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Do Directors Own eClerx Services Limited (NSE:ECLERX) Shares? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Every investor in eClerx Services Limited (NSE:ECLERX) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.' eClerx Services is not a large company by global standards. It has a market capitalization of ₹30b, which means it wouldn't have the attention of many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutions own shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about ECLERX. Check out our latest analysis for eClerx Services Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing. As you can see, institutional investors own 38% of eClerx Services. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at eClerx Services's earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in eClerx Services. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too. The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. The company management answer to the board; and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board, themselves. I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions. Our information suggests that insiders maintain a significant holding in eClerx Services Limited. It has a market capitalization of just ₹30b, and insiders have ₹15b worth of shares in their own names. I would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You canclick here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling. With a 11% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over ECLERX. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run. It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand eClerx Services better, we need to consider many other factors. I always like to check for ahistory of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart ofhistoric revenue and earnings in thisdetailed graph. Ultimatelythe future is most important. You can access thisfreereport on analyst forecasts for the company. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Imagine Owning Gayatri Highways (NSE:GAYAHWS) And Trying To Stomach The 93% Share Price Drop Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Even the best investor on earth makes unsuccessful investments. But serious investors should think long and hard about avoiding extreme losses. It must have been painful to be aGayatri Highways Limited(NSE:GAYAHWS) shareholder over the last year, since the stock price plummeted 93% in that time. A loss like this is a stark reminder that portfolio diversification is important. We wouldn't rush to judgement on Gayatri Highways because we don't have a long term history to look at. But it's up 7.1% in the last week. We really hope anyone holding through that price crash has a diversified portfolio. Even when you lose money, you don't have to lose the lesson. See our latest analysis for Gayatri Highways Given that Gayatri Highways didn't make a profit in the last twelve months, we'll focus on revenue growth to form a quick view of its business development. When a company doesn't make profits, we'd generally expect to see good revenue growth. As you can imagine, fast revenue growth, when maintained, often leads to fast profit growth. In just one year Gayatri Highways saw its revenue fall by 53%. That looks like a train-wreck result to investors far and wide. If you need more proof of that, check the share price. (Hint: it tanked 93%). Our mindset doesn't have a lot of time for stocks like this. While some losers redeem themselves, most remain losers and we prefer winners anyway. The company's revenue and earnings (over time) are depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers). Thisfreeinteractive report on Gayatri Highways'sbalance sheet strengthis a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further. Given that the market gained 3.5% in the last year, Gayatri Highways shareholders might be miffed that they lost 93%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. With the stock down 6.3% over the last three months, the market doesn't seem to believe that the company has solved all its problems. Basically, most investors should be wary of buying into a poor-performing stock, unless the business itself has clearly improved. You could get a better understanding of Gayatri Highways's growth by checking outthis more detailed historical graphof earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere.So take a peek at thisfreelist of companies we expect will grow earnings. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on IN exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Have Insiders Been Buying Kakatiya Cement Sugar and Industries Limited (NSE:KAKATCEM) Shares? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares inKakatiya Cement Sugar and Industries Limited(NSE:KAKATCEM). It's quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required. We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Harvard Universitystudyfound that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.' View our latest analysis for Kakatiya Cement Sugar and Industries While no particular insider transaction stood out, we can still look at the overall trading. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below! There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at thisfreelist of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It's great to see that Kakatiya Cement Sugar and Industries insiders own 55% of the company, worth about ₹798m. I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders. It's certainly positive to see the recent insider purchase. And the longer term insider transactions also give us confidence. When combined with notable insider ownership, these factors suggest Kakatiya Cement Sugar and Industries insiders are well aligned, and quite possibly think the share price is too low. Looks promising! Along with insider transactions, I recommend checking if Kakatiya Cement Sugar and Industries is growing revenue. This free chart ofhistoric revenue and earnings should make that easy. But note:Kakatiya Cement Sugar and Industries may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
House sends Trump $4.6B border bill, yielding to Senate WASHINGTON (AP) The Democratic-controlled House voted Thursday to send President Donald Trump a bipartisan, Senate-drafted, $4.6 billion measure to care for migrant refugees detained at the southern border, capping a Washington skirmish in which die-hard liberals came out on the losing end in a battle with the White House, the GOP-held Senate and Democratic moderates. The emergency legislation, required to ease overcrowded, often harsh conditions at U.S. holding facilities for migrants seeking asylum, mostly from Central American nations like Honduras and El Salvador, passed by a bipartisan 305-102 vote. Trump has indicated he'll sign it into law. "A great job done by all!" Trump tweeted from his overseas trip. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reluctantly brought the Senate bill to a vote by after her plan to further strengthen rules for treatment of migrant refugees ran into intractable opposition from Republican lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence. Many moderate Democrats split with Pelosi as well, undercutting her earlier efforts, which faded shortly after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would swiftly reject them. The legislation contains more than $1 billion to shelter and feed migrants detained by the border patrol and almost $3 billion to care for unaccompanied migrant children who are turned over the Department of Health and Human Services. It rejects an administration request for additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention beds, however, and contains provisions designed to prevent federal immigration agents from going after immigrants living in the country illegally who seek to care for unaccompanied children. The funding is urgently needed to prevent the humanitarian emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border from worsening. The government had warned that money would run out in a matter of days. The Senate bill passed Wednesday by an 84-8 vote, with Democrats there pleased with the deal they cut with Republicans controlling the chamber. Story continues The measure was initially only reluctantly accepted by the White House which complained about elimination of the request for detention beds for immigrants facing removal from the U.S. but GOP support grew after the measure presented an opportunity to outmaneuver Pelosi. Just seven Republicans opposed the bill. "We could have done so much better," Pelosi said in a floor speech. Earlier, Pelosi pushed a plan to ping-pong the Senate-passed bill right back across the Capitol with provisions requiring more stringent care requirements for detained migrant families and other steps. But confronted with splintering unity in the Democratic rank and file and intractable opposition from McConnell, Pelosi changed course. Pence and Pelosi had an hour-long conversation on the legislation Thursday as the White House and Republicans kept pounding the message that the only way forward on the long-sought legislation was to pass the Senate bill. Pence's chief of staff Marc Short described the call as friendly and productive. Pelosi, a devout Catholic, appealed to Pence's sense of faith. Pelosi presented an effective case that House Democrats wanted more, Short said, but the vice president stressed that with the bipartisan vote in Senate and funding running out, now was not the time to be reopening the bill. The leaders of the House Progressive Caucus, which includes almost half of House Democrats, immediately issued a statement calling the Senate bill which had the backing of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "entirely insufficient to protect vulnerable children in our care." "Standing up for human rights requires more than providing money," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. In all, 95 Democrats opposed the bill, including a slew of prominent Pelosi allies like Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., and other authors of the alternative House approach. Pelosi told members to vote their conscience. Thursday's outcome was a victory for McConnell, who vowed that the GOP-held Senate would kill any "partisan" House changes that the Democratic-controlled House passed, and he appeared to hold a strong hand. All sides agreed that Congress wouldn't leave for its Independence Day recess until the measure was passed in some form. "The United States Senate is not going to pass a border funding bill that cuts the money for ICE and the Department of Defense. It's not going to happen. We already have our compromise," McConnell said. He called the Senate bill "the only game in town." McConnell said the White House might support making some changes administratively which have less than the force of law to address some Democratic concerns. In fact, Pence agreed that lawmakers would be notified within 24 hours when a child died in custody, said people familiar with his call with Pelosi. The vice president also agreed to the 90-day time limit for migrant children to be housed in influx facilities. Meanwhile, pressure built on lawmakers whose constituents are upset by accounts of brutal conditions for detained children. And with lawmakers eager to break for the 10-day July 4 recess, internal pressure built on Democrats to wrap it all up quickly. "The Administration sent its request for emergency funding eight weeks ago, but there was no action," said Sarah Sanders, outgoing White House press secretary. "We have already negotiated a broadly supported bipartisan funding bill. It is time for House Democrats to pass the Senate bill and stop delaying funding to deal with this very real humanitarian crisis." Lawmakers' sense of urgency to provide humanitarian aid was amplified by recent reports of conditions in a windowless Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, where more than 300 infants and children were being housed. Many were kept there for weeks and were caring for each other in conditions that included inadequate food, water and sanitation. The Border Patrol reported apprehending nearly 133,000 people last month including many Central American families as monthly totals have begun topping 100,000 for the first time since 2007. At her weekly news conference, Pelosi choked back tears when asked about an Associated Press photo of a migrant father and daughter killed crossing the Rio Grande River as she pushed for stronger protections in a border crisis funding bill. Pelosi told reporters Thursday she's a "lioness" when it comes to children. She called it a "shame that this should be the face of America around the world." ___ AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Why Sycamore Partners' New, Lower Bid for Chico's May Make Sense The saga ofChico's(NYSE: CHS)and private equity firm Sycamore Partners continues. In May,the women's apparel retailer rejected a takeover offer from Sycamorethat featured a buyout price ($3.50 per share) below its share price at the time. This month, Sycamore came back to the table with an even lower offer. Given that persistent suitors usually raise their offers after being turned down, what logic could have motivated Sycamore to bring this weaker bid? Sycamore has been stalking Chico's for some time now. It first tried to acquire it in 2015, when Chico's had a market cap of around $2.8 billion. Sycamore abandoned that attempt after failing to secure financing. Image Source: Getty Images. Chico's now has a market cap closer $400 million, and Sycamore has been taking a different tack. In a letter it sent to Chico's in early May, Sycamore disclosed that it had acquire a 6.6% stake in the company, and noted that its offer of $3.50 per share wouldn't require third-party financing. The catch: Chico's was trading above $3.50 a share at the time. The company's board promptly rejected Sycamore's overture. The firm came back to the negotiating table in June with a head-scratching revised offer of just $3 per share. Chico's management put out a press release saying it would review the offer, but noting it had rejected the previous offer and that "numerous Chico's FAS shareholders have expressed to management that they support the Board's previous decision to reject Sycamore's proposal and share the view that Sycamore's proposal is inadequate. Shareholders also support the actions underway to improve performance and value creation." Sycamore's argument is that Chico's business is deteriorating and will be worth even less as time passes unless critical operational changes are made. Supporting Sycamore's argument is the fact that Chico's stock price has declined since its last offer and as of this writing is trading below $3.50. CHS Total Return Pricedata byYCharts These takeover attempts come during a vulnerable period for Chico's. Its stock price is at a multiyear low due to persistent declines in sales and earnings. Further adding pressure is that Chico's currently lacks a permanent CEO. The company's interim management team haslaid out an ongoing turnaround planthat involves a greater focus on digital sales channels, cutting costs by reducing the number of items sold in stores, and optimizing its supply chain. However, Chico's financial results have continued to be lackluster. [{"Metric": "Same-store sales", "Q1 2019": "(7%)", "Q1 2018": "(5.9%)", "FY 2019": "(4.9%)", "FY 2018": "(7.7%)"}, {"Metric": "Gross margin", "Q1 2019": "36.9%", "Q1 2018": "40.4%", "FY 2019": "35.8%", "FY 2018": "37.9%"}, {"Metric": "Operating cash flow", "Q1 2019": "$5.7 million", "Q1 2018": "$61.9 million", "FY 2019": "$158.1 million", "FY 2018": "$166.9 million"}] Data source: Chico's. Chico's fiscal year ends Feb. 1. The downward trends insame-store salesandgross marginare worrying enough, but arguably the most important metric isoperating cash flow, and that shows that the business as a whole has become less economically productive. All of those trends support Sycamore's argument regarding the direction of Chico's business. It is tough to decipher the outcome Sycamore Partners is seeking. Its takeover offers are clearly opportunistic, but they also appear unlikely to succeed due to their unattractiveness. One explanation could be that Sycamore wants another party to acquire Chico's, and is simply making noise to attract attention to the company as an undervalued and attractive buyout target. After all, with its 6.6% stake, Sycamore could benefit if another party paid an attractive takeover premium. Another explanation could be that Sycamore is playing a waiting game, expecting that either the stock price will fall far enough that shareholders will agree to its lowball offer, or that the company will execute a turnaround and its stock price will rally as a result. Both explanations suggest that Sycamore Partners sees Chico's current stock price as undervaluing the company -- although it probably wouldn't want to admit it. This should be somewhat reassuring to those shareholders who have held on through its stock price slide. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Luis Sanchezhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Oil Prices Fall; All Eyes on G-20, OPEC Meetings Investing.com - Oil prices dropped on Friday in Asia as traders remained wary of the outcomes of meetings Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russia President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G-20 summit. U.S. Crude Oil WTI Futures fell 0.4% to $59.17 by 12:23 AM ET (04:23 GMT). International Brent Oil Futures also dropped 0.4% to $65.41. Trump is scheduled to meet Putin in Osaka on Friday. He is scheduled to have breakfast with Salman on Saturday and meet later in the day with Xi. On the Sino-U.S. trade front, the U.S. has been sending out mixed signals on the likely outcome of the talks between Xi and Trump tomorrow. The U.S. President said last week that he had a “very good” phone call with his Chinese counterpart, but warned this week that he would impose more tariffs on Chinese goods if trade talks do not progress well this weekend. Investor sentiment improved somewhat after the South China Morning Post reported Thursday that Washington and Beijing have “tentatively agreed” on a truce, before U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said a balanced deal with China will not happen because of various violations of intellectual property in the past. Meanwhile, The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and some non-members will meet early next week to discuss extending production cuts that have been in place since Janaury 1. "The market sentiment is that OPEC+ will agree to extend cuts, but after all what matters is how deep the cuts will be and how much Saudi Arabia and Russia will curb," said Kim Kwang-rae, a commodity analyst at Samsung (KS:005930) Futures in Seoul, in a Reuters report. Related Articles Gold Prices Rise Before US-China Trade Talks Oil prices fall as market awaits G20, OPEC meeting Gold Heads for Biggest Monthly Gain Since 2016
SMART Global Holdings, Inc. (SGH) Q3 2019 Earnings Call Transcript Image source: The Motley Fool. SMART Global Holdings, Inc.(NASDAQ: SGH)Q3 2019 Earnings CallJun 27, 2019,4:30 p.m. ET • Prepared Remarks • Questions and Answers • Call Participants Operator Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the SMART Global Holdings Third Quarter Fiscal 2019 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct question-answer-session and instructions will follow at that time. (Operator Instructions) As reminders call may be recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Ms. Suzanne Schmidt with Investor Relations. Ma'am, you may begin. Suzanne Schmidt--Investor Relations Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us on today's earnings conference call to discuss SMART Global Holdings third quarter fiscal 2019 results. Ajay Shah, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, will begin the call with a discussion of the market in the business, followed by Jack Pacheco Chief Operating and Financial Officer, who will review the financial results in more detail and provide the forward guidance after which we will open the call to your questions. As a reminder, our earnings press release and a replay of today's call can be accessed under the Investor Relations section of SMART's website at smartgh.com. We encourage you to go to our website throughout the quarter for the most current information on the Company including information on the various financial conferences we will be attending. Before we begin the call, I would like to note that today's remarks and the answers to questions may include forward-looking statements. Any statements that refers to expectations, projections, or other characterizations of future events, including financial projections and future market conditions is a forward-looking statement. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward looking statements. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in the documents we filed from some time to time with the SEC including our most recent Form 10-K and Form 10-Q. We assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, which speak as of today. Additionally during this call, our non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed. Reconciliations for those directly comparable GAAP financial measures are included in today's earnings press release. With that, I will now turn the call over to Chairman and CEO, Ajay Shah. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Suzanne, and welcome to everyone on the call. In the third fiscal quarter, our team has performed very well under difficult circumstances. While the business environment was challenging, our focus on operational excellence and areas that are under our control led to non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.34, which is within the range of the guidance we provided last quarter. Additionally, we were able to improve our cash generation from operations by almost 20% sequentially to reach $46 million in the last quarter alone, as we reduced inventories significantly in each of our businesses to be able to take advantage of lower component prices. In addition, we were able to maintain our gross margins even while average selling prices dropped significantly. We ended the quarter with cash and equivalents at $126 million, which positions as well to execute on our strategies around growth and acquisitions to build our growth. Let me first comment on the main factors impacting our results in the third fiscal quarter. It's been very well publicized that the memory industry continues to see pricing declines in both DRAM and Flash over the past several months. In addition, as we've heard from other technology companies, inventory corrections at our major OEM customers were a factor in our business results for our specialty memory and for our Brazil businesses. The biggest impact quarter-to-quarter was a nearly 33% revenue decline in Brazil, which as many of you know is the only part of our business where we sell memory products into high volume end uses such as smartphones and PCs. This decline was primarily due to declines in memory component prices, and as a result, our declining average selling prices. Brazil now makes up 43% of our total company sales compared with 69% in the year-ago quarter, so we have made some progress in reducing that exposure. I'll now review each of our three areas of business in more detail for the third quarter and then turn the call over to Jack for a review of the numbers as well as our guidance going forward. Turning first to our Specialty Memory business, which represented about 42% of net sales in the quarter and totaled roughly $99 million. Net revenues were lower than the prior quarter due to continued inventory corrections at a few customers. On a year-to-date basis, net sales for the first three quarters of fiscal 2019 were still 12% higher than the same period in fiscal 2018, in spite of significant headwinds in the overall market and price reductions. And we continue to believe that fiscal year 2019 overall will grow in the low double-digit percentage range over fiscal 2018. We are seeing some signs that the majority of the inventory corrections are behind us and that should lead to unit volumes recovering in the periods ahead. We remain very optimistic about growth prospects in our Specialty Memory business. We are introducing new product families, adding new customers, and benefiting from our focus on long-life products. In addition to our broad portfolio of products -- and in the last quarter we shipped over 600 unique products just in that period, we are also seeing many new opportunities, and we've been expanding our product portfolio to address these prospects. For example, earlier in the quarter, we announced two new additions to our SMART RUGGED product family. The first is a small form factor 32-gigabyte industrial-grade SODIMM module. There is a growing need for ruggedized mobile computing devices in the field and this product is ideally suited for robust and resilient computing applications used in industrial, defense, transportation, public safety, and other similar markets. Another addition to this product family is the T5E, which is a NAND-based SATA SSD that has up to four terabytes of storage capacity. The product is ideal for high throughput applications such as flight data recorders and sensor data capture, as well as high reliability, telemetry, surveillance, and other mission-critical storage applications. With a custom Flash controller, the T5E is a very flexible configuration and has multiple optional security features. Moving on, our Brazil line of business represented about 43% of total Company net sales for the quarter as I mentioned before and was approximately $101 million, which is down substantially from $147 million in just the previous quarter. Consistent with what we indicated on last quarter's call, we have been impacted by falling memory prices and we did take actions during the quarter to reduce headcount and adjust expenses. We continue to see memory prices declining in our fiscal Q4, but in Brazil we are also seeing significant increases in unit volumes, which are helping to stabilize the performance of that business. We will talk some more about the look of that business going forward. Also recently the Brazilian government agencies have published changes in the method of determining local manufacturing, also known as PPB requirements going forward. We had mentioned on the previous call that there were changes coming. Our assessment of these changes is that they will not materially change our current business profile. We are working with our major customers in Brazil to put together our joint go-forward plans to support their business and needs for both memory products as well as for battery products under the new rules. Finally moving on to our Specialty Compute and Storage business, which represented 15% of our net sales in the quarter, approximately $36 million. We saw continued strong interest in our solutions, particularly from the government and aerospace end markets. But due to the timing of orders