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Why Trump's campaign is tapping Democrats charged with corruption for help 2024-05-08 15:15:19+00:00 - Democrats with criminal pasts (and one who was recently indicted) have begun to feature prominently in Donald Trump’s campaign for president. And I can think of several reasons why. Last weekend, it was former Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who appeared at a Republican National Committee event hosted at Mar-a-Lago. The New York Times reported that Trump spent an extended period of time discussing the former fraudster, who was convicted of corruption but was released after Trump commuted his sentence in 2020. Per the Times: [Trump] spent several minutes acknowledging Rod Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor of Illinois whose lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of corruption charges was commuted by Mr. Trump, and who was at the R.N.C. event. The former president said that he came to the decision to issue the pardon after seeing Mr. Blagojevich’s wife on television advocating his release, and that it was sealed that he would intervene when he learned that James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director whom Mr. Trump fired amid an investigation into Mr. Trump and his campaign, was connected to the Blagojevich investigation. So Trump set this convicted, corrupt former official free. And, by his own admission, this had nothing to do with questions of justice or accountability for Blagojevich and what he was convicted of doing. Keep that in mind. Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, also a Democrat, is another unexpected former official to turn up at a recent Trump campaign event. Kilpatrick was dealt a multi-decade sentence for obstruction of justice, mail fraud and other charges in 2013 but was released in 2021 after Trump commuted the sentence on his last day as president. Kilpatrick appeared at Trump’s campaign event in Detroit last week, where he shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with Michigan’s Trump-endorsed GOP chair, Pete Hoekstra. I think I’m beginning to see a trend. This past weekend, Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, in defense of another Democrat. This time, it was Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, who was recently indicted on federal corruption charges. Cuellar has denied the allegations against him, and Trump has begun pushing the conspiracy theory that Cuellar’s indictment stems from the conservative Democrat’s opposition to some of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. “He was for Border Control, so they said, “Let’s use the FBI and DOJ to take him out!” This is the way they operate,” Trump wrote, as always lacking any kind of evidence to back up his overheated assertions. One obvious theory for why Trump and his campaign are embracing liberals convicted or accused of corruption is that the former president is facing criminal charges himself, in his hush money case in New York, his election-related RICO case in Georgia, his classified document handling case in Florida and his election interference case in Washington, D.C. (Trump has pleaded not guilty on all charges.) Perhaps he thinks that by arguing the Democrats' charges were unjust, he can persuade voters that he's similarly being railroaded. Alternately, he may think that highlighting Democratic corruption gives his supporters permission to decide "they all do it" and forgive his clear moral and ethical lapses. Either way, the Democrat who's had legal troubles has become a fixture in Trump's campaign and we should expect to hear more.

Republicans follow through on their odd home appliance fixation 2024-05-08 15:04:12+00:00 - About a month ago, Axios reported that there was some growing “frustration” among House Republicans over their party’s focus on home appliance–related legislation, especially given that the Democratic-led Senate would ignore the GOP’s measures. Republican leaders apparently preferred to ignore those concerns. The Hill reported: The House on Tuesday passed a bill aimed at making it more difficult for the Energy Department to enact energy efficiency rules for household appliances — the latest in Republicans’ efforts related to such appliances. ... The bill would both add hurdles to creating new appliance standards and make it easier to revoke existing standards. The final tally was 212 to 195, with zero House Republicans voting against the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act” (or HOOHA). Seven Democrats from competitive districts actually broke ranks and went along with the GOP’s messaging bill. For what it’s worth, the legislation has been championed by Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko of Arizona, who’s stepping down at the end of the current Congress. As E&E News reported this week, her bill would prevent the Department of Energy from implementing or enforcing efficiency standards on a variety of home appliances if they are not “technically feasible or economically justified” and if they do not result in “significant conservation of energy.” And ultimately, that’s what this effort is all about: GOP members have a problem with energy efficiency standards, which used to enjoy relatively bipartisan support before the party's approach to energy policy moved sharply to the right. A recent PunchBowl News report helped summarize matters: “These are all part of the Republican culture war clash over energy efficiency and climate change. It’s similar to the gas stove hysteria or Trump’s war on low-flush toilets and light bulbs.” GOP lawmakers know that these home appliance bills aren’t going anywhere in the Democratic-led Senate, but by all appearances, party leaders don’t much care. They want to be able to tell the far-right Republican base that they’re on Capitol Hill, fighting tooth and nail in support of pointless bills that combat energy conservation and efficiency standards. As a result, the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act will no doubt make for delightful fundraising letters and several Fox News segments, even as real priorities in need of Republicans’ attention go overlooked. As for the rest of the party’s appliance-related agenda, votes on the “Liberty in Laundry Act” (H.R. 7673), the “Clothes Dryers Reliability Act (H.R. 7645), the “Refrigerator Freedom Act” (H.R. 7637), the “Affordable Air Conditioning Act” (H.R. 7626), and the “Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act” (H.R. 7700) were supposed to receive votes a few weeks ago. They have not yet been rescheduled, but it’s a safe bet they’ll end up on the House floor in the coming weeks and months. This post updates our related earlier coverage.

Uber Slips on Rising Legal Costs and Weaker Ride Demand 2024-05-08 15:02:23+00:00 - Uber reported earnings on Wednesday that disappointed investors, as mounting legal bills and weaker ride demand in some parts of the world led to a shortfall compared with analysts’ forecasts. Uber recently settled a lawsuit brought by Australian taxi drivers and is facing a new one from cabdrivers in London. Some regulators have also challenged the way it classifies workers, which shields it from providing drivers with some benefits. The company also cited softer-than-expected demand and took a hit because some of its investments had lost value during its latest quarter. Uber’s operating profit in the first quarter was $172 million. That was up from a $262 million operating loss in the same period last year but still less than half of what analysts had expected for that measure. It also recorded a net loss of $654 million for the quarter, worse than the $157 million last year and also far weaker than what analysts had expected.

