Tag Archives: PRTS

Hot Medical Stocks To Invest In 2019

Retirees need help with basic living expenses, and healthcare is a vital need for people as they age. Together, Social Security and Medicare aim to give retirees vital assistance with their medical and financial obligations. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, cooperate and work together with the Social Security Administration, or SSA, in a variety of ways to ensure that the two programs work as smoothly as possible.

One of the most important ways that Social Security and Medicare work together is in preventing Social Security recipients from suffering financial harm as a result of Medicare increases. A key rule known as the hold-harmless provision helps to ensure that Social Security recipients won’t face painful reductions in their monthly benefits even when costs under Medicare are on the rise. However, the way that the hold-harmless provision works doesn’t quite match up with the mistaken ideas that many recipients have about how it should work. It’s essential to know the facts so that you can avoid any nasty surprises during your retired years.

Hot Medical Stocks To Invest In 2019: U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc.(PRTS)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Logan Wallace]

    Media stories about U.S. Auto Parts Network (NASDAQ:PRTS) have been trending somewhat positive recently, according to Accern Sentiment Analysis. The research firm scores the sentiment of media coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. U.S. Auto Parts Network earned a news sentiment score of 0.05 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media stories about the specialty retailer an impact score of 45.533280416614 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the near future.

  • [By Max Byerly]

    Media stories about U.S. Auto Parts Network (NASDAQ:PRTS) have trended somewhat positive recently, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. Accern scores the sentiment of news coverage by reviewing more than 20 million news and blog sources. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. U.S. Auto Parts Network earned a news impact score of 0.16 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave media headlines about the specialty retailer an impact score of 47.0744515537091 out of 100, meaning that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the next several days.

  • [By Joseph Griffin]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on U.S. Auto Parts Network (PRTS)

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

Hot Medical Stocks To Invest In 2019: Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.(LXRX)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Max Byerly]

    Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LXRX) was downgraded by equities research analysts at BidaskClub from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued on Friday.

  • [By Max Byerly]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (LXRX)

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

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LXRX) was upgraded by stock analysts at ValuEngine from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday.

  • [By Keith Speights]

    Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:MDGL), Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX), and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:LXRX) stocks ranked as especially big winners over the last few days. What lit a fire beneath these stocks — and are they smart picks to buy now? Here’s what you need to know.

  • [By Chris Lange]

    Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: LXRX) is making presentations at the American Diabetes Association on June 22 to 26. Lexicon recently traded at $13.58 a share, with a consensus analyst price target of $23.00 and a 52-week trading range of $7.67 to $18.00.

  • [By Lisa Levin] Gainers
    Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDGL) shares surged 144.96 percent to close at $265.61 on Thursday in reaction to an encouraging Phase 2 clinical trial update. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company said its liver-directed, thyroid hormone receptor called MGL-3196 showed a statistical significance in the primary endpoint of lowering liver fat at 12 weeks and also 36 weeks.
    Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VKTX) shares rose 101.01 percent to close at $9.99 on Thursday after falling 4.42 percent on Wednesday.
    Akers Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKER) jumped 45.58 percent to close at $0.474. The developer of rapid health information technologies said Wednesday afternoon it was granted a 180-day extension from the Nasdaq Stock Market to meet the requirement of a minimum $1.00 per share closing bid price for 10 straight days.
    Kitov Pharma Ltd (NASDAQ: KTOV) gained 40.93 percent to close at $3.03 after the FDA approved Kitov's Consensi for the treatment of osteoarthritis pain and hypertension.
    China Customer Relations Centers, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCRC) rose 28.21 percent to close at $19.86.
    J.Jill, Inc. (NYSE: JILL) climbed 26.45 percent to close at $7.84 after the company posted upbeat quarterly earnings.
    Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS) shares climbed 21.93 percent to close at $2.78 in reaction to an encouraging FDA update. The biotechnology company that focuses on therapies for the treatment of cancer said the FDA granted a Fast Track designation for fimepinostat (CUDC-907) in patients with relapsed or refractory.
    Boxlight Corporation (NASDAQ: BOXL) gained 21.23 percent to close at $7.48.
    Kirkland's, Inc. (NASDAQ: KIRK) rose 16.21 percent to close at $12.83 after reporting upbeat Q1 results.
    The Brink's Company (NYSE: BCO) jumped 16.2 percent to close at $79.25 as the company announced plans to acquire Dunbar Armored for $520 million in cash.
    Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAOI) rose 15.14 percent to c

Hot Medical Stocks To Invest In 2019: Arcadia Biosciences, Inc.(RKDA)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Max Byerly]

    Arcadia Biosciences (NASDAQ: RKDA) is one of 22 public companies in the “Agricultural chemicals” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare Arcadia Biosciences to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, risk, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

  • [By Lisa Levin] Gainers
    Red Violet, Inc. (NASDAQ: RDVT) rose 75.31 percent to close at $9.94 after reporting Q1 results.
    Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited (NASDAQ: CLWT) shares jumped 40.62 percent to close at $4.50 on Tuesday after reporting 2017 year-end results.
    MEI Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEIP) gained 34.39 percent to close at $3.40.
    MEDIGUS Ltd/S ADR (NASDAQ: MDGS) gained 32.74 percent to close at $1.50 in reaction to its Monday announcement of a distribution agreement. The medical device company said it reached an agreement to distribute its minimally invasive medical devices in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
    Pfenex Inc. (NYSE: PFNX) surged 31.15 percent to close at $8.00 after the company announced the positive top-line PF708 study results in Osteoporosis patients that showed no imbalances in severity or incidence of adverse events.
    Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: RKDA) rose 21.07 percent to close at $11.09. Arcadia Biosciences reported that Albert D. Bolles, Ph.D. has joined its board of directors.
    Genprex, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNPX) rose 20.23 percent to close at $10.58.
    Turtle Beach Corporation (NASDAQ: HEAR) shares gained 17.62 percent to close at $17.82.
    Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: APVO) rose 17.1 percent to close at $5.82.
    Phoenix New Media Limited (NYSE: FENG) shares jumped 16.23 percent to close at $4.87 following Q1 earnings.
    Stein Mart, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMRT) rose 16.04 percent to close at $3.69.
    PPDAI Group Inc. (NASDAQ: PPDF) climbed 15.99 percent to close at $7.98 following Q1 results.
    Tyme Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: TYME) rose 15.93 percent to close at $3.42.
    LiqTech International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIQT) gained 15.59 percent to close at $0.5532 following Q1 results.
    Sophiris Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPHS) gained 13.92 percent to close at $3.52 on Tuesday following Q1 results.
    Euroseas Ltd. (NASDAQ: ESEA) jumped 13.4 percent to close at $2.37.
    Iteris, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITI) shares surged 13.05 percent to close
  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    ValuEngine upgraded shares of Arcadia Biosciences (NASDAQ:RKDA) from a strong sell rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Friday.

