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Tag: Ownership changes

  • Uber and Lyft shares rallied in 2023 but may not go much higher, analysts say

    Uber and Lyft shares rallied in 2023 but may not go much higher, analysts say

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    Shares of Uber Technologies Inc. and the ride-hailing giant’s smaller rival, Lyft Inc., have sprinted higher this year. But analysts on Friday suggested there might not be much left in the tank for either stock heading into 2024.

    Nomura analysts Anindya Das and Masataka Kunugimoto on Friday downgraded Uber
    UBER,
    -2.49%
    to a neutral rating from buy, arguing that most of the things that could drive the stock higher are already baked into the price. They also downgraded Lyft
    LYFT,
    -3.54%
    to their equivalent of a sell rating from buy, saying the company failed to fully capitalize on the travel industry’s post-pandemic recovery.

    Shares of Uber, which closed out the year up 142%, were down 2.5% on Friday. Lyft’s stock gave up 3.4% and finished 2023 up 34.8%.

    Uber, the analysts said, had managed to grow this year while occasionally turning a profit, and consolidated its grip on the ride-sharing markets in the U.S. and Canada. Meanwhile, Lyft, they said, had stumbled in its efforts to take advantage of the travel rebound after pandemic restrictions eased, cutting more staff this year after doing the same in 2022.

    After years of losing money, they said Uber’s stronger financials this year allowed it to refinance its debt at a lower interest rate and extend the terms of that debt. They noted the company recently joined the S&P 500 Index
    SPX
    and that the market is expecting more stock buybacks from the company, as well as interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve next year.

    “Thus, most of the milestones and catalysts that we were anticipating to boost Uber’s stock value have been largely met,” they said.

    They added: “At this time, we think most of the catalysts for the stock are already priced in, and Uber is fairly valued at the current price. We therefore downgrade it to Neutral from Buy.”

    Lyft has tried to cut its prices to compete with Uber, and has held off on expanding into areas like food delivery. But as travel demand settles, the analysts suggested, the advantages would still flow to its archrival.

    “We expect 2024 to be more of a ‘normal’ year, in terms of people’s propensity to travel,” the analysts said. “Once the current rebound in travel subsides, we think Lyft’s subscale market positioning, and lack of cross-selling opportunities (unlike Uber), could constrain topline growth for the company.”

    “Offsetting a more moderate pace of ridership growth by raising prices would be challenging for Lyft,” they said, “as we think it would be bound by the actions of its larger and more profitable peer, Uber.”

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  • GE's stock has its best year on record ahead of final breakup

    GE's stock has its best year on record ahead of final breakup

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    General Electric Co. has saved its best year for its last.

    At the beginning of the second quarter, GE’s power and renewable-energy business will be spun off as GE Vernova, while its remaining business will be relaunched as GE Aerospace. That follows the conglomerate’s separation of GE HealthCare Technologies Inc.
    GEHC,
    -0.28%
    in December 2022.

    But rather than mourn the final breakup of the 150-year old company, which was co-founded by Thomas Edison, Wall Street cheered like it never had before.

    GE’s stock
    GE,
    -0.54%
    has rocketed 95.1% in 2023 as of afternoon trading Friday. That would be by far the stock’s best year on record, based on available data going back to 1972, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The next best year was 1982, when it gained 65.4%. In comparison, the S&P 500 index
    SPX
    has rallied 24.2% this year.

    Read: GE stock sees biggest rally in more than 2 years after a big earnings beat, raised outlook.

    As good as the stock’s performance has been leading up to the breakup, most analysts feel like investors still have more to gain. Keep in mind that in many cases, a company’s parts are worth more individually than they are valued as part of a whole.

    Wells Fargo’s Matthew Akers has a pre-breakup target of $144 on GE’s stock, which implies about 13% upside from current levels.

    “GE combines an attractive business with high aftermarket mix, solid management team with a clean balance sheet, L-T margin upside and built-in catalyst with the Vernova spin in early Q2,” Akers wrote.

