Big Bounce for SBNY
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 16th, 2018 at 11:49 am

Shares of Signature Bank (SBNY) are getting a nice bounce today. I see that SBNY is currently up 5%.

The bank just announced a share buyback program:

Signature Bank (SBNY), a New York-based full-service commercial bank, announced today that its Board of Directors has approved the repurchase from time to time in open market transactions of up to $500 million of common stock (the “Stock Repurchase Program”) and that the Bank will seek stockholder approval of the Stock Repurchase Program at a special meeting of stockholders. Under applicable New York law, the Stock Repurchase Program must be approved by holders of at least two-thirds of the outstanding common stock.

The record date for determination of shareholders entitled to vote at the special meeting is September 4, 2018. The special meeting will be held on or about October 17, 2018 in New York City. A proxy statement with more information about the special meeting will be sent to shareholders of record following the record date.

The Stock Repurchase Program is also subject to approval by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Department of Financial Services of the State of New York. The Bank expects to file applications seeking such approval prior to the special meeting. Implementation of the Stock Repurchase Program is subject to any limitations imposed in connection with obtaining the regulatory approvals described above and to market conditions. Once commenced, the Bank may terminate the Stock Repurchase Program at any time.

The figure of $500 million works out to $9.33 per share. (Yes, it says “up to $500 million.”)

Morning News: August 16, 2018
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 16th, 2018 at 7:20 am

China and U.S. to Resume Low-Level Talks in Bid to Resolve Trade War

‘Getting the Dollar Wrong is Deadly’: A Rapid Rise in the Dollar Could Cause a Domino Effect Across Emerging Markets

Should Coffee Come With Cancer Warnings? California Says No

GE: Bad News Bear Hits Home Run In Second Half Of 2018 And Beyond!

Tencent, the Chinese Internet Giant, Stumbles. Beijing Gets the Blame

Walmart Bounces Back With Best Sales in More Than a Decade

Amazon Has a New Rival in India, and It Isn’t Walmart

Uber’s Losses Continue in Its March Toward an I.P.O.

Good Isn’t Good Enough at Macy’s

Cisco Shares Rising After Earnings, Guidance Beat

Nvidia: Head In The Game

Amazon in Running to Acquire Landmark Movie Chain

Michael Batnick: Animal Spirits: Funding Secured

Howard Lindzon: The Rise of Micro-Brands, the Retail Economy and New Millennial Investing Strategies

Jeff Carter: Are Companies Responsible for Employees?

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Near-Term Shift to Low Vol
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 15th, 2018 at 2:57 pm

Here’s an intra-day chart of the past few days. The gold line is the S&P 500 Low Vol ETF and the black line is the S&P 500 High Beta ETF.

High Beta got slammed last Friday, and again today. Meanwhile, the Low Vol sector is pretty much unchanged.

High Beta led Low Vol starting on February 11, 2016. The relative strength peak came this past June 6. It’s too early to say this is the end of the High Beta, but I think it may be.

Good Retail Sales for July
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 15th, 2018 at 11:57 am

This morning, we got a decent retail sales report. For July, retail sales rose by 0.5%. Expectations were for up 0.1%. The data for June was pared back to 0.2%. In the last year, retail sales are up by 6.4%.

If we look at core retail sales, then we saw an increase of 0.5% in July. That’s compared to a drop of 0.1% in June.

Another report showed that manufacturing production rose by 0.3% in July. The number for June was up 0.8%.

Morning News: August 15, 2018
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 15th, 2018 at 3:55 am

How to Solve a Problem Like Elon?

MoviePass Has Less Than Three Months Left Before It Runs Out of Cash — And Its Latest Changes Won’t Save It

Sears CEO’s Hedge Fund Offers $400 Million for Kenmore Brand

Y Combinator to Set Up China Arm With Ex-Baidu Exec as CEO

Verizon Looks to Apple and Google for Live TV Over 5G

Home Depot Raises the Roof

Tinder Co-Founders Just Sued the Dating App’s Owners for $2 Billion

Monsanto Roundup Appeal Has Uphill Climb on ‘Junk Science’ Grounds

Bird, Lime Stop Scooter Service to Protest Uber, Lyft Rankings

Coca-Cola Invests in BodyArmor as It Chases Gatorade

Kate Spade Eyes Rebound as It Breaks Away From Flash Sale Past

Diamondback to Acquire Energen as Oil Patch Consolidation Continues

Nick Maggiulli: We All Have It Now

Ben Carlson: Some Thoughts on Investing in Real Estate

Cullen Roche: Three Things I Think I Think – Shrinkage, Inflation & Trickle Down

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Morning News: August 14, 2018
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 14th, 2018 at 6:28 am

China-U.S. Trade Spat Is Just a Start to the Economic Cold War

Brazil’s Farmers Dump Sugar for Soy as Trade War Boosts Chinese Demand

Turkey’s Collapse Sinks Emerging Markets on ‘Manic Monday’

Why Turkey’s Lira Crisis Matters Outside Turkey

Powell to Keep Hiking as U.S. Growth Overshadows Turkey Turmoil

China Sovereign Fund Backs Deal for $13 Billion Yum China

Foxconn Is Feeling the Sag in Smartphone Sales. Apple? Not So Much.