    RKDA has been the topic of several other research reports. Piper Jaffray Companies set a $20.00 price target on Arcadia Biosciences and gave the company a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, March 14th. HC Wainwright initiated coverage on Arcadia Biosciences in a report on Tuesday, June 19th. They set a buy rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock.

  • [By Lisa Levin] Gainers
    Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited (NASDAQ: CLWT) shares climbed 70.3 percent to $5.45 after reporting 2017 year-end results.
    MEDIGUS Ltd/S ADR (NASDAQ: MDGS) surged 39.8 percent to $1.58 in reaction to its Monday announcement of a distribution agreement. The medical device company said it reached an agreement to distribute its minimally invasive medical devices in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
    Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: RKDA) gained 25.6 percent to $11.50. Arcadia Biosciences reported that Albert D. Bolles, Ph.D. has joined its board of directors.
    Aytu Bioscience Inc (NASDAQ: AYTU) shares jumped 21.8 percent to $0.4798 after the company late Monday reported lighter-than-expected Q1 loss.
    Hollysys Automation Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HOLI) shares gained 21.1 percent to $26.77 following Q3 results.
    Pfenex Inc. (NYSE: PFNX) rose 16.8 percent to $7.1271 after the company announced the positive top-line PF708 study results in Osteoporosis patients that showed no imbalances in severity or incidence of adverse events.
    MEI Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEIP) rose 13.8 percent to $2.88.
    Red Violet, Inc. (NASDAQ: RDVT) jumped 13.1 percent to $6.41 after reporting Q1 results.
    SORL Auto Parts, Inc. (NASDAQ: SORL) shares gained 12 percent to $5.87 after reporting upbeat Q1 results.
    Bovie Medical Corporation (NYSE: BVX) gained 8.4 percent to $3.96 after reporting a first-quarter sales beat.
    Rosehill Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: ROSE) surged 8.4 percent to $7.90 after announcing Q1 results.
    LiqTech International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LIQT) rose 8.1 percent to $0.5171 following Q1 results.
    ProPhase Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRPH) rose 7.7 percent to $5.6103 following Q1 results.
    Nine Energy Service, Inc. (NYSE: NINE) shares climbed 7.4 percent to $35.90.
    Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: XENE) rose 6.7 percent to $6.40 after the company presented XEN901 Phase 1 clinical update and XEN1101 TMS pharmacodynamic Phase 1 data.
    MYnd
  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Check out these big penny stock gainers and losers

    Losers
    Natural Health Trends Corp (NASDAQ: NHTC) fell 7.8 percent to $19.80 in pre-market trading after rising 1.46 percent on Friday.
    Endocyte, Inc. (NASDAQ: ECYT) shares fell 6.6 percent to $11.41 in pre-market trading after climbing 4.18 percent on Friday.
    Quorum Health Corporation (NYSE: QHC) shares fell 6.2 percent to $5.15 in pre-market trading after tumbling 11.45 percent on Friday.
    Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: RKDA) fell 6.1 percent to $7.31 in pre-market trading after declining 3.35 percent on Friday.
    Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) fell 5.6 percent to $28.30 in pre-market trading.
    Evofem Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVFM) fell 5.3 percent to $6.06 in pre-market trading after gaining 2.73 percent on Friday.
    Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) shares fell 5.2 percent to $28.60 in pre-market trading. Xerox terminated its transaction agreement with Fujifilm and entered into a new agreement with Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason. JP Morgan downgraded Xerox from Overweight to Neutral.
    Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE: CEL) fell 5.2 percent to $7.02 in pre-market trading. Cellcom is expected to release Q1 results on May 30, 2018.
    Perrigo Company plc (NYSE: PRGO) fell 4.5 percent to $74 in pre-market trading.
    Nabriva Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: NBRV) shares fell 4 percent to $4.66 in pre-market trading

Hot Medical Stocks To Invest In 2019: Houston Wire & Cable Company(HWCC)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Max Byerly]

    Houston Wire & Cable (NASDAQ:HWCC) hit a new 52-week high and low during mid-day trading on Wednesday after an insider bought additional shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $8.40 and last traded at $8.35, with a volume of 604 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $7.90.

Hot Medical Stocks To Invest In 2019: Engility Holdings, Inc.(EGL)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lisa Levin] Gainers
    Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited (NASDAQ: CLWT) surged 73.3 percent to $3.90.
    Integrated Media Technology Limited (NASDAQ: IMTE) shares gained 51 percent to $33.1365. The nano-cap low-float stock skyrocketed over 1,300 percent on Wednesday on no company specific news which would support the surge. The move higher is consistent with what was seen in other low-float stocks over the past few months.
    Monaker Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MKGI) shares jumped 34 percent to $3.00.
    Sharing Economy International Inc. (NASDAQ: SEII) shares rose 28.2 percent to $4.51 after gaining 9.32 percent on Wednesday.
    STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ: STAA) shares jumped 27.8 percent to $21.40 after reporting upbeat Q1 results.
    Boxlight Corporation (NASDAQ: BOXL) rose 20.5 percent to $8.920 after climbing 107.87 percent on Wednesday.
    Xspand Products Lab Inc (NASDAQ: XSPL) gained 19.5 percent to $ 5.97. Xspand Products priced its IPO at $5 per share.
    YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) rose 18.9 percent to $10.035 following upbeat quarterly earnings.
    ENDRA Life Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: NDRA) gained 18.3 percent to $3.0177. ENDRA Life Sciences is expected to report Q1 results on May 15.
    MYR Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MYRG) rose 18.1 percent to $35.85 after the company posted strong Q1 earnings.
    Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: RTEC) shares jumped 16 percent to $30.75 following upbeat quarterly earnings.
    TTM Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTMI) gained 13.7 percent to $16.53 after reporting Q1 results.
    Insight Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: NSIT) shares surged 12 percent to $40.06 following better-than-expected Q1 earnings.
    TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE: THS) rose 11.8 percent to $40.93 following Q1 results.
    Engility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EGL) surged 11.2 percent to $27.36. Engility reported upbeat quarterly earnings.
    Synalloy Corporation (NASDAQ: SYNL) rose 10.7 percent to $19.10 following Q1 results.
    Logitech International S.A. (NASDAQ: LOGI)
  • [By Shane Hupp]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Engility (EGL)

