up more than 7% at $44.86 per share, in a 52-week range of $39.85 to $84.68. The consensus price target is $60.54.

ALSO READ: The 15 Best Dividend Stocks for Retirees to Own

Fortinet Inc (FTNT) President & CEO Ken Xie Sold $6.5 million of Shares

President & CEO of Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) Ken Xie sold 80,000 shares of FTNT on 02/11/2019 at an average price of $81.64 a share. The total sale was $6.5 million.

Fortinet Inc software solutions provider. The company develops and sells a portfolio of security software products which includes firewall, threat detection, WLAN and switching, application security, identity and access management. Fortinet Inc has a market cap of $14.16 billion; its shares were traded at around $83.13 with a P/E ratio of 43.97 and P/S ratio of 8.06. Fortinet Inc had annual average EBITDA growth of 15.70% over the past ten years. GuruFocus rated Fortinet Inc the business predictability rank of 3-star.

CEO Recent Trades:

President & CEO Ken Xie sold 80,000 shares of FTNT stock on 02/11/2019 at the average price of $81.64. The price of the stock has increased by 1.83% since.

Directors and Officers Recent Trades:

VP, Engineering & CTO Michael Xie sold 9,124 shares of FTNT stock on 02/11/2019 at the average price of $81.54. The price of the stock has increased by 1.95% since.VP, Engineering & CTO Michael Xie sold 30,000 shares of FTNT stock on 02/04/2019 at the average price of $79.95. The price of the stock has increased by 3.98% since.VP Corp Dev&Strat Alliance,GC John Whittle sold 7,768 shares of FTNT stock on 02/04/2019 at the average price of $79.69. The price of the stock has increased by 4.32% since.

For the complete insider trading history of FTNT, click here

.

Top 5 Stocks To Own Right Now

tags:WHLR,WSM,ECOM ,AMTD,PRGX, Running out of money in retirement is such a major concern that many workers fear it more than death itself. And while aggressively funding an IRA or 401(k) during your working years will help lower your risk of depleting your savings in your lifetime, it won't guarantee that you don't wind up strapped for cash when you're older.

An annuity, on the other hand, can help eliminate that risk. An annuity is a contract between you and an insurance company. With an annuity, you're essentially paying a lump sum of money in exchange for guaranteed payouts for life. Those payments might start right away or begin at some point in the future.

Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? Not necessarily.

While annuities are a smart investment in theory, there's a reason they tend to get a bad rap. For one thing, they can be awfully confusing and come with their own complicated tax rules and implications. Furthermore, annuities are only as good as the companies that issue them. If you buy an annuity and the insurance company behind it goes under, your so-called guaranteed income stream disappears.

Top 5 Stocks To Own Right Now: Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc.(WHLR)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust (NASDAQ:WHLR) was upgraded by stock analysts at ValuEngine from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

• [By Money Morning Staff Reports]

  Here are last week's top-performing penny stocks:

  Penny Stock Sector Current Share Price Last Week's Gain OncoCyte Corp. (NYSE: OCX) Healthcare $4.98 159.38% Fortress Biotech (NASDAQ: FBIO) Healthcare $2.47 133.02% Trevena Inc. (NASDAQ: TRVN) Healthcare $1.01 86.69% Celldex Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CLDX) Healthcare $0.58 66.82% Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust Inc.(NASDAQ: WHLR) Financial $1.80 63.64% Scynexis Inc. (NASDAQ: SCYX) Healthcare $1.13 53.64% Eldorado Gold Corp. (NYSE: EGO) Basic Materials $3.98 47.96% Novus Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: NVUS) Healthcare $4.15 43.60% PHI Inc. (NASDAQ: PHII) Services $4.50 42.14% BioTime Inc. (NYSE: BTX) Healthcare $1.33 41.50%

  See Now: Our founder just released his No. 1 pick for 2019. Don't miss this. See urgent briefing here…

Top 5 Stocks To Own Right Now: Williams-Sonoma Inc.(WSM)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Jim Crumly]

  Retail companies are making news with earnings reports this week. Today, Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) and Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) both announced strong sales gains.

• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers Stellar Biotechnologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBOT) rose 32 percent to $2.89 in pre-market trading after the company disclosed that it achieved robust viral clearance for its manufacturing process. Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: BW) rose 17.7 percent to $3.03 in pre-market trading after an amended 13D filing from Steel Partners Holdings shows a raised stake in the company from 6.99 million shares to 29.98 million shares, or a 17.8 percent stake. AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACRX) shares rose 12.7 percent to $3.55 in pre-market trading after the company announced the FDA acceptance of NDA for DSUVIA. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE: WSM) shares rose 11.7 percent to $54.95 in pre-market trading. after the company reported stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter. The company also raised its FY18 earnings and sales guidance. Bilibili Inc. (NASDAQ: BILI) shares rose 9.3 percent to $13.59 in pre-market trading after announcing Q1 results. Stein Mart, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMRT) rose 8.1 percent to $3.46 in pre-market trading after reporting strong Q1 earnings. Universal Corporation (NYSE: UVV) rose 8.1 percent to $52.35 in pre-market trading after reporting fiscal Q4 results. Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNS) rose 8.1 percent to $5.65 in pre-market trading after gaining 6.30 percent on Wednesday. CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE: CVM) rose 6.1 percent to $3.30 in pre-market trading after climbing 9.51 percent on Wednesday. TransEnterix, Inc. (NYSE: TRXC) rose 6 percent to $3.10 in pre-market trading after reporting a loan deal for $40 million in term loans with Hercules Capital. Stage Stores, Inc. (NYSE: SSI) rose 5.6 percent to $3.40 in pre-market trading following Q1 results. Koss Corporation (NASDAQ: KOSS) shares rose 5.2 percent to $2.42 in the pre-market trading session after falling 2.54 percent on Wednesday.

   

• [By Steve Symington]

  Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) just released strong second-quarter 2018 results on Wednesday after the market closed, including continued broad growth from each of its core retail concepts and the steadily increasing contribution of online sales to its total.

• [By Steve Symington]

  Shares of Williams-Sonoma (NYSE:WSM) were soaring today, up 14.5% as of 12:33 p.m. EDT, after the home-furnishings retailer announced better-than-expected second-quarter 2018 results.

Top 5 Stocks To Own Right Now: ChannelAdvisor Corporation(ECOM )

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  ChannelAdvisor Corp (NYSE:ECOM) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Buy” by the eleven research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $15.86.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Omnitude (CURRENCY:ECOM) traded up 7.7% against the dollar during the 24 hour period ending at 13:00 PM Eastern on October 7th. During the last week, Omnitude has traded up 0% against the dollar. One Omnitude token can now be bought for approximately $0.0673 or 0.00001031 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges including IDEX and BitForex. Omnitude has a market capitalization of $3.34 million and $445.00 worth of Omnitude was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on ChannelAdvisor (ECOM)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Omnitude (CURRENCY:ECOM) traded 7.4% lower against the US dollar during the 24-hour period ending at 19:00 PM E.T. on September 16th. During the last seven days, Omnitude has traded down 19.9% against the US dollar. Omnitude has a total market capitalization of $3.26 million and $257,091.00 worth of Omnitude was traded on exchanges in the last day. One Omnitude token can now be bought for about $0.0672 or 0.00001032 BTC on cryptocurrency exchanges including IDEX and BitForex.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on ChannelAdvisor (ECOM)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Omnitude (CURRENCY:ECOM) traded 4.3% higher against the US dollar during the twenty-four hour period ending at 20:00 PM ET on September 20th. Over the last seven days, Omnitude has traded 2.6% lower against the US dollar. Omnitude has a total market cap of $3.44 million and $203,696.00 worth of Omnitude was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One Omnitude token can currently be bought for $0.0708 or 0.00001088 BTC on popular cryptocurrency exchanges including BitForex and IDEX.

Top 5 Stocks To Own Right Now: TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation(AMTD)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on TD Ameritrade (AMTD)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD) is the second largest discount and online broker by market value, with a $32 billion market cap. Its shares were down almost 6% at $56.65 after the JPMorgan news. TD Ameritrade has a consensus price target of $68.32 and a 52-week range of $42.14 to $63.01.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Bronfman E.L. Rothschild L.P. lessened its position in shares of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:AMTD) by 19.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,713 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 912 shares during the period. Bronfman E.L. Rothschild L.P.’s holdings in TD Ameritrade were worth $203,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its position in TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:AMTD) by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,401 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,192 shares during the quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc’s holdings in TD Ameritrade were worth $1,501,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Top 5 Stocks To Own Right Now: PRGX Global, Inc.(PRGX)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  PRGX Global (NASDAQ:PRGX) Director Matthew A. Drapkin purchased 35,766 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 31st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $9.64 per share, with a total value of $344,784.24. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