    J.P. Morgan’s Seth Seifman said he believes the combined equity values of GE Vernova and GE Aerospace, when including the company’s equity stake in GE HealthCare, is about $149 billion. That compares with GE’s current market capitalization of about $139 billion.

    Of the 18 analysts surveyed by FactSet who cover GE, 12 are bullish and six are neutral, while there are no bears. And the average price target is $139.23, or about 9% above current levels.

    GE’s 2023 marks the culmination of a five-year turnaround for the stock engineered by current Chief Executive Larry Culp, who will remain as CEO of GE Aerospace.

    GE’s stock has nearly tripled in the five years that Larry Culp has been CEO, outperforming the S&P 500 by a wide margin.


    General Electric Co.

    The stock had suffered its worst year ever in 2018, plunging 56.6%, just after it had its fourth-worst year in 2017, when it suffered a 44.8% decline.

    Things got so bad for GE that it got booted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    in June 2018, ending a record 111-year run in the blue-chip barometer.

    Culp was named CEO in October 2018. During his tenure, GE’s stock has had only two down years. It fell 3.2% in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the aerospace business, and slumped 11.3% in 2022 as spiking inflation and interest rates fueled fears that a recession was on the horizon.

    But since the end of 2018, GE’s stock has climbed 181%, while the S&P 500 has rallied 90% and the Dow has gained 61%.

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  • Bristol Myers to Acquire RayzeBio in Deal Valued at $4.1 Billion

    Bristol Myers to Acquire RayzeBio in Deal Valued at $4.1 Billion

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    Bristol Myers Squibb will acquire radiopharmaceutical therapeutics company RayzeBio for $62.50 a share in cash.

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  • Synopsys and Ansys in talks to merge: report

    Synopsys and Ansys in talks to merge: report

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    Shares of Ansys Inc. soared 18% in trading Friday on reports the company is in discussions to be acquired by Synopsys Inc. in a deal that would create a design-software behemoth.

    The potential deal would kick off 2024 with a mega-merger, even as the Federal Trade Commission attempts to crack down on such transactions. Talks remain fluid and a third party might still emerge as a possible suitor of Ansys, according to a Wall Street Journal report, which cited people familiar with the situation.

    Ansys
    ANSS,
    +18.08%    ,
    which has a market value of nearly $26.3 billion, makes software that helps predict how products in aerospace, healthcare and automotive applications will work in the real world. A deal could be struck early in 2024, according to people familiar with the matter. Ansys reported revenue of $2.1 billion in 2022.

    Synopsys
    SNPS,
    -6.34%    ,
    with a market value of $85.1 billion, makes software that engineers use to design and test silicon chips used in smartphones, self-driving cars and other forms of artificial intelligence. Its stock has climbed 65% this year as investors have hopped on the AI bandwagon boom. Shares of Synopsys dipped 6% in late trading Friday.

    Synopsys’s customers include Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    -0.33%    ,
    Intel Corp.
    INTC,
    +1.95%
    and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
    AMD,
    -0.22%    .

    Representatives from Synopsys and Ansys were not immediately available for comment.

    Should the companies strike a merger, it would offer a fresh test for the FTC and its chair, Lina Khan, who have opposed large tech mergers and acquisitions. The agency unsuccessfully sued Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.
    META,
    -0.20%
    in its pursuit of VR developer Within, as well as Microsoft Corp.’s
    MSFT,
    +0.28%
    $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc.

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  • U.S. Steel Stock Soars on $14.9 Billion Acquisition by Nippon Steel

    U.S. Steel Stock Soars on $14.9 Billion Acquisition by Nippon Steel

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    U.S. Steel Stock Soars on $14.9 Billion Acquisition by Nippon Steel

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  • Activision Blizzard to pay $55 million to settle California civil-rights lawsuit

    Activision Blizzard to pay $55 million to settle California civil-rights lawsuit

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    Videogame maker Activision Blizzard has agreed to pay nearly $55 million to settle a California civil-rights lawsuit brought over complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination and pay disparities by women employees that helped trigger the company’s acquisition by Microsoft.