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

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Here are some of the media stories that may have effected Accern Sentiment Analysis’s analysis:

    Get Engility alerts:

    Engility CEO Lynn Dugle Named Among ‘Outstanding Women in STEM’ (govconwire.com) Analysts Set Expectations for Engility Holdings Inc’s Q3 2018 Earnings (EGL) (americanbankingnews.com) Engility Holdings Inc Forecasted to Post Q3 2018 Earnings of $0.47 Per Share (EGL) (americanbankingnews.com) Engility to Present at the Jefferies 2018 Global Industrials Conference (finance.yahoo.com) Engility (EGL) Downgraded to Hold at Noble Financial (americanbankingnews.com)

    A number of brokerages recently weighed in on EGL. Noble Financial downgraded Engility from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $37.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, August 2nd. Wells Fargo & Co raised their price objective on Engility from $27.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 13th. ValuEngine raised Engility from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 12th. Cowen set a $40.00 price objective on Engility and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 1st. Finally, Drexel Hamilton reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Engility in a research report on Wednesday, August 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Engility has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $37.50.

  • [By Stephan Byrd]

    Aecom (NYSE: ACM) and Engility (NYSE:EGL) are both construction companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, profitability, risk, earnings and institutional ownership.

  • [By Stephan Byrd]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Engility (EGL)

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

  • [By Lisa Levin] Gainers
    Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited (NASDAQ: CLWT) shares jumped 155.56 percent to close at $5.75 on Thursday.
    Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE: INSP) shares gained 56.12 percent to close at $24.98. Inspire Medical went public Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. The company issued 6.75 million shares priced at $16 each.
    Presbia PLC (NASDAQ: LENS) shares rose 53.02 percent to close at $3.55.
    Integrated Media Technology Limited (NASDAQ: IMTE) shares rose 46.29 percent to close at $32.11. The nano-cap low-float stock skyrocketed over 1,300 percent on Wednesday on no company specific news which would support the surge. The move higher is consistent with what was seen in other low-float stocks over the past few months.
    Technical Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: TCCO) climbed 27.78 percent to close at $5.75.
    STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ: STAA) shares gained 26.27 percent to close at $21.15 after reporting upbeat Q1 results.
    Sharing Economy International Inc. (NASDAQ: SEII) shares jumped 22.16 percent to close at $4.30 on Thursday after gaining 9.32 percent on Wednesday.
    China Advanced Construction Materials Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CADC) rose 20.45 percent to close at $2.65 on Thursday.
    YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) surged 18.36 percent to close at $9.99 following upbeat quarterly earnings.
    MYR Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MYRG) jumped 17.68 percent to close at $35.74 after the company posted strong Q1 earnings.
    Xspand Products Lab Inc (NASDAQ: XSPL) jumped 17.4 percent to close at $5.87. Xspand Products priced its IPO at $5 per share.
    Coherus BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHRS) shares rose 17.32 percent to close at $14.90. Coherus BioSciences reported resubmission of BLA for CHS-1701.
    Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: RTEC) shares gained 17.17 percent to close at $31.05 following upbeat quarterly earnings.
    The Meet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEET) gained 16.02 percent to close at $2.68 following Q1 earnings.
    Ca

Hot Clean Energy Stocks For 2019

Clean energy stocks are still the best energy stocks to own right now, despite President Donald Trump pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord. In fact, renewable energy production will see over 100% growth by 2025.

To help investors find the right renewable energy stocks, we’re giving Money Morning readers our top clean energy stock pick today…

Money Morning Global Energy Strategist Dr. Kent Moors says the United States might be pulling out of the climate agreement, but that won’t stop renewable energy from being crucial to meeting the global demand for energy.

Moors says the climate agreement was non-binding and voluntary, so the United States’ decision to leave it won’t change much. A more significant development is President Trump’s attempt to end the “Clean Power Plan,” an Obama-era initiative to promote clean energy, because it’s currently America’s policy instead of a non-binding agreement.

Hot Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: Unique Fabricating, Inc.(UFAB)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Unique Fabricating (NYSEAMERICAN:UFAB)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Roth Capital in a report released on Wednesday.

  • [By Stephan Byrd]

    Media coverage about Unique Fabricating (NASDAQ:UFAB) has trended somewhat positive this week, Accern Sentiment reports. The research firm scores the sentiment of news coverage by monitoring more than twenty 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. Unique Fabricating earned a media sentiment score of 0.18 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media stories about the company an impact score of 47.3756147302874 out of 100, meaning that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the near future.

  • [By Stephan Byrd]

    Shares of Unique Fabricating Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:UFAB) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the six research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $12.00.

  • [By Shane Hupp]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Unique Fabricating (UFAB)

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

Hot Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: Ambarella, Inc.(AMBA)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Nicholas Rossolillo]

    Transforming a business can be difficult. Just ask video- and image-processing chipmaker Ambarella (NASDAQ:AMBA), which has been weaning itself from the action-camera and broader consumer electronics industry over the last couple of years. The company has been doubling down on industrial end markets instead, but stiff opposition awaits there, too.

  • [By Leo Sun]

    Chipmakers Ambarella (NASDAQ:AMBA) and AMD’s (NASDAQ:AMD) fortunes diverged sharply this year. Ambarella’s stock tumbled over 25%, due to concerns about its slowing sales growth and its ability to keep up with technological shifts, while AMD rallied nearly 60% as investors cheered its comeback against Intel (NASDAQ:INTC).