• [By Max Byerly]

  PRGX Global (NASDAQ:PRGX) had its price objective boosted by B. Riley from $11.00 to $12.00 in a research note published on Wednesday. They currently have a buy rating on the business services provider’s stock. B. Riley also issued estimates for PRGX Global’s Q2 2018 earnings at ($0.07) EPS, Q3 2018 earnings at $0.08 EPS, Q4 2018 earnings at $0.27 EPS, FY2018 earnings at $0.18 EPS, Q1 2019 earnings at ($0.12) EPS, Q2 2019 earnings at ($0.05) EPS, Q3 2019 earnings at $0.17 EPS, Q4 2019 earnings at $0.32 EPS and FY2019 earnings at $0.33 EPS.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  These are some of the headlines that may have effected Accern’s analysis:

  Get PRGX Global alerts: PRGX Global Inc (PRGX) Given $12.50 Average Target Price by Analysts (americanbankingnews.com) PRGX Global Inc (PRGX) Expected to Announce Quarterly Sales of $46.33 Million (americanbankingnews.com) Edited Transcript of PRGX earnings conference call or presentation 9-Aug-18 9:00pm GMT (finance.yahoo.com) Analysts Anticipate PRGX Global Inc (PRGX) Will Announce Earnings of $0.04 Per Share (americanbankingnews.com) Wednesday 8/22 Insider Buying Report: RIGL, PRGX (nasdaq.com)

  PRGX Global stock traded up $0.15 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $9.50. 100,780 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 51,706. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 1.57. PRGX Global has a 1-year low of $6.45 and a 1-year high of $10.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.40 million, a P/E ratio of 45.24, a P/E/G ratio of 19.00 and a beta of 0.73.

Euronet Worldwide's epay Business Has Turned a Corner

For global transactions facilitator Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT), the final quarter of 2018 revealed highly credible performances in each of the company's three major business segments. More importantly, Euronet's epay division appears to be returning to growth mode after several quarters of middling results.

Let's review highlights from the report, issued on Feb. 7, as well as management's earnings expectations for the first quarter of 2019. (Note that all comparable numbers that follow refer to the prior-year quarter, the fourth quarter of 2017.)

Euronet earnings: The raw numbers Metric Q4 2018 Q4 2017 Year-Over-Year Growth

Revenue	$649.4 million	$604.6 million	14.9%
Net income (loss)	$60 million	($22.9 million)	N/A
Diluted EPS	$1.10	($0.44)	N/A

Data source: Euronet Worldwide. N/A = Not applicable. 

What happened with Euronet this quarter?

Image source: Getty Images.

Revenue from electronic funds transfer (EFT) processing rose 10% to $146.5 million. The company attributed this growth to a 13% rise in transactions and a 9% increase in active ATMs. Euronet added roughly 1,300 high-value ATMs in Europe and India during the fourth quarter, bringing its total ATM count to 40,354 at year end. EFT processing's operating income decreased by 13% to $22.4 million, due to a one-time $6.6 million acquisition charge during the quarter that management tied to an unspecified previous acquisition.

Epay segment revenue decreased by 3% to $215 million. The company adopted new GAAP accounting standard ASC 606 in January 2018; under the prior reporting standard, epay revenue would have increased by 13%. The segment achieved a 21% jump in transactions, to 344 million. The higher volume was attributed to an increase in transactions in Germany and India, which partly offset the prior-year loss of a high-volume, low-value customer in the Middle East.

Epay recorded operating income of $29.3 million, against a loss of $6.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 (in which the business recorded a $31.8 million goodwill impairment charge). On an adjusted basis for comparability, epay's operating income improved 13% over the prior-year quarter.

As the growth of its mobile airtime top-up services has waned, epay has diversified its revenue base by branching out into nonmobile revenue, including the sale of digital content and services, as well as branded physical gift cards. In the fourth quarter, epay launched a nonmobile digital content mall on Amazon.de (Amazon Germany), and launched Adidas gift cards for retail sale throughout Europe, among many other digital and physical product rollouts. Investors finally appear to be viewing the segment as a revenue driver, after a couple of years of panning epay as a hindrance to growth.