PulteGroup Wins and Wins More on Interest Rate Cuts 2024-05-08 14:46:00+00:00 - Key Points PulteGroup is a U.S. homebuilder that operates under brands like Pulte Homes, Del Webb, Centex, American West, DiVosta, John Wieland Homes, and Neighborhoods. Despite a soft housing market, PulteGroup is thriving as new home sales rose 8.8% in March 2024, while existing home sales fell 4.3% to 4.3 million. PulteGroup beat Q1 EPS estimates by 74 cents while revenues climbed by 10.4% YoY to $3.95 billion, beating $3.58 billion consensus estimates. 5 stocks we like better than PulteGroup Homebuilder PulteGroup Inc. NYSE: PHM shares are trading up 13% year-to-date despite a soft housing market. High interest rates have led to a weak existing home sales market, where owners refuse to sell their homes only to get trapped with higher mortgage rates on their next home. 7% mortgage rates are turning buyers into renters, as evident in the March 2024 existing home sales report, revealing existing home sales declined 4.3% to 4.19 million. Get PulteGroup alerts: Sign Up New Home Sales Continue to Thrive While real estate brokers and portals like Zillow Group Inc. NASDAQ: ZG, Redfin Co. NASDAQ: RDFN and Compass Inc. NYSE: COMP are trading down double digits YTD, construction sector giant PulteGroup is thriving. Recently released strong new home sales market data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development showed an 8.8% jump in new home sales to 693,000. Even in a high-interest rate environment, this robust strength indicates that interest rate cuts should further accelerate new home sales. Spring Home Buying Season Homebuying is heaviest in the spring and summer months, March through July. Homebuilders continue to thrive, adding inventory to an already tight supply market of single-family homes. In the past year, PulteGroup shares have soared 75%, Toll Brothers Inc NYSE: TOL shares have climbed 93%, and Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. NYSE: HOV shares rose 111%. Daily Ascending Triangle PHM formed a daily ascending triangle pattern. The ascending trendline formed on the $104.60 swing low on April 19, 2024, rising towards the flat-top upper trendline resistance at $121.08. The resistance is becoming a double top as its second attempt to breakout resulted in a shooting star candle. The daily relative strength index (RSI) rose to the 60-band. Pullback support levels are at $112.76, $109.42, $104.60 and $100.24. Robust Business PulteGroup reported Q1 2024 EPS of $3.10, beating consensus analyst estimates handily by 74 cents and rising by 32% YoY. Revenues climbed 10.4% YoY to $3.95 billion, beating $3.58 billion consensus estimates. Closings increased 11% YoY to 7.095 homes. Home sales gross margins increased by 50 bps to 29.6%. Net new orders rose 14% to 8,379 homes. The unit backlog was 13,430 homes valued at $8.2 billion. PulteGroup closed the quarter with $1.8 billion in cash. PulteGroup repurchased 2.3 million common shares at an average price of $106.73 for $246 million. PulteGroup Today PHM PulteGroup $115.79 -1.16 (-0.99%) 52-Week Range $65.16 ▼ $121.07 Dividend Yield 0.69% P/E Ratio 9.27 Price Target $111.73 Add to Watchlist Making All the Right Moves PulteGroup CEO Ryan Marshall commented, “After more than a decade of underbuilding, it is estimated that our country has a structural shortage of several million homes. Given PulteGroup's broad operating platform and deep product portfolio, along with the powerful incentive programs we can offer to help improve the overall affordability equation, we are well positioned to expand our market share while helping to provide much-needed new housing stock." PulteGroup MarketRank™ Stock Analysis Overall MarketRank™ 4.54 out of 5 Analyst Rating Moderate Buy Upside/Downside 3.5% Downside Short Interest Healthy Dividend Strength Moderate Sustainability -3.10 News Sentiment 1.04 Insider Trading N/A Projected Earnings Growth 5.37% See Full Details CEO Marshall noted that their decision not to cut prices to chase volume in Q4 2023 was the right move. The company sensed demand firming up as interest rates began to moderate. This enabled PulteGroup to end the 2024 spring homebuying season with more inventory, which meant more homes sold in Q1 2024 at higher margins as closings and gross margins came in above their guidance. Marshall also pointed out that strong demand can result in higher prices or more homes sold. PulteGroup accomplished both in the quarter. The Q4 2023 areas of strong demand continued to flourish in Q1 2024, including California, Nevada and Arizona. All markets displayed stable or improving pricing dynamics. PulteGroup analyst ratings and price targets are on MarketBeat. Before you consider PulteGroup, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and PulteGroup wasn't on the list. While PulteGroup currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here

Biden Looks to Thwart Surge of Chinese Imports 2024-05-08 13:58:16+00:00 - President Biden is warning that a new surge of cheap Chinese products poses a threat to American factories. There is little sign of one in official trade data, which show that Chinese steel imports are down sharply from last year and that the gap between what the United States sells to China and what it buys is at a post-pandemic low. But the president’s aides are looking past those numbers and fixating on what they call troubling signs from China and Europe. That includes data showing China’s growing appetite to churn out big-ticket goods like cars and heavy metals at a rate that far exceeds the demand of domestic consumers. China’s lavish subsidies, including loans from state-run banks, have helped sustain companies that might otherwise have folded in a struggling domestic economy. The result is, in many cases, a significant cost advantage for Chinese manufactured goods like steel and electric cars. The U.S. solar industry is already struggling to compete with those Chinese exports. In Europe, the problem is much broader. Chinese exports are washing over the continent, to the chagrin of political leaders and business executives. They could soon pose a threat to some of the American companies that Mr. Biden has tried to bolster with federal grants and tax incentives, much of which comes from his 2022 climate law, U.S. officials warn.

How to Read an Earnings Report | Step by Step Guide with Tips 2024-05-08 13:00:00+00:00 - Key Points Public companies are required by law to report their earnings every business quarter. Earnings reports offer a snapshot of a company’s financial health, and analysts use these figures to create recommendations and price targets. Despite their importance, a single earnings report can be overemphasized, and investors must understand how to incorporate short-term results into long-term plans. Earnings reports are trickling out from some of the biggest public companies, and investors remain uncertain about the current environment. Economic expansion is slowing and sentiment is muted, but good earnings data could boost stocks into the next leg of the bull market. Are you up to speed on how to read earnings reports? If not, this article will provide the knowledge to decipher earnings data and separate actionable info from corporate fluff, making you a more confident investor. Why do public companies release earnings reports? For starters, it's the law - the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires public companies to make regular financial reports to shareholders. Get stock market alerts: Sign Up Additionally, earnings releases are like report cards for public companies. Investors learn how much money the company is making, how it is spending its cash and what executives see in the firm's future. Earnings reports are often market-moving events, so investors should understand how to read and interpret the data in these releases. Step 1: Understand the Key Components of an Earnings Report When companies report quarterly earnings, investors look for results and potential. Did the company over or underperform expectations for the quarter? What’s the outlook for the next quarter or year? Here's what to pay attention to when reviewing company earnings results. Revenue and Profit American economist Milton Friedman famously said, “The business of business is business.” Meaning that a public company is judged based on its ability to make money. However, measuring the money a company makes can be a detailed endeavor. Analysts often refer to "top line" and "bottom line" numbers regarding earnings. The top line is revenue, which means the total gross sales for the quarter. The bottom line is profit, which is how much revenue is left after subtracting expenses. Companies measure profit in three ways: Gross Profit: Often referred to as cost of goods sold (COGS) or cost of revenue, gross profit subtracts costs associated with production from revenue. Often referred to as cost of goods sold (COGS) or cost of revenue, gross profit subtracts costs associated with production from revenue. Operating Profit : Operating profit is calculated by subtracting the company's costs (payroll, rent, etc.) from gross profit. : Operating profit is calculated by subtracting the company's costs (payroll, rent, etc.) from gross profit. Net Profit: To find net profit, subtract interest and taxes from operating profit. Earnings Per Share Earnings Per Share (EPS) is how much net profit a company makes for each outstanding share of stock. To find EPS, divide the company’s net profit by the outstanding shares. For example, if a company reported net earnings of $100 million and had 25 million outstanding shares, the EPS would be $4.00. Additionally, there are two ways to measure EPS: basic EPS and diluted EPS. Basic EPS tallies all current shares, while diluted EPS factors in securities like convertible bonds that may become shares in the future. Investors can use EPS to compare companies in the same industry. If Company A earns $4 per share, but Company B earns $5 in the same field, Company B might deserve a closer look. Like a blockbuster movie, the most pivotal part of an earnings report often unfolds at the end. Known as "guidance" in analyst terms, this is where company executives share their outlook for the next quarter or the rest of the year. During the company’s conference call, executives go into detail about the reported numbers, providing context and updating expectations for the future. Future expectations are often the most actionable part of the earnings report, as poor forward guidance can sink a stock even if revenue and earnings beat analysts’ estimates. When listening to a conference call, pay close attention to guidance or any forward-looking statements since future earnings dictate the path of stock prices. Step 2: Analyze and Evaluate Data in the Earnings Report Now that you know how to read an earnings report, how do you turn that information into an actionable investment plan? First, compare the results to past releases and then use the data to take the company’s proverbial temperature. Compare Past Performance A single earnings report doesn’t necessarily tell an investor much. However, comparing present data to past results can clue investors in on whether the company will be able to meet its stated goals. For example, if revenue growth is slowing and margins aren’t increasing, it could be a sign of trouble ahead. Assess Financial Health How do earnings numbers figure into the bigger picture? Expanding revenue growth is great, but what if that revenue comes at an increasing cost? In that scenario, it might be wise to look at the company's cash flow and debt level to see if it can absorb rising costs. An earnings report is like a thermometer — it can tell you something is wrong but won’t provide an acute diagnosis. Step 3: Avoid Common Mistakes to Improve Your Interpretation Like any financial indicator, earnings reports must be used in the proper context to be effective. Here are a couple of mistakes to avoid when incorporating earnings data into your research. Overemphasizing Earnings Some investors place too much weight on a company meeting short-term goals and not enough on the long-term progress of the business. An earnings report is a snapshot of a company at a specific moment in time. One-time or non-recurring events can influence these numbers, so it is important not to use a single quarterly earnings report as your basis for due diligence. Ignoring Industry and Economic Context A stock in your portfolio beat analysts’ estimates? Great, but that doesn’t mean it's the top company in its field or even headed in the right direction. Earnings should always be used with the industry backdrop in mind. Is this particular company growing faster than other industry cohorts? Are the revenue boosts due to expanding market share or overall economic improvement? Use these data points to examine whether a company is outperforming (or lagging) its peers. Practical Tips for Beginners You don’t need a finance degree to understand financial reports, but you must learn the vocabulary and how to contextualize different information. Follow these suggestions to get the most out of company earnings data. Simplify Financial Jargon Financial reports are usually dry and loaded with technical terminology. Company executives aren’t trying to entertain but to report numbers with clarity and precision. To interpret earnings reports and conference calls, you’ll need to have a basic understanding of the language of business. MarketBeat has an encyclopedia of financial terms to help you memorize the meanings of revenue, earnings per share, profit margins, net income and more. Look for Visual Aids Looking at walls of text or numbers can make even the most seasoned investor’s mind wander. One tool that MarketBeat users can leverage in earnings analysis is charts showing analyst estimates or EPS growth over time. Tables and charts, as visual references, help us better understand trends and make company comparisons easier to grasp. Join an Earnings Call Earnings calls aren’t secret meetings between executives and analysts. Anyone with WiFi can tune into a company’s earnings call and listen to the commentary firsthand. You won’t get to ask a question, but you can hear the figures and guidance directly from the source and form your own opinions. These calls generally happen during pre or post-market hours, and recordings and transcripts can be found on the company’s investor relations webpage. Seek Expert Advice If complex company data is too complicated for you to interpret, analysts and market observers offer ample commentary on earnings reports. How does your opinion stack up against the experts covering the company? MarketBeat has tools that track not only earnings releases and headlines but also the opinions of analysts covering the reporting companies. Leverage expert views and due diligence to make the best investment decisions. A Useful Snapshot, but Not the Full Picture Earnings reports are helpful (and mandatory) releases of company data to investors and the public. These documents report key figures like revenue, margins and income, and conference calls can provide insight into the company’s future plans and goals. However, remember that earnings reports are only three months of data and must be evaluated in the context of the company's overall financial health to be beneficial. Turn Information into Insight with MarketBeat Earnings season is starting to heat up, with many large-cap companies set to report in the coming weeks. Be sure to stay on top of these releases with MarketBeat’s products and tools. Before you make your next trade, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. Our team has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and none of the big name stocks were on the list. They believe these five stocks are the five best companies for investors to buy now... See The Five Stocks Here

