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Tag: El

  • QRG Capital Management Inc. Has $1.60 Million Stock Holdings in The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL)

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    QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL – Free Report) by 14.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 16,017 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,025 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Estée Lauder Companies were worth $1,597,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

    Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies during the second quarter valued at $30,000. PARK CIRCLE Co bought a new position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Estée Lauder Companies during the first quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Chilton Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 163.0% during the first quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 263 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.15% of the company’s stock.

    Insiders Place Their Bets

    In other Estée Lauder Companies news, Director Charlene Barshefsky sold 3,437 shares of Estée Lauder Companies stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.93, for a total value of $315,963.41. Following the sale, the director now owns 49,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,578,114. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Fabrizio Freda sold 10,969 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.76, for a total value of $743,259.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 295,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,045,982.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Charlene Barshefsky sold 3,437 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.93, for a total transaction of $315,963.41. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 49,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,578,114. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 18,296 shares of company stock valued at $1,423,366. Company insiders own 12.78% of the company’s stock.

    Estée Lauder Companies Stock Up 4.8 %

    Estée Lauder Companies stock opened at $66.31 on Friday. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $62.88 and a fifty-two week high of $159.75. The stock has a market cap of $23.79 billion, a PE ratio of 118.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $88.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $104.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.32.

    Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $3.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.37 billion. Estée Lauder Companies had a net margin of 1.31% and a return on equity of 17.31%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. will post 2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

    Estée Lauder Companies Cuts Dividend

    The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Estée Lauder Companies’s dividend payout ratio is 471.43%.

    Analyst Ratings Changes

    A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. B. Riley lowered their target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $95.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $115.00 to $104.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Citigroup downgraded shares of Estée Lauder Companies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $105.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Estée Lauder Companies from $131.00 to $100.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $100.90.

    Get Our Latest Research Report on Estée Lauder Companies

    About Estée Lauder Companies

    (Free Report)

    The Estée Lauder Companies Inc manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.

    Recommended Stories

    Want to see what other hedge funds are holding EL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL – Free Report).

    Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL)



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  • El Hefe, the Troubled Hubbard Street Clubstaurant, Appears Closed

    El Hefe, the Troubled Hubbard Street Clubstaurant, Appears Closed

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    After more than a decade on Hubbard Street, controversial nightclub El Hefe has closed its doors. The River North bar, owned by Scottsdale-based company Riot Hospitality, has been erased from the brand’s website.

    The duration of the closure, however, remains in question. The company has “suspended operations” at 15 W. Hubbard Street, but would not confirm whether or not El Hefe will return, according to Block Club Chicago. Though the bar developed a bad reputation among locals, River North tourists continued to give the venue business.

    A self-described “super macho taqueria,” El Hefe made its Chicago debut in 2013 amid the notoriously bustling nightlife strip in River North, operating as a Mexican restaurant during the day and an adults-only spot for dancing and drinking at night. But as the years passed, troubling incidents began to accrue, culminating in two women filing lawsuits against the club in 2019.

    A Florida woman, whom attorneys dub Jane Doe, alleged in a suit that while visiting Chicago in October 2019, she was drugged and raped in an alley behind the bar while security guards stood about 100 feet away. Doe also alleged her attacker was known to El Hefe’s staff. The incident was recorded on a security camera and paramedics went on to transport an unresponsive Doe to the hospital.

    That footage inspired a second plaintiff to file suit weeks later with allegations that she was also drugged and sexually assaulted in 2014 at El Hefe and that staff failed to intervene. At the time, according to the suit, a toxicology test and rape kit taken at the hospital confirmed the plaintiff was raped and drugged with Acetone.

    For its part, El Hefe released a statement on social media in 2019 responding to the first lawsuit, claiming that its security guards did not witness an assault and promising to cooperate with police investigations. At the time, one of the women’s attorneys called the statement “absurd” and alleged that club management was withholding evidence from law enforcement. A spokesperson for Riot Hospitality later issued a more contrite statement, asserting that “reports like these are unacceptable in any part of our city… Any incident that tears at the reputation of the City of Chicago impacts all of us.”

    That tone, however, didn’t extend to a January 2020 court filing in which the bar’s attorneys leveraged a common legal tactic: claiming that Jane Doe “was more than 50 percent of the proximate cause of the injury” — essentially, that Doe was responsible for her own assault.

    The move was met with near-immediate criticism, and in the same month, more than 5,700 Chicago hospitality workers signed a petition calling for city officials to suspend El Hefe’s liquor license until police completed their investigations. The petition specifically pointed to the club’s policy of removing overly intoxicated customers through a back door, precisely as alleged by Doe in her suit, thus perpetuating a “dangerous workplace culture.”