    The settlement, announced by the California Civil Rights Department on Friday evening, resolves the lawsuit filed against the “Call of Duty” videogame studio by the agency in 2021 over claims that it “discriminated against women at the company, including by denying promotion opportunities and paying them less than men for doing substantially similar work,” CRD said.

    The agreement, subject to court approval, will see Activision pay nearly $46 million into a settlement fund dedicated to compensating women employees and contract workers at the company, plus more than $9 million in attorneys’ fees and costs. Additionally, Activision will take steps “to help ensure fair pay and promotion practices at the company,” including retaining an independent consultant to evaluate its compensation and promotion policies.

    Yet the settlement also sees CRD withdraw its initial claims alleging a culture of widespread, systemic workplace sexual harassment at Activision, according to a copy of the agreement provided to MarketWatch. The document notes that the department is filing an amended complaint that removes the sexual-harassment allegations against the company and focuses on the gender-based pay and promotion claims.

    CRD made no note of its prior sexual-harassment claims against Activision in its announcement Friday. A spokesperson for the department said the statement “largely speaks for itself with respect to the historic nature of this more than $50 million settlement agreement, which will bring direct relief and compensation to women who were harmed by the company’s discriminatory practices.

    Representatives for Activision declined to comment.

    The Wall Street Journal first reported the news of the settlement Friday.

    The California agency’s complaint was one of several high-profile investigations by both state and federal regulators in recent years into alleged workplace misconduct at Activision and failures by its leadership to respond appropriately. 

    While Activision repeatedly denied the allegations, they ramped up pressure on the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company and its CEO, Bobby Kotick, and eventually led to a $68.7 billion takeover bid by Microsoft
    MSFT,
    +1.31%
    in January 2022. The acquisition closed this October after receiving approval by U.K. and E.U. antitrust regulators, though the U.S. Federal Trade Commission continues to challenge the deal in court. Kotick is expected to leave the company, which he led for more than three decades, at the end of this year.

    The settlement would be the second-largest ever for the California Civil Rights Department, according to the Journal, after its $100 million agreement with another Los Angeles-area videogame developer, Riot Games, to resolve gender-discrimination allegations in 2021. The agency had initially sought a much-larger settlement with Activision, the publication reported, citing how the state had estimated the company’s liability at nearly $1 billion to some 2,500 employees with potential claims.

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  • Broadcom now ranks among 10 largest U.S. companies after big 2023 stock gains

    Broadcom now ranks among 10 largest U.S. companies after big 2023 stock gains

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    Nvidia Corp. has catapulted up the list of the most valuable U.S. companies this year, rising eight spots from the end of last year to sit in the fifth position with a market capitalization of $1.2 trillion.

    But other chip companies have seen their positions rise even more. Just look at Broadcom Inc.
    AVGO,
    +2.10%    ,
    which has climbed 16 spots over the course of 2023 and on Friday cracked the top 10 for the first time, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Broadcom eclipsed Visa Inc.
    V,
    -0.27%
    at Friday’s close to take the No. 10 spot, with a valuation of $527.7 billion.

    Read: Could Nvidia’s stock — up 231% this year — actually be a bargain?

    Admittedly, Broadcom had some help along the way. The company acquired VMware in late November, and its market capitalization gained about $50 billion at the close of the transaction, according to FactSet data.

    But Broadcom’s ascent also reflects how chip stocks have gotten more shine this year amid the artificial-intelligence frenzy. Broadcom’s stock has doubled so far in 2023.

    Mizuho desk-based analyst Jordan Klein expects “an order acceleration in networking silicon for AI clusters” in the second half of 2024, as calendar year 2025 could bring a big year of capital-expenditure investments in AI for ethernet back-end high-speed connections.

    Broadcom “is the KEY WINNER in that investment cycle as the arms dealer to all networking OEMs,” or original equipment manufacturers, wrote Klein, who’s associated with Mizuho’s sales team and not its research arm.

    Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
    AMD,
    +0.83%
    has also seen a nice march up the charts, rising 48 spots so far in 2023 to rank 30th in terms of market cap. AMD was valued at $223.9 billion as of Friday’s close.