Trial About to Begin for Billionaire Trader Accused of ‘Pump and Brag Scheme’ 2024-05-08 12:36:41+00:00 - Three years ago, a multibillion-dollar investment firm called Archegos Capital Management blew up with little warning, causing big losses for some Wall Street banks and leading to federal criminal charges against the firm’s founder, Bill Hwang. On Wednesday, Mr. Hwang, 60, who was charged with 11 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, racketeering and market manipulation, is set to go on trial in Manhattan federal court. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Federal prosecutors are seeking to secure a conviction in a major stock market manipulation case in which Mr. Hwang, whose legal name is Sung Kook Hwang, was one of the big financial losers. Archegos had managed money mainly for Mr. Hwang, his family and some of his employees, and much of his family’s wealth was wiped out when the firm collapsed in March 2021. Also on trial with Mr. Hwang is Patrick Halligan, the former chief financial officer of Archegos. Authorities have said Archegos inflated the prices of stocks it invested in by using tens of billions of borrowed dollars from Wall Street banks to keep buying more and more shares. The surging share prices encouraged other investors to buy, pushing the prices even higher. At its peak, the strategy increased Mr. Hwang’s net worth to more than $35 billion, and the overall value of the stocks that Archegos owned was more than $100 billion.

Datadog: In the Doghouse or Pullback to the Buyzone? 2024-05-08 12:30:00+00:00 - Key Points Datadog slumped 10% on solid results, opening up a buy-the-dip opportunity. Analysts' responses are mixed, but their activity continues to lead the market and points to a new high. Datadog is amid a classic Head & Shoulders Reversal that could lead to a sustained rally in the 2nd half. 5 stocks we like better than Datadog Datadog NASDAQ: DDOG shares are down hard following its Q1 release and may be in the doghouse. However, heightened expectations, tepid guidance, and the exit of long-time president Amit Agarwal are also at play, suggesting a knee-jerk reaction to the news and a buy-the-dip opportunity for investors. The technical setup is favorable despite the double-digit dip. The market has returned to a critical support target aligning with a Head & Shoulders Reversal Pattern formed in 2022 and 2023. If support is confirmed at this level, the odds are high that DDOG shares will trend higher over the next four to six quarters. Get Datadog alerts: Sign Up Datadog Slumps on Solid Results and Outlook Datadog Today DDOG Datadog $117.28 +4.88 (+4.34%) 52-Week Range $77.81 ▼ $138.61 P/E Ratio 977.33 Price Target $135.58 Add to Watchlist Datadog had a solid quarter , outpacing the analyst's consensus on the top and bottom lines. The beats are significant because analysts have been raising their targets, but, as analysts at KeyBanc suggest, the whisper numbers are much higher due to the strength of tech and cloud services at Amazon NASDAQ: AMZN and Microsoft NASDAQ: MSFT So, the $611 million in net revenue is up 27% from last year and outpaced the consensus by 320 basis points but was insufficient to catalyze a rally. Details of note include the growth of large customers; clients providing more than $100,000 in ARR rose 15% as the shift to the cloud continues. Margin is another strength area the market hoped would be better. The company widened its gross and operating margins, produced GAAP profits, FCF of $187 million, grew adjusted EPS by 91%, and outpaced the consensus reported by Marketbeat by 3000 basis points but was still unable to catalyze a rally because the guidance left something to be desired—even more strength. The guidance is good but has two faults. The first is that growth is slowing from the mid-to-high 20% range to the low 20% range. The second is that guidance, although ahead of consensus at the time of the report, was tepid and broadly aligns with expectations. The takeaway is that the outlook for the business and stock is unaltered. Only the market for the stock has been reset. As the exit of Amit Agarwal? A passing concern. He is instrumental to the business's success and will move on to a board position. He will stay on until the year's end to ensure a smooth transition. Regarding the business health. The balance sheet is in fine shape, with low leverage and ample cash and liquidity. Total cash and equivalents are more than $2 billion, putting the company in a net cash position with a leverage of 0.3X. DDOG is well-capitalized and able to invest in growth as it sees fit. Analysts Response is Mixed; Group Leads Market Higher The analyst's response is mixed with one upgrade/price target increase and one reduction. The takeaway is that sentiment is firming with an upgrade to Outperform from Baird and the price target adjustments offsetting each other. Baird increased its target to $140, and Morgan Stanley cut it to $137; both are above the consensus, implying more than 22% upside with the shares near $112.50. Datadog Stock is at a Critical Turning Point Datadog stock is sitting on a critical support target and at a turning point for the market. If the market confirms resistance at this level, the reversal is in play, and a rebound should occur soon. DDOG should trend higher in that scenario and may retest this year’s highs before the next trading year begins. If not, DDOG could fall below the $112 region, where it will be at risk of a deeper correction. If $112 is confirmed as resistance, a move to the $100 level is likely. Institutional activity will be a factor for this market. Institutions own about 80% of the stock and have been buying on balance in 2024. The activity is light compared to 2023 but reverses the trend and adds a tailwind that could strengthen now that share prices have been discounted. Before you consider Datadog, you'll want to hear this. MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Datadog wasn't on the list. While Datadog currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys. View The Five Stocks Here

