Why Titan International Stock Just Dropped 30%

What happened

2018 was supposed to be good for tire-maker Titan International (NYSE:TWI), but now, that's not looking so sure. On Friday, Titan's stock price plunged 30.6% (as of 1:30 p.m. EDT) in response to a second-quarter earnings release that missed analyst estimates badly.

Earnings per share of just $0.02 fell far short of analysts' expected $0.18 profit -- despite the fact that Titan booked sales of $428.9 million, ahead of Wall Street's expected $427.3 million in sales.

In today's earnings report, Titan tightens up guidance for this year's sales. Image source: Getty Images.

So what

In fact, sales grew an impressive 18% year over year at Titan, and the $0.02-per-share profit was a whole lot better than the $0.17 per share that Titan lost last year. CEO Paul Reitz was right to say that "Titan experienced another strong quarter of double-digit, year-over-year quarterly revenue growth, along with delivering improved operational performance." It just didn't improve quite as much as Wall Street had hoped for.

Titan blamed "currency headwinds, primarily in Latin America and Russia, which ... negatively impacted our reported EPS" for the discrepancy between expectations and earnings, and insisted that "the currency impact does not take away from the positive execution across many of our business units during the quarter."

Now what

Management stuck by its guidance for the rest of this year -- indeed, narrowing its guidance as the future becomes clearer. Sales are expected to grow between 9% and 12% this year, gross margin should improve "between 25 percent and 40 percent," and operating costs should decline year over year. Management didn't give a specific GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) figure for what it expects to earn, but said it thinks its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) could as much as double in comparison to last year.

For what it's worth, analysts are looking for Titan to earn $0.60 per share this year. Despite today's earnings disappointment and the stock's sell-off, with $0.25 earned through the end of the first half of the year, the company is nearly halfway there already.

Spartan Motors Inc (SPAR) Expected to Post Quarterly Sales of $193.00 Million

Equities research analysts expect Spartan Motors Inc (NASDAQ:SPAR) to post sales of $193.00 million for the current fiscal quarter, Zacks reports. Two analysts have provided estimates for Spartan Motors’ earnings. The lowest sales estimate is $188.40 million and the highest is $197.60 million. Spartan Motors reported sales of $169.74 million in the same quarter last year, which indicates a positive year-over-year growth rate of 13.7%. The business is scheduled to report its next earnings report before the market opens on Thursday, August 2nd.

On average, analysts expect that Spartan Motors will report full-year sales of $806.55 million for the current year, with estimates ranging from $802.40 million to $810.70 million. For the next financial year, analysts forecast that the company will post sales of $897.70 million per share, with estimates ranging from $892.10 million to $903.30 million. Zacks’ sales averages are a mean average based on a survey of sell-side analysts that cover Spartan Motors.

Get Spartan Motors alerts:

Spartan Motors (NASDAQ:SPAR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 3rd. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.04. Spartan Motors had a return on equity of 10.21% and a net margin of 2.98%. The company had revenue of $173.04 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $171.51 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.04 EPS. Spartan Motors’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on SPAR shares. BidaskClub cut Spartan Motors from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 12th. Zacks Investment Research lowered Spartan Motors from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 9th. Finally, ValuEngine lowered Spartan Motors from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.67.

In related news, VP Thomas Kivell sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.10, for a total transaction of $120,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 84,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,364,974.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Frederick J. Sohm sold 16,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.97, for a total value of $255,520.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 151,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,423,527.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 59,799 shares of company stock valued at $965,492. 4.22% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Spartan Motors by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,317,076 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,494,000 after purchasing an additional 39,110 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in Spartan Motors by 19.4% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 860,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,553,000 after acquiring an additional 139,941 shares during the period. Summit Creek Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Spartan Motors by 88.9% during the 2nd quarter. Summit Creek Advisors LLC now owns 600,677 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,070,000 after acquiring an additional 282,723 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Spartan Motors by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 471,236 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,106,000 after acquiring an additional 15,114 shares during the period. Finally, GW&K Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Spartan Motors by 56.5% during the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 470,460 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,092,000 after acquiring an additional 169,839 shares during the period. 67.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Shares of Spartan Motors opened at $15.30 on Friday, according to Marketbeat.com. Spartan Motors has a 52 week low of $8.55 and a 52 week high of $19.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $543.52 million, a PE ratio of 35.58, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 1.88 and a quick ratio of 1.44.

About Spartan Motors

Spartan Motors, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engineers, manufactures, and sells heavy-duty and purpose-built specialty vehicles in the United States, Canada, South America, and Asia. It operates through three segments: Fleet Vehicles and Services, Emergency Response Vehicles, and Specialty Chassis and Vehicles.

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Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Spartan Motors (SPAR)

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

ZetaMicron Trading Up 16.7% Over Last Week (ZMC)

ZetaMicron (CURRENCY:ZMC) traded 51.1% lower against the US dollar during the 1 day period ending at 0:00 AM Eastern on July 20th. One ZetaMicron coin can currently be bought for about $0.0001 or 0.00000001 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges. During the last seven days, ZetaMicron has traded up 16.7% against the US dollar. ZetaMicron has a total market cap of $43,725.00 and $4.00 worth of ZetaMicron was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours.

Here is how related cryptocurrencies have performed during the last 24 hours:

Get ZetaMicron alerts: XRP (XRP) traded 3.5% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.45 or 0.00006178 BTC. Stellar (XLM) traded 8.4% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.28 or 0.00003778 BTC. IOTA (MIOTA) traded down 4.6% against the dollar and now trades at $0.97 or 0.00013294 BTC. Tether (USDT) traded up 0.2% against the dollar and now trades at $1.00 or 0.00013742 BTC. TRON (TRX) traded down 4.5% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0350 or 0.00000481 BTC. NEO (NEO) traded down 7% against the dollar and now trades at $32.64 or 0.00448142 BTC. Binance Coin (BNB) traded 5.9% lower against the dollar and now trades at $12.04 or 0.00165352 BTC. VeChain (VET) traded up 7.4% against the dollar and now trades at $1.77 or 0.00024363 BTC. 0x (ZRX) traded down 12.5% against the dollar and now trades at $1.06 or 0.00014486 BTC. Zilliqa (ZIL) traded 8.7% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.0714 or 0.00000980 BTC.

About ZetaMicron

ZetaMicron’s total supply is 600,344,291 coins. The official message board for ZetaMicron is zetamicron.boards.net.

ZetaMicron Coin Trading

ZetaMicron can be bought or sold on these cryptocurrency exchanges: CoinExchange. It is usually not possible to buy alternative cryptocurrencies such as ZetaMicron directly using U.S. dollars. Investors seeking to trade ZetaMicron should first buy Bitcoin or Ethereum using an exchange that deals in U.S. dollars such as Changelly, GDAX or Gemini. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Bitcoin or Ethereum to buy ZetaMicron using one of the exchanges listed above.

ITC Q1 PAT seen up 2.8% YoY to Rs. 2,632 cr: KR Choksey

KR Choksey has come out with its first quarter (April-June�� 18) earnings estimates for the FMCG sector. The brokerage house expects ITC to report net profit at Rs. 2,632 crore up 2.8% year-on-year (down 10.3% quarter-on-quarter).