during the quarter, revenue was below our expectations in Q3. However, we are entering fiscal Q4 with a strong backlog and a pipeline particularly during this period for government customers due in part to the federal fiscal year-end. We have strong expectations for this business in Q4. Separately through our team's efforts, we've been able to improve gross margins and reduce inventories in this business. Our focus on solutions targeted at the AI vertical is resulting in important new opportunities as the industry increasingly looks to AI to solve the most challenging technology and business problems. Penguin is offering the latest technology capabilities with customized services and support. These offerings are finding a lot of interest in a variety of sectors as varied as aerospace and retail automation. Earlier in this quarter, we announced that Penguin's Relion family of Linux-based servers is now available with the latest generation of Intel Xeon processor, enabling Penguin to optimize performance for data center, high performance computing and AI customers. And as of last week, customers can now take part in an early validation program to benchmark their applications. We also announced a collaboration, WekaIO, a private company that provides some of the most scalable and fastest file storage for AI and compute applications. Our new integrated solution in partnership with Weka has broken eight records on the STAC-M3 Benchmark, the industry standard for testing solutions for high-speed analytics used in applications such as algorithmic trading and quantitative analysis workloads, these being common kind of workloads in the financial services industry. We achieved this performance benchmark by running in distributed mode of a network versus a traditional block storage, which then provides the ability to simultaneously support other applications on the same platform. A big leap in application acceleration for financial services. Also in the specialty computing area, particularly related to high performance computing, Hewlett-Packard or HPE announced an agreement to acquire Cray computing in May. As a result of this acquisition, our company Penguin Computing would become the second-largest dedicated HPC provider in North America. It's been a very interesting quarter and a lot of highlights going positively into the future. Now let me turn the call over to Jack for a review of our financials and our guidance going forward. Jack? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer All right. Thank you, Ajay. Overall, gross revenue for the third fiscal quarter was $442 million, while net sales were $236 million. As a reminder, the difference between gross revenue and net sales is related our supply chain services business, which is accounted for in an agency basis meaning that we only recognize net sales and net profit on a supply chain services transactions. Our breakdown of net sales by end market for third fiscal quarter was as follows. Mobile and PC's 39%. Network and telecom 22%. Servers and storage 13%. Industrial aerospace, defense and other 26%. Now moving to the rest of the income statement. Non-GAAP gross profit for the third quarter was $43.7 million compared with last quarter's $57.8 million, due primarily to lower sales in Brazil. The non-GAAP operating expenses were $30.5 million, approximately in line with the previous quarter. Non-GAAP net income for the third fiscal quarter was $7.9 million or $0.34 per diluted share, and adjusted EBITDA totaled $19.2 million in the third quarter. Turning to working capital. Our net accounts receivables decreased to $230.2 million from $326.5 million last quarter and our day sales outstanding decreased to 47 days for this quarter compared with 51 days last quarter. Inventory levels continued to decline and totaled $133 million at the end of the third fiscal quarter compared with $172 million at the end of the second fiscal quarter. Inventory turns remained the same as the previous quarter at 12 times. Consistent with past practice, accounts receivable, days outstanding and inventory turnover are calculated on a gross sales and cost of goods sold basis, which were $442 million and $399 million respectively for the third fiscal quarter of 2019. Cash and cash equivalents grew by $31 million to $126 million at the end of the third quarter, compared with $95 million at the end of the prior quarter. Third quarter cash flow from operations was $46 million, compared with $39 million in the prior quarter. We continued to make progress in the integration of Penguin and their gross margins improved again this quarter. We remain ahead of our plan for achieving operating synergies and expect Penguin to be accretive to EPS in the fourth quarter. I'd like to provide an update on the inventory correction that we have been seeing based on what we are observing in the memory market overall. We are seeing a flash lead times now four to six weeks versus the 30-week lead time we had seen over the past few years. Memory price declines are continuing to pressure revenue in today's market. Input from our customer gives us confidence that the majority of inventory corrections will be behind us, as we exit the fiscal year. With that as a backdrop, let me now turn to our guidance for the fourth fiscal quarter. We currently estimate that our fourth quarter fiscal '19 net sales will be in the range of $270 million to $280 million. Gross margin for the quarter is estimated to be approximately 19% to 21%. GAAP earnings per diluted share is expected to be between $0.33 to $0.43. On a non-GAAP basis, excluding share-based compensation expense, acquisition-related expense and intangible asset amortization expense, we expect non-GAAP earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $0.55 to $0.65. The guidance for the fourth fiscal quarter does not include any view on the foreign exchange gains or losses and includes an income tax provision expected to be in the range of 12% to 16%. The number of shares used in computing earnings per diluted share for the fourth fiscal quarter is 23.5 million. Capital expenditures for the fourth fiscal quarter are expected to be in the range of $1 million to $3 million. Please refer to the non-GAAP financial information section and the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP results in reconciliation of GAAP net income to adjusted EBITDA tables, earnings press release for further details. Operator, we're now ready to take questions. Operator (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Kevin Cassidy of Stifel. Your line is open. Kevin Cassidy--Stifel -- Analyst Thank you for taking my question. On the inventory correction, can you say which end markets maybe you're seeing the better demand or is it just across the board? And do you think that -- is there increase in demand also or is it just the steady demand that has worked down the inventory? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer You know, we're seeing -- inventory is across multiple end markets, but I think we're just -- we're seeing steady demand as a work down the inventory. Kevin Cassidy--Stifel -- Analyst Okay, so you don't see any particular uptick in demand. It's just that the inventory is out of the way? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Yes, I mean it's hard for us to tell. It's already been with demand coming in, and we just assume it's kind of normal demand for them and they're just working through this inventory they had built up due to the long lead times. Kevin Cassidy--Stifel -- Analyst Okay. And as far as Brazil goes, do you have a sense of how your shipments are compared to the local content laws? Should we expect a very strong second half seeing as the units are picking up? Is that expected to carry through into the fourth calendar quarter also? Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kevin, this is Ajay. Again we are unclear as to what's going to happen to memory prices. What we have done in terms of our strategy is minimize inventory and be able to move very quickly to take advantage of the lower prices. As we mentioned in our remarks, we are seeing significant increases in unit volumes in the Q4 period and we assume that that is because we have both end markets as well as the customers' understanding of how local content is going to work is now clearer. So that's why we believe we're seeing the units come up strongly. And whether that continues into Q4 is hard to forecast, I mean Q4 calendar year is hard to forecast right now, but we don't see any reason why not at this point. Kevin Cassidy--Stifel -- Analyst Okay. And if I could just ask one other question, the other part of your business the Specialty Computing. The HP acquiring Cray, is that going to change the dynamics or was Cray not a direct competitor? Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer No, we do compete with both HP and which is really SGI that was acquired by HP and Cray to a degree. And so the combination of HPE and Cray, assuming that happens, is essentially a consolidation, which means that many customers particularly government customers that are looking for a diversity of sources will then be looking for additional sources. So we feel that that will certainly open up more opportunities to us in the future. Kevin Cassidy--Stifel -- Analyst Okay, great. Thank you. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thank you. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Lipacis of Jefferies. Your line is open. Mark Lipacis--Jefferies -- Analyst Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. A couple of questions. First on the Brazil volumes increasing. Is this a seasonal element that's impacting this or is it product cycle related, or macro economic related? Can you provide a little more color on that one? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Yes. And what you remember, Mark, we have said in the past that they were ordering less products earlier in the year. And as we got toward the later -- fiscal year, which is more in calendar year -- later calendar year '19, they would start picking up the orders to meet the local manufacturing content they have to buy. So I think we're seeing the orders picking up as we have said before, because they have to go meet these regulations down in Brazil. Mark Lipacis--Jefferies -- Analyst Okay. Got you. And then the -- and then Ajay, you have mentioned the change in definition of local manufacturing. Can you flush that out a little bit like how does it change? I understand that you're of the view that it doesn't impact -- materially impact your business but it sounds like you're working with your customers to make sure you're meeting their needs. But if you could provide a little more color on that, I think that'd be helpful. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sure. Sure, Mark. We -- in very high level terms and trying to explain the intricacies of Brazilian local manufacturing requirements in a short phone call are a dangerous proposition. But essentially in the past, the way local manufacturing requirements were set up was as a percentage by each commodity. So memory for smartphones would have a certain percentage. I think you've seen that from us in the past. Going forward, they have essentially a collection of local manufacturing requirements as a total, not by commodity. So there's a certain amount of local manufacturing requirement to be met and each customer, our customers, get a certain number of points for each kind of local manufacturing that they acquire. So there are different commodities with different levels of points. Turns out, memory has by far the highest number of points and then the second highest is batteries. And in our conversations with customers that effectively -- the math would come back to effectively the same kind of level of businesses we do today, that's -- I know it's a somewhat high level explanation but to take you any deeper would require spreadsheets and... Mark Lipacis--Jefferies -- Analyst Okay. That's fair. That's actually very helpful. I think I understand conceptually what's going on there. I mean to me, it sounds like... Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer I mean I think it actually clarifies things. There was a little bit of uncertainty but it clarifies things. It is apparently complying with the WTO rules, blah blah blah. So I think that we've come out in a good place. Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Remember, we had said earlier we didn't think these new rules really would impact the way they were doing things and they published the rules they way they said they will, which means they are just keeping things pretty much the same way for most of the young companies in Brazil. Mark Lipacis--Jefferies -- Analyst Understand. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer But I think I'll maybe go one step further and tell you that if we look at our Q4, we're not forecasting -- just to be clear, we're not forecasting an increase in Brazil revenue. If anything, we're forecasting because of price declines. Still a small reduction in Brazil revenue from Q3 to Q4. Our increases are coming in other areas. In Brazil, what's really happening is that the revenue declines are muted by the fact that units are increasing significantly. I think it's worth a little clarification. Mark Lipacis--Jefferies -- Analyst Understand. And then on the Penguin on the timing of orders, I think most people understand that a number of the hyperscale players had the capacity ahead of actual consumption rates in the second half of last year. Is what you experienced -- do you think it's related to that or is it just some orders didn't come quite when you thought they were going to come and it's just as simple as that? Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer We don't think it's related to the hyperscale data centers because we really don't ship to them. Those are not our customers in this business. In our Penguin business, our customers are primarily large high performance computing clusters or AI clusters. And in any event, large clusters. And our biggest customers are either government including labs and government-funded university installations and departments, as well as the intelligence community. And commercial, oil and gas, financial services, media and so on. So the particular lateness was because this is actually the high season for government buying, simply because you have the year-end budget flush, the fiscal year-end. So we had expectations for when those orders would come in and how they would ship, and just running a little late. Mark Lipacis--Jefferies -- Analyst Understand. And then lastly, you mentioned the flash lead times in the four to six-week range versus previous several years in the 30 week range. So is that classically the range that you have seen between four and mid-30s, or have you seen it go lower than four to six weeks in the past? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Four to six weeks is an average kind of lead time that we've seen and we don't see it getting much lower than that because you've got to get product to build up at the 30 weeks, so it's a very long lead time that really happen when flash was in an under-supplied situation. So we're just getting kind of back to normal, but the issue is people built up inventories based on these long lead times, and the lead time shortened, they're working on an inventory without having to order to replenish. Right. So they're dropping, their inventory is down as well, to get them more in line with the four to six-week lead time kind of situation. Mark Lipacis--Jefferies -- Analyst Understand. Okay. Great. Thanks guys. That's all I have. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thank you. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Sidney Ho of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Sidney Ho--Deutsche Bank -- Analyst Thanks for taking my question. You've previously talked about the change in their local content requirements in Brazil has led to lower memory procurement especially for high density products. I think today you updated that you're seeing that uptake a little bit. Can you also talk about the average content for phones? It seems to have slowed down in Brazil. Not really sure if that's tied to the local content requirement changes. Can you give us an update on the both areas here? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer So I think on density and the phones, I mean it's kind of where we thought, it's lower than where we see in other parts of the world. I don't know if that's as much of anything in the local content rules. I mean I think the reais is still pretty weak. It almost has been -- in the quarter, it's been somewhere between $3.70 to $4.10, and so I think weak reais makes phones expensive. And so I think the phone manufacturers are trying to make their phones less costly to sell to the consumer and so they're putting less memory in the phone. So I think it's more related to the Brazil economic situation than anything else. Sidney Ho--Deutsche Bank -- Analyst Okay. Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer And then... Sidney Ho--Deutsche Bank -- Analyst All right. Maybe I can switch -- go ahead. Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer No, no. ASP front. I mean we talked about ASPs dropped in Brazil. They dropped actually a little more than we had thought in the quarter, right. We thought they were going to go 40% to 45% down, they actually dropped to almost 50% in the quarter. So memory prices, as Ajay mentioned, continued to decline. And we will -- we'd expect that decline to continue into Q4. So we still expect prices especially in Brazil to decline to our consumer base, based on the costs we get from our suppliers. Sidney Ho--Deutsche Bank -- Analyst So just to be clear, the mobile side of the ASP, what would that be in the last quarter? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Well, I think we finished last quarter about $16.45. Sidney Ho--Deutsche Bank -- Analyst Okay. All right, great. That's helpful. My next question is, you guys kind of talk about the Penguin is strong in the second half of the year, you just talk about timing maybe slipping from Q3 to Q4, and you talk about seasonal strength from government and whatnot. How should we think about -- is most of the -- you talk about Brazil as probably not growing, maybe down a little bit. Is that most of the increases going to come from Penguin or is it from Specialty Memory in the upcoming quarter? Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer In the upcoming quarter, Penguin is a particularly strong driver. In this quarter, I should say, the Q4 period. And we then continue on with both Specialty Memory as well as our Specialty Compute or Penguin business. So we're seeing both strengthening. This particular quarter has got -- as I was saying earlier, due to the fiscal year-end, a very strong federal component to it. Sidney Ho--Deutsche Bank -- Analyst Okay. Maybe last question for me. You guys discussed a couple of times on the changes to the local content rules. When should we expect those changes to be finalized and put in place? And is it -- when you say you don't expect material changes to the current business profile, I assume that's the same as no major changes to your financials as well, was that right? Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer So the second question first, yes, we believe that the financials will be largely in line with where they have been right now. Sidney Ho--Deutsche Bank -- Analyst Okay. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer But that's not taking into account memory price related pressure. We don't make memory as you know. We buy and we -- and pass through. So effectively our revenue can be affected by memory prices. So with that caveat, yes, we feel pretty comfortable that the businesses more or less as it's been in the past. The guidelines for the renewed local manufacturing requirements came out last week and are effective July 1st, i.e. next week. Sidney Ho--Deutsche Bank -- Analyst Okay. Great. Thank you very much. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thank you. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Blayne Curtis of Barclays. Your line is open. Blayne Curtis--Barclays -- Analyst Hey guys, thanks for taking my question. Just little more on these content requirements. Just trying to think through it. It's about time you were looking for increases in the mobile requirements. Under this new framework, is there any embedded increases in that overall you're calling overall bucket -- is there any kind of embedded growth in that content? And then I'm just trying to think through of all these components, I'm assuming that OEMs will maximize where they -- the components that make the most sense from a cost perspective. So in that framework, I guess I don't know all of the different components that are in there, but at least maybe can you address memory versus batteries, and what would be your high density versus low density, I mean how do you see this market trending in this new framework? Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Blayne, I'm not sure we know how to answer that question yet. There is an opportunity and we are working with customers to try and see if maybe they can make it frankly easier for themselves that they can essentially rather than trying to manage local manufacturing across -- I don't know was it 25 different items that you could do that with? I think there was some list like that, that you could make it much easier from a management standpoint with one or two commodities. And memory would be -- since it's by far the biggest, the easiest. And so we think that that's presents an opportunity. We haven't modeled that. Blayne Curtis--Barclays -- Analyst Okay. And then just the first part of my question. Is there any increases embedded in this new program? Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Increases? Sorry, I didn't quite understand. Blayne Curtis--Barclays -- Analyst In this new program, the you get so many points I don't fully understand it, but I'm assuming -- are they going to require greater points going down the road in the same way that you had increasing requirements 50%... Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Yes, I get you now. Thank you. Yes. We don't know. Blayne Curtis--Barclays -- Analyst Okay. Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Like Ajay said, these things -- they came out like last Friday, these rules. And they're effective like Monday. So we're still digesting this in the customer base, still digesting these rules that came out. Blayne Curtis--Barclays -- Analyst Got you. And then maybe just finally for you, Jack. Just gross margin, you are guiding it up. I would think that the mix of Penguin may actually hurt that. Can maybe just walk through where you're seeing the improvement? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Yes, no. We're actually seeing Penguin's gross margins growing. I mean we've been working hard to improve their gross margins. And so I think if you look at Q4, Penguin's margins are improving. Specialty's margins have been fine throughout this endeavor. And then Brazil, we like Ajay said, we have done some cost reductions there and so Brazil margins are getting a little bit better but it's kind of across the board. I mean but Penguin, we've done -- we've done a lot of work on the gross margins there and we are improving that business on a quarterly basis. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer To continue on with what Jack was saying, Penguin gross margins have improved every quarter since we acquired the company meaningfully. And as you noted, Blayne, I mean our -- we guiding revenue up significantly from Q3 to Q4. We're guiding gross margins up sequentially. We're guiding EPS significantly up, almost 2x. We're trying to -- having just earlier this week seen a pure play memory company's guidance, clearly we're going in a very different direction. And we're trying to figure out exactly what the market was expecting. Blayne Curtis--Barclays -- Analyst Got you. Thank, guys. Operator Thank you. Our next question comes from Rajvindra Gill Needham & Co. Your line is open. Rajvindra Gill--Needham & Co. -- Analyst Yes. Thank you for taking my questions. I appreciate it. On the -- just a follow up on the new rules going from a local content percentage system to a point system. My understanding of researching into it is that in order for Samsung or LG or whoever it might be, to get the tax benefits, they would have to accumulate 35 points or so. And that could be a combination of a lot of different things but memory was almost 27 points of that. So I just want to make sure that in order to get the 35 points and qualify for the tax benefit, that memory is -- they're primarily going to continue to use wafer cutting and testing of memory integrated circuits, and they won't necessarily try to achieve the 35 points through a combination of other different components, whether it's LCD units or R&D investments. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Right, right. So I think that's a good question. First of all let me just tell you that the -- that 35 point thing has changed. Last week, it was revised. So there's a whole new set of numbers. But I won't try and belabor all those here. Trust me, we're happy to do a teach-in on that and I will be avid student appearing in that teach-in. The point though is that, as you noted, memory is very large part of what the local manufacturing requirements are going forward for our customers. But it does provide them some flexibility. So they could buy -- but there is -- it turns out there's no -- yes, there are points for LCD, but there are no local LCD manufacturers. There are points for quips (ph), I guess they're called, but there are no local manufacturers, in fact there are no local users either. Then there's points for manufacturing of the motherboard, which are well-defined. So when you look at it (technical difficulty) in terms of actual things you could buy locally, today, you pretty much see that memory becomes by far the dominant commodity. I don't think this as a coincidence. The government sees what they have in terms of local -- in-country capabilities and they see that from memory, there is a capability with one maybe two companies that are significant. And meanwhile, they don't -- they're trying to encourage people to come in and manufacture LEDs or other types of commodities. But -- or -- that's great. But in terms of actually meeting local manufactured component requirements, memories and battery are the two dominant ones. And so, that's the place from which we're coming from when we say we don't think that changes our business significantly in any way. Rajvindra Gill--Needham & Co. -- Analyst So if it doesn't necessarily change the business, I mean how do we just think about the mechanics of it? Because in the past, it was very simple kind of math calculation, 50% multiplied by the number of mobile phones, multiplied by some sort of ASP per unit. And if it's kind of moving from a percentage qualification to a point system, how do we think about modeling that going forward? Because it seems like the -- let me just also -- just want to make one point. So are we basically saying that these new rules have satisfied the WTO requirements going forward and there should not be another adjustment in the future? That these are -- this point system now is satisfying WTO. Is that also fair to say? Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer We believe that and they believe more importantly, that this point system, this method of encouraging local manufacturing is in compliance with what the WTO wanted. In fact, the big rush they've been in to implement it is because the WTO wanted it implemented by the year, and this is again -- we're saying this is what they tell us. But to come back to your question about how do we model this. It's -- I do agree that it's not quite as simple as saying, well gee, it was 50%, now it's going to 60%, therefore. So I would give you two answers. One is we think we have a pretty good fix for what the demand is going to be and we'll try and continue to communicate that. And secondly, if you look as -- in this quarter Q4, hopefully this will be looked upon positively. Brazil is now going to in our forecast the top one-third of the business. And so it's not the driver of our business that it was a year back. I understand that everyone was kind of fascinated with the local content requirements in Brazil and all of the fun samba stuff that comes from it. But the -- all I'm trying to say is that it will be important element of our business and we will continue to communicate that potential. But at the same time, we'd like to make sure that we communicate that we have other businesses that are doing well, that we're growing, that we're as a result less dependent on memory especially the commodity memory products. Our specialty memory products have shown that they've held up through this incredibly turbulent period in the memory market. And meanwhile our specialty compute product is growing and we continue to have plans for further growth and broadening of our portfolio. So sorry for the long and perhaps a little off-your-question answer, but I hope we're communicating what I think is important. Rajvindra Gill--Needham & Co. -- Analyst I think it was very clear. And just one follow up question, Ajay. So the Specialty Memory, I think you had said that you still expect it to grow low-double digits year-over-year in fiscal year '19. That would require a pretty big snap-back sequentially in August? Is that -- could you clarify that? Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Nope. For the first three quarters, we are up 12% year-over-year revenue-wise. Rajvindra Gill--Needham & Co. -- Analyst Okay. I might have miss understood, did you say something for the fiscal year '19, which you had mentioned or do you not give any guidance for that for the full year? Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer No, no, what I'm saying -- we are talking about fiscal year '19. We are saying that through the first three periods of fiscal year '19, we are up 12% from the first three periods of fiscal year '18. Rajvindra Gill--Needham & Co. -- Analyst Right. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer And we are also saying that for the full-year fiscal '19, we expect to be up in double digits, low double digits from fiscal year 2018. Rajvindra Gill--Needham & Co. -- Analyst Yes, that would require a significant snap-back sequentially in August versus May. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Not really. I mean we're up 12% year-to-date already. Rajvindra Gill--Needham & Co. -- Analyst Okay. I got it. We can -- maybe we can take that offline. And just on the -- Jack, on the gross margins, the 20%, which is I think really good given kind of all the memory pricing, a lot of that's due to Penguin. In the past, you've been at 23%, 23.5% gross margin. How do we think about the margin profile going forward? Is there more drivers on Penguin to drive it up further and help the overall margins, or we're going to have to kind of wait to see a recovery in overall memory pricing to kind of get back to 23% range? What's kind of like the big picture thinking? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer I think a driver for -- one driver for getting the overall margins back up is going to be Brazil and just the utilization of the factory. As Ajay mentioned, more units are going through Brazil. So as we produce more units in Brazil, we have a large fixed costs in our packaging facility. So as we get more units through Brazil and manufacture more units down there, that will help with the gross margin. Penguin, of course, also gross margin. In Specialty, we're seeing unit growth, as Ajay mentioned. So if we get the unit growth in Specialty and that business continues to grow, then that will also impact gross margins and you'll see that gross margins grow. So I think we're on a path to get the gross margins back up to where they were with all three areas contributing to that. Rajvindra Gill--Needham & Co. -- Analyst Very good. Thank you. Operator (Operator Instructions) We have a question from Suji Desilva of Roth Capital. Your line is open. Suji Desilva--Roth Capital -- Analyst Quantify the seasonality you see (inaudible) as a baseline, that is what typical seasonality can be? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Hey Suji, you're cutting in and out really bad. Can you repeat that? Suji Desilva--Roth Capital -- Analyst Sure. Jack, on Specialty Compute, can you talk about what the typical seasonality is? Quantify that for the strong quarter's standards? Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Well, we've always said that we would anticipate that our Q4 would be the strongest quarter for that business right? And then -- but Q1 is not -- I mean Q4 is the strongest and we always said Q2, somewhere in Q2, it would be the weakest due to the way the government spends. Q1 always is a pretty good quarter as well. So it's kind of playing out here, over the last few quarters, what we've been kind of telling people, the seasonality for that business. Suji Desilva--Roth Capital -- Analyst Okay. And then my other question is on the deal side that you're seeing for Specialty Compute. As you've been progressing, are the deal side is still relatively stable, are you seeing larger deals as you move forward? Any color there will be helpful. Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer This business always has had some large deals go with some small deals, right. You might get a $50 million deal or you get a small deal. So it depends on the insulation that somebody wants, but I don't think we're seeing bigger deals than what we're seeing. But as we grow this business, we're getting more bigger deals. Suji Desilva--Roth Capital -- Analyst Okay. All right. Great. Operator Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the conference back over to you, Ajay Shah, for any closing remarks. Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thank you, operator. In conclusion, I believe we executed well under challenging circumstances in this third fiscal quarter, and more importantly, are positioned to resume growth organically as well as in the future through targeted and synergistic M&A. We look forward to reporting on our business in the coming months as we move toward a more balanced mix of business overall. Thank you again for joining us on this call this afternoon. Operator Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day. You may all disconnect. Duration: 48 minutes Suzanne Schmidt--Investor Relations Ajay Shah--Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jack Pacheco--Executive Vice President, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Cassidy--Stifel -- Analyst Mark Lipacis--Jefferies -- Analyst Sidney Ho--Deutsche Bank -- Analyst Blayne Curtis--Barclays -- Analyst Rajvindra Gill--Needham & Co. -- Analyst Suji Desilva--Roth Capital -- Analyst More SGH analysis All earnings call transcripts More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. 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CalAmp Corp (CAMP) Q1 2020 Earnings Call Transcript Image source: The Motley Fool. CalAmp Corp(NASDAQ: CAMP)Q1 2020 Earnings CallJun 27, 2019,4:30 p.m. ET • Prepared Remarks • Questions and Answers • Call Participants Operator Welcome to CalAmp's First Quarter 2020 Financial Results Conference Call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference call, Leanne Sievers of Shelton Group, CalAmp's Investor Relations firm, Leanne, you may begin. Leanne Sievers--Investor Relations Good afternoon, and welcome to CalAmp's first quarter 2020 financial results conference call. I'm Leanne Sievers, President of Shelton Group, CalAmp's Investor Relations firm. With us today are CalAmp's President and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Burdiek; and Chief Financial Officer, Kurt Binder. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements. While these forward-looking statements reflect CalAmp's best current judgment, they're subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ from those implied by these forward-looking projections. These risk factors are discussed in our periodic SEC filings and the earnings release issued today, which are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances. Michael will begin today's call with a review of the Company's financial and operational highlights, then Kurt will provide additional details about the financial results and outlook followed by a question-and-answer session. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to CalAmp's President and CEO, Michael Burdiek. Michael, please go ahead. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Leanne. We are pleased with our first quarter results with consolidated revenue of $89.1 million, which was at the high end of our guidance range. Software and subscription services exceeded our expectations with record SaaS revenue of close to $26 million, up 38% year-over-year driven by strong performance from our three recent acquisitions. We also delivered solid profitability as non-GAAP net income was $4.2 million, or $0.12 per diluted share, also at the high end of our guidance range. Collectively, our first quarter results demonstrate further progress on our strategic transformation to a global SaaS solutions provider which I will elaborate on in a few minutes. First, I would like to address the progress we made on our supply chain initiatives. During the quarter, Telematics Systems revenue was in line with expectations at $63.6 million supported by marked improvement in our supply chain performance as we executed on our plan to be more methodical in our diversification efforts in order to meet near-term customer demand. The steps we took to implement new operational processes and tighter synchronization with our key suppliers has resulted in a more stabilized supply chain and shorter lead times. While we made substantial progress in the latest quarter, we continue to believe it will take two more quarters to fully optimize our supply chain structure and realize the full benefits of global diversification with optimum inventory levels and delivery lead times. I would now like to highlight our recent progress in driving CalAmp's transformation to a global SaaS solutions provider. As I previously mentioned, our software and subscription services first quarter revenue reached a record level at $25.5 million or 29% of consolidated revenue. We saw particularly strong traction from CalAmp's iOn fleet management applications and LoJack subscription services. Additionally, the integration of our recent acquisitions which include Tracker in the UK, Car Track in Mexico and Synovia Solutions in North America is progressing well. The addition of these businesses aligns with our global SaaS expansion strategy and helped drive international revenue across our entire business to a record 29% of the consolidated total. Additionally, we are very pleased thus far with the incremental revenue synergies we have identified from these acquisitions which we believe will further bolster our software and subscription services revenue both domestically and internationally in the coming quarters. With the inclusion of our recent acquisitions, our worldwide subscriber base expanded dramatically and has now reached over 1.2 million subscribers. We expect a substantial subscriber base to drive us toward our recurring revenue target of more than $30 million a quarter, exiting this fiscal year, and more importantly, advances toward our long-term target of $200 million in annual subscription revenue. About the last quarter, I would like to take a few minutes to highlight some customer case studies that I believe offer insights into our global strategy to drive CalAmp's software and services transformation. The first case study involves a recent fleet management contract win with the Mid-Atlantic State Department of Transportation Agency. Similar to the contract win announced early last year with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, this new customer is launching an initiative to reduce costs and streamline snow removal operations by leveraging CalAmp's iOn fleet SaaS technology to manage fleet vehicles and snowplow assets encompassing approximately 12,000 vehicles statewide. This new customer will roll out CalAmp's iOn fleet management service to help its local governance manage their resources and increase fleet accountability efficiency and asset reliability. CalAmp's iOn solution was viewed by this important new customer as the most innovative and progressive transportation technology