  • [By Steve Symington]

    Ambarella Inc. (NASDAQ:AMBA) announced decent fiscal first-quarter 2019 results on Tuesday after the market closed, detailing steady progress with its latest computer-vision chips and continued growth from the IP security and automotive markets. But with weakness in its other market verticals, and without the aid of GoPro (NASDAQ:GPRO) — previously its single largest customer — the video-processing chip company’s forward guidance left the market underwhelmed.

  • [By Harsh Chauhan]

    Investors’ enthusiasm for Ambarella (NASDAQ:AMBA) came crashing down after the video-processing-chip specialist’s fiscal first-quarter performance didn’t do much to dispel fears that it was finding it difficult to grow despite operating in verticals that promise a lot of opportunities.

  • [By Demitrios Kalogeropoulos]

    The week ahead includes a few highly anticipated quarterly reports that could move stocks for Palo Alto Networks (NYSE:PANW), Ambarella (NASDAQ:AMBA), and Vail Resorts (NYSE:MTN). Below we’ll preview these upcoming announcements.

Hot Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: First Financial Northwest Inc.(FFNW)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Stephan Byrd]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on First Financial Northwest (FFNW)

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

  • [By Max Byerly]

    First Financial Northwest (NASDAQ:FFNW) will be announcing its earnings results on Tuesday, July 24th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.26 per share for the quarter.

  • [By Ethan Ryder]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on First Financial Northwest (FFNW)

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

  • [By Logan Wallace]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on First Financial Northwest (FFNW)

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

Hot Clean Energy Stocks For 2019: U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc.(PRTS)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Joseph Griffin]

    Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on U.S. Auto Parts Network (PRTS)

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

  • [By Max Byerly]

    Media stories about U.S. Auto Parts Network (NASDAQ:PRTS) have trended somewhat positive recently, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. Accern scores the sentiment of news coverage by reviewing more than 20 million news and blog sources. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. U.S. Auto Parts Network earned a news impact score of 0.16 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave media headlines about the specialty retailer an impact score of 47.0744515537091 out of 100, meaning that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the next several days.

  • [By Logan Wallace]

    Media stories about U.S. Auto Parts Network (NASDAQ:PRTS) have been trending somewhat positive recently, according to Accern Sentiment Analysis. The research firm scores the sentiment of media coverage by analyzing more than twenty million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. U.S. Auto Parts Network earned a news sentiment score of 0.05 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media stories about the specialty retailer an impact score of 45.533280416614 out of 100, indicating that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the near future.

Fossil: Now Is The Time To Add

In 2017, Fossil (NASDAQ:FOSL) laid out an aggressive five-year strategic plan called “New World Fossil”, looking to transform the business to adjust to the changing dynamics of the traditional and connected watch business. The story was grim – Fossil was at risk of obsolescence, traditional watches sales fell off for many quarters, and the company’s ancillary products (leather and jewellery) suffered even more. The stock declined to $6 at one point.

A year later, Fossil has a new breath of life as smartwatches come to the fore, and showed that it is flexible and can transform into the new market! The stock is now $19.

This shows how emotional and short-term the market can be. The continuous slide of the share price spread the fear and affirmed investors that Fossil was deemed for failure. Chatter such as How many watches does a man need? Or Fossil is fossilising really showed how sceptical the market was with respect to the company. And madness is what it was with the share price. In the middle of this, we came out with a bold move at the beginning of the year and shared our opinion to buy in the stock. Now, at $19, we are adding more. The market likes stories, and the new story of Fossil is just starting to spread among investors.

The latest two earnings reports showed that the companys transformation plan – New World Fossil – is manifesting into tangible results. This quarters headline improvements were abundant and reflected in a huge change of sentiment in the market. So much so that even institutions are buying in.

And yes, we need to remind ourselves of the fact that as investors, we tend to seek affirmation from the market to confirm our findings. The share price reversion from $6 to now $19 tells investors that the New World Fossil strategic change is working thus far, but we are cognizant that it remains premature to judge precisely where this is going. However, Fossil is executing on the first leg of its turnaround.

Q1 Results

In the last conference call, the management laid out very conservative guidance, coupled with clear strategic goals. As a result, we factor in our reading that Fossil is attempting to underpromise and over-deliver. Regardless of how the company was before, we like this way forward.

Worthy mentions are:

Smartwatches shined again, posting growth of 97% yoy

We had the benefit of reading Fitbits (NYSE:FIT) earnings call a week before, and we would be lying if we didnt expect a good performance by smartwatches. Fitbits results and outlook on smartwatches were very assuring. Its smartwatches sales doubled on a sequential basis. Moreover, the company foresees an excellent product mix coming from its newly introduced smartwatches, and the health and wellness market is expanding rapidly.

Unsurprisingly to us, Fossils smartwatches performed well. The company delivered $80 million in sales for the quarter, 97% higher when compared to the first quarter of last year. The absolute sales percentage, 18% of total watches sales, is still small, but it was big enough to make yoy sales of watches to stabilise. Remember the double-digit declines just a few quarters before? 97% growth makes that seems so far back in the past!

Geographically, things are working better in Europe and Asia as opposed to the Americas.

(Source: Fossil’s 1Q18 8-K)

We are excited, and the analysts at the conference call were too. Nearly all questions were about the future of smartwatches.

Better yet, Fossil predicts the most dramatic improvement is going to be on fitness and health and wellness features that were already featured in a couple of SKUs last year in Q4. It is a step ahead of time. Additionally, it is always positive to learn that Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) are significantly stepping up their investment in the category and the support of the ecosystem. Lastly, wearables last year was an $18 billion business, growing to $33 billion in three years. Fitbit is the number one in this category, but it is yet to produce positive FCF. Fossil has the scale and is still winning big contracts such as PUMA. Extrapolating the 5-6% of its traditional watch market share to smartwatches is an exciting prospect.

Marketing and sales channel wise, e-commerce outperformed wholesales

Ok, so it was impressive that Fossil achieved 5% improvement in SSS. However, it wasnt strictly “same stores sales”. This growth was mainly thanks to the companys inclusion of the direct e颅-commerce sales in its comp sales calculation – this channel alone increased almost 50% for the quarter. Nevertheless, it was very encouraging to read that direct sales channel (in-store) also performed well. In contrary, the wholesale segment in the US and Europe suffered due to the phasing out of the Adidas (OTCQX:ADDYY) and Burberry (OTCPK:BURBY) contract and the decline in sales in Skagen. The remaining brands: Michael Kors (NYSE:KORS), Emporio Armani, Armani Exchange, and Diesel were relatively flat. Thus, the decision to exit the wholesale business in the Europe leather segment was a welcoming move.