‘It’s the brand speaking to you’: the scent firms making smells for Subway, Abercrombie and more 2024-05-08 12:01:00+00:00 - When Dallas Pratt worked at an outpost of Aesop in an outdoor shopping mall outside Chicago, one of her and her co-workers’ favorite ways of drawing in new customers was making a concoction they called “sidewalk tea”. They would put a few drops of scented lotion in a cup of hot water, and then they would pour it on to the slab of concrete outside the shop. As the water evaporated, the smell of the lotion would fill the air. “It drew people in,” Pratt tells me. “They asked questions. They spent time.” And, crucially, they bought stuff. This isn’t a novel marketing trick: stores that sell items with distinctive smells, such as perfumeries and bakeries, have been pumping smells out into streets and shopping malls probably since the beginning of retail. But starting in the 1990s, sense marketing became a more organized discipline, and now dozens of firms exist to help store owners develop distinctive custom smells. But sidewalk tea, for Pratt, was also about creating an experience: “It was about hospitality more than ambience.” The salespeople would treat customers as though they were welcoming them into their own living rooms, offering drinks and chatting about things other than the products. The idea was to make people want to be inside Aesop, even if they’d gone to the mall with no intention of buying hand lotion. No other sensory system co-opts the limbic system of the brain the way smell does Rachel Herz, Brown University As in-person retail continues to recover from the pandemic-era lockdowns, store owners and marketers are working hard to press the main advantage analog shopping has over digital: its appeal to all the senses. The most primal sense of all, the one that imprints most deeply on our memories, is smell. The brain processes odors in the olfactory cortex, located directly behind the nose and connected to key structures in the limbic system, including the amygdala, which forms emotional responses, and the hippocampus, which stores memories. “No other sensory system co-opts the limbic system of the brain the way smell does,” says Rachel Herz, a neuroscientist at Brown University who also advises corporations about their scent strategy. “It’s doing the work of perception, emotion, emotional memory, learning and association.” Because smell is so closely linked with memory, not everyone will have the same reaction to a particular scent. While many people find the smell of lavender soothing, for instance, those who connect it to unpleasant memories may feel the opposite. This is another reason brands take the time and trouble to create unique scents that will be connected to them alone. Aradhna Krishna, a professor of marketing at the University of Michigan, was one of the first researchers to study the intersection between the senses and branding. Two or more senses working in tandem, she discovered, are more powerful than one working alone: a photo of a chocolate chip cookie is nice, but that photo combined with the smell of cookies baking is likely to make you drool. “Smells within products can enhance the memory of other attributes,” she says. “You remember brand names, what the shape of the product was, where you used it. The smell is uniquely related to the product.” View image in fullscreen Staff at an Abercrombie & Fitch store, where customers can smell Fierce. Photograph: Richard Young/Rex Features Even a gentle ambient smell has an effect. In one experiment, Alan Hirsch of the Smell and Taste Research Foundation placed two identical pairs of Nike running shoes in separate rooms that were also identical, except that one was scented and one was not. Customers were 84% more likely to buy the shoes in the scented room. (Nike, however, was dubious: “The big thing we try to do is get athletic shoes not to smell,” a spokeswoman told the New York Times at the time. Though it could be argued that new running shoes have an appealing smell all their own.) Other experiments have shown that customers in pleasant-smelling spaces – not just stores, but also casinos and hotel lobbies – spend more time there without realizing it, take more time to examine specific products, and are more likely to spend more money, including on impulse purchases. In some cases, customers are unaware that they’re smelling something that’s been specially designed to appeal to them: “new car smell”, for instance, is entirely artificial and has nothing to do with paint or upholstery. How does a brand create the ideal signature scent? It’s a lengthy and complex process, says Neohni Gilligan, the director of fragrance and product marketing at ScentAir, one of the world’s largest scent marketing companies. It begins with a 50-100 item questionnaire for the client, though only one or two of those questions relate specifically to scent. The rest are about decor, colors, lighting, sound and music, customer demographics and the brand’s overall ethos. Some pairings seem obvious: a furniture shop may want to play up the smell of leather while Cinnabon should smell like fresh cinnamon rolls are baking just a few feet away (at Cinnabon stores, ovens are placed near the doors of the store so that the smell escapes into the street; when the company trialled a location with ovens placed at the back, sales decreased significantly). Other scents are more about evoking feelings, but while a hotel lobby and a spa can both smell “relaxing”, in practice, these require a very different bouquet of scents. Once Gilligan outlines the characteristics of a scent, she passes it along to ScentAir’s fragrance partners, who do the actual formulation, taking care to follow local safety guidelines because no smell is more memorable – in a bad way – than the one that caused a severe allergic reaction. The next step is determining the intensity of the scent. Should the customer be bombarded by fragrance, as they are at Abercrombie & Fitch, which has been blasting its Fierce cologne for more than 20 years, or is the brand going for something more subtle that leaves more of a lingering impression? Stores won’t be just places to buy, they’ll also be places to have this visceral, immersive experience Caroline Fabrigas, Scent Marketing “Sometimes,” says Caroline Fabrigas, CEO of Scent Marketing Inc, a scent branding firm, “true success is if the customer doesn’t think it smells of anything. It’s the brand speaking to you.” Unlike perfumes, whose scents can evolve in conjunction with the wearer’s body chemistry, commercial smells need to remain constant. Scent marketers plan how the smell will be dispersed throughout the space. Sometimes they use the HVAC system, or introduce a visual element such as a candle or a reed diffuser. In the case of Singapore Airlines, the marketing team also incorporated the brand smell into soaps and hot towels. More often, though, spaces use strategically located mechanical diffusers, controlled through smartphones, that can be programmed to pump out scent at different times during the day. My local grocery store, for instance, starts smelling like rotisserie chicken in the afternoon, when shoppers are starting to think about dinner. The total cost of scent branding varies, based on the size of the space and the complexity of the smell, ranging from $1,000 to many, many times that. Olivia Jezler, founder of the scent marketing firm Future of Smell, says stores spend millions of dollars on visual branding and music, and scent leaves a much more lasting impression than sound. “At a lot of stores, especially cheaper stores like Zara, we can smell the plastic and the materials in the wall,” she says. “Subconsciously, that’s telling us something: no matter how much money is put into visual branding, this is something uncomfortable, something not safe and not good for us.” View image in fullscreen Visitors play in the ‘Sprinkle Pool’ installation at the Museum of Ice Cream, where Caroline Fabrigas designed scents. Photograph: How Hwee Young/EPA Retail stores are still trying to find their way back from the pandemic, and both Fabrigas and Jezler believe that the next generation of flagship stores will be different from their predecessors. “During the pandemic, people weren’t able to be out in public and they wanted to be,” says Fabrigas. “Retail gives them reasons to come out and play. Stores won’t be just places to buy, they’ll also be places to have this visceral, immersive experience.” Fabrigas already has experience with this sort of space: she designed scents for the Museum of Ice Cream. The brand experience can extend beyond the confines of a particular space and into the realm of e-commerce. Jezler thinks retailers are missing a huge opportunity by not including scent in their packaging. “Companies are spending a lot of money on beautiful unboxing experiences,” she says. “I ordered something from Chanel the other day, and I thought, ‘The packaging is so beautiful, but where’s the smell?’” It wouldn’t have been hard for the company to embed its signature No 5 scent into the packaging and connect, on an emotional level, to the customer at home. On Friday afternoon, I went shopping in downtown Chicago, not to buy anything, but simply to smell. Zara on Michigan Avenue didn’t smell like plastic, exactly; more like cardboard and glue, but Jezler was still correct: it smelled temporary, like nothing on the racks had been made to last. At Ralph Lauren, candles in the company’s Green scent were available for purchase. Over on nearby Rush Street, Tommy Bahama reeked of coconut and someone’s idea of the tropics, Urban Outfitters smelled of cardboard mixed with grill smoke from the bar next door, and Abercrombie was Fierce as ever – Herz suggests that it’s been around so long, it’s actually become a nostalgic smell to former customers who are now the parents of teenage shoppers. Meanwhile Garrett Popcorn and Subway pumped their distinctive odors of burned sugar and overly sweet bread on to the sidewalk outside their storefronts,. On Oak Street, lined with high-end designer boutiques, smells are more subtle, barely there, like “quiet luxury” and money itself; they’re mostly detectable in contrast to unpleasant outside odors like asphalt and car exhaust. At Chanel, this is deliberate: the stronger and more distinctive scents are confined to the area near the cosmetics counter. “We keep smells low to avoid sinus issues for customers and employees,” an employee told me. By contrast, Dior was arranged so that the combined aromas from the first-floor perfume display permeated throughout the entire store. Armani was also deliberately scentless. A previous location on Michigan Avenue had smelled of Armani’s Bois d’Encens fragrance, said Antony de Angelo, a longtime employee who had worked in both stores. The scent was inspired by the designer’s childhood in Italy, specifically church, and it gave the space an international feel: for Europeans, it was a familiar smell in a faraway place, while for Americans, it evoked foreign travel. Like Pratt, De Angelo considered the fragrance another way to welcome customers. “The smell was a talking point,” he said. “It was subtle, but people would always comment on it. They could sense it was something out of the ordinary. We don’t have the smell at the new store. I miss it.”