    “We view AMD as well-positioned to gain incremental share of the hugely profitable $100 billion-plus accelerator market while continuing to make progress in server [central processing units] against incumbent [Intel],” BofA Securities analyst Vivek Arya wrote in a recent upgrade.

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  • Shari Redstone reportedly in talks to sell Paramount parent to Skydance

    Shari Redstone reportedly in talks to sell Paramount parent to Skydance

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    Media tycoon Shari Redstone is in talks to sell controlling interesting in Paramount parent National Amusements to media and entertainment company Skydance, Puck and the New York Times reported Sunday.

    On Friday, shares of Paramount Global Inc. rallied 13% after Deadline reported Skydance and private-equity firm RedBird Capital were kicking the tires on National Amusement, which has a 77% stake in Paramount.

    According to the Times, Redstone — the daughter of late Paramount CEO Sumner Redstone — has held talks with Skydance in recent weeks, though the Times said it was unclear if a deal would be reached.

    Skydance, which is led by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, is one of Hollywood’s top independent studios, and has produced Paramount blockbusters such as “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” RedBird is a financial backer of Skydance.

    A sale would be a major reversal for Redstone, who waged a bitter battle for control of the company in 2016, and who later led the effort to merge CBS Corp. and Viacom, which led to the creation of the current Paramount Global.

    Deadline had reported that Skydance would be more interested in Paramount’s IP and movie studio, and could look to sell its TV assets, including CBS.

    A deal could signal the start of a major shakeup across the media industry, as traditional TV companies are struggling to make money in the streaming age. Comcast Corp.
    CMCSA,
    -0.17%    ,
    which owns NBCUniversal, could be looking to expand, while Warner Bros. Discovery
    WBD,
    +6.01%
    could be a potential seller. Disney
    DIS,
    +0.84%
    CEO Bob Iger recently floated the idea of selling ABC, but quickly walked that back.

    Paramount Global shares
    PARA,
    +12.11%
    have surged nearly 40% in the past month, but are still about flat year to date.

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  • WSJ News Exclusive | Cigna Calls Off Humana Pursuit, Plans Big Stock Buyback

    WSJ News Exclusive | Cigna Calls Off Humana Pursuit, Plans Big Stock Buyback

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    Updated Dec. 10, 2023 4:47 pm ET

    Cigna Group abandoned its pursuit of a tie-up with Humana after shareholders balked at a deal that would have created a roughly $140 billion giant in the health-insurance industry.

    The companies couldn’t come to agreement on price and other financial terms, according to people familiar with the matter. In the near term, Cigna is turning its focus toward smaller, so-called bolt-on, acquisitions.

    Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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  • Mortgage rates' dip to 7% could be brief if jobs market stays strong, Fannie Mae economist says

    Mortgage rates' dip to 7% could be brief if jobs market stays strong, Fannie Mae economist says

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    November’s sharp pullback in 30-year fixed mortgage rates may not last if the labor market remains strong, said Mark Palim, deputy chief economist at Fannie Mae.

    Palim was speaking to the robust jobs report released on Friday, showing the U.S. added 199,000 jobs in November and that wages rose, albeit with the figures somewhat inflated by the return of striking workers from the auto industry and from Hollywood.

    Homebuyers can benefit from a robust labor market and the near 80 basis point decline in mortgage rates since the end of October, Palim said. But if the “labor markets remain this strong, we believe the pace of mortgage rate declines will likely not continue in the near term or may partially reverse,” he said in a statement.

    The benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate was edging down to 7.05% on Friday, after surging to nearly 8% in October, according to Mortgage Daily News.

    Optimism around the potential for falling mortgage costs to thaw home sales helped lift shares of Toll Brothers Inc.,
    TOL,
    +1.86%
    and a slew of other homebuilders tracked by the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF, 
    XH,
    to record highs earlier this week, even while investors in some homebuilder bonds have been sellers in recent weeks.

    Yields on 10-year
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
    and 30-year Treasury notes
    BX:TMUBMUSD30Y
    were up sharply Friday, to about 4.23% and 4.32%, respectively, but still below the highs of about 5% in October. The surge in long-term borrowing costs was stoked by tough talk by Federal Reserve officials about the need to keep rates higher for longer to bring inflation down to a 2% annual target.