Net Sales are expected to increase by 5.6 percent Y-o-Y (down 0.7 percent Q-o-Q) to Rs. 10,512.1 crore, according to KR Choksey.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are likely to rise by 5.3 percent Y-o-Y (down 4.8 percent Q-o-Q) to Rs. 3,943.1 crore.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

Read More First Published on Jul 22, 2018 05:50 pm

How 2006 changed the internet

Programming note: Go back to the decade that's responsible for your smartphone and social media addictions: 'The 2000s' airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT starting July 8 on CNNTV and CNNgo.

During a six-month period in 2006, two pivotal events helped upend the internet as we knew it: Twitter launched in March and Facebook announced News Feed in September.

The two services introduced the social media news feed to a mass audience, changing how we engage with friends, consume news and view the world. These never-ending streams of updates are curated at least in part by opaque algorithms designed to personalize content and keep you scrolling, scrolling, scrolling so you see as many targeted ads as possible.

Feeds proved to be the death knell for the bygone era of web browsing, when people surfed the messy, often chaotic internet one URL at a time. "This is how the Wild West was tamed," says Ramesh Srinivasan, a professor at UCLA who studies the impact of technology on society. That led to a radical shift in how people consume information. Rather than deliberately scouring blogs, forums and news sites, "information is finding us, but we don't know how," Srinivasan says.

Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University in May 2004. Facebook was created 3 months before this photo was taken.

At its best, this shift sparked and supported new relationships, viral social good campaigns and pro-Democracy movements like the Arab Spring in 2011. But it also paved the way for filter bubbles, social media addiction, FOMO anxiety, and election meddling. For much of the past two years, Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) have faced mounting scrutiny over the role their feeds played in spreading fake news and disinformation campaigns intended to sow discord in the U.S. and abroad.

Looking back, some early employees remain proud of what they built, despite the unintended consequences. "Obviously there's been some really bad stuff," says Blaine Cook, a member of Twitter's founding team. But "the thing we built did what it was supposed to do. It gave communities a voice."

Others sound more resigned.

"Is it net positive?" says Ezra Callahan, one of Facebook's first employees. "I don't know. It is what it is."

Mostly, the consensus among those who built the platforms, and those who criticize them today, is that the rise of the feeds was unavoidable. The surge in people sharing posts online -- a trend that would only grow with the introduction of Apple's original iPhone in 2007 -- necessitated better tools for broadcasting and sifting through all that information. "It was always inevitable," Callahan says. "The feed culture was always going to happen."

The sense of inevitability was so strong in 2006 that people inside Facebook never seriously debated whether to proceed with News Feed, despite ample cause for concern. Employees and a small group of users testing News Feed during its development were stunned to see all the updates about new friendships and breakups and other things occurring across the platform every minute surfaced in one place.

"The initial reaction of so many during testing was, 'This feels like I'm seeing something I'm not supposed to about all these people,'" Callahan says. Some employees worried that Facebook was "just going to take users and throw them into the deep end," as Callahan puts it.

An image of the News Feed on the day it launched in 2006.

Ultimately, that's exactly what happened. On September 5, 2006, users signed on and discovered the change, which Facebook called a "facelift." Hundreds of thousands of people would soon protest the new feature. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, just 22 at the time, would issue one of his first public apologies in what you could call a foreshadowing of the privacy scandals to come.

While feeds may have taken off no matter what, perhaps some of the worst consequences could have been avoided. Soleio Cuervo, an early Facebook designer, remembers Facebook employees at least briefly teasing the possibility of including a "truth check" for posts in News Feed. The idea, as he recalls it, was that a "yellow squiggly line" might highlight something of questionable accuracy in the same way that a red squiggly line highlights questionable grammar or spelling in Word documents.

The conversation was not entirely unlike the current debate over how best to combat fake news. But at the time, it was a non-starter. "It was an exercise in fortifying our principles," Cuervo says. Those principles included Facebook's fervent commitment to freedom of speech and the "need to be a platform for all ideas, even the ones that are falsifiable."

Meanwhile, the traditional gatekeepers of news were trying to leverage social feeds to expand their audiences. But they failed to anticipate how much this technology would destabilize the media industry by "hoovering up" attention and ad dollars, says Vivian Schiller, the former CEO of NPR who later worked as Twitter's head of news. "There is no way we imagined it would become so profoundly disruptive to the way people engaged with news," she says.

The threat to online publications should have been clearer, given the cumbersome nature of browsing for news online at the time. "The notion of typing in a URL is ridiculous to the user. It's a bad user experience," Schiller says. Facebook and Twitter "created an efficiency for news." But in the process, they created an efficiency for fake news.

"There's always been misinformation on the internet, but it wasn't really centralized," says Ren茅e DiResta, who researches disinformation online as the head of policy at Data For Democracy. With social networks, audiences were consolidated in a handful of online destinations. The feeds then served as a perfect pipeline to funnel false information to what DiResta calls a "large, easily manipulatable" audience.

Under pressure from regulators around the world, Facebook, Twitter and other companies are struggling to crack down on fake news and disinformation. That includes using artificial intelligence to battle fake accounts and working with third-party fact-checkers to flag false news. But it may be too late.

"Doing it now, because of Facebook's sheer reach and its sheer power, is going to be very difficult," Cuervo says. If there was ever an ideal time to introduce a tool to fight disinformation on Facebook, he says, it would have been back in 2006, before the feeds changed everything.

Farmland Partners (FPI) Earning Somewhat Negative Press Coverage, Study Finds

Media stories about Farmland Partners (NYSE:FPI) have been trending somewhat negative on Wednesday, according to Accern Sentiment Analysis. The research firm identifies positive and negative media coverage by analyzing more than 20 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. Farmland Partners earned a coverage optimism score of -0.01 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave media headlines about the financial services provider an impact score of 43.838136584787 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the next several days.

Here are some of the media headlines that may have impacted Accern Sentiment’s analysis:

Get Farmland Partners alerts: Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Continues Investigation on Behalf of Farmland Partners Inc. Investors (FPI) (businesswire.com) Farmland Partners up 3.4% on its defense against short’s post on SA (seekingalpha.com) Robbins Arroyo LLP: Farmland Partners Inc. Accused of Overstating Revenue in Recently Filed Class Action (businesswire.com) Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP Alerts Investors to the Filing of Securities Class Action Against Farmland Partners, Inc. (FPI) (marketwatch.com) Farmland Partners goes on the offensive after short-seller’s ‘damaging attack’ (bizjournals.com)

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Investment Research lowered Farmland Partners from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 15th. ValuEngine lowered Farmland Partners from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 2nd. Finally, B. Riley upgraded Farmland Partners from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $8.50 to $8.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $8.92.

FPI stock opened at $6.24 on Wednesday. Farmland Partners has a twelve month low of $5.15 and a twelve month high of $9.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $205.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.33 and a beta of 0.13.

Farmland Partners (NYSE:FPI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 9th. The financial services provider reported ($0.08) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by ($0.03). Farmland Partners had a return on equity of 2.68% and a net margin of 19.85%. The business had revenue of $11.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.96 million. sell-side analysts expect that Farmland Partners will post 0.36 EPS for the current year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 2nd were paid a $0.127 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 29th. This represents a $0.51 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.14%. Farmland Partners’s payout ratio is 141.67%.