TikTok’s Legal Bet on the First Amendment 2024-05-08 11:46:17.356000+00:00 - TikTok takes its fight to court TikTok fired the latest broadside in its battle with Washington, suing to block a law that could force the company to split from ByteDance, its Chinese owner, or face a ban in the U.S. The company argues that the law violates the First Amendment by effectively killing an app in the U.S. that millions of Americans use to share their views. Another problem: a divestiture within 270 days is practically impossible, Sapna Maheshwari and David McCabe report for The Times. DealBook spoke with Maheshwari about the lawsuit filed yesterday and what happens next. Do legal experts think TikTok has a chance at winning? It could go either way. Alan Rozenshtein, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, says that a victory is possible based on the “very, very substantial First Amendment challenge” involved. But he emphasized that it isn’t a certainty.

Celsius Stock’s Post-Earnings Morning Dip, Better than Coffee 2024-05-08 11:45:00+00:00 - Key Points Shares of Celsius are declining after the company's first quarter 2024 earnings results, making for a beautiful dip. With double and even triple-digit growth in the company's financials, the stock's fall is far from justified. Analysts see above-average EPS growth and a higher ceiling through price targets for Celsius. Shares of Celsius Holdings Inc. NASDAQ: CELH are down by as much as 5% in Tuesday’s trading session, a reaction that came after the company reported its first quarter 2024 earnings results. Arguably the most important earnings announcement, as the first quarter sets the tone for the rest of the year, investors should not get the wrong picture after this dip. The company’s financials indicate the stock should be moving in the opposite direction after earnings. Still, fundamentals without attention aren’t worth much. Because of this, investors should – and will – check how markets feel about the stock’s future relative to its peers in the consumer discretionary sector. Get alerts: Sign Up Pinned against competitors like Monster Beverage Co. NASDAQ: MNST and Coca-Cola Co. NYSE: KO, Celsius quickly becomes a positive outlier, bringing investors another potential run higher this quarter. It's a morning dip that could be better than coffee, and here's the discount it brings with it. A Sound Way to Navigate Today’s Environment As the U.S. economy comes into one of its most uncertain moments in the past cycle, investors are growing anxious about where their money should be put to work. As it turns out, both the ISM Manufacturing PMI Index and the ISM Services PMI Index have contracted in the past month. Because these two sectors drive the economy’s gross domestic product (GDP), a mutual contraction could spell bad news for the stock market. However, not all stocks are created equal. In the middle of this uncertainty, investors could look to stocks that are growing at double-digit rates this year, so their investments will preserve the best of the economy and leave out most of the concerns. And Celsius Fits the Profile Management leads the way within the company’s press release. With its 37% annual revenue growth, Celsius begins to fit the profile of high growth at an attractive discount. The stock’s discount comes through the only metric that matters to investors: price action. Now trading at 77% of its 52-week high, Celsius stock has a path to make a potential catch-up in the coming months. Celsius Today CELH Celsius $77.13 +0.18 (+0.23%) 52-Week Range $34.74 ▼ $99.62 P/E Ratio 99.74 Price Target $84.95 Add to Watchlist Typically, stock prices are driven by earnings per share (EPS) growth and how markets value these future earnings today. During the past 12 months, Celsius reported 108% growth in EPS, making another check for its future potential upside. Monetizing the rear-view mirror can be difficult, so Celsius's EPS is expected to go here. Analysts now project 40.4% EPS growth for the year, beating Coca-Cola's 7.1% and Monster Energy's 13.4% Despite its recent dip, Celsius stock outperformed the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund NYSEARCA: XLY and the S&P 500 by as much as 35% over the past quarter. Because of this superior growth, markets are willing to pay a premium valuation for these future earnings, which is what investors want to see. Trading at a forward P/E ratio of 50.6x puts Celsius above Monster’s 26.7x and Coca-Cola’s 20.8x, a premium of up to 143%. Overpaying for a stock should carry a justifiable reason, and Celsius’ growing market share may be one of them. Taking up to 11.5% market share (according to management) in the energy drink category and delivering record first-quarter revenue is pushing Wall Street closer to the stock. The Analysts' Take Celsius MarketRank™ Stock Analysis Overall MarketRank™ 3.14 out of 5 Analyst Rating Moderate Buy Upside/Downside 13.8% Upside Short Interest Bearish Dividend Strength N/A Sustainability N/A News Sentiment 0.36 Insider Trading Selling Shares Projected Earnings Growth 40.37% See Full Details Analysts at Maxim Group now see Celsius going as high as $110 a share . The stock would need to rally by 46% to prove these valuations right, a potential that towers Monster’s 13.1% upside through its $61.3 price target . Coca-Cola isn’t known for its aggressive growth but for its stability and dividends. This is why analysts see only a 9.5% upside in the stock’s $68.3 price target , supported by its 3.1% dividend yield today. Here is where investors need to make a choice: Stay with a steady stream of dividend income through Coca-Cola stock, or take on a bit more risk and have access to Celsius’ double-digit potential upside? Bank of New York Mellon chose the latter. Among the $2.5 billion of institutional investment flowing into Celsius, BNY now represents $178.5 million after boosting its stake by 15.2% as of April 2024. Leaning on bullish momentum and price action, investors can add another vote of confidence from the markets to push the company’s fundamentals, particularly after a blowout first quarter, setting the tone for the rest of the year.