    Read: Solid job growth, sharp wage gains sends Treasury yields up by the most in months

    U.S. stocks were up Friday afternoon, shaking off earlier weakness following the jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    was 0.2% higher, further narrowing the gap between its last record close set two years ago, the S&P 500 index
    SPX
    and the Nasdaq Composite Index
    COMP
    also were up 0.2%, according to FactSet data.

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  • The Cost of Doing Business With China? A $40,000 Dinner With Xi Jinping Might Be Just the Start

    The Cost of Doing Business With China? A $40,000 Dinner With Xi Jinping Might Be Just the Start

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    Updated Nov. 28, 2023 12:54 am ET

    Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan shelled out $40,000 to sit at Xi Jinping’s table for the Chinese leader’s recent dinner in San Francisco with the heads of American businesses. Tan had a lot more at stake—a $69 billion deal he was waiting on China to approve.

    For months, Chinese regulators wouldn’t clear the U.S. chipmaker’s bid to buy enterprise software developer VMware, leading Broadcom to put off its date for completion of the deal—first announced in May 2022—three times. Beijing had held up previous mergers involving U.S. companies. Intel’s planned acquisition of Israeli firm Tower Semiconductor, for more than $5 billion, was scuttled in August after Chinese regulators failed to approve it.

    Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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  • No, Jeff Bezos hasn’t been unloading Amazon stock

    No, Jeff Bezos hasn’t been unloading Amazon stock

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    A number of Amazon.com Inc. executives have disclosed sales of some of their Amazon stock holdings in recent weeks, but Jeff Bezos, the company’s executive chair and a mega-shareholder, was not among them.

    Despite some reports to the contrary, Bezos hasn’t disclosed any sales of Amazon shares AMZN for two years, but he has given some shares away to nonprofit organizations.

    There…

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  • Bayer CEO Says Breakup Wouldn’t Fix All of the Company’s Ills

    Bayer CEO Says Breakup Wouldn’t Fix All of the Company’s Ills

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    BERLIN—Bayer Chief Executive Bill Anderson said the company would bounce back quickly from a recent spate of bad news, and warned that a breakup of the pharmaceutical and agricultural company was no universal cure for its ailments.

    A stream of negative news has rekindled calls from investors for Bayer to unlock value by spinning off its units into separate businesses. But in an interview with The Wall Street Journal this week, Anderson said the company couldn’t be distracted from the tough restructuring to fix the businesses.

    Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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  • Walmart, Nvidia, Novo Nordisk, Vista Outdoor, GM, and More Stock Market Movers

    Walmart, Nvidia, Novo Nordisk, Vista Outdoor, GM, and More Stock Market Movers

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    Stock futures pointed higher Friday as Wall Street returned for a shortened trading session following the Thanksgiving holiday. Retailers will be in focus on Black Friday, which marks the unofficial start to the Christmas shopping season.

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  • Walmart’s shareholders may have anticipated today’s selloff — if they’d been watching its bonds

    Walmart’s shareholders may have anticipated today’s selloff — if they’d been watching its bonds

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    Shareholders of Walmart Inc. may have had an inkling of today’s stock selloff if they had been watching the performance of its bonds over the last two weeks.

    The bonds have seen net selling even as spreads have tightened, according to data solutions company BondCliQ Media Services.

    The same is true for Costco Wholesale Corp.
    COST,
    -3.12%    ,
    as the company’s stock fell in sympathy with Walmart on Thursday. That was after Walmart
    WMT,
    -8.11%
    Chief Executive Doug McMillon said he expects to see a U.S. deflation trend in the coming months.

    McMillon was the first retail executive to raise the specter of deflation on an earnings call this season so far.

    For more, read: Walmart’s stock on pace for largest daily percentage decline in over a year after earnings

    The comment came after the retail giant posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings, but offered per-share earnings guidance that was below consensus, sending the stock down more than 7%.

    The following charts show what’s been happening with Walmart and Costco bonds in the run-up to today’s numbers.