In other news, CEO Paul A. Pittman purchased 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 21st. The shares were acquired at an average price of $8.38 per share, with a total value of $25,140.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,181,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,899,176.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Jay Bartels sold 3,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $7.92, for a total value of $25,344.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,686 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,113.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders acquired 9,252 shares of company stock worth $74,793. Insiders own 2.76% of the company’s stock.

Farmland Partners Company Profile

Farmland Partners Inc is an internally managed real estate company that owns and seeks to acquire high-quality North American farmland and makes loans to farmers secured by farm real estate. As of the date of this release, the Company owns or has under contract over 166,000 acres in 17 states, including Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia.

Further Reading: What does earnings per share mean?

Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2019

tags:IBOC,ENX,EQIX,PEB,GDV,NCMI,

U.S. home prices are on a roll. And as we head into the New Year, I am expecting another record year for home prices in 2018. Today, I am going to reveal the safest, easiest and most profitable way to benefit from this trend.

Fueled by record-low interest rates and housing inventories, home prices in the United States hit another all-time high in 2017.

The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price NSA (SPCS20) Index measures the value of residential real estate in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas, including New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago. The most recent update showed that the index expanded 6.1% to 203 in August, breaking the previous all-time high of 198 from July of 2007. Take a look below.

SPCS20 Index Level Since July 2007

Looking forward, I am expecting another record year. Not only will interest rates remain relatively low, but I see no short-term solution to historically low housing inventories.

Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2019: International Bancshares Corporation(IBOC)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  BidaskClub upgraded shares of International Bancshares (NASDAQ:IBOC) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday.

  International Bancshares opened at $43.65 on Friday, MarketBeat reports. International Bancshares has a 1 year low of $32.50 and a 1 year high of $43.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.97 and a beta of 1.46.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Shares of International Bancshares Co. (NASDAQ:IBOC) hit a new 52-week high and low during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $44.40 and last traded at $44.25, with a volume of 11252 shares. The stock had previously closed at $43.90.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  International Bancshares (NASDAQ: IBOC) and First Business Financial Services (NASDAQ:FBIZ) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2019: Eaton Vance New York Municipal Bond Fund(ENX)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Eaton Vance New York Municipal Bond Fund (NYSEAMERICAN:ENX) announced a monthly dividend on Monday, June 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.0448 per share on Friday, June 29th. This represents a $0.54 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 21st.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Euronext Amsterdam (EPA:ENX) has been assigned a €51.00 ($60.71) price target by investment analysts at UBS in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, www.boersen-zeitung.de reports. The firm presently has a “sell” rating on the stock. UBS’s target price would suggest a potential downside of 15.63% from the stock’s current price.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Eaton Vance New York Municipal Bond Fund (NYSEAMERICAN:ENX) announced a monthly dividend on Thursday, July 5th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 24th will be paid a dividend of 0.0448 per share on Tuesday, July 31st. This represents a $0.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 23rd.

Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2019: Equinix Inc.(EQIX)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Equinix (EQIX)

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

• [By Lee Jackson]

  This is one of the larger capitalization companies in the data center industry. Equinix Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX)�provides data center services to protect and connect the information assets for the enterprises, financial services companies, and content and network providers primarily in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific.

• [By Craig Jones]

  Kevin Kelly spoke on Bloomberg Markets about a bullish options trade in Equinix Inc (NASDAQ: EQIX).

  He wants to buy the September 400/450 call spread in the name for $15.50. The trade breaks even at $415.50 or 5.41 percent above the current market price. It can maximally make a profit of $34.50. The payoff ratio is roughly 2.5 to 1, explained Kelly. He sees this as a derivative play on Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) cloud computing.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Front Row Advisors LLC increased its position in Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX) by 7.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,175 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 150 shares during the quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC’s holdings in Equinix were worth $909,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2019: Pebblebrook Hotel Trust(PEB)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Joseph Griffin]

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

  Get Pebblebrook Hotel alerts: Pebblebrook Hotel (PEB) Expected to Post Quarterly Sales of $206.07 Million (americanbankingnews.com) Keep Company Secrets Safe With a Strong Publishing Process (cmswire.com) Analysts Anticipate Pebblebrook Hotel (PEB) to Post $0.73 Earnings Per Share (americanbankingnews.com) Pebblebrook Hotel Forecasted to Earn Q2 2018 Earnings of $0.72 Per Share (PEB) (americanbankingnews.com)

  A number of brokerages recently issued reports on PEB. Boenning Scattergood restated a “hold” rating on shares of Pebblebrook Hotel in a report on Monday, April 30th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Pebblebrook Hotel from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Pebblebrook Hotel from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 1st. Finally, ValuEngine cut Pebblebrook Hotel from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Pebblebrook Hotel presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.61.

• [By Matthew DiLallo]

  Improving business travel demand during the first quarter drove Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB) to update its outlook earlier this month. Those travel trends turned out to be stronger than even its more optimistic expectations, helping the company to deliver results that were above the updated forecast. Because of that, the company is even more encouraged about what lies ahead in 2018.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $36.19.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Pebblebrook Hotel (PEB)

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

Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2019: Gabelli Dividend(GDV)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Media headlines about Gabelli Dividend & Income (NYSE:GDV) have trended somewhat positive this week, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. The research firm rates the sentiment of press coverage by analyzing more than 20 million news and blog sources. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Gabelli Dividend & Income earned a news impact score of 0.18 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned headlines about the financial services provider an impact score of 48.1795768072103 out of 100, meaning that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the company’s share price in the next several days.

Hot Safest Stocks To Buy For 2019: National CineMedia, Inc.(NCMI)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers Twin Disc, Incorporated (NASDAQ: TWIN) shares surged 24.34 percent to close at $28.86 following Q3 earnings. Bioblast Pharma Ltd. (NASDAQ: ORPN) rose 21.89 percent to close at $2.45. Evolus, Inc. (NASDAQ: EOLS) gained 20.19 percent to close at $8.75. Evolus named David Moatazedi as new CEO. VivoPower International PLC (NASDAQ: VVPR) rose 18.56 percent to close at $3.13 on Monday after falling 39.86 percent on Friday. CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE: CVM) gained 17.09 percent to close at $2.74. athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN) shares jumped 16.39 percent to close at $146.75 on Monday after Elliott Management confirmed a $160 per share cash offer for athenahealth. Gramercy Property Trust (NYSE: GPT) rose 15.45 percent to close at $27.50 after the company agreed to be acquired by Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX) for $27.50 per share. National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCMI) surged 15.23 percent to close at $6.43 after the company posted upbeat quarterly profit. Turtle Beach Corporation (NASDAQ: HEAR) rose 14.53 percent to close at $7.33 CohBar, Inc. (NASDAQ: CWBR) gained 14.36 percent to close at $6.29. Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTPH) gained 12.69 percent to close at $3.64. Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) gained 12.27 percent to close at $10.89 following Q1 results. CVR Refining, LP (NYSE: CVRR) shares climbed 9.8 percent to close at $19.05. Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) rose 4.93 percent to close at $256.89. Barclays upgraded Illumina from Equal-Weight to Overweight. Cloudera, Inc. (NYSE: CLDR) surged 3.92 percent to close at $15.63. Craig-Hallum initiated coverage on Cloudera with a Buy rating.