Elon Musk’s Tweets on Tesla Started a Tizzy. Someone Should Hit the Brakes.

Musk Says He’s Tapped Goldman, Silver Lake on Tesla Bid Plan

Walmart’s Size May Not Shield It From Rising Prices

Icahn Reverses Position on Cigna-Express Scripts Deal

Japan’s Don Quijote Rides High on Rule-Breaking Reputation

The Global Crypto Market Has Lost 10% of Its Value in the Last 24 Hours

Howard Lindzon: Momentum Monday…Good News and Bad News… and All-Time Highs in ‘I Told You So’

Jeff Carter: Best Advice You Ever Got

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Zacks on Becton, Dickinson
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 13th, 2018 at 11:39 am

From Zacks:

What’s Favoring BD?

BD is focused on overseas expansion, in particular, emerging markets. In the recently reported third quarter of fiscal 2018, BD delivered strong sales internationally, which totaled $1.94 billion, up 35.4% from the year-ago quarter and 5.1% at constant currency (cc).

Per management, overseas revenue growth was driven by strong performance by the BD Life Sciences segment as well as the Medication Delivery Solutions and Medication Management Solutions units. The Surgery and Peripheral Intervention units in the BD Interventional segment also drove growth.

Emerging markets revenues grew 10.5%. Revenues in China rose 13.2%, driven by double-digit growth in the Life Sciences and Interventional segments. In addition, revenues in Latin America grew high single digits.

Buoyed by a solid fiscal third-quarter show, BD lifted its guidance for fiscal 2018. The company expects sales to improve 31.5% on a reported basis in 2018, compared to the previous range of 31-31.5%. At cc, revenues are expected to grow 5.5%, compared to the previous range of 5-5.5%.

Earnings are expected within $10.95-$11.05 compared with the previous $10.90-$11.05. This represents growth of approximately 15.5-16.5% over fiscal 2017 and 12% at cc.

Per management, the acquisition of C.R. Bard is expected to prove accretive to adjusted earnings per share on high single-digit basis in fiscal 2019.

Deterrents

Within its Diabetes Care business, BD has temporarily paused shipments of its insulin infusion sets. This was due to a moderately-higher-than-anticipated rate of complaints associated with insertion that occurred during the pilot launch of the product. However, BD is continuing to work closely with Medtronic MDT toward full commercialization of the product.

Moreover, in the Life Sciences business, management at BD confirmed that a few customers have reported issues pertaining to the Barricor blood collection tubes.

BD also generates more than half of its revenues from international operations. Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates adversely affect these revenues.

Moreover, lower reimbursements for medical products and services may negatively impact prices of BD’s products.

Ford Drops to New Low
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 13th, 2018 at 10:40 am

Shares of Ford have gone nowhere for the past few years. This morning, the automaker’s stock dropped to a new low of $9.58 per share.

The company pays a quarterly dividend of 15 cents per share. That’s 60 cents annualized, which now yields nearly 6.3%.

Morning News: August 13, 2018
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 13th, 2018 at 6:45 am

Indian Rupee Hits Record Low, Central Bank Intervention Seen

Turkey Takes First Steps to Bolster Banks Amid Lira’s Decline

China Seeks Influence in Europe One Business Deal at a Time

Trump Wields a Tariffs-and-Sanctions Hammer in Risky Strategy

Google Woos Partners for Potential China Expansion

Empty Shipyard and Suicides as ‘Hyundai Town’ Grapples with Grim Future

Bayer Drops After Monsanto Loses Roundup Cancer Trial

Saudi Fund in Talks to Invest in Tesla Buyout Deal

Tesla’s Slow Disclosure Raises Governance, Social Media Concerns

As Barnes & Noble Struggles to Find Footing, Founder Takes Heat

Trump’s War With Harley-Davidson Has Divided America’s Bikers

PepsiCo Investors Should Be Happy CEO Indra Nooyi Is Out

Ben Carlson: 8 Questions I’ve Been Pondering

Joshua Brown: QOTD: The Case for 4%

Jeff Miller: Weighing the Week Ahead: Don’t Get Framed!

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Inflation Still Contained
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on August 10th, 2018 at 9:46 am

This morning’s CPI report showed that inflation rose by 0.17% in July. That’s still tame.

In the last year, the CPI is up 2.89%. That’s the most in more than six years, but most of that increase came more than six months ago.

Core inflation rose by 0.24% in July. In the last year, it was up 2.33%. That’s the highest year-over-year number in 10 years, but it’s still not far from the average.