Digital marketing was the second strategic change that Fossil wanted to focus on, and we will be watching this closely. So far, it is executing exceptionally well.

Margins improved

Gross margin improved to 50.5%, highest in the past five quarters (4Q17: 48.66%, 3Q17: 46.45%, 2Q17: 50.49%, 1Q17: 49.76%). Q1 benefited from nearly $20 million of the New World Fossil cost tightening effort, which is projected to drive $200 million in gross margin and efficiency benefits through 2019.

The company had lower expenses in the first quarter resulting from corporate and regional infrastructure reductions, as well as lower store expenses, given 81 stores were closed since last year (the total now is 512 stores). Unfortunately, store closures will continue to hurt total direct channels sales; last quarter, this negatively impacted up to 300 basis points. All in all, we are encouraged, for as more unprofitable stores are closed, Fossil will become smaller but leaner.

Lastly, restructuring costs will continue to affect EPS. However, it will decrease as fewer stores are required to shut down.

Our reported loss of $0.99 per share included $0.35 of New World Fossil restructuring charges. Excluding these items, our adjusted EPS loss was $0.64. Last year, our first quarter EPS loss was $1 and included $0.35 impact from restructuring charges. EPS was relatively flat this year compared to last year despite the lower sales volume as we continue to deliver on our New World Fossil initiatives with improved gross margins and lower operating expenses.

– Source: Fossil 1Q18 Earnings Call

EBITDA and FCF

For 2018, Fossil expects adjusted EBITDA in the range of $175-225 million and will invest approximately $25 million in capital expenditures. Coupled with interest expense of $50 million, Fossils FCF will range from $100 million to $150 million. These are fantastic numbers for a company that was supposedly struggling just a few quarters earlier.

Company management expects to see better years ahead:

As we said in our last call, our longer颅-term view is that after top颅line contraction in 2018, our initiatives should begin to stabilize sales levels in 2019 with sales growth returning in 2020 and continuing to grow annually thereafter. And with our New World Fossil transformation initiatives, we are targeting a double-颅digit operating margin over the long term.

– Source: Fossil 1Q18 Earnings Call

Financial Health

Fossils debt is at $463 million, reduced from $616 million a year ago. Cash is at $230 million, compared to $320 million last year. However, interest payment is higher by $2 million yoy due to the recent refinancing.

Overall, with trailing 12颅-month adjusted EBITDA of $204 million. Fossils first-quarter leverage ratio was 2.3 times, well within its 4.5 times bank leverage ratio covenant limits. The company is in no hurry to pay off its debts, but given the $230 million pile of cash and conservatively $100 million FCF, all debts could be paid off within two years.

Takeaway

Fossil’s 1Q18 results were very progressive in the essential areas, though dampened with a few misses in the wholesales channel, the American market and further restructuring costs expected. However, it was enough to change the sentiment of the market from the demise of traditional watches to the growth of wearables! The current product mix of 18% is expected to rise to 25%, 30% and then 35%.

With forward EBITDA of $175-225 million and FCF in the $100-150 million range, managements convincing story is well-supported! The strategic transformation to shift the company from owning 5-6% of the world’s traditional watches to owning the same percentage in the hybrid and smartwatches segments is well underway.

Fossil is a still buy from here.

__

If Fossil is not for you, we cover value stocks, so maybe try a diversified rail stock (L.B. Foster (NASDAQ:FSTR)), a beaten-down health retailer (GNC Holdings (NYSE:GNC)), or a pure online car parts play (U.S. Auto Parts Network (NASDAQ:PRTS)).

Author’s note: Thank you for reading the article. If you have enjoyed our article, please click “Follow” to receive our stock picks as soon as they are published. Lastly, please do further due diligence to reach your own conclusions.

Disclosure: I am/we are long FOSL, GNC, PRTS, FSTR.

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.

Fossil: Now Is The Time To Add

In 2017, Fossil (NASDAQ:FOSL) laid out an aggressive five-year strategic plan called “New World Fossil”, looking to transform the business to adjust to the changing dynamics of the traditional and connected watch business. The story was grim – Fossil was at risk of obsolescence, traditional watches sales fell off for many quarters, and the company’s ancillary products (leather and jewellery) suffered even more. The stock declined to $6 at one point.

A year later, Fossil has a new breath of life as smartwatches come to the fore, and showed that it is flexible and can transform into the new market! The stock is now $19.

This shows how emotional and short-term the market can be. The continuous slide of the share price spread the fear and affirmed investors that Fossil was deemed for failure. Chatter such as How many watches does a man need? Or Fossil is fossilising really showed how sceptical the market was with respect to the company. And madness is what it was with the share price. In the middle of this, we came out with a bold move at the beginning of the year and shared our opinion to buy in the stock. Now, at $19, we are adding more. The market likes stories, and the new story of Fossil is just starting to spread among investors.

The latest two earnings reports showed that the companys transformation plan – New World Fossil – is manifesting into tangible results. This quarters headline improvements were abundant and reflected in a huge change of sentiment in the market. So much so that even institutions are buying in.

And yes, we need to remind ourselves of the fact that as investors, we tend to seek affirmation from the market to confirm our findings. The share price reversion from $6 to now $19 tells investors that the New World Fossil strategic change is working thus far, but we are cognizant that it remains premature to judge precisely where this is going. However, Fossil is executing on the first leg of its turnaround.

Q1 Results

In the last conference call, the management laid out very conservative guidance, coupled with clear strategic goals. As a result, we factor in our reading that Fossil is attempting to underpromise and over-deliver. Regardless of how the company was before, we like this way forward.

Worthy mentions are:

Smartwatches shined again, posting growth of 97% yoy

We had the benefit of reading Fitbits (NYSE:FIT) earnings call a week before, and we would be lying if we didnt expect a good performance by smartwatches. Fitbits results and outlook on smartwatches were very assuring. Its smartwatches sales doubled on a sequential basis. Moreover, the company foresees an excellent product mix coming from its newly introduced smartwatches, and the health and wellness market is expanding rapidly.