   

• [By WWW.GURUFOCUS.COM]

  For the details of Standard General L.P.'s stock buys and sells, go to http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Standard+General+L.P.

  These are the top 5 holdings of Standard General L.P.National CineMedia Inc (NCMI) - 14,387,113 shares, 83.65% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 8.59%Turning Point Brands Inc (TPB) - 455,319 shares, 9.92% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 49.13%CafePress Inc (PRSS) - 2,500,000 shares, 3.77% of the total portfolio. Emmis Communications Corp (EMMS) - 515,231 shares, 2.66% of the total portfolio. Added: Turnin
• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN) shares climbed 23.2 percent to $155.19 after Elliott Management confirmed a $160 per share cash offer for athenahealth. Evolus, Inc. (NASDAQ: EOLS) gained 21.3 percent to $8.83. Evolus named David Moatazedi as new CEO. VivoPower International PLC (NASDAQ: VVPR) climbed 18.2 percent to $3.12 after falling 39.86 percent on Friday. Gramercy Property Trust (NYSE: GPT) rose 15.6 percent to $27.53 after the company agreed to be acquired by Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX) for $27.50 per share. EP Energy Corporation (NYSE: EPE) rose 13 percent to $2.26. Energy XXI Gulf Coast, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGC) gained 11.9 percent to $7.35. National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCMI) surged 11.8 percent to $6.24 after the company posted upbeat quarterly profit. Sanchez Energy Corporation (NYSE: SN) shares gained 11.3 percent to $3.56. CVR Refining, LP (NYSE: CVRR) shares rose 8.8 percent to $18.875. Monaker Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MKGI) rose 8.7 percent to $2.9683. Kosmos Energy Ltd. (NYSE: KOS) shares rose 7.4 percent to $7.40. Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRNT) rose 7 percent to $2.88 after climbing 1.89 percent on Friday. Cloudera, Inc. (NYSE: CLDR) surged 6 percent to $15.93. Craig-Hallum initiated coverage on Cloudera with a Buy rating. Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) rose 5.1 percent to $257.35. Barclays upgraded Illumina from Equal-Weight to Overweight.

  Check out these big penny stock gainers and losers

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Here are some of the news headlines that may have effected Accern Sentiment’s rankings:

  Get National CineMedia alerts: Keep an Eyeball on P/S Ratio: The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:NCMI … (thestreetpoint.com) GLaterening Stocks: National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:NCMI), Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH … (journalfinance.net) Jerry Canning Joins National CineMedia (NCM) as Vice President, Digital Ad Sales (finance.yahoo.com) National CineMedia, Inc. (NCMI) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts (americanbankingnews.com)

  Shares of National CineMedia traded down $0.03, hitting $8.47, during mid-day trading on Tuesday, according to Marketbeat.com. The company had a trading volume of 690,980 shares, compared to its average volume of 780,168. The stock has a market cap of $662.84 million, a P/E ratio of 21.18 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.43, a quick ratio of 2.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of -11.19. National CineMedia has a 1-year low of $5.09 and a 1-year high of $8.60.

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Shares of National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCMI) got a boost, shooting up 16 percent to $6.45 after the company posted upbeat quarterly profit.

  Gramercy Property Trust (NYSE: GPT) shares were also up, gaining 16 percent to $27.52 after the company agreed to be acquired by Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX) for $27.50 per share.

• [By WWW.GURUFOCUS.COM]

  For the details of Standard General L.P.'s stock buys and sells, go to http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Standard+General+L.P.

  These are the top 5 holdings of Standard General L.P.National CineMedia Inc (NCMI) - 12,576,000 shares, 60.53% of the total portfolio. New PositionTime Inc (TIME) - 3,181,424 shares, 29.62% of the total portfolio. Turning Point Brands Inc (TPB) - 305,319 shares, 3.58% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 189.90%CafePress Inc (PRSS) - 2,500,000 shares, 3.12% of the total portfolio. New PositionB. Riley Financial Inc (RILY) - 167,736 shares, 1.97% of the total portfoli

India's tech firms grow in popularity with country's grads

India's top tech firms are becoming more popular with the country's budding engineers.

Companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys (INFY) and Wipro (WIT), the leading players in India's vast outsourcing industry, have all surged up an annual ranking of preferred employers for Indian engineering students.

The rankings are based on Universum's annual survey, which had over 1.3 million participants from more than 50 countries. In India, more than 10,500 engineering and IT students from the country's major universities took part.

Infosys, which dropped out of the top 10 for the first time last year, regained 9th spot. TCS, the country's biggest outsourcing firm, and Bangalore-based Wipro both climbed five spots to rank 13th and 20th respectively.

Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Facebook (FB) and Amazon (AMZN) still occupy the first five places on the list. India is a key market for most of them �� Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon have all taken steps to do more business in the country recently.

Indian students still list "an international career" as their number one goal, just ahead of "work/life balance" and a "secure or stable" career, but they're increasingly willing to consider options closer to home.

"Having an international career still remains the most important career goal ... but it has declined in importance since last year," said Pratik Sabherwal, head of advisory for Universum in the Asia Pacific region.

"This is another indicator of Indian talent acknowledging India's growing international stature," he added.

It's not just the big outsourcing firms that are proving more attractive to Indian students.

Flipkart, the online shopping firm bought by Walmart for $16 billion, ranked nine places higher than last year at 24th. And Reliance Industries, the conglomerate owned by India's wealthiest man Mukesh Ambani, rose 12 spots to 34th.

Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon also feature in the top 10 rankings among business students, where the only Indian employers are the Reserve Bank of India �� the country's central bank �� and the State Bank of India, its largest state-run bank.

Macquarie Analysts Give Exxon Mobil (XOM) a $70.00 Price Target

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) has been given a $70.00 price target by Macquarie in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday. The brokerage currently has a “sell” rating on the oil and gas company’s stock. Macquarie’s target price indicates a potential downside of 16.48% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Societe Generale restated a “buy” rating and set a $87.00 price target on shares of Exxon Mobil in a research note on Tuesday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $88.00 price target on Exxon Mobil and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. ValuEngine upgraded Exxon Mobil from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 11th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Exxon Mobil in a research note on Wednesday, June 13th. Finally, HSBC restated a “buy” rating and set a $88.00 price target on shares of Exxon Mobil in a research note on Monday, May 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.40.

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Exxon Mobil stock traded up $0.91 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $83.81. The stock had a trading volume of 235,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,966,176. Exxon Mobil has a 52 week low of $72.15 and a 52 week high of $89.30. The company has a market capitalization of $348.87 billion, a PE ratio of 23.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 27th. The oil and gas company reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.14 by ($0.05). Exxon Mobil had a return on equity of 8.22% and a net margin of 7.72%. The business had revenue of $68.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $61.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. Exxon Mobil’s revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. equities analysts predict that Exxon Mobil will post 4.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Macroview Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Exxon Mobil during the 1st quarter worth approximately $102,000. Corbyn Investment Management Inc. MD acquired a new position in shares of Exxon Mobil during the 1st quarter worth approximately $110,000. KHP Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Exxon Mobil during the 1st quarter worth approximately $111,000. Clearwater Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Exxon Mobil during the 1st quarter worth approximately $122,000. Finally, Trilogy Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Exxon Mobil during the 1st quarter worth approximately $149,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 51.86% of the company’s stock.