that could deliver better citizen service and support statewide road safety initiatives. Vehicle deployments under this new contract will begin late in our current quarter and are expected to continue over the next 12 months. The total contract value for this award is approximately $10 million over an initial five-year term. Another case study I would like to highlight is a recent engagement with a global humanitarian aid organization, whose mission is to improve the health of people affected by poverty and provide relief aid during natural disasters. This partnership enables safe and reliable cold chain shipments of pharmaceuticals and other disaster relief supplies. In this application, CalAmp's FCI on command supply chain solution will provide real-time package tracking and temperature monitoring of global land and air vaccine and pharmaceutical shipments. This integrated solution helps ensure compliance and proper quality control so products won't become compromised due to exposure under extreme environmental conditions. As a result, more efficient and effective aid can be delivered to patients in disaster areas who would not otherwise have access to critical vaccines or life sustaining medications. The overall shipment volume of temperature controlled pharma products is growing at twice the rate of the pharma industry as a whole, and shippers are increasingly required to demonstrate compliance with the temperature range specified by the manufacturer. This new partnership addressing humanitarian aid demonstrates CalAmp's continued momentum in the supply chain visibility market while building on our growing SaaS customer base. In addition to our strategic initiatives to grow recurring revenue in vertically focused end to end SaaS solutions, we continue to work with select hardware customers to transition certain MRM Telematics products to a subscription model. In this conversion process, CalAmp is focused on adding content value such as instant crash detection and reporting, driver scoring and security features to our existing installed base. As we mentioned on our previous call, we are actively engaged with several of our key customers as part of this Device as a Service or DaaS program, which we plan to officially launch this quarter. As part of the shift from hardware to a software-based model, the timing and mix of revenue will go through a transitional period, until such time that the recurring revenue builds across an increasing number of converted customers and exceeds the prior contribution from upfront hardware sales. This shift is a key part of our overall vision for the Company and aligns with our initiative to generate an increasing amount of recurring revenue for greater visibility and predictability across our business. Now turning to our Telematics Systems business, revenue was in line with expectations, albeit lower as compared to the same period last year. We are encouraged by increased order flow for LTE-based products and anticipate some demand tailwinds developing from US customers transitioning to LTE products due to the impending 3G network sunset. As an indication of shifting demand, sales of LTE technology-based devices in the first quarter increased to approximately 32% of Telematics Systems revenue as compared to 15% in the prior-year period. Revenue from network and OEM products was in line with expectations in the first quarter driven by solid customer demand from Caterpillar along with another OEM. Looking to the future, we see opportunities to expand our global reach in the industrial machine and related equipment rental marketplace not only with additional telematics device design wins but also for expanding our subscription services. Before I turn the call over to Kurt, I would like to thank the global CalAmp team for their dedication and efforts this quarter resulting in strong financial results with markedly improved supply chain performance and solid progress on our recently announced acquisitions. Our first quarter results give us increased confidence in our long-term growth strategy and transformation to a global SaaS solutions provider. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Kurt Binder, for a closer look at our fiscal 2020 Q1 financial results and Q2 guidance. Kurt Binder--Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Thank you, Michael. My commentary will include reference to the non-GAAP financial measures of adjusted basis net income, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. A full reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures and the closest corresponding GAAP basis measures is included in the press release announcing our first quarter earnings that was issued earlier today. As Michael mentioned, we are pleased with our consolidated revenue performance in the first quarter of fiscal 2020, as well as the continuous progress we are making on our supply chain operations. Additionally, our transformation to a global SaaS solutions provider is progressing well, further complemented by the integration of our three recent acquisitions. Consolidated revenue for the first quarter was $89.1 million, a decrease of 6% year-over-year due to an anticipated decline in Telematics Systems product sales, but partially offset by an increase in our software and subscription services revenue. Consolidated revenue was up 6% sequentially due to increased subscription services. The software and subscription services revenue increased 38% over the prior-year period to $25.5 million driven by the contribution from our three recent acquisitions and to a lesser extent organic initiatives. Our LoJack subscription services had an exceptional quarter generating revenue of $10 million in the first quarter, up 80% year-over-year. Our LoJack subscription services represents the LoJack Italy business as well as our recently acquired SaaS businesses, Tracker UK and LoJack Mexico. These three entities in aggregate provide a strong foundation for recurring revenue and are expected to contribute to a continued expansion of our software and subscription services business. Additionally, we made strong progress expanding our global subscriber base in the quarter with 1.2 million unique subscribers as of May 31st 2019 compared to approximately 776,000 for the same period ended last year with 348,000 added with our recent acquisitions. In addition to these new subscribers from our acquisitions, we also added new subscribers from fleet management services, international stolen vehicle recovery and telematics solutions. We expect to continue to build on the solid subscriber base as we progress throughout the remainder of fiscal 2020. As previously discussed, we have acquired Tracker UK in Q4 of fiscal 2019 followed by the acquisitions of LoJack Mexico and Synovia Solutions. We believe these three acquisitions accelerate our global SaaS expansion efforts and on a combined basis we expect them to be meaningful contributors to our revenue in each quarter of our current fiscal 2020. As I mentioned last quarter, the revenue ramp from the acquired businesses within our software and subscription services business is affected by purchase accounting adjustments, which discount the deferred revenue balance assumed on the opening balance sheet by upwards of 65% as compared to the pre-acquisition balances. The impact of deferred revenue haircut diminishes over the course of the first year or so of ownership with GAAP revenue normalizing to actual billings activity over time. Now looking to our Telematics Systems business performance in the first quarter, as expected, revenue was down 17% year-over-year to $63.6 million reflecting a decrease in MRM Telematics and legacy LoJack SVR product sales due to reduced sales volume in both the United States and internationally. The sales decrease impact was isolated to a few of our top customers including Synovia Solutions, which we acquired in April 2019. Legacy LoJack SVR products, including Telematics sales to LoJack international licensees were down for the quarter by approximately $4 million or 24% year-over-year As a result of lower sales to US auto dealers and international licensees including the lost sales revenue through the consolidation of Tracker UK and LoJack Mexico. This was partially offset by an increase in CalAmp Telematics Solutions sold through these channels, as well as growth in our Lojack related subscription revenue. Network and OEM products revenue was $16.3 million for the first quarter, representing a slight increase year-over-year and in line with expectations. The product revenue for this category was supported by continued demand from Caterpillar which increased 11% year-over-year. Caterpillar continues to be our largest customer with $12.2 million of revenue in the first quarter, representing 14% of our consolidated revenue. Consolidate gross margin was approximately 40% in the first quarter and in line with last year. Gross margin performance is expected to improve as we further integrate the recent acquisitions and complete our transition with our suppliers and contract manufacturers while managing the overall closure of our US manufacturing facility. Additionally, as we make progress toward our long-term SaaS revenue targets, we expect to see meaningful progress toward higher gross margin and EBITDA margin targets. In OpEx, our GAAP basis R&D, sales and marketing and G&A expenses in the first quarter of fiscal 2020 as percentages of revenue were approximately 8%, 16%, and 20% respectively. The significant increase in sales and marketing and G&A expenses as percentages of revenue is due to litigation and non-recurring legal expenses compounded by the deferred revenue haircut or purchase accounting adjustments that I mentioned earlier. As the revenue from our acquisitions begins to normalize and we fully integrate these businesses, we expect that our OpEx will decrease as a percentage of consolidated revenue. On a non-GAAP basis, our OpEx for the first quarter for R&D, sales and marketing and G&A expense as percentages of revenue was 7%, 16% and 13% respectively. For the full year of fiscal 2020, we expect GAAP basis R&D, sales and marketing and G&A expenses as percentages of revenue to be 7%, 16% and 16%, respectively. And we expect non-GAAP R&D, sales and marketing, and G&A expenses as percentages of revenue to be 7%, 15% and 12% respectively. The GAAP basis net loss in the first quarter was $8.7 million or $0.26 per share compared to a net income of $8.5 million or $0.23 per diluted share in the same prior-year period. The GAAP basis net loss comparison is attributable to an increase in OpEx due to litigation and non-recurring legal expenses in the first quarter of fiscal 2020, coupled with the $13.3 million gain that was realized in the first quarter of fiscal 2019 on a favorable settlement with a former LoJack supplier. Non-GAAP net income for the first quarter was $4.2 million or $0.12 per diluted share at the high end of the guidance range and compared to $10.5 million or $0.29 per diluted share in the same prior-year period. The decrease in non-GAAP net income primarily reflects the impact of deferred revenue purchase accounting adjustments from the recent acquisitions and incremental depreciation expense associated with the acquisitions and more specifically the Synovia bundled hardware solutions. Adjusted EBITDA was $7.6 million in the first quarter with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 8% compared to adjusted EBITDA of $12.2 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13% in the same prior-year period. We expect overall profitability to improve with adjusted EBITDA margin in the mid teens as the effect of purchase accounting adjustments diminishes in the second half of the fiscal year. As we make progress toward our long-term revenue objectives on our SaaS business, we expect to see meaningful progress progress toward our EBITDA margin target of 20%. I'll now provide some additional detail on our balance sheet and liquidity position as of our fiscal quarter end. At the end of the first quarter, we had total cash and marketable securities of $200 million and total outstanding debt of $298 million which represents the aggregate carrying value of our convertible unsecured notes coupled with $18.8 million of amounts due to factors, which was assumed in the acquisition of Synovia. Prior to the acquisition, Synovia sold the rights to future revenue under certain subscription contracts on a non-recourse basis for credit approved accounts. The amount entitled due to factors was reported by us as of the opening balance sheet for this acquisition. Net cash used in operating activities was $5.7 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2020, which is attributable to our net loss of $8.7 million for the quarter coupled with an overall net cash outflow for working capital requirements. During the first quarter, we acquired LoJack Mexico and Synovia Solutions both of which were purchased using cash on hand. Our consolidated net accounts receivable balance was $73.6 million at the end of the first quarter, representing an average collection period of 65 days. While total inventory at the end of the first quarter was $41.9 million representing an annualized inventory turns of approximately 5.1 times, the increase in inventory is aligned with our efforts to build buffer stock and to improve our overall supply chain performance. Our cash conversion cycle was 69 days at the end of the latest quarter compared to 57 days at fiscal year end. Additionally, our deferred revenue balance was $60.6 million at quarter end compared to $51.4 million at the end of the 2019 fiscal year, which is attributable to the recent acquisitions. For the first quarter, we recorded an income tax benefit of $2.3 million which is attributable to a decline in pre-tax income along with available R&D and foreign tax credits, partially offset by a one-time tax charge related to foreign tax restructuring. For the same period last year, we recorded an income tax provision of $1.8 million representing 17% of our reported GAAP basis pre-tax net income. Throughout fiscal 2020, we do not expect any material changes to our cash taxes due to our remaining federal net operating losses and other available tax credits. Now turning to our fiscal 2020 second quarter outlook, we expect second quarter consolidated revenue to increase to a range of between $89.5 million to $94.5 million. At the bottom line, we expect the second quarter GAAP basis net loss to be in the range of $0.27 per share to $0.21 per share and non-GAAP net income to be in the range of $0.08 per diluted share to $0.14 per diluted share reflecting an incremental $1.6 million of depreciation expense principally associated with the recent acquisitions. We also expect second quarter adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $7.5 million to $11.5 million. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Michael to provide some final comments before we open the call up for questions. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Thank you, Kurt. Looking forward, we believe the fiscal first quarter represents an inflection point in our business with a positive outlook of increasing revenue and EBITDA growth as we move into the second half of the fiscal year. We made substantial progress this quarter in building a solid base of software and subscription service revenue and believe that we are tracking well toward our long-term target of $200 million of annual recurring revenue. With that, we'll now open up the call to questions. Operator? Operator (Operator Instructions) Your first question is from Mike Walkley from Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now open. Mike Walkley--Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst Great. Thank you. Michael, you mentioned you're seeing some revenue synergies from the Tracker, Car Track and Synovia acquisitions. Can you just discuss how integration is going so far and maybe give us more color on what you're mentioning on some potential revenue synergies? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Sure. Thank you. Well, the integration is going very well. We tried to express that in our prepared remarks, and as relates to revenue synergies, we see a number of opportunities to really combine sales and marketing activities in different market verticals to really drive recurring revenue short to medium term and I think one of the greatest opportunities is in the state municipal government market here in the United States and with the acquisition of Synovia, we have real scale now as it relates to market coverage across the United States and in even into Canada to a certain extent. So I would say that's one of the biggest areas of focus for us, and we look forward to continuing to drive contract win similar to the one we described for this Department of Transportation Agency in our prepared remarks. Mike Walkley--Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst Great, thank you. And just to follow-up on that -- on the MRM business, you mentioned some large customers weak, one being Synovia which obviously is part of your company now, but are you seeing any share losses at customers or can you just maybe discuss demand trends for the MRM business? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Yes. We were concerned about share loss as it relates to some of our supply chain challenges over the last couple of quarters. I think this latest quarter we felt pretty good about our ability to retain existing customers and potentially even claw back to a certain extent some share losses especially in the Latin American markets. So I would say, we feel pretty good that we're almost back to where we were prior to some of the issues that we faced in Q3 and Q4. On the demand side, I think we see encouraging signs that a large percentage of our customer population here in the United States is starting to take seriously the 3G sunset issue. And we're feeling good that that could produce some tailwinds for us, over the coming quarters especially over the next two years as that sunset becomes very imminent at the end of 2021. Mike Walkley--Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst Okay. Thanks. Last question for me, and I'll pass it on. Just given the start to year on the guidance, can you just help us think about adjusted EBITDA, for the year do you still think it's similar to last year and slightly higher and if so with the purchase accounting how should we think maybe about the slope of the adjusted EBITDA ramp throughout the rest the fiscal year? Thank you. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Yes. Well, given our guidance of roughly $92 million at midpoint on revenue for Q2 and approximately $9.5 million of adjusted EBITDA at the midpoint in Q2, that suggests there's pretty strong marginal profitability in the operating model, $3 million of incremental revenue producing an incremental $2 million of adjusted EBITDA. So we would expect that as revenue grows through the year, especially in the software and services category, that we would see that express in terms of earnings leverage working through the year, and as Kurt pointed out, we expect to get back into the mid-teens neighborhood as it relates to EBITDA margin as we work our way into the second half of the year and especially as we exit the year. Mike Walkley--Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst Great. Thank you. Operator Your next question is from Jonathan Ho from William Blair. Your line is now open. Jonathan Ho--William Blair & Co. -- Analyst`` Hi, good afternoon, and then congrats on the strong results. I just wanted to start out with the 3G to 4G transition. Can you talk a little bit about whether there maybe a content or pricing uplift opportunity as customers start to contemplate that and maybe roll out upgrades to their systems. I mean, clearly, there should be more capability with the enlarged bandwidth as well. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Sure. Well, just to kind of quantify the scope of that opportunity, as of last Friday, there were 1.3 million 3G units, CalAmp units in service with customers in the United States, all of which are either going to go dark or going to have to be replaced and upgraded over the course of the next two years or so. Some of those 3G units are a part of our subscription population, but even setting those aside, that's more than a million unit addressable market opportunity as it relates to upgrades, and assuming that half or so of those would get replaced in normal course, that's about a $50 million addressable market opportunity in terms of tailwinds around MRM Telematics device sales over the course of the coming eight quarters or so. We believe that gives us a good deal of tailwind to sort of offset some of the headwinds we'll face from a revenue recognition standpoint, as we transition certain of our products to subscription-only model through our device as a service program. So we think the LTE upgrade tailwind is a very positive thing for us and gives us some breathing room from a revenue growth perspective as we transition to more of this device as a service model for certain of our products with certain customer. Jonathan Ho--William Blair & Co. -- Analyst`` Got it. And then just in terms of my follow-up, when we think about sort of the supply chain issues that you've resolved and sort of what's left to do, is there much of a gross margin impact? Or can you give us a little bit of financial quantification in terms of the improvement that you see over the next couple of quarters when you get back to normal? Kurt Binder--Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Yeah, Jonathan, so as we look at this supply chain transition, honestly, we kind of assume that we will potentially have some uplift in our margin. The reason is that we're taking a more sophisticated approach and looking at these Tier 1 suppliers and ensuring that we are getting the best pricing that's possible. But you'll see a combination of things happening over the next couple of quarters. The biggest thing which is going to impact us is the burn off of this deferred revenue haircut that will happen throughout the year, which we think will also help, so net-net as you look through the base of the year, we do see some of the -- some improvement in our overall gross -- gross margin. I think we communicated that to the last quarter that we thought margins would tip up over 41% to 42% thereabouts as we exit the year. Jonathan Ho--William Blair & Co. -- Analyst`` Great. Thank you. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Thank you. Operator Your next question is from Howard Smith from First Analysis. Your line is now open. Howard Smith--First Analysis -- Analyst Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. First question has to do with free cash flow generation capability. Lot of moving parts with the factoring and inventory et cetera. But if you think about longer term, on a more normalized basis, how should we think about now, the business model in terms of cash flow generation relative to whatever metric I think you used to do it to adjusted non-GAAP net income? But whatever the correct metric is at a high level, how should we be thinking about it? Kurt Binder--Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Yes, so I think first we should address this first quarter. I think this first quarter was a bit of an anomaly, caused for a couple of reasons. One, when we acquired two of the businesses , in particular, Synovia and you noted the factoring of the receivables as well as Tracker UK, upon initial purchase, we did have an obligation to kind of shore up their working capital, which was a cash outflow. Additionally, we took some steps as you saw in improving our overall buffer stock of inventory. We wanted to make sure that we were trying to optimize our supply chain and make sure that we had sufficient product to meet demand and in doing that we also reduced our AP Days, which also resulted in an outflow. So we look at Q1 as a bit of an anomaly where we see things progressing to more of a kind of historical perspective is in Q2 to Q3 -- Q2 to Q4, excuse me. So, I don't know that we expect anything to change substantially from the historical cash flow generation that we've experienced if you factor out a lot of these one-time items that we've had in the past, if you remember with the LoJack supplier some of the things that were out of the ordinary. So we're quite pleased with the way the cash flow is progressing and we would think that we'd be back to the historical levels past in the Q2 to Q4. Howard Smith--First Analysis -- Analyst Great. And then in terms of the subscription SaaS and Software & Subscription line, you mentioned a obviously very strong growth helped by the acquisitions you mentioned, also organic growth. I don't know if you can exactly break it out given all the puts and takes in the business but can you talk about what the organic growth rate for the subscription businesses are looking like either precisely or in general terms? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Yes. So, we're not prepared to break out the numbers specifically, but in general, as we talked about in the last couple of calls, our global freight transport customer which had driven a pretty significant uptake both in subscribers and subscription revenue last year, that reached a plateau as we made the initial deployment and completed that project. So we expect that to sort of maintain its existing run rate level until the second half of this fiscal year as that program expands not only in terms of an increased number of assets but potentially into new applications. And to give you somewhat of a leading indicator as it relates to organic activities, our net subscriber adds in Q1 -- our organic net subscriber adds in Q1 were approximately 25,000 . And that includes the effects -- the negative effects of about 7,000 subscribers declining in our vehicle finance business which is obviously considerably lower ARPU than some of these other more attractive categories like fleet and asset tracking. So I think the subscriber growth trends are positive and an indicator of ongoing subscriber growth and revenue growth on an organic basis as we work our way through this year. Howard Smith--First Analysis -- Analyst Helpful color. Thank you very much. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer You're welcome. Operator Your next question is from Scott Searle from Roth Capital. Your line is now open. Scott Searle--Roth Capital Partners -- Analyst Hey good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Just quick housekeeping, I think I missed it, but did you give a figure for the network OEM sales? And also on the services and SaaS front, did you break out the M&A contribution versus the organic growth within the quarter? And then I had a follow-up on the hardware front. Mike Latimore--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst We did not break out specifically the network and OEM product number as part of Telematics Systems. We did talk explicitly about Caterpillar and Caterpillar being up on a year-over-year basis slightly down from the prior quarter and in line with expectations. And then on the software and subscription side, no, we did not break out specifically what the contribution from M&A was, as relates to the overall software and subscription revenue growth. But I would say that the acquisition-related revenue contribution was a bit better than what we had expected and what we had guided to on our last earnings call. Kurt Binder--Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Scott, let me -- just one -- because I think in my original remarks, I did indicate network and OEM product was about $16.3 million and that was representing a slight increase year-over-year. But -- Scott Searle--Roth Capital Partners -- Analyst Okay perfect. Hey and just to follow-up then on the Telematics Systems front, a lot of moving parts in terms of transition to the DaaS model, which is starting to ramp up this quarter acquisition of some customers, could you take us through your thinking in terms of the impact both in the second quarter kind of the impact that's going to have on the Telematics Systems business and also for the year? Because it seems like there's some good things that are going on there now as you're getting through some of the supply chain issues, being able to recapture some of those customers and then you combine that with some of the 3G sunsetting opportunities and just natural organic growth in the industry that it seems like there's a better outlook overall for hardware, but could you kind of full that into the backdrop of some of these, I don't call them cannibalization but that's really kind of obscuring what that core Telematics Systems growth looks like when you net out DaaS and you net out Synovia sales and LoJack sales et cetera. Thanks. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Yes. So if you annualize Telematics Systems revenue from Q1, you're a little bit below the outlook we gave as guidance on our last earnings call, which was approximately $257 million to $262 million. The annualized number from Q1 would be $254 million, so we do expect some modest growth in Ttelematics Systems as we work our way through the year because we feel pretty comfortable with the guidance we gave on our last earnings call as relates to the full year outlook there. And we would expect that to be somewhat of a linear progression, Q2, Q3 and into Q4. Scott Searle--Roth Capital Partners -- Analyst Great, thank you. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer You're welcome. Operator Your next question is from Jerry Revich from Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Jerry Revich--Goldman Sachs -- Analyst Hi -- Just hi, good afternoon. I'm wondering if you could talk about for the businesses that were acquired, what's their organic growth trajectory? So obviously the accounting is noisy with deferred revenue, on a like for like organic basis, what's the growth profile of the businesses in this first quarter on the like-for-like basis? Kurt Binder--Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Yeah, Jerry. So to respond to your initial question. I think the best way to answer it is we were pretty conservative in our forecasted growth rates. Looking at the businesses prior to acquisition, you had Synovia that was growing in the mid-teens range on a billings basis prior to acquisition whereas the two other businesses Tracker UK and Mexico were flat to slightly up maybe 2% to 3%. In general, I think the best way to kind of characterize is it is we looked and said, well, based upon all of the noise in the purchase accounting, what would be an acceptable but conservative growth rate from a billings perspective? And our assumption was somewhere in the range of 5% to 7%. So we wanted to be just fairly conservative as we get to understand these businesses, figure out where the revenue synergies are before we went ahead and started to apply some of the more aggressive growth rates. Jerry Revich--Goldman Sachs -- Analyst And so you have modeled 5% to 7%, but it's tracking double digits, is that what the comments implied? Kurt Binder--Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer No, no, I'm just saying we on a billings basis forecasted at a 5% to 7% rate, the historical growth rate was probably double that, but we didn't take that into consideration. We won't do that until we know and understand fully all of the revenue synergies that are available to us. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer I would add this color and that is having almost a full quarter of experience with these three businesses, we're very encouraged with their performance thus far. Jerry Revich--Goldman Sachs -- Analyst And how would you characterize the M&A pipeline at this point, any other opportunities that have a similar profile and similar fit with your business that look like Synovia specifically? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Well, I would say that we're very much in integration mode now and very focused on trying to extract maximum value out of these investments we made. So I wouldn't suggest that we are active in terms of trying to build an M&A pipeline. And I think, once we've digested these acquisitions, they start to be fully realized both in terms of potential and also in terms of revenue recognition impact, I think we have some options to start to consider, some inorganic initiatives. But right now, we're very, very focused on making sure we get the integration right and that we pursue the revenue synergies as appropriate given these new growth platforms. Jerry Revich--Goldman Sachs -- Analyst And Michael, you mentioned for the legacy subscription business that subscriber count was up 25,000 sequentially, what's the outlook for ads from here for the base business, Is that how we should be thinking about the baseline subscriber growth? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Yeah, well we have not given any -- in fact, we've never given any subscriber growth outlook or forecast, but I think in the freight and transportation marketplace and in the municipal government space, I think we're encouraged by the pipeline of opportunities there. And we would expect that most of the subscriber growth going forward would come in those two market vertical categories. Jerry Revich--Goldman Sachs -- Analyst And lastly, in MRM Telematics, it's tough to tell with your customers obviously becoming part of the platform. If you were to strip out those intercompany sales what would the like for like the organic sales performance for MRM this quarter, stripping out Synovia and any other adjustments? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Well, I think that would be waiting somewhat into uncharted territory. And frankly, it's really hard to tell. And I don't think we're really -- we would be very comfortable in trying to answer that question very specifically. Jerry Revich--Goldman Sachs -- Analyst Okay, the point is, I think MRM, the performance -- the underlying performance was better than what it shows because of the acquisition of the customer and I'm just trying to get a rough understanding of how much better it would have been without what's essentially a change in accounting? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Well, I think that's an accurate statement. And to be clear, it was better than we expected even with the the loss of revenue and consolidation effect. Kurt Binder--Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Yeah. I mean, Synovia specifically, they were a very important MRM Telematics customer of ours and they -- so moving them on board here and consolidating that revenue does have an impact on that product line. Yes. Jerry Revich--Goldman Sachs -- Analyst Okay. All right, thank you. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Thank you. Operator (Operator Instructions) We have a question from Mike Latimore from Northland Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Mike Latimore--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst Right. Thanks. I guess just a couple of questions on the SaaS business. Roughly what is the gross margin, EBITDA margin profile now that you've got these acquisitions in the mix here? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer On a consolidated basis or which product line are you referring to? Mike Latimore--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst The overall software as a service business -- or the subscription Saas business. Kurt Binder--Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Yeah. I think probably the way to look at it is and as we've communicated in the past Mike is that the software and subscription services from a historical perspective has been at or just slightly north of 50%. When you add in the new acquisitions, those actually would have been exclusive of the purchase agreement accretive to that. I think on a blended basis, they are definitely north of 50%, probably mid 50s, once you pull out all of the purchase accounting adjustments, so we would expect that they would be longer term after say 12 months or so, once we get past this phase that they would be overall accretive to our gross margin percentage for the SaaS business. Mike Latimore--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst Right, right. And EBITDA margins, I think you said it's been maybe 10% or so in the past, is that right or -- on SaaS business? Kurt Binder--Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer No, these again also are accretive to our overall EBITDA margin. I think, if you look at us, the organic business, we'd probably say we're in the low- to mid-teens. These businesses should drive us to the mid-teens to even high-teens, so they would definitely be accretive to our overall EBITDA margin. Mike Latimore--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst Great. And then in terms of the device as a service strategy here, that largely relates to your MRM category or does it also affect the network and OEM at some point? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer No, that's isolated to our MRM category and even isolated within in our MRM portfolio to just a couple of product lines. Mike Latimore--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst Got it. And then, the guidance for -- I think you've guided to the software subscription business being sort of over $30 million on a quarterly basis exiting the year. What does that imply from a kind of organic and then acquisition growth? Are you assuming this kind of 5% to 7% growth on the acquisitions and then some organic growth beyond it? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer I think the simple answer is yes. We talked a little bit earlier on this call about our expectation that we would see growth both organically and billings growth with each of the acquired businesses including Tracker which was flattish in the year prior to the acquisition. And we're encouraged with the outlook for Tracker and especially as it relates to the first quarter performance. So I think we've got a modicum of momentum on both the inorganic front as well as the organic front. Mike Latimore--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst And just last the -- at the midpoint of second quarter, as you're growing a couple of million, should we assume that's largely on the sort of the SaaS category or some hardware? Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer We would expect some modest growth in Telematics Systems and probably a little more growth on software and subscription services. Mike Latimore--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst Okay. Thank you. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer You're welcome. Operator There is no question at this time. Mr. Michael Burdiek, you may continue with your closing remarks. Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Well, thank you everyone for joining us today. Before we conclude the call, I'd like to mention the upcoming investor events. We will be attending including the Jefferies Industrial Conference on August 6th in New York and the Canaccord Growth Conference on August 7th in Boston. If you'd like to arrange a meeting with us at either of these events, please contact your sales representative or the Shelton Group. We look forward to providing further updates on our next earnings call in late September. Operator, you may disconnect the call. Operator This concludes today's conference call. Thank you everyone for participating. You may now disconnect. Duration: 50 minutes Leanne Sievers--Investor Relations Michael Burdiek--President & Chief Executive Officer Kurt Binder--Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Mike Walkley--Canaccord Genuity -- Analyst Jonathan Ho--William Blair & Co. -- Analyst`` Howard Smith--First Analysis -- Analyst Scott Searle--Roth Capital Partners -- Analyst Mike Latimore--Northland Capital Markets -- Analyst Jerry Revich--Goldman Sachs -- Analyst More CAMP analysis All earnings call transcripts More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. 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India tariffs threaten California almond industry MODESTO, Calif. (AP) Along large swaths of California's lush central valley, almonds in the fuzzy hulls of tree leaves blow in the wind on thousands of acres of orchards. Thousands of miles away in India, customers browse the nut sections of busy street markets and grocery stores in search of the best almonds to use in curry dishes, health drinks, ice cream and many other recipes. Now the future of that market is uncertain. India this month imposed tariffs on almonds and 27 other American products, including apples and walnuts, in retaliation for the U.S