Revenue in Euronet's largest segment, money transfer, jumped 15% to $274.1 million. However, operating income was flat at $29.3 million. This was due to an impairment charge the company took in the fourth quarter against intangible assets related to the HiFX brand name. HiFX operations have been merged into the faster-growing, globally recognized XE brand of foreign exchange services. Money transfer transactions rose 15% during the quarter. Management attributed money transfer's growth to increased market share in its primary Ria brand, and a growing number of digital money-transfer transactions.

What management had to say

In the company's earnings conference call, CFO Rick Weller pointed out both epay's effective performance and the strength of results when all three segments expand in tandem: 

[Epay] delivered a very strong fourth quarter. Adjusted for the new 606 revenue standard, constant-currency pro forma revenue grew 17%, adjusted operating income grew 19%, and adjusted EBITDA grew 16%. These excellent results were driven by strong fourth-quarter sales on nonmobile content. Gross profit per transaction came in a bit due to a stronger mix of India transactions, but operating margins expanded year over year due to a continued growth of our high margin non-mobile products ...

This was a very strong finish to 2018 where all three segments posted double-digit growth across all metrics. With the double-digit epay contributions this quarter, together with the double-digit performance of EFT and money transfer, it's easy to see that [Euronet] is firing on all cylinders.

Looking forward

Euronet provides very limited earnings guidance. The organization expects first-quarter 2019 adjusted EPS of $0.83. If it meets this benchmark, Euronet will surpass the $0.73 in adjusted EPS earned in the first quarter of 2018 by a vigorous margin of 14%. Investors are clearly enthused over both current conditions and the outlook for continued EPS growth: Shares have ascended 12% in the two trading sessions following Euronet's earnings release.

3M Co (MMM) Files 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended on December 31, 2018

3M Co (NYSE:MMM) files its latest 10-K with SEC for the fiscal year ended on December 31, 2018. 3M Co is a diversified technology company. It manufactures a diverse array of industrial and consumer products. Its business segments are Industrial, Safety and Graphics, Health Care, Electronics and Energy, and Consumer. 3M Co has a market cap of $115.22 billion; its shares were traded at around $199.84 with a P/E ratio of 22.44 and P/S ratio of 3.67. The dividend yield of 3M Co stocks is 2.73%. 3M Co had annual average EBITDA growth of 4.70% over the past ten years. GuruFocus rated 3M Co the business predictability rank of 2.5-star.

For the last quarter 3M Co reported a revenue of $7.9 billion, compared with the revenue of $8 billion during the same period a year ago. For the latest fiscal year the company reported a revenue of $32.8 billion, an increase of 3.5% from last year. For the last five years 3M Co had an average revenue growth rate of 0.8% a year.

The reported diluted earnings per share was $8.89 for the year, an increase of 12.1% from previous year. Over the last five years 3M Co had an EPS growth rate of 4.8% a year. The 3M Co had a decent operating margin of 20.33%, compared with the operating margin of 22.85% a year before. The 10-year historical median operating margin of 3M Co is 21.94%. The profitability rank of the company is 7 (out of 10).

At the end of the fiscal year, 3M Co has the cash and cash equivalents of $2.9 billion, compared with $3.1 billion in the previous year. The long term debt was $13.4 billion, compared with $12.2 billion in the previous year. 3M Co has a financial strength rank of 6 (out of 10).

At the current stock price of $199.84, 3M Co is traded at 36% premium to its historical median P/S valuation band of $146.95. The P/S ratio of the stock is 3.67, while the historical median P/S ratio is 2.70. The intrinsic value of the stock is $105.45 a share, according to GuruFocus DCF Calculator. The stock lost 10.97% during the past 12 months.

Directors and Officers Recent Trades:

Exec Chairman Inge G Thulin sold 13,290 shares of MMM stock on 01/31/2019 at the average price of $200.03. The price of the stock has decreased by 0.09% since.Exec Chairman Inge G Thulin sold 13,499 shares of MMM stock on 01/30/2019 at the average price of $200. The price of the stock has decreased by 0.08% since.

For the complete 20-year historical financial data of MMM, click here.