Exxon Mobil Company Profile

Exxon Mobil Corporation explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas in the United States, Canada/Other Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia/Oceania. It operates through Upstream, Downstream, and Chemical segments. The company also manufactures petroleum products; manufactures and markets commodity petrochemicals, including olefins, aromatics, polyethylene, and polypropylene plastics, as well as various specialty products; and transports and sells crude oil, natural gas, and petroleum products.

FundYourselfNow (FYN) Achieves Market Capitalization of $550,138.00

FundYourselfNow (CURRENCY:FYN) traded 0.5% lower against the US dollar during the 24-hour period ending at 13:00 PM Eastern on July 6th. FundYourselfNow has a market cap of $550,138.00 and approximately $0.00 worth of FundYourselfNow was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. During the last week, FundYourselfNow has traded up 38.7% against the US dollar. One FundYourselfNow token can now be purchased for approximately $0.59 or 0.00009089 BTC on exchanges including COSS, HitBTC and IDEX.

Here’s how similar cryptocurrencies have performed during the last 24 hours:

Get FundYourselfNow alerts: XRP (XRP) traded 2.6% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.47 or 0.00007176 BTC. Stellar (XLM) traded up 0.5% against the dollar and now trades at $0.21 or 0.00003159 BTC. IOTA (MIOTA) traded down 9.6% against the dollar and now trades at $1.05 or 0.00016020 BTC. Tether (USDT) traded 0.1% lower against the dollar and now trades at $1.01 or 0.00015324 BTC. NEO (NEO) traded 10.1% lower against the dollar and now trades at $37.48 or 0.00571400 BTC. TRON (TRX) traded down 4.7% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0366 or 0.00000558 BTC. Binance Coin (BNB) traded down 3.4% against the dollar and now trades at $13.38 or 0.00203990 BTC. VeChain (VET) traded down 6.4% against the dollar and now trades at $2.45 or 0.00037420 BTC. Ontology (ONT) traded 7.8% lower against the dollar and now trades at $4.63 or 0.00070548 BTC. Zilliqa (ZIL) traded 2.3% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.0840 or 0.00001281 BTC.

FundYourselfNow Token Profile

FundYourselfNow was first traded on July 31st, 2017. FundYourselfNow’s total supply is 12,500,000 tokens and its circulating supply is 927,377 tokens. The Reddit community for FundYourselfNow is /r/fundyourselfnow and the currency’s Github account can be viewed here. The official website for FundYourselfNow is www.fundyourselfnow.com. FundYourselfNow’s official Twitter account is @fundyourselfnow and its Facebook page is accessible here.

FundYourselfNow Token Trading

FundYourselfNow can be traded on the following cryptocurrency exchanges: HitBTC, IDEX and COSS. It is usually not presently possible to purchase alternative cryptocurrencies such as FundYourselfNow directly using US dollars. Investors seeking to acquire FundYourselfNow should first purchase Bitcoin or Ethereum using an exchange that deals in US dollars such as Gemini, Changelly or Coinbase. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Bitcoin or Ethereum to purchase FundYourselfNow using one of the exchanges listed above.

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$1.07 EPS Expected for Dorman Products Inc. (DORM) This Quarter

Wall Street brokerages expect Dorman Products Inc. (NASDAQ:DORM) to report earnings per share (EPS) of $1.07 for the current fiscal quarter, according to Zacks Investment Research. Three analysts have issued estimates for Dorman Products’ earnings. The lowest EPS estimate is $1.05 and the highest is $1.08. Dorman Products posted earnings of $0.83 per share in the same quarter last year, which suggests a positive year over year growth rate of 28.9%. The business is scheduled to issue its next quarterly earnings report on Tuesday, August 7th.

On average, analysts expect that Dorman Products will report full-year earnings of $4.17 per share for the current fiscal year, with EPS estimates ranging from $4.10 to $4.25. For the next financial year, analysts forecast that the firm will post earnings of $4.60 per share, with EPS estimates ranging from $4.56 to $4.68. Zacks’ earnings per share calculations are an average based on a survey of research firms that follow Dorman Products.

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Dorman Products (NASDAQ:DORM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 1st. The auto parts company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $227.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $233.97 million. Dorman Products had a return on equity of 18.27% and a net margin of 11.89%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.83 EPS.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Zacks Investment Research cut Dorman Products from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, June 18th. BidaskClub upgraded Dorman Products from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 19th. ValuEngine cut Dorman Products from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 1st. Finally, Barrington Research restated a “hold” rating on shares of Dorman Products in a report on Tuesday, May 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. The company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.50.

In other Dorman Products news, Director John J. Gavin bought 1,536 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 7th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $65.23 per share, with a total value of $100,193.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,395 shares in the company, valued at $221,455.85. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 11.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DORM. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Dorman Products by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. now owns 178,876 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $10,937,000 after acquiring an additional 5,664 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in shares of Dorman Products in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $654,000. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Dorman Products by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 73,595 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $4,500,000 after purchasing an additional 1,857 shares during the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its holdings in shares of Dorman Products by 36.6% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 69,348 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $4,240,000 after purchasing an additional 18,593 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinebridge Investments L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Dorman Products by 184.3% in the 4th quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. now owns 10,700 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $654,000 after purchasing an additional 6,936 shares during the last quarter. 75.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NASDAQ:DORM traded down $1.64 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $68.31. 114,248 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 155,220. The stock has a market cap of $2.28 billion, a PE ratio of 19.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.87. Dorman Products has a 1-year low of $56.36 and a 1-year high of $83.60.

About Dorman Products

Dorman Products, Inc supplies automotive replacement parts, automotive hardware, and brake products to the automotive aftermarket and mass merchandise markets in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. It offers original equipment dealer products, such as intake manifolds, exhaust manifolds, window regulators, radiator fan assemblies, tire pressure monitor sensors, exhaust gas recirculation coolers, and complex electronics modules; fluid reservoirs, variable valve timing components, complex electronics, and integrated door lock actuators; and fasteners, including oil drain plugs, wheel bolts, and wheel lug nuts.

Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Dorman Products (DORM)

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

Investors Sell Amazon.com (AMZN) on Strength (AMZN)

Investors sold shares of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) on strength during trading hours on Thursday. $1,878.51 million flowed into the stock on the tick-up and $2,001.31 million flowed out of the stock on the tick-down, for a money net flow of $122.80 million out of the stock. Of all equities tracked, Amazon.com had the 6th highest net out-flow for the day. Amazon.com traded up $40.94 for the day and closed at $1,701.45

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, June 21st. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, June 21st. Macquarie reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Friday, June 22nd. BidaskClub raised shares of Amazon.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 16th. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $2,100.00 target price on shares of Amazon.com in a report on Thursday, June 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $1,717.87.

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The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $820.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 373.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 1.59.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 26th. The e-commerce giant reported $3.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.80 by $1.47. Amazon.com had a net margin of 2.04% and a return on equity of 11.77%. The firm had revenue of $51.04 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.48 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 42.9% compared to the same quarter last year. analysts anticipate that Amazon.com will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other news, CFO Brian T. Olsavsky sold 2,028 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,587.50, for a total value of $3,219,450.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 1,781 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,827,337.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Patricia Q. Stonesifer sold 1,375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,580.98, for a total transaction of $2,173,847.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,002 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,393,941.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,493 shares of company stock worth $16,569,014 in the last three months. Insiders own 16.30% of the company’s stock.