    Bondholders tend to be keenly focused on a company’s underlying financials and closely watched metrics such as cash flow to ensure it can cover interest payments.

    That’s because, by buying corporate bonds, they are effectively lending money to a company for a set term and want to be sure they will get their full investment back once they mature. Shareholders tend to be more tuned into daily stock-price movements.


    Bonds of Walmart and Costco Wholesale by maturity bucket. Source: BondCliQ Media Services

    The following chart shows the two-week volume for the bonds by trade type.


    Bonds of Walmart and Costco Wholesale — two-week volume by trade type. Source: BondCliQ Media Services

    The next chart focuses on two-week client flows, showing net selling for both issuers over the period.


    Bonds of Walmart and Costco – two-week net client flow. Source: BondCliQ media Services

    The selling has come as spreads have been tightening, as the next chart illustrates.


    Select bonds of Walmart and Costco – two-week spread performance. Source: BondCliQ Media Services

    Walmart’s numbers come after other retailers this week said they are seeing signs of pushback from their customers, especially when it comes to big-ticket items.

    That was the message from Target Corp.
    TGT,
    -1.00%
    on Wednesday, with that company’s sales number lagging consensus. Chief Executive Brian Cornell the company saw soft industry trends in discretionary categories, as well as higher inventory shrink.

    See also: Target CEO says consumers are still spending, but sees pressure on discretionary items

    On Tuesday, Home Depot Inc.
    HD,
    -0.79%
    said its customers were avoiding big-ticket items.

    “The third quarter was in line with our expectations – similar to the second quarter, we saw continued customer engagement with smaller projects and experienced pressure in certain big-ticket, discretionary categories,” said Home Depot CEO Ted Decker, during a conference call to discuss the results.

    For more, see: Home Depot CEO says 2023 ‘a period of moderation’ in home improvement spending

    Related: Home Depot says ‘the worst of the inflationary environment is behind us,’ but prices have settled unevenly

    Costco’s stock was down 2.5%, while Home Depot was down 0.7% and Target was down 0.2%.

    The SPDR S&P Retail exchange-traded fund
    XRT
    was down 3% and has gained 2% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
    SPX
    has gained 17%.

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  • Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia—What Tech Stocks Hedge Funds Are Buying and Selling

    Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia—What Tech Stocks Hedge Funds Are Buying and Selling

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    It’s filing season for a string of major hedge funds, and big tech names like Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia were among the most-traded equities in the third quarter.

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  • Soros snaps up tech stocks in Q3, but dumps some of the biggest names

    Soros snaps up tech stocks in Q3, but dumps some of the biggest names

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    Soros Fund Management, the investment firm founded by billionaire George Soros, took new positions or bulked up on IPOs and a number of tech names during the third quarter.

    But it sold off small holdings of some of the largest — like Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. — as well as electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive.

    According to a filing on Tuesday, the firm during the third quarter bought up 325,000 shares of chip designer Arm Holdings
    ARM,
    +3.37%    ,
    which went public in September, for $17.4 million. It also bought smaller stakes in recent IPOs such as Maplebear Inc.
    CART,
    +1.25%    ,
    better known as grocery-delivery platform Instacart, and digital-marketing firm Klaviyo Inc.
    KVYO,
    +6.90%    .
    Those purchases were disclosed as investors remain cautious on new IPOs.

    Elsewhere, the fund took a new position, of around 41,000 shares, in Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    +1.43%    .
    And it did so as well for Datadog Inc.
    DDOG,
    +4.58%    ,
    buying 62,000 shares during the quarter. It also bought up 574,962 shares of Splunk, and took fresh positions in Snowflake Inc.
    SNOW,
    +4.51%
    and Taiwan Semiconductor
    TSM,
    +2.58%    .

    Soros also packed on more to some of its other tech holdings. It added 125,000 shares to its stake in Uber Technologies Inc.
    UBER,
    +3.14%    ,
    boosting its position by 16.6% for a total of 878,955 shares. It also bought 42,000 more shares of another gig-economy player, DoorDash Inc.
    DASH,
    +4.37%    ,
    a 30.9% increase for 178,075 shares.