New York Times Adds 210,000 Digital Subscribers in Quarter 2024-05-08 11:09:58+00:00 - The company said it had about 10.5 million subscribers overall for its print and digital products at the end of the first quarter, up roughly 8 percent from a year earlier. About 640,000 of those were print subscribers, down about 10 percent from the same period last year. The company’s goal is 15 million total subscribers by the end of 2027. While the number of digital subscribers continues to grow, The Times’s ad business has suffered declines. Overall revenue from advertisements decreased 2.4 percent, to $103.7 million, from a year earlier, the company said. It said the falloff had been driven by declines in print advertising and lower spending by media, entertainment and technology companies. Digital advertising increased 2.9 percent, to $63 million, thanks in part to higher ad revenue at The Athletic. The company said it spent $1 million in the first quarter on its lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, which are working together on developing artificial intelligence. The Times sued the companies in December, accusing them of copyright infringement. Both Microsoft and OpenAI have sought to dismiss key elements of the lawsuit. The Athletic, which The Times bought in 2022 for $550 million, had 4.99 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter, an increase of about 1.72 million from a year earlier. Those numbers include users who pay for The Athletic as a stand-alone subscription or have access to The Athletic through their bundle subscription. The Athletic lost $8.7 million in the first quarter, versus a loss of $11.3 million a year earlier. The company said revenue at The Athletic had increased 33 percent, to $37.2 million, in the first quarter, thanks largely to increased subscriptions and a deal to license articles to Apple for its news product.

Shopify Prepares To Report Q1 Earnings: Charts Indicate Bullish Reversal, Analysts Predict Downside 2024-05-08 07:40:00+00:00 - Shopify Prepares To Report Q1 Earnings: Charts Indicate Bullish Reversal, Analysts Predict Downside Shopify Inc (NYSE:SHOP) is reporting its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday. Wall Street expects 17 cents in EPS and $1.845 billion in revenues as the company reports before market hours. The stock is up 18.44% over the past year but down 2.04% YTD. Let’s look at what the charts indicate for Shopify stock and how the stock currently maps against Wall Street estimates. Charts Indicate Bullish Reversal For Shopify Stock Ahead Of Q1 Earnings The current technical trend for Shopify stock is strongly bullish, hinting at a bullish reversal from the recent downtrend. Chart: Benzinga Pro The share price is above its 8-, 20-, and 50-day simple moving averages, indicating buying pressure and suggesting a positive outlook for future bullish movement. Specifically, the 8-day simple moving average (SMA) is at $73.15, the 20-day SMA is at $71.60, the 50-day SMA is $74.72, and the 200-day SMA is $68.47, all below the current stock price of $76.95, indicating bullish momentum. However, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator, at 0.01, has just recovered from the negative territory. This potentially indicates a change in the stock’s current trend, which was bearish recently. Note that the MACD crossed above the signal line to reach this positive territory, reinforcing bullish signals. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is 60.04, indicating that the stock is neither overbought nor oversold. However, it is gradually treading upwards towards the overbought territory at and beyond 70. View more earnings on SHOP Chart: Benzinga Pro Additionally, the Bollinger Bands have Shopify stock breaking out of the upper bullish band, after surging past the lower (bearish) band to the upper, recently. Overall, the technical indicators for Shopify stock indicate positive momentum and a bullish reversal for Shopify stock with the moving averages and the oscillators both giving out bullish signals. Also Read: Here’s How Much $100 Invested In Shopify 10 Years Ago Would Be Worth Today Shopify Analysts See Downside Ahead Ratings & Consensus Estimates: The consensus analyst rating on Shopify stock stands at a Buy currently with a price target of $63.17. The most recent analyst ratings for Shopify stock were released by Benchmark, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley for April 19 and onwards. The average price target from these three analysts is $63.33, implying a -17.70% downside potential for the stock. SHOP Price Action: Shopify stock was trading at $77.32 a share at the time of publication. Read Next: Nvidia Is ‘De Facto AI Standard For The Foreseeable Future’: Goldman Sachs Analyst Revises Share Price Expectations Story continues Photo: Shutterstock Latest Ratings for SHOP Date Firm Action From To Feb 2022 Morgan Stanley Maintains Equal-Weight Feb 2022 Credit Suisse Maintains Neutral Feb 2022 Mizuho Maintains Neutral View More Analyst Ratings for SHOP View the Latest Analyst Ratings "ACTIVE INVESTORS' SECRET WEAPON" Supercharge Your Stock Market Game with the #1 "news & everything else" trading tool: Benzinga Pro - Click here to start Your 14-Day Trial Now! Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article Shopify Prepares To Report Q1 Earnings: Charts Indicate Bullish Reversal, Analysts Predict Downside originally appeared on Benzinga.com © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

FTX Customers Poised to Recover All Funds Lost in Collapse 2024-05-08 05:31:36+00:00 - Customers of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX are poised to recover all of the money they lost when the firm collapsed in 2022 and receive interest on top of it, the company’s bankruptcy lawyers said on Tuesday. The announcement was a landmark in the attempt to track down the $8 billion in customer assets that disappeared when FTX imploded virtually overnight, setting off a crisis in the crypto industry. Under a plan filed in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, virtually all FTX’s creditors, including hundreds of thousands of ordinary investors who used the exchange to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, would receive cash payments equivalent to 118 percent of the assets they had stored on FTX, the lawyers said. Those payments would flow from a pool of assets that FTX’s lawyers have pulled together in the 17 months since the exchange collapsed, the lawyers said. They tapped a wide range of sources, including digital currencies that FTX still owned when it filed for bankruptcy and company assets like shares in start-ups, which could be sold to bidders. The amount that FTX recovered is “in general pretty unheard of,” said Yesha Yadav, a law professor at Vanderbilt University. “That’s something that is really quite astonishing for a major bankruptcy.”

Bankrupt Steward Health puts its hospitals up for sale, discloses $9 bln in debt 2024-05-08 05:11:00+00:00 - By Dietrich Knauth NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Bankrupt Steward Health Care has put all of its 31 U.S. hospitals up for sale, hoping to finalize transactions by the end of the summer to address its $9 billion in total liabilities, its attorneys said at a Tuesday court hearing in Houston. Steward, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, hopes to keep all of its hospitals open over the long term, Steward attorney Ray Schrock told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Chris Lopez, who is overseeing the Chapter 11 proceedings. "Our goal remains that there are zero hospitals closed on our watch," Schrock said. "There's going to be a change in ownership in many hospitals, we recognize that. But we don't want to see any of these communities fail to be served." The privately-owned company closed a hospital in Massachusetts earlier this year, and officials in that state have criticized Steward's management and its former private equity owners for making short-sighted financial decisions that undermined patients' care. Massachusetts officials in particular criticized a series of transactions that sold off the company's real estate and saddled it with long-term rent costs at its hospitals. In court documents filed before the hearing, Steward said it had over $9 billion in total liabilities, including $1.2 billion in loans, $6.6 billion in long-term rent obligations, nearly $1 billion in unpaid bills from medical vendors and suppliers, and $290 million in unpaid employee wages and benefits. Schrock said Steward has real value, despite carrying a $9 billion debt load. The company had $6 billion in annual revenue before filing for bankruptcy, and it has been pursuing a sale of its physician group, Stewardship Health Care, to UnitedHealth subsidiary Optum Care for an amount that would repay the company's loans and allow it to pay some of its vendors, Schrock said. Steward had hoped to use the proceeds of that sale to avoid bankruptcy. But stalled regulatory approvals forced the company to seek short-term emergency financing that did not give Steward enough cash to continue operations for long, Schrock said. "It never really stabilized the company," Schrock said. "The company was always very close to running out of cash." At Tuesday's hearing, Lopez allowed Steward to borrow $75 million from Medical Properties Trust, which owns the real estate where Steward's hospitals are located and is owed $6.6 billion on leases that run until 2041. Steward hopes to borrow an additional $225 million from Medical Properties Trust later in its bankruptcy. Story continues Steward is putting all of its hospitals up for sale. It intends to hold auctions on June 28 auction for its hospitals outside of Florida and July 30 for its nine hospitals in Florida. Schrock said those timelines were negotiated as part of the new $75 million bankruptcy loan, and that Steward would seek more time to sell its hospitals if necessary. "What we don't want to do is have a fire sale of the assets," Schrock said. "There is a lot of value here." (Reporting by Dietrich Knauth, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Michael Ernab)