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Amazon.com during the first quarter valued at $705,000. Brasada Capital Management LP raised its stake in Amazon.com by 8.2% during the first quarter. Brasada Capital Management LP now owns 512 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $741,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new stake in Amazon.com during the first quarter valued at $290,000. Rikoon Group LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 10.9% during the first quarter. Rikoon Group LLC now owns 2,097 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $2,877,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Vista LLC raised its stake in Amazon.com by 47.0% during the first quarter. Private Vista LLC now owns 794 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $1,149,000 after purchasing an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. 56.66% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc engages in the retail sale of consumer products and subscriptions in North America and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) segments. It sells merchandise and content purchased for resale from vendors, as well as those offered by third-party sellers through physical stores and retail Websites, such as amazon.com, amazon.ca, amazon.com.mx, amazon.com.au, amazon.com.br, amazon.cn, amazon.fr, amazon.de, amazon.in, amazon.it, amazon.co.jp, amazon.nl, amazon.es, and amazon.co.uk.

Buy Voltas; target of Rs 680: JM Financial

JM Financial's research report on Voltas

We met the Voltas management for an update on its growth outlook and the key takeaways are as follows: a) While nonseasonal rains continued to play havoc, a favorable base and market share gains may help maintain single-digit volume growth. b) The company hiked prices by 2-5% from mid-May��18 to counter rising commodity prices and a depreciating INR (40-45% import content in room ACs). c) Consumer durables products under the Voltbek JV are slated to be launched during the festive season in 2HFY19; these would be imported in CKD form for the first 18 months. d) An increase in the share of rural electrification (RE) projects to 35-40% of Voltas�� order book is likely to reduce its average execution cycle, while the launch of DDUGJY scheme phase-2 should keep inflows strong in FY19-20. e) EMP margins are likely to sustain at 7-7.5% over FY19-20 as management remains cautious when bidding for new orders in the Middle East, despite a pick-up in tendering activity.

Outlook
We maintain BUY with an SOTP-based TP of INR 680, implying 30x FY20E EPS

For all recommendations report, click here

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. Read More First Published on Jun 20, 2018 05:29 pm

Soybean prices plunge to nine-year low on US-China trade war fears

Soybean futures plunged Tuesday to their lowest in more than nine years following renewed concerns about a U.S.-China trade war.

A war of words between the two countries picked up overnight, following announcements of tit-for-tat tariffs on $34 billion worth of imports late last week. In retaliation against planned U.S. duties, Beijing intends to impose a 25 percent tariff on 545 U.S. goods, including soybeans.

Soybean futures for July delivery dropped more than 7 percent to a low of $8.415 a bushel, their lowest since March 2009, according to Thomson Reuters. They were trading near $8.64 a bushel as of 11 a.m. ET.

There are a lot of "unknowns and no confidence," said Rich Nelson, director of research at Allendale, an agricultural market research and trading firm. He added that prices could reverse just as quickly if headlines on trade changed.

With Tuesday's late morning sell-off, soybean prices are now more than 17 percent lower for the quarter and down more than 10 percent for the year.

Corn futures tumbled to their lowest price in more than six months. Wheat and oat futures fell roughly 1.4 percent and 3 percent, respectively, while rough rice futures were mildly lower.

"The dramatic drop today is soybeans because soybeans is first and foremost what the Chinese like to buy from us," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group.

More than half of U.S. soybeans go to China, the world's largest consumer of the beans.

If Beijing imposed a 10 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans, total American soybean exports could drop by 18 percent, according to a study for the U.S. Soybean Export Council by Purdue University agricultural economists Wally Tyner and Farzad Taheripour.

If China implemented a 30 percent tariff, total U.S. soybean exports could fall 40 percent, according to the study, released in late March. Prices would fall 2 or 5 percent over a few years, respectively, under the two different scenarios, the analysis said.

In addition to negative sentiment around the trade dispute, Flynn attributed the drop in soybean prices to dollar strength, which makes U.S. goods relatively more expensive overseas. The U.S. dollar index rose about 0.3 percent Tuesday and is up 5.5 percent this quarter.

"I think ultimately the world is going to buy our beans," Flynn said. "The demand is there. People have to eat. The decrease in price may offset the fact there might be a tariff."

3 Stocks That Could Put Tesla's Returns to Shame

Despite the recent struggles Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)�has faced with the manufacturing of its Model 3, it's hard to ignore the�fact that this has been a fantastic stock to own this decade. Finding stocks that can produce a 1,000% return in less than 10 years is absolutely fantastic for one's portfolio.

It's not an easy task finding these kinds of stocks. For every Tesla, there are numerous stocks that have no shot at that kind of return. So we put the question to three of our Motley Fool investors: What stock do you see having a future that could meet or beat Tesla's performance? Here's why they picked SolarEdge Technologies (NASDAQ:SEDG), A.O. Smith (NYSE:AOS), and Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO).

Image source: Getty Images.

The behind-the-scenes investment in solar energy

Tyler Crowe (SolarEdge Technologies): Investing in solar power isn't the slam dunk investment that one might think. Even though the solar industry has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past several years, the economics of solar panel producers and residential installers haven't been great for investors. Pricing pressure and the constant need to reinvest in new technology means margins in these businesses have been razor thin. One part of the solar industry that has done spectacularly well, though, are component suppliers. That's why SolarEdge Technologies' stock is up 273% over the past year and there is a chance that there is still room to run.

SolarEdge doesn't make panels. Rather, it makes the electrical components that make solar power a viable power source such as inverters and power optimizers. The benefit of these kinds of products is that they are panel agnostic -- they can be installed on any manufacturers' panels -- and they improve the economics of an installation, which gives it some pricing power when selling products. This position in the solar value chain has allowed SolarEdge to grow revenue by more than 50% annually while maintaining a gross margin of 29% or higher over the past three years.�

Even though the stock has grown incredibly over the past year, there is still room for it to run. Revenue shows little sign of slowing down, margins are expanding, and the recent ruling that all new homes need to have a solar power installation on them�make a price to earnings ratio of 35 for a stock growing this fast seem more than reasonable. If you want a stock that has a chance to outpace Tesla for a while, take a look at SolarEdge Technologies.�

Building off of a solid foundation

Reuben Gregg Brewer (A.O. Smith Corporation): Tesla has helped to change the way we look at automobiles, with investors jumping aboard the exciting potential electric cars offer. The stock is up 240% over the past five years. Boring old water heater maker A.O. Smith, meanwhile, has seen its stock rise 220% over that span... and it's on much stronger financial ground to keep that run going.

Water heaters may not be as exciting as electric cars in mature markets, but in emerging markets hot water is in high demand and is a lot more affordable than a Tesla automobile. Over the past decade A.O. Smith has grown revenue in China by 21% a year! Now the company is focusing on the equally compelling long-term opportunity in India, where management expects its target customer population to expand by over 250% between 2020 and 2030.� �

Data source: AOS Total Long Term Debt (Quarterly) data by YCharts.