Unsurprisingly to us, Fossils smartwatches performed well. The company delivered $80 million in sales for the quarter, 97% higher when compared to the first quarter of last year. The absolute sales percentage, 18% of total watches sales, is still small, but it was big enough to make yoy sales of watches to stabilise. Remember the double-digit declines just a few quarters before? 97% growth makes that seems so far back in the past!

Geographically, things are working better in Europe and Asia as opposed to the Americas.

(Source: Fossil’s 1Q18 8-K)

We are excited, and the analysts at the conference call were too. Nearly all questions were about the future of smartwatches.

Better yet, Fossil predicts the most dramatic improvement is going to be on fitness and health and wellness features that were already featured in a couple of SKUs last year in Q4. It is a step ahead of time. Additionally, it is always positive to learn that Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) are significantly stepping up their investment in the category and the support of the ecosystem. Lastly, wearables last year was an $18 billion business, growing to $33 billion in three years. Fitbit is the number one in this category, but it is yet to produce positive FCF. Fossil has the scale and is still winning big contracts such as PUMA. Extrapolating the 5-6% of its traditional watch market share to smartwatches is an exciting prospect.

Marketing and sales channel wise, e-commerce outperformed wholesales

Ok, so it was impressive that Fossil achieved 5% improvement in SSS. However, it wasnt strictly “same stores sales”. This growth was mainly thanks to the companys inclusion of the direct e颅-commerce sales in its comp sales calculation – this channel alone increased almost 50% for the quarter. Nevertheless, it was very encouraging to read that direct sales channel (in-store) also performed well. In contrary, the wholesale segment in the US and Europe suffered due to the phasing out of the Adidas (OTCQX:ADDYY) and Burberry (OTCPK:BURBY) contract and the decline in sales in Skagen. The remaining brands: Michael Kors (NYSE:KORS), Emporio Armani, Armani Exchange, and Diesel were relatively flat. Thus, the decision to exit the wholesale business in the Europe leather segment was a welcoming move.

Digital marketing was the second strategic change that Fossil wanted to focus on, and we will be watching this closely. So far, it is executing exceptionally well.

Margins improved

Gross margin improved to 50.5%, highest in the past five quarters (4Q17: 48.66%, 3Q17: 46.45%, 2Q17: 50.49%, 1Q17: 49.76%). Q1 benefited from nearly $20 million of the New World Fossil cost tightening effort, which is projected to drive $200 million in gross margin and efficiency benefits through 2019.

The company had lower expenses in the first quarter resulting from corporate and regional infrastructure reductions, as well as lower store expenses, given 81 stores were closed since last year (the total now is 512 stores). Unfortunately, store closures will continue to hurt total direct channels sales; last quarter, this negatively impacted up to 300 basis points. All in all, we are encouraged, for as more unprofitable stores are closed, Fossil will become smaller but leaner.

Lastly, restructuring costs will continue to affect EPS. However, it will decrease as fewer stores are required to shut down.

Our reported loss of $0.99 per share included $0.35 of New World Fossil restructuring charges. Excluding these items, our adjusted EPS loss was $0.64. Last year, our first quarter EPS loss was $1 and included $0.35 impact from restructuring charges. EPS was relatively flat this year compared to last year despite the lower sales volume as we continue to deliver on our New World Fossil initiatives with improved gross margins and lower operating expenses.

– Source: Fossil 1Q18 Earnings Call

EBITDA and FCF

For 2018, Fossil expects adjusted EBITDA in the range of $175-225 million and will invest approximately $25 million in capital expenditures. Coupled with interest expense of $50 million, Fossils FCF will range from $100 million to $150 million. These are fantastic numbers for a company that was supposedly struggling just a few quarters earlier.

Company management expects to see better years ahead:

As we said in our last call, our longer颅-term view is that after top颅line contraction in 2018, our initiatives should begin to stabilize sales levels in 2019 with sales growth returning in 2020 and continuing to grow annually thereafter. And with our New World Fossil transformation initiatives, we are targeting a double-颅digit operating margin over the long term.

– Source: Fossil 1Q18 Earnings Call

Financial Health

Fossils debt is at $463 million, reduced from $616 million a year ago. Cash is at $230 million, compared to $320 million last year. However, interest payment is higher by $2 million yoy due to the recent refinancing.

Overall, with trailing 12颅-month adjusted EBITDA of $204 million. Fossils first-quarter leverage ratio was 2.3 times, well within its 4.5 times bank leverage ratio covenant limits. The company is in no hurry to pay off its debts, but given the $230 million pile of cash and conservatively $100 million FCF, all debts could be paid off within two years.

Takeaway

Fossil’s 1Q18 results were very progressive in the essential areas, though dampened with a few misses in the wholesales channel, the American market and further restructuring costs expected. However, it was enough to change the sentiment of the market from the demise of traditional watches to the growth of wearables! The current product mix of 18% is expected to rise to 25%, 30% and then 35%.

With forward EBITDA of $175-225 million and FCF in the $100-150 million range, managements convincing story is well-supported! The strategic transformation to shift the company from owning 5-6% of the world’s traditional watches to owning the same percentage in the hybrid and smartwatches segments is well underway.

Fossil is a still buy from here.

__

If Fossil is not for you, we cover value stocks, so maybe try a diversified rail stock (L.B. Foster (NASDAQ:FSTR)), a beaten-down health retailer (GNC Holdings (NYSE:GNC)), or a pure online car parts play (U.S. Auto Parts Network (NASDAQ:PRTS)).

Author’s note: Thank you for reading the article. If you have enjoyed our article, please click “Follow” to receive our stock picks as soon as they are published. Lastly, please do further due diligence to reach your own conclusions.

Disclosure: I am/we are long FOSL, GNC, PRTS, FSTR.

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.

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019

If you’ve overestimated the daily demand for chia seed and homemade granola pots, or dripping, do you just throw the food out, or try and sell it quickly on the cheap?

Fifty eateries in London, including Aubaine, Hummus Bros, The Quality Chop House, and Michelin-starred Aquavit, can now opt for the latter through a mobile app, Karma, which launched in the city Thursday after an initial rollout across 35 cities in Sweden.