    Protracted legal battles followed. The second plaintiff’s lawsuit was dismissed for want of prosecution in March 2021, while Doe’s case was dismissed “by stipulation or agreement” (which could mean a settlement) in early January 2024.

    Originally founded in Scottsdale in 2010, El Hefe also operated another outpost in Tempe, Arizona, which has also closed. The Scottsdale location remains open. Reps for the company have not yet responded to a request for more information.

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    Naomi Waxman

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  • The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.66 (NYSE:EL)

    The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.66 (NYSE:EL)

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    The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL – Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, August 18th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 31st will be given a dividend of 0.66 per share on Friday, September 15th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 30th.

    Estée Lauder Companies has increased its dividend by an average of 11.6% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 3 years. Estée Lauder Companies has a dividend payout ratio of 54.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Estée Lauder Companies to earn $6.33 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 41.7%.

    Estée Lauder Companies Trading Down 3.3 %

    NYSE EL opened at $156.69 on Friday. Estée Lauder Companies has a 1-year low of $149.45 and a 1-year high of $283.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $184.07 and a 200-day moving average of $215.04. The firm has a market cap of $56.00 billion, a PE ratio of 56.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.72 and a beta of 1.02.

    Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 18th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by $0.11. Estée Lauder Companies had a return on equity of 23.99% and a net margin of 6.88%. The company had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. Estée Lauder Companies’s revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Estée Lauder Companies will post 3.63 EPS for the current year.

    Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

    A number of brokerages recently issued reports on EL. Raymond James reduced their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $240.00 to $220.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 24th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $265.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Estée Lauder Companies from $290.00 to $225.00 in a report on Thursday, May 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $207.00 to $206.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Estée Lauder Companies from $265.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Estée Lauder Companies presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $231.96.

    Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Estée Lauder Companies

    Hedge Funds Weigh In On Estée Lauder Companies

    Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EL. Norges Bank bought a new position in Estée Lauder Companies in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $858,070,000. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,009,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,739,070,000 after acquiring an additional 1,167,553 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 74.4% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 2,026,676 shares of the company’s stock valued at $502,837,000 after acquiring an additional 864,628 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its position in Estée Lauder Companies by 28.2% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 2,496,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $619,352,000 after acquiring an additional 549,744 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Estée Lauder Companies by 80.2% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 751,713 shares of the company’s stock valued at $204,706,000 after buying an additional 334,577 shares during the period. 57.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

    About Estée Lauder Companies

    (Get Free Report)

    The Estée Lauder Companies Inc manufactures, markets, and sells skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products worldwide. It offers a range of skin care products, including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners, body care, exfoliators, acne care and oil correctors, facial masks, cleansing devices, and sun care products; and makeup products, such as lipsticks, lip glosses, mascaras, foundations, eyeshadows, nail polishes, and powders, as well as compacts, brushes, and other makeup tools.

    Read More

    Dividend History for Estée Lauder Companies (NYSE:EL)

    Receive News & Ratings for Estée Lauder Companies Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Estée Lauder Companies and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.

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  • Palo Alto, Dish Network, C3.ai, EPAM Systems, and More Stock Market Movers

    Palo Alto, Dish Network, C3.ai, EPAM Systems, and More Stock Market Movers

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    These Stocks Are Moving the Most Today: Palo Alto, Dish Network, C3.ai, EPAM Systems, and More

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  • What if Musk loses the Twitter case but defies the court?

    What if Musk loses the Twitter case but defies the court?

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    Twitter wants a Delaware court to order Elon Musk to buy the social media service for $44 billion, as he promised back in April. But what if a judge makes that ruling and Musk balks?

    The Tesla billionaire’s reputation for dismissing government pronouncements has some worried that he might flout an unfavorable ruling of the Delaware Court of Chancery, known for its handling of high-profile business disputes.

    Musk hopes to win the case that’s headed for an October trial. He’s scheduled to be deposed by Twitter attorneys starting Thursday.

    But the consequences of him losing badly — either by an order of “specific performance” that forces him to complete the deal, or by walking away from Twitter but still coughing up a billion dollars or more for breach of contract — has raised concerns about how the Delaware court would enforce its final ruling.

    “The problem with specific performance, especially with Elon Musk, is that it’s unclear whether the order of the court would be obeyed,” retired Delaware Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Berger told CNBC in July. “And the courts in Delaware — courts all over — are very concerned about issuing a decision or issuing an order that then is ignored, flouted.”