That's a great opportunity for A.O. Smith and it shouldn't have any problems supporting the spending to tap it; Long-term debt makes up just 15% of the company's capital structure, with the dollar amount of debt lower than it was a decade ago. Tesla has a huge opportunity in electric cars, but it may not live up to its potential because of its much discussed debt issues. It has four times more long-term debt than it did just three years ago, with long-term debt now accounting for two-thirds of its capital structure. Worse, there's legitimate concern that it won't be able to raise more cash if it needs it. In the end, A.O. Smith has both good growth prospects and a solid financial foundation, a combination that could easily allow it to beat Tesla's stock performance in the future.� � �

A video game stock with home run potential

Travis Hoium (Take-Two Interactive): Video games have become a massive business as games have spread from gaming consoles to computers and mobile devices. The industry is dominated by three companies, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two Interactive. Of the three, Take-Two Interactive is by far the smallest and least developed game-maker, but that's why I think it could be set up for huge returns for investors.�

Until now, Take-Two Interactive has primarily been a console or PC gaming company with titles like Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K�being its leading revenue drivers. That's limited growth markets like mobile and esports, which are now drawing millions of fans viewing league play.�

Take-Two Interactive acquired Social Point last year to expand its mobile presence and management said the company's games "contributed meaningfully" to net bookings with Dragon City and Monster Legends. Updates to both games are expected in the near future and management has high hopes for this segment. �

On the esports side, Take-Two Interactive launched the NBA 2K league earlier this year to mixed reviews, but it's a toe in the esports water for the company. Activision Blizzard has shown that esports league franchise values can be worth tens of millions of dollars and advertising deals can reach over $100 million in aggregate, so there's a lot of potential. One positive point for NBA 2K league is the 37 million registered users in China, which could make this a league that can go worldwide very quickly.�

Take-Two Interactive isn't as valuable or mature in building out mobile and esports as Activision Blizzard or Electronic Arts, but that's why it could be a home run stock. The company needs a hit like Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption to take the gaming industry by storm while pushing its business model further into mobile and esports. If it can do that long-term it'll be a big winner for investors.�

Target: A Financially Absent Board

Target Corporation (TGT) recently reported decent revenues coupled with earnings that fell short of market expectations as the company continues to face a challenging retail environment and fierce competition. The debate about the company's place in the marketplace rages on as the road ahead remains difficult (and potentially painful) despite ongoing efforts to differentiate the brand.

However, rather than focusing on the company's financials and operations, which have been well documented by other contributors, we turn our focus for a moment to the rather more obscure proxy statement and the share ownership of the company's board of directors. In particular, the lack of direct and indirect ownership of the company's shares even by longstanding directors.

Target is not alone in having directors with limited personal investment in the company. However, Target's board members take this lack of personal investment to an unusual level in that seven of the eleven nominees for the company's board of directors have no personal ownership of the company's shares on either a direct or indirect basis. In essence, even the smallest Target shareholder has invested more personal funds into the company's shares than the majority of the company's board of directors.

Source: Target Proxy Statement (2018)

The lack of direct or indirect ownership of company shares purchased with personal funds, as noted earlier, is not an issue limited to the company. A lack of direct investment by board members can be identified at many other companies. In many cases, the shareholding disclosure in the proxy statement is structured in such a way that direct and indirect individual ownership is not specifically separated from ownership through stock grants and restricted stock units (as is the case with Target's disclosure), thus obscuring the nature of ownership and requiring investors to go to the fine print notes associated with the tables to understand the true nature of share ownership.

However, the extent of the lack of direct investment at Target by its board members is striking, and it's not simply an issue of directors new to the board. In fact, the majority of the seven directors with no personal investment in the company have been board members since 2013 and one - Calvin Darden - has sat on the board for nearly 15 years.

Target does currently have stock ownership guidelines for directors (and executive officers), but in our experience, these are only marginally meaningful. The current stock ownership requirement for directors is a fixed value of $500,000, but this level of ownership may be achieved over a period of five years after election to the board and, based on the compensation paid to directors, is conveniently significantly less than what a director will earn in fees over the same five-year period. The company therefore establishes a requirement - and then effectively fulfills that requirement over time out of company funds.

We find the structure of this arrangement, though not unusual in the corporate world, nonetheless concerning and especially so in light of the lack of direct ownership. A significant body of evidence - as well as common sense - supports the view that individuals (and board members) tend to react differently when making decisions when there is a personal investment (made with personal funds) versus an indirect investment developed through the granting of stock grants or stock options. The difference is similar to the psychological difference between risking personal funds or "house" funds. A lack of direct personal investment has the potential to result in decisions which don't reflect the best interests of shareholders as the psychological alignment does not reflect the apparent financial alignment with common shareholders.

In addition, it begs the question exactly what message is sent to the public markets on the margin when the members of a company's board of directors don't see sufficient reason to invest directly in the shares of the company of which they are a director.

It's difficult, of course, to assign a particular decision or fault to the lack of direct ownership of stock on the part of the board of directors. We're also not suggesting that the board of directors has implicitly failed in its duties with respect to shareholders. Individual shareholders may have their own perspective on these issues.

Nonetheless, shareholders may be better served by including a minimum direct investment requirement before an individual may be nominated to the board of directors, such as a fixed threshold of $100,000 in company stock in addition to the $500,000 five-year requirement, to ensure that individuals being nominated to the board have an actual, personal, tangible investment in the company however small relative to the scale of the company. A minimum investment threshold before an individual is eligible for nomination is not an unusual requirement. We've previously communicated these concerns to the company without receiving a satisfactory response.

Conclusion

We believe there is a compelling investment argument for Target despite the ongoing competitive challenges. We believe the company is making the right moves in several areas, especially with respect to its exclusive brands, to remain relevant and differentiated in the new retail landscape. We're also not a subscriber to the conventional wisdom that physical retail is dead in the face of online competition. Indeed, we've argued that the growth of Amazon (AMZN) over the last several years isn't unprecedented and, at least so far, actually rather closely tracks (and possibly underperforms) the retail market share capture achieved by Walmart (WMT) more than two decades earlier. Regardless, our view is that the company will remain profitable and, at the right price, represents a decent long-term investment.

However, from a governance perspective, we do believe that Target shareholders should be concerned about the lack of personal investment by those who purport to represent the interests of the company's shareholders.

Disclosure: I am/we are long TGT.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Victoria's Secret might be 'broken' as L Brands slashes its outlook

Victoria's Secret is looking broken, according to one analyst, following the earnings report by lingerie retailer's parent company L Brands.

Shares of L Brands, which also owns Bath & Body Works, initially sold off Thursday after the company slashed its full-year profit outlook. However, as the company discussed its plans to improve performance on the earnings call, the stock recouped its losses, and was trading up nearly 2 percent.

"The release ... sheds light on just how promotional the biz was, with merchandise margin down significantly," Jefferies analyst Randal Konik said in a note to clients. He added that L Brands' "rock" in Bath & Body Works "over the past few years is starting to destabilize."

For fiscal 2018, L Brands now expects earnings per share to fall within a range of $2.70 and $3, down from a prior estimate of $2.95 to $3.25.

Industry experts increasingly fear the company is highly exposed in U.S. malls suffering from weaker foot traffic and has no plans for major cuts in square footage. L Brands, in fact, is adding even more stores under the Bath & Body Works chain, including its offshoot for candles, White Barn.

L Brands, through Victoria's Secret, Pink, Bath & Body Works, La Senza and Henri Bendel, has a little more than 3,000 company-owned stores spread across the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Greater China.