Why Nvidia Stock Briefly Plunged and Then Recovered Today 2024-05-08 04:42:00+00:00 - Shares of Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) briefly tumbled today, falling as much as 10.7% early in the trading session, but recovered those losses throughout the morning to finish the session down just 1.7%. The catalyst for the movement was comments from famed billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller. Image source: Getty Images. What did Druckenmiller say about Nvidia? In an interview on CNBC this morning, Druckenmiller, who had an impeccable record running the Duquesne Capital Management fund for nearly 30 years, said he'd cut his Nvidia stake in late March. Druckenmiller argued that it was time to take profits in the stock, saying, "A lot of what we recognized has become recognized by the marketplace now." The former hedge fund titan was early to recognize Nvidia's potential in the generative AI boom as his Duquesne Family Office moved aggressively into Nvidia stock in the fourth quarter of 2022 when ChatGPT launched. Druckenmiller began selling his Nvidia stake in Q4, though that looks premature in retrospect as the AI stock surged again in this year's Q1. We'll learn how much of his Nvidia stake he cut when 13F reports come in over the next week. Why Nvidia stock bounced back There was no particular catalyst for the recovery in Nvidia stock. Shares seemed to gain as some investors believed the sharp decline to be a buying opportunity. Druckenmiller wasn't particularly bearish on Nvidia and expressed long-term optimism for AI, but he seemed content to take profits as the stock has surged since he first began buying. While we're unlikely to see more multibagging returns from Nvidia as the company is now worth more than $2 trillion, the stock could continue to outperform. We'll learn more when Nvidia reports Q1 earnings later this month. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $564,547!* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 6, 2024 Story continues Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Nvidia Stock Briefly Plunged and Then Recovered Today was originally published by The Motley Fool