“The problem of food waste is very big here, so it’s a huge market for us,” said Karma co-founder Elsa Bernadotte. “London has an established food culture, a high degree of digitization, and is getting increasingly environmentally conscious.”

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that about a third of food produced for human consumption — about 1.3 billion tonnes globally — is lost or wasted each year. One study estimates British restaurants, bars and hotels to waste about 600,000 tonnes a year, worth about 17 billion pounds ($23.9 billion), with restaurants accounting for the largest single share.

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019: American Financial Group, Inc.(AFG)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lee Jackson]

    Aco-chief executive officer of American Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: AFG), Carl Linder, sold a total of 200,000 shares of the property and casualty insurance products provider at prices that ranged from $90.63 to $91.62. The total for the sale was set at $18 million. The shares closed Friday at $91.55, in a52-week range of $65.38 to $92.38. The consensus price target is $95.50.

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019: TripAdvisor, Inc.(TRIP)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Chris Lange]

    The stock posting the largest daily percentage gain in the S&P 500 ahead of the close Tuesday was TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) which rose over 4% to $44.55. The stocks 52-week range is $35.34 to $66.13. Volume was 2.8 million compared to its average volume of 2.9 million.

  • [By Paul Ausick]

    TripAdvisor Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) dropped about 1.9% Monday, to post a new 52-week low of $41.81 after closing at $42.62 on Friday. The stock’s 52-week high is $71.69. Volume was about 50% above the daily average of around 2.5 million shares. The company had no specific news.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    TripAdvisor (TRIP) tumbled to the bottom of the S&P 500 today after reporting earnings that came in well below the Street consensus.

    Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

    TripAdvisordropped 11% to $46.92 today, while the S&P 500 dipped 0.1% to2,347.22.

    Susquehanna’s Shyam Patil and team write that TripAdvisor’s “challenges persist.” They explain why:

    4Q highlights another challenging quarter. Total revenue was $316m (up 2% y/y), 1% below our estimate of $320m and 3% below consensus of $327m. EBITDA of $58m (18.4% margins) was ~25% below our and the consensus estimate of $77m, caused by the revenue miss and higher opex (specifically S&M and G&A) vs. our model…

    While we like TRIPs leading audience reach (on both mobile and desktop) and breadth of travel content, we believe the traffic mix shift to mobile combined with the transition to instant book (IB) will continue to weigh on monetization and cause near-term volatility in the numbers. TRIP is prioritizing revenue growth over profits this year, and management expects to drive double-digit revenue growth but at the expense of significant margin deleverage and absolute EBITDA declines. Additionally, EBITDA could decline further, if TRIP decides to do TV advertising, which is currently not in our estimates or managements outlook. Given these issues, forecasting remains challenging and we continue to have little confidence in estimates.

    TripAdvisor’s market capitalization fell to $6.8 billion today from $7.6 billion yesterday.

  • [By Paul Ausick]

    TripAdvisor Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) dropped about 4.5% Thursday, to post a new 52-week low of $43.48 after closing at $45.55 on Wednesday. The stock’s 52-week high is $71.69. Volume was about 60% above the daily average of around 2.4 million shares. The company had no specific news today.

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019: Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings(LH)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Monica Gerson]

    Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE: LH) is estimated to report its quarterly earnings at $1.96 per share on revenue of $2.19 billion.

    Roper Technologies Inc (NYSE: ROP) is projected to report its quarterly earnings at $1.46 per share on revenue of $895.87 million.

  • [By Monica Gerson]

    Analysts expect Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE: LH) to report its quarterly earnings at $1.96 per share on revenue of $2.19 billion. Laboratory Corp shares rose 0.64 percent to close at $121.77 on Friday.

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019: NO Name(ACI)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Robert Weinstein]

    Lawsuit after lawsuit, a billion dollars in cost overruns, taxpayer subsidies and the most expensive coal plant to operate causing electric rates to skyrocket, if this becomes the norm. The new project is called Plant Ratcliffe by Southern Co.
    Plant Ratcliffe is quite the boondoggle, but proponents say it always costs more to build the first one and costs will come down as the technology improves. More plants are in the planning stages and may bring a needed shot in the arm to mining stocks.
    Alpha Natural Resources (ANR), Walter Energy (WLT), Arch Coal (ACI), Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF), Peabody Energy (BTU), and James River Coal (JRCC) are companies that may benefit from increased demand for coal.
    Not all coal or coal companies are equal, so it’s crucial to discriminate based on your investment time-horizon goals. With that said, the announcement should have been followed by a deep sell-off in coal and utility related stocks. But something happened.
    Or, rather, didn’t happen.
    The above coal stocks didn’t sell off tremendously and are largely moving along with the rest of the market today. This is noteworthy because stocks don’t bottom on good news, they reach a bottom on awful news. Let me explain: When a stock chart continues trending lower, what you’re witnessing is investors throwing in the towel and moving on.
    Leaving aside bankruptcies for a moment, almost all stocks have a core group of investors that are commonly known as the “strong hands.” A stock is at the bottom when the weak hands are gone. At some point, distressing news (like an unfavorable EPA announcement regarding coal) hits the wire and the related stock or stocks react with little or no movement. This is what we are witnessing right now in coal-related companies.

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019: RetailMeNot, Inc.(SALE)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Shares of RetailMeNot Inc (NASDAQ: SALE) got a boost, shooting up 12 percent to $8.42. RetailMeNot announced after Thursday’s close it has entered into an agreement to acquire GiftCard Zen, a secondary marketplace for gift cards. The company reported preliminary Q1 revenue of $54 million to $54.5 million and FY16 revenue of $228 million to $241 million.

  • [By Demitrios Kalogeropoulos]

    As for individual stocks, RetailMeNot (NASDAQ:SALE) and SUPERVALU (NYSE:SVU) attracted heavy investor interest following merger and acquisition news.