"The dark store environment, the conspicuous sexuality of the offer, and the brash marketing are increasingly out of step with what modern consumers want," GlobalData Retail managing director Neil Saunders said about Victoria's Secret.

The age-old lingerie player is facing increased competition from more millennial-focused brands like American Eagle's Aerie division, Adore Me and ThirdLove. Those brands offer trendy lace bralettes and comfortable pieces more aggressively than push-up bras. Amazon has been making a bigger bet on the business, too, in partnering with Calvin Klein. Victoria's Secret's racy ad campaigns also don't sit well with some women in light of the #MeToo movement.

"Niche players may only have a small share compared to Victoria's Secret, but their innovative approaches mean they are nibbling away at its market share," Saunders said.

L Brands shares have fallen more than 40 percent. The retailer has a market capitalization of roughly $9.5 billion.

WATCH: L Brands beats on earnings but lowers outlook

show chapters L Brands beats on top and bottom, but lowers Q2 guidance    16 Hours Ago | 00:44

Walmart: Furious Battle Pending In Grocery

One thing that investors can't say about Walmart (NYSE:WMT) is that there has been a clear lack of effort to transform the company. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) came on the scene many years ago and disrupted the whole sector. Walmart, for a few quarters some years back, found itself standing still as Amazon raced ahead with its market share gains.

I distinctively remember the bearish coverage back then which insinuated that Walmart's dominance in retail was over. While this may be true to a small degree, I think few expected how the company has tried to reinvent itself, especially in the digital channels. In fact, many would agree that Walmart's response to Amazon's threat has been far bolder than that of many of its retail counterparts such as Target (NYSE:TGT) and Kroger (NYSE:KR), and I think the company should be applauded for this.

Fast forward a few years later, which have included a host of acquisitions (the $16 billion Flipkart deal being the latest), and the Walmart of today doesn't look anything like the company we saw a mere 5 years ago. We have been long this stock since mid-2017. Although we have seen quite a large piece of paper profit this year, the company's recent first-quarter results did nothing to change our long-term view. Here is our reasoning behind this.

First, sentiment in this stock has been pretty depressed since the turn of the year. Why? Both the fourth quarter of last year and Q1 of this year didn't go down well with investors despite the growth we witnessed in e-commerce, for example. Online sales grew by 23% on a rolling quarter basis in Q4 and 33% in Q1. This growth, though, is adversely affecting margins. Operating margins over a trailing 12-month average is now at 4.1%, which is a full 2% down from its peak in 2011.

What I would say to investors here is that it is going to take Walmart time to right the ship with respect to operations. The company has so many moving parts in that it is trying to tailor its offerings to different clientele all at one time. Just a short 3-5 years ago, WMT was solely known as the bargain-based value brand. However, now the retailer wants wealthier people buying its stuff, even if they don't want to set foot in its stores. When one includes the host of recent acquisitions, along with the running of the offline stores, it is easy to see why streamlining everything together is going to take time. I firmly believe that out of the present chaos, order will eventually come. Furthermore, operating margins, which definitely have been adversely affected by high shipping costs, will rise once Walmart becomes more efficient. I'm estimating around the 4.4-4.5% level next year.

Whereas Amazon may have the technical expertise where it can control inventory levels much better because of accurate reporting, Walmart's advantage is its scale and balance sheet, which it has leveraged over a while. Just look at what the company is doing in online grocery. The retailer soon will be in a position for an initiative that will be able to serve half the country's population with grocery delivery. Walmart really had no choice here but to go on the offensive as a result of Amazon's entry into this market through its Whole Foods purchase. Although groceries is still in its infancy in e-commerce, I can see this trend changing. Why? Well, with people working longer than ever, time is money. It's like anything else - once customers see that there is no problem with buying food online, we will see a big increase in volume here.

Grocery is where the ultimate battle will be won, and here is where Walmart can really leverage its scale. Logistics and inventories should be far less of a problem here, given the massive size grocery already makes up of the company's business. I just feel the cost advantage of Walmart in this division will eventually be seen by customers. The company has made it clear that operational income will be sacrificed temporarily to build the business. I expect Walmart to defend (which will mean aggressively promoting) its grocery division very strongly. Let the battle begin! Remaining long WMT.

Disclosure: I am/we are long WMT.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Facebook wants to make changing your privacy settings less work

Facebook is supposed to be a fun way to waste some time, but taking a break from "liking" status updates to customize your privacy settings is a chore.

The company knows its controls need work, and it's trying to fix them with site design changes and a staff re-organization.

"[One of] the positive side effects of the past few months, and all the news around Cambridge Analytica, has been that people are actually interested in and want to go learn about the controls," said Facebook's David Baser.

The company aims to raise awareness of its controls �� many of which users don't know exist. During CEO Mark Zuckerberg's testimony in front of Congress last month, some US senators, including Senator John Kennedy, seemed surprised to learn what settings were available to users.

Baser is in charge of the company's new centralized privacy team that will oversee and standardize privacy and data use across the social network. The department is hiring hundreds of engineers.

Its debut project is Clear History, a tool to delete information Facebook (FB) has collected from outside sites and apps. Zuckerberg announced Clear History at the company's developer conference in early May, and it will be released in the next few months.

The current main settings screen, which sorts controls by topic, can be intimidating to average users. It's a hodgepodge of old and new interfaces, and the dry language can be time consuming to get through.

"Some of the feedback we've gotten is 'Wow, this is amazing you're offering this level of transparency, but this feels like a lot of work,'" said Sarah Epps, Facebook's director of marketing for ad products.

The company has tried various techniques to lure users to take control of their settings. The company promoted its settings options more following the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed the political data firm collected information on 50 million Americans through a third-party app on Facebook.

Facebook pushed a way to check ad controls at the top of the News Feed. It also consolidated the most popular privacy and security settings, which were scattered around in multiple locations, in a single "Privacy Shortcuts" menu.

But even with promotions and prominent real estate on the app and site, Facebook has found many people scroll right past the links.

Julie Zhuo, Facebook's vice president of design, said she's constantly looking at ways to get controls out of the settings screen and in front of people when they need them.

"If people don't know that they exist or don't know how to use them or where to find them, then you're solving that problem for a minority of people who are very motivated," Zhuo said.

She said Facebook has found it's more helpful to surface settings options at the right moment.

The design team has had success with a technique that suggests related options after a user tweaks a setting. For example, if a person hides a post in their feed, a prompt may pop up with options to mute whoever posted it.

Meanwhile, the company has been adding more information and settings directly to each advertisement via a dropdown menu. It includes a "why am I seeing this?" option, which leads to more detailed controls.

The demand for more nuanced controls after Cambridge Analytica has been loud, but that doesn't mean average users around the world are clamoring for a way to manage each detail about their data.

"The tension that always arises is everyone wants simpler controls and more powerful controls. Those two things are almost automatically at tension with each other," said Baser. "The challenge we need to figure out is, how do we build something that everyone will understand, and at the same time, not make it so complex that it basically becomes unintelligible and people don't want to interact with it?"

According to Baser, telling people about the controls doesn't build trust. Instead, Facebook needs to ensure people are using them, too.

"I don't think most people are concerned about the very technical conversation," Baser said. "They just want to know that their data is safe."