    Berger, who was also a vice chancellor of the Chancery Court in the 1980s and 1990s, stood by those concerns in an interview with The Associated Press but said she doubted the Delaware institution would go so far as to make him complete the deal.

    “The court can impose sanctions and the court can kind of coerce Musk into taking over the company,” she said. “But why would the court do that when what really is at stake is money?”

    Berger said she expects San Francisco-based Twitter to prevail, but said a less tumultuous remedy for the company and its shareholders would make Musk pay monetary damages. “The court doesn’t want to be in a position to step in and essentially run this company,” she said.

    Musk and his lawyers didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    Other legal observers say such defiance is almost impossible to imagine, even from a famously combative personality such as Musk. He acknowledged he might lose in August in explaining why he suddenly sold nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla shares.

    “I take him at his word,” said Ann Lipton, an associate law professor at Tulane University. “He wants to win. Maybe he’s got his own judgment as to what the odds are. But he’s also being sort of practical about this. He’s getting some cash ready so he doesn’t have to dump his Tesla shares if it turns out he is ordered to buy the company.”

    A ruling of specific performance could force Musk to pay up his $33.5 billion personal stake in the deal; the price increases to $44 billion with promised financing from backers such as Morgan Stanley.

    The Delaware court has powers to enforce its orders, and could appoint a receivership to seize some of Musk’s assets, namely Tesla stock, if he doesn’t comply, according to Tom Lin, a law professor at Temple University.

    In a precedent set just this week involving contempt for noncompliance with a court order, a judge affirmed that shares of a company incorporated in Delaware are personal property subject to the Court of Chancery’s jurisdiction. The judge noted in his Monday ruling that it might be the first time the court has invoked its authority to address ownership of shares in a contempt proceeding, as he divested an entity of its shares and transferred title to another party in the lawsuit.

    Speculation that Musk could be threatened with jail time for failing to comply with a ruling is unrealistic, said Berger. “At least, not for the Court of Chancery,” said the former judge. “That’s not the way the court operates.”

    But more important, Lin said Musk’s legal advisers will strongly urge him to comply with the rulings of a court that routinely takes cases involving Tesla and other firms incorporated in the state of Delaware.

    “If you are an executive at a major American corporation incorporated in Delaware, it’s very hard for you to do business and defy the chancery court’s orders,” Lin said.

    Concerns about Musk’s compliance derive from his past behavior dealing with various arms of the government. In a long-running dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he was accused of defying a securities fraud settlement that required that his tweets be approved by a Tesla attorney before being published. He publicly feuded with California officials over whether Tesla’s electric car factory should remain shut down during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    He’s also taken a combative approach in Delaware Chancery Court, calling an opposing attorney a “bad human being” while defending Tesla’s 2016 acquisition of SolarCity against a lawsuit that blamed Musk for a deal rife with conflicts of interest and broken promises. He and his lawyers have other Delaware cases still pending, including one involving his compensation package at Tesla.

    “I think we’ve got a whole lot of players who, as loose a cannon as Elon Musk is, rely on the goodwill of the Delaware courts on an ongoing basis for their businesses,” Lipton said.

    Musk’s argument for winning his latest Delaware case largely rests on his allegation that Twitter misrepresented how it measures the magnitude of “spam bot” accounts that are useless to advertisers. But most legal experts believe he faces an uphill battle in convincing Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, the court’s head judge who is presiding over the case, that something changed since the April merger agreement that justifies terminating the deal.

    The trial begins Oct. 17 and whichever side loses can appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court, which is expected to act swiftly. Musk and Twitter could also settle the case before, during or after the trial, lawyers said.

    Delaware’s courts are well-respected in the business world and any move to flout them would be “shocking and unexpected,” said Paul Regan, associate professor of Widener University’s Delaware Law School who has practiced in Delaware courts since the 1980s. “If there was some kind of crisis like that, I think the reputational harm would be all on Musk, not the court.”

    ——

    AP reporter Randall Chase in Dover, Delaware, contributed to this report.

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  • What if Musk loses the Twitter case but defies the court?

    What if Musk loses the Twitter case but defies the court?

    [ad_1]

    Twitter wants a Delaware court to order Elon Musk to buy the social media service for $44 billion, as he promised back in April. But what if a judge makes that ruling and Musk balks?

    The Tesla billionaire’s reputation for dismissing government pronouncements has some worried that he might flout an unfavorable ruling of the Delaware Court of Chancery, known for its handling of high-profile business disputes.