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019: Accenture plc.(ACN)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Some of the stocks that may grab investor focus today are:

    Wall Street expects Accenture Plc (NYSE: ACN) to report quarterly earnings at $1.3 per share on revenue of $8.34 billion before the opening bell. Accenture shares gained 0.41 percent to $127.00 in after-hours trading.
    Analysts expect Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) to post quarterly earnings at $0.85 per share on revenue of $4.64 billion after the closing bell. Micron shares gained 0.88 percent to $26.29 in after-hours trading.
    Five Below Inc (NASDAQ: FIVE) reported better-than-expected earnings for its fourth quarter on Wednesday. Five Below shares climbed 8.23 percent to $41.27 in the after-hours trading session.
    Before the markets open, Conagra Brands Inc (NYSE: CAG) is projected to report its quarterly earnings at $0.44 per share on revenue of $1.98 billion. Conagra shares rose 1.73 percent to $41.18 in after-hours trading.
    PVH Corp (NYSE: PVH) posted upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter and issued a strong earnings forecast. PVH shares surged 7.15 percent to $97.35 in the after-hours trading session.

    Find out what's going on in today's market and bring any questions you have to Benzinga's PreMarket Prep.

  • [By Laurie Kulikowski]

    With a dividend payout ratio of 44% and dividend yield of 2%, we consider Accenture our favorite income oriented security, recognizing valuation is near peak multiples. Fundamentally, we believe its mix of business should result in above-average revenue growth, and mix allows for modest margin expansion (rare in IT Services), that should result in steady and attractive double-digit total returns to shareholders. 

  • [By Laurie Kulikowski]

    Investors have apparently begun to recognize positive factors similar to those we have mentioned in this report, including earnings growth. This has helped drive up the company’s shares by a sharp 28.50% over the past year, a rise that has exceeded that of the S&P 500 Index. Regarding the stock’s future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, ACN should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.

     

  • [By Laurie Kulikowski]

    ACCENTURE PLC has improved earnings per share by 6.5% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past year. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, ACCENTURE PLC increased its bottom line by earning $4.76 versus $4.52 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($5.20 versus $4.76).

     

  • [By ]

    Even more impressive and promising are the companies and entities backing Ripple. Investors include Seagate Technology (Nasdaq: STX) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN), as well as influential venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz (Twitter, Skype, Airbnb) and Lightspeed Venture Partners (Snapchat).

  • [By Steve Symington]

    The stock market was mostly flat today ahead of a key House vote on the passage of the Republicans’ healthcare bill, which was delayed until Friday after GOP lawmakers failed to gather the necessary support. TheDow Jones Industrial Averagelost just 5 points, or 0.02%, while other broader market indexes saw similar small declines. But several individual stocks saw much more severe drops, including Zillow Group (NASDAQ:Z) (NASDAQ:ZG), Proofpoint (NASDAQ:PFPT), and Accenture (NYSE:ACN). Read on to see what drove these unusual moves.

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019: U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc.(PRTS)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    In trading on Monday, cyclical consumer goods & services shares rose by just 0.1 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRTS), down 22 percent, and Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ: SHLD), down 13 percent.

  • [By Jim Robertson]

    On Friday, our Under the Radar Moversnewsletter suggestedshorting small cap online aftermarket auto parts stock U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc (NASDAQ: PRTS):

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019: Kate Spade & Company(KATE)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    Kate Spade & Co (NASDAQ: KATE) was down, falling around 14 percent to $19.60 after it was reported the company would spend more time to negotiate the Coach Inc (NYSE: COH) offer.

  • [By Steve Symington]

    Shares of Kate Spade & Company (NYSE:KATE) fell 25.1% in the month of April,according to data provided byS&P Global Market Intelligence, after reports that the luxury lifestyle-products specialist wanted more time to consider a buyout offer, then announced disappointing first-quarter 2017 results.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Kate Spade (KATE) caught a bounce on Wednesday when the Wall Street Journalreported that it was actively seeking a buyer. Since then, we’ve learned that the fashion accessories retailer looks set to auction itself off to the highest bidder, with the process potentially beginning next month, with bidders potentially including Coach (COH) and Michael Kors (KORS). In a note today, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analystPamela Quintiliano and team contend that Kate Spade could fetch as much as $23 a share:

    Getty Images

    Looking at recent historical deals, we arrive at a $18-$23 potential deal range. We analyzed transactions that have been announced over the past four years and involved companies catering to a higher income customer. These deals include Southern Tide (acquired by Oxford Industries (OXM)), Joe’s Jeans (acquired by Sequential Brands Group (SQBG)), prAna (acquired by Columbia Sportswear (COLM)), The Jones Group (acquired by Sycamore Partners [private] and Juicy Couture (acquired by Authentic Brands Group [private]). The average EV/EBITDA multiple of these transactions are 12.9x (in line with KATE’s 5-year historical average of 12.1x) and implies a potential deal range of $22-$23. When taking the average of recent (F13-16) deals implies an ~10.5x EV/EBITDA multiple. When applying the ~10.5x multiples to KATE’s trailing EBITDA, we arrive at an $18- $19 potential share price.

    Shares of Kate Spade have gained 1.1% to $18.70 at 2:08 p.m. today, while Coach has declined 0.2% to $34.95, Michael Kors is little changed at $42.86, Oxford Industries has fallen 0.7% to $60.38, Columbia Sportswear has climbed 1.4% to $58.60, and Sequential Brands Group has jumped 3.7% to $4.77.

  • [By Ben Levisohn]

    Coach (COH) rose to the top of the S&P 500 today after reports that Kate Spade (KATE) had put itself up for sale caused shares of fashion-accessory retailers to rise.

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019: B Communications Ltd.(BCOM)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    In trading on Monday, telecommunications services shares rose by just 0.2 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included B Communications Ltd (NASDAQ: BCOM), down 4 percent, and Partner Communications Company Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ: PTNR), down 2 percent.

  • [By Lisa Levin]

    In trading on Monday, telecommunications services shares fell by 0.77 percent. Meanwhile, top losers in the sector included United States Cellular Corp (NYSE: USM), down 5 percent, and B Communications Ltd (NASDAQ: BCOM), down 5 percent.

Top 10 Stocks To Watch For 2019: DAVIDsTEA Inc.(DTEA)

Advisors’ Opinion:

  • [By Monica Gerson]

    DavidsTea Inc (NASDAQ: DTEA) is expected to post its quarterly earnings at $0.43 per share on revenue of $71.74 million.

    SemiLEDs Corporation (NASDAQ: LEDS) is estimated to post its quarterly earnings.