Rivian reports mixed Q1 results but trims capex forecast and sees Q4 'gross profit' 2024-05-08 04:19:00+00:00 - Rivian (RIVN) reported mixed quarterly results for the first quarter, but will see further cost savings from shifting its upcoming R2 production to its Normal, Ill., plant and trimming its capital expenditure forecast. The EV maker also reaffirmed its full-year loss forecast and still sees a "path" to "modest gross profit" in the fourth quarter of this year. For the quarter, Rivian reported revenue of $1.204 billion versus $1.175 billion expected, which is an 80% jump from a year ago. However, Rivian posted a loss per share of $1.45 versus $1.27 estimated, with an operating loss $1.484 billion compared to $1.299 billion loss expected. Rivian reaffirmed its adjusted EBITDA loss forecast of $2.70 billion for 2024, but now sees its capital expenditure outlays improving to $1.2 billion from $1.75 billion seen earlier due to moving the start of R2 production to its Normal, Ill., plant, with further savings seen in 2025 and 2026. Rivian stock was trading higher after hours before the release of its Q1 results, but fell around 4% after the results were posted. "We hit several milestones this quarter, including producing our 100,000th vehicle in Normal, successfully navigating the retooling upgrade, and unveiling our new midsize platform, which underpins the R2, R3, and R3X," CEO RJ Scaringe said in a statement. The company also said, as a result of its retooling upgrade and other improvements, Rivian remains "confident in its path to achieving modest gross profit in the fourth quarter of this year." By shifting R2 production to its existing US factory instead of its upcoming Georgia factory, Rivian said on Tuesday the company will save more than $2.25 billion. The company now expects its Normal plant following the R2 launch and plant changes to hit 215,000 units of total annual capacity across all vehicles, which includes up to 155,000 units of the R2. Founder and CEO of Rivian RJ Scaringe speaks onstage during the Rivian Reveals All-Electric R2 Midsize SUV event at Rivian South Coast Theater on March 7, 2024, in Laguna Beach, Calif. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Rivian) (Phillip Faraone via Getty Images) In terms of its cash cushion, Rivian said it had $5.98 billion at the end of Q1, versus the $7.86 billion it had at the end of Q4. Last month the company reported first quarter R1T and R1S production of 13,980 and deliveries of 13,588, topping expectations of around 12,400 units. The company also reaffirmed production guidance of 57,000 vehicles in 2024. Part of bringing down those costs came in the form of a 10% salaried staff reduction, with the company citing economic uncertainty. Though Rivian reaffirmed its forecast to reach “modest gross profit” by the end of 2024, Rivian didn't reiterate past statements that it was "very close" to achieving a positive contribution margin at the end of 2023. Story continues The Rivian R3 and R3X SUVs are displayed during the Rivian Reveals All-Electric R2 Midsize SUV event at Rivian South Coast Theater on March 7, 2024, in Laguna Beach, Calif. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Rivian) (Phillip Faraone via Getty Images) Earlier this year Rivian said its Georgia factory development was suspended for the moment, though Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said Scaringe reaffirmed the company wasn’t abandoning the project. Scaringe said once the R2 was ready for a larger rollout, the upcoming Georgia facility would handle the rollout. The company also said it would be launching its R2 in Europe, which would be a huge market for the company as it's not currently selling its larger R1 vehicles on the continent. Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram. For the latest earnings reports and analysis, earnings whispers and expectations, and company earnings news, click here Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Government Surveillance Contractor Palantir's AI Tactics Under Microscope By Wall Street Analysts: Must 'Demonstrate' Growth To Justify Valuation 2024-05-08 03:08:00+00:00 - Government Surveillance Contractor Palantir's AI Tactics Under Microscope By Wall Street Analysts: Must 'Demonstrate' Growth To Justify Valuation Software and data analytics company Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) reported first-quarter financial results after market close Monday. Analysts size up the first-quarter earnings beat and what's next for the company. The Palantir Analysts: Goldman Sachs analyst Gabriela Borges has a Neutral rating and raised the price target from $13 to $14. Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz has a Neutral rating and $21 price target. Related Link: Palantir Stock Is Falling Tuesday: What’s Going On? Goldman Sachs on Palantir: The company's Bootcamp interactive workshop could be in the early stages of conversion, according to Borges. "We believe investors will focus on the sustainability of US Commercial growth to underwrite whether Palantir can maintain or accelerate 20%+ total revenue growth over the medium term," Borges said. The analyst said Palantir beat revenue estimates from analysts and raised its full-year revenue and operating income guidance. "We continue to view Palantir as uniquely positioned to leverage its core data stitching competencies into enterprises that are looking to deploy AI use cases." The analyst said over 915 organizations have participated in AI boot camps to date, with 136 deals closed in the first quarter. "We look to gauge to what extent Palantir can consistently convert bootcamps into bookings and revenue as we believe this go to market is still in the early stages of being formalized." Mizuho on Palantir: The company's artificial intelligence platform showed encouraging signs, Moskowitz said. The analyst said the first-quarter financial report was solid with "healthy revenue upside." "The rebound in Government was a pleasant surprise, although the Commercial beat coming entirely from strategic commercial contracts was not," Moskowitz said. The analyst said the strong report and raised guidance "could help alleviate potential investor concerns." "We believe PLTR needs to consistently demonstrate stronger execution and growth in order to justify a higher valuation." The analyst said Palantir showed strong momentum for its AI Platform, with high demand coming from U.S. enterprises. "Mgmt also reiterated that it is seeing exceptional interest in its AIP bootcamps, which are helping PLTR meaningfully compress sales cycles as new customers are landing and expanding at an accelerating rate." The analyst's $21 price target is based on an enterprise value divided by sales multiple of 18.5x for 2024 estimates and 15.5x for 2025 estimates. Moskowitz said the premium multiple to other enterprise software companies is based on Palantir's "strong strategic positioning with large customers and the potential for accelerated growth in future years." Story continues PLTR Price Action: Palantir shares are down 14% to $21.65 on Tuesday, versus a 52-week trading range of $8.66 to $27.50. Palantir shares are up 180% over the last year. Read Next: Wedbush’s Dan Ives Smells ‘Golden Buying Opportunity’ In Palantir’s Pullback After Q1 Earnings As He Lauds ‘Jalen-Brunson-Like’ Performance Photo: World Economic Forum on Flickr Latest Ratings for PLTR Date Firm Action From To Mar 2022 Piper Sandler Initiates Coverage On Overweight Mar 2022 Morgan Stanley Upgrades Underweight Equal-Weight Feb 2022 Citigroup Maintains Sell View More Analyst Ratings for PLTR View the Latest Analyst Ratings "ACTIVE INVESTORS' SECRET WEAPON" Supercharge Your Stock Market Game with the #1 "news & everything else" trading tool: Benzinga Pro - Click here to start Your 14-Day Trial Now! Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article Government Surveillance Contractor Palantir's AI Tactics Under Microscope By Wall Street Analysts: Must 'Demonstrate' Growth To Justify Valuation originally appeared on Benzinga.com © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Peloton Sees Interest For Potential Buyout From Private Equity, Stock Soars 2024-05-08 02:43:00+00:00 - Peloton Sees Interest For Potential Buyout From Private Equity, Stock Soars Peloton Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ:PTON) shares are trading higher following a report suggesting that private equity firms are considering a potential buyout of the company. The update comes amid Peloton’s business turnaround plans after 13 straight quarters of losses, CNBC reports. The company had discussed plans to go private with at least one firm as multiple private equity firms flocked around to pitch an attractive deal by exploring ways to slash its operating expenses. Last week, the connected fitness company reported worse-than-expected third-quarter results, a CEO transition, and a 15% global workforce reduction. The pandemic darling’s sales of $717.7 million were down by 4.2% year over year, missing the analysts’ estimates of $723.2 million. The EPS loss of $(0.45) missed the analyst consensus estimate loss of $(0.36). The company also informed about CEO Barry McCarthy’s departure and Karen Boone and Chris Bruzzo’s arrival as interim co-CEOs, while it found a permanent replacement. Peloton also divulged a restructuring program involving slashing its global headcount by roughly 400 employees. Peloton also cut its full-year revenue outlook. Peloton has emerged as a potential acquisition target, with its market capitalization dropping dramatically from $49.3 billion in January 2021 to around $1.3 billion by Monday. While Peloton boasts a profitable and stable subscription service with millions of dedicated users, the high production costs and numerous recalls of its essential products—bikes, and treadmills—have tarnished its reputation and incurred significant financial losses. Additionally, the demand for expensive at-home exercise equipment has declined as consumers across all income levels cut back on major expenditures. Over the past two years, Peloton has experienced a decline in hardware sales and struggled with high operational costs, which have challenged its growth, cash flow generation, and profitability. Peloton held $1.7 billion in debt as of March 31, 2024. Peloton stock plunged 52% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock via BNY Mellon Innovators ETF (NASDAQ:BKIV) and IShares Virtual Work And Life Multisector ETF (NYSE:IWFH). Price Action: PTON shares are up 12.8% at $3.99 at the last check Tuesday. Photo Courtesy: Koshiro K On Shutterstock.com "ACTIVE INVESTORS' SECRET WEAPON" Supercharge Your Stock Market Game with the #1 "news & everything else" trading tool: Benzinga Pro - Click here to start Your 14-Day Trial Now! Story continues Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article Peloton Sees Interest For Potential Buyout From Private Equity, Stock Soars originally appeared on Benzinga.com © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

EV Truck Maker Nikola's Topline Plunges 30% in Q1 On Weak Demand, Stock Tanks 2024-05-08 00:33:00+00:00 - EV Truck Maker Nikola's Topline Plunges 30% in Q1 On Weak Demand, Stock Tanks Nikola Corp (NASDAQ:NKLA) stock declined after the company reported its fiscal first quarter 2024 results Tuesday. The company reported sales of $7.5 million, vs. $10.7 million a year ago, missing the analyst consensus estimate of $15.8 million. Adjusted EPS loss of $(0.09) versus $(0.22) Y/Y, beat the analyst consensus loss estimate of $(0.10). Nikola produced 43 trucks in the quarter compared to 63 a year ago and shipped 40 trucks compared to 31 a year ago. Nikola maintained its dominant market share of HVIP vouchers for Class 8 FCEVs, ending the quarter with 362 of 367, or 99% of the unredeemed vouchers it requested from 2023 through March 2024. On the Class 8 BEV side, the company ended the first quarter with 85 unredeemed vouchers or 30% market share. At the end of the first quarter, Nikola exceeded the high-end of the guidance range by delivering 40 fuel cell electric trucks (FCEVs), all designated for end fleets. That makes 75 wholesaled FCEVs in the first two quarters of serial production. The company’s gross loss was $(57.6) million versus $(22.7) million a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA loss declined to $(104.0) million from $(103.7) million a year ago. NKLA’s net cash used for operating activities was $(115.6) million versus $(176.0) a year ago. The company held $346.9 million in cash and equivalents as of March 31, 2024. Nikola postponed its delivery timeline for its reworked battery trucks to 2024 end from its earlier plan to complete it by the end of the second quarter or early third quarter, Reuters reports. The EV truck maker is struggling to sell its hydrogen big rigs as consumers and businesses turn to cheaper hybrid alternatives. In April, M&M Residual withdrew its nomination of five candidates for election to Nikola’s board, citing alleged potentially fraudulent conduct, taking a toll on Nikola’s stock price. Analysts have flagged Nikola’s potential medium-term hurdles, including inadequate charging infrastructure and steep hydrogen expenses that are hindering FCEV uptake. Nikola has lost over 41% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock via Direxion Moonshot Innovators ETF (NYSE:MOON) and SPDR S&P Kensho Smart Mobility ETF (NYSE:HAIL). Price Action: NKLA shares are trading lower by 9.93% at $0.5745 at the last check Tuesday. Nikola Photo by VanderWolf Images on Shutterstock "ACTIVE INVESTORS' SECRET WEAPON" Supercharge Your Stock Market Game with the #1 "news & everything else" trading tool: Benzinga Pro - Click here to start Your 14-Day Trial Now! Story continues Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? This article EV Truck Maker Nikola's Topline Plunges 30% in Q1 On Weak Demand, Stock Tanks originally appeared on Benzinga.com © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.