    Musk hopes to win the case that’s headed for an October trial. He’s scheduled to be deposed by Twitter attorneys starting Thursday.

    But the consequences of him losing badly — either by an order of “specific performance” that forces him to complete the deal, or by walking away from Twitter but still coughing up a billion dollars or more for breach of contract — has raised concerns about how the Delaware court would enforce its final ruling.

    “The problem with specific performance, especially with Elon Musk, is that it’s unclear whether the order of the court would be obeyed,” retired Delaware Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Berger told CNBC in July. “And the courts in Delaware — courts all over — are very concerned about issuing a decision or issuing an order that then is ignored, flouted.”

    Berger, who was also a vice chancellor of the Chancery Court in the 1980s and 1990s, stood by those concerns in an interview with The Associated Press but said she doubted the Delaware institution would go so far as to make him complete the deal.

    “The court can impose sanctions and the court can kind of coerce Musk into taking over the company,” she said. “But why would the court do that when what really is at stake is money?”

    Berger said she expects Twitter to prevail, but said a less tumultuous remedy for the company and its shareholders would make Musk pay monetary damages. “The court doesn’t want to be in a position to step in and essentially run this company,” she said.

    Musk and his lawyers didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    Other legal observers say such defiance is almost impossible to imagine, even from a famously combative personality such as Musk. He acknowledged he might lose in August in explaining why he suddenly sold nearly $7 billion worth of Tesla shares.

    “I take him at his word,” said Ann Lipton, an associate law professor at Tulane University. “He wants to win. Maybe he’s got his own judgment as to what the odds are. But he’s also being sort of practical about this. He’s getting some cash ready so he doesn’t have to dump his Tesla shares if it turns out he is ordered to buy the company.”

    A ruling of specific performance could force Musk to pay up his $33.5 billion personal stake in the deal; the price increases to $44 billion with promised financing from backers such as Morgan Stanley.

    The Delaware court has powers to enforce its orders, and could appoint a receivership to seize some of Musk’s assets, namely Tesla stock, if he doesn’t comply, according to Tom Lin, a law professor at Temple University.

    The court has made such moves before, such as in 2013 when it held Chinese company ZTS Digital Networks in contempt and appointed a receiver with power to seize its assets. But after coercive sanctions didn’t work, the receiver asked the court five years later to issue bench warrants calling for the arrest of two senior executives the next time they visited the U.S.

    Speculation that Musk could be threatened with jail time for failing to comply with a ruling is unrealistic, said Berger. “At least, not for the Court of Chancery,” said the former judge. “That’s not the way the court operates.”

    But more important, Lin said Musk’s legal advisers will strongly urge him to comply with the rulings of a court that routinely takes cases involving Tesla and other firms incorporated in the state of Delaware.

    “If you are an executive at a major American corporation incorporated in Delaware, it’s very hard for you to do business and defy the chancery court’s orders,” Lin said.

    Concerns about Musk’s compliance derive from his past behavior dealing with various arms of the government. In a long-running dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he was accused of defying a securities fraud settlement that required that his tweets be approved by a Tesla attorney before being published. He publicly feuded with California officials over whether Tesla’s electric car factory should remain shut down during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    He’s also taken a combative approach in Delaware Chancery Court, calling an opposing attorney a “bad human being” while defending Tesla’s 2016 acquisition of SolarCity against a lawsuit that blamed Musk for a deal rife with conflicts of interest and broken promises. He and his lawyers have other Delaware cases still pending, including one involving his compensation package at Tesla.

    “I think we’ve got a whole lot of players who, as loose a cannon as Elon Musk is, rely on the goodwill of the Delaware courts on an ongoing basis for their businesses,” Lipton said.

    Musk’s argument for winning his latest Delaware case largely rests on his allegation that Twitter misrepresented how it measures the magnitude of “spam bot” accounts that are useless to advertisers. But most legal experts believe he faces an uphill battle in convincing Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, the court’s head judge who is presiding over the case, that something changed since the April merger agreement that justifies terminating the deal.

    The trial begins Oct. 17 and whichever side loses can appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court, which is expected to act swiftly. Musk and Twitter could also settle the case before, during or after the trial, lawyers said.

    Delaware’s courts are well-respected in the business world and any move to flout them would be “shocking and unexpected,” said Paul Regan, associate professor of Widener University’s Delaware Law School who has practiced in Delaware courts since the 1980s. “If there was some kind of crisis like that, I think the reputational harm would be all on Musk, not the court.”

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