Stocks in the news: Tata Motors | Fortis Health | Jet Airways | Aurobindo Pharma | Varun Beverages |

Here are the stocks which are in news today:

Results on Friday: BPCL, Tata Steel, M&M, Sun TV Network, UCO Bank, Alkem Laboratories, Allcargo Logistics, Inox Wind, Cochin Shipyard, Engineers India, HFCL, Sonata Software, Jk Lakshmi Cement, KRBL, Marksans Pharma, SJVN, VIP Industries

Jet Airways: Four aircrafts grounded due to non-payment of amounts outstanding to lessors under lease agreements

Coffee Day Enterprises: The company reported a profit of Rs 64 crore.

related news Stocks in the news: Tata Motors, Majesco, Vodafone Idea, Britannia, Manappuram Finance, MRF Stocks in the news: HPCL, Axis Bank, Blue Star, Lupin, Marico, Cipla, Siemens, NBCC, Adani Green Stocks in the news: PNB, Future Retail, RCom, SRF, Lakshmi Machine Works, Bharat Financial

Tata Motors: The company posted a consolidated loss of Rs 26,961 crore.

Borosil Glass: The net profit has risen to Rs 14.7 crore.

Fortis Health approves appointment of Ashutosh Raghuvanshi as CEO

Khadim: Net profit fell 56 percent at Rs 3.9 crore.

Aurobindo Pharma: Q3 net profit at Rs 712 crore.

Varun Beverages: To Acquire PepsiCo's Franchise Rights In 3 States

Raymond: Company clarified on related party transactions undertaken in compliance with laws and on an arm's length basis

Ceat: Commissioned commercial production of Truck Bus Radial Tyres at the expansion phase of Halol plant in Tamil Nadu with effect from February 7.

Sun Pharma Advanced Research: Company received demand order worth Rs 46.04 crore for payment of Service Tax, from Commissioner of GST and Central Excise (Mumbai).

Shriram EPC: Company received three orders worth Rs 291.6 crore from Jharkhand Government for construction in the water management sector.

HCG: Company said it will increase its stake from 50.1 percent to 100 percent in its arm BACC Health

Pricol: Its new plant in Tamil Nadu will not commence its operations due to change in business strategy of the company in line with customer expectations. First Published on Feb 8, 2019 08:03 am

Southwest Airlines Co (LUV) Files 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended on December 31, 2018

Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV) files its latest 10-K with SEC for the fiscal year ended on December 31, 2018. Southwest Airlines Co is one of largest domestic carrier in the United States. The company operates approximately 700 aircraft constituting an all-Boeing fleet and specializes in short-haul flights and several international locations. Southwest Airlines Co has a market cap of $32.87 billion; its shares were traded at around $58.46 with a P/E ratio of 13.56 and P/S ratio of 1.52. The dividend yield of Southwest Airlines Co stocks is 1.04%. Southwest Airlines Co had annual average EBITDA growth of 23.80% over the past ten years. GuruFocus rated Southwest Airlines Co the business predictability rank of 5-star.

For the last quarter Southwest Airlines Co reported a revenue of $5.7 billion, compared with the revenue of $5.3 billion during the same period a year ago. For the latest fiscal year the company reported a revenue of $22 billion, an increase of 3.8% from last year. For the last five years Southwest Airlines Co had an average revenue growth rate of 4.4% a year.

The reported diluted earnings per share was $4.29 for the year, a decline of 25.9% from the previous year. Over the last five years Southwest Airlines Co had an EPS growth rate of 36.6% a year. The Southwest Airlines Co had a decent operating margin of 14.6%, compared with the operating margin of 16.6% a year before. The 10-year historical median operating margin of Southwest Airlines Co is 10.44%. The profitability rank of the company is 8 (out of 10).

At the end of the fiscal year, Southwest Airlines Co has the cash and cash equivalents of $1.9 billion, compared with $1.5 billion in the previous year. The long term debt was $2.8 billion, compared with $3.3 billion in the previous year. The interest coverage to the debt is at a comfortable level of 34.5. Southwest Airlines Co has a financial strength rank of 7 (out of 10).

At the current stock price of $58.46, Southwest Airlines Co is traded at 65.9% premium to its historical median P/S valuation band of $35.23. The P/S ratio of the stock is 1.52, while the historical median P/S ratio is 0.92. The intrinsic value of the stock is $122.70 a share, according to GuruFocus DCF Calculator. The stock gained 0.32% during the past 12 months.

For the complete 20-year historical financial data of LUV, click here.