    While Soros boosted its stake in General Motors
    GM,
    +4.83%    ,
    it sold off its 4.2 million shares in Rivian
    RIVN,
    +4.39%    .
    The firm also sold off its positions — of roughly 10,000 shares apiece — in tech giants Microsoft
    MSFT,
    +0.98%
    and Nvidia
    NVDA,
    +2.13%    .

    Soros Fund Management also sold off its stake in Walt Disney Co.
    DIS,
    +1.82%    .

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  • Groupon’s stock craters after earnings as CEO says business ‘continues to be challenged’

    Groupon’s stock craters after earnings as CEO says business ‘continues to be challenged’

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    Groupon Inc. shares were tumbling more than 20% in Thursday’s extended session after the discounting marketplace announced a new rights offering and acknowledged “challenged” business conditions.

    The company said in a Thursday afternoon release that its board approved an $80 million fully backstopped rights offering to all holders of its common stock. The rights offering will occur through the distribution of nontransferable subscription rights to purchase common stock at a price of $11.30 a share.

    Groupon
    GRPN,
    -2.73%
    also posted third-quarter results, showing revenue down to $126.5 million from $144.4 million a year prior and slightly below the $129.7 million FactSet consensus, which is based on estimates from three analysts.

    The company logged a net loss of $41.4 million, or $1.31 a share, compared with a loss of $56.2 million, or $1.86 a share, in the year-earlier period.

    “We are turning our focus to delivering projects across product, engineering, sales, marketing and revenue management that we expect will reinvigorate our marketplace and position our business to return to growth,” interim CEO Dusan Senkypl said in a release.

    Added Senkypl: “While we did not make as much progress on key projects as I expected and our business continues to be challenged, I am pleased to see sequential improvement in our financial performance, Local Billings return to growth, and our plan to strengthen our liquidity position.”

    In addition, co-founder Eric Lefkofsky plans to leave Groupon’s board of directors, according to Thursday’s release. “With a new management team and the announcement of today’s financing strategy, I am confident that Groupon is on the right track to become the ultimate destination for experiences and services,” Lefkofsky said.

    Groupon’s stock is up 58% so far this year but off 97% from its 2011 all-time high.

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  • UBS Issues $3.5B in AT1 Bonds in First Issuance Since Credit Suisse Acquisition

    UBS Issues $3.5B in AT1 Bonds in First Issuance Since Credit Suisse Acquisition

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    By Miriam Mukuru

    UBS Group issues $3.5 billion in Additional Tier 1 bonds in the first issuance since the acquisition of Credit Suisse.
    

    It is comprised of two tranches of $1.75 billion of 9.25% perpetual notes redeemable at the option of UBS after five years and $1.75 billion of 9.25% perpetual notes redeemable after 10 years.
    

    

    “Each issue is a direct, unsecured and subordinated obligation of UBS Group AG,” it said.
    

    “The notes provide that, following approval of a minimum amount of conversion capital by UBS Group AG’s shareholders, upon occurrence of a trigger event or a viability event, the notes will be converted into UBS Group AG ordinary shares rather than be subject to write-down,” UBS added.
    

    Write to Miriam Mukuru at miriam.mukuru@wsj.com
    

    

    

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    Chevron Is a Buy. It’s Been Punished Enough.
    
			
    Chevron Is a Buy. It’s Been Punished Enough.
    
			
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    In less than a year, Chevron has gone from being Wall Street’s favorite Big Energy company to a show-me story. Investors who buy the stock now should end up liking what they see.
    

    Chevron stock (ticker: CVX) has fallen 17% in 2023, making it the worst performer by far among the half-dozen global super majors this year. Exxon Mobil (XOM), by comparison, is down just 2% this year, and the Energy Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund (XLE) is about flat.
    

    

    

    

    

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    Most of the drop has come during the past few weeks after a disappointing earnings report that included news of a surprise delay in the development of a key oil field in Kazakhstan, while Chevron’s $60 billion deal to buy Hess (HES), an independent energy producer, not only failed to excite investors but was seen as a sign of weakness by some.
    

    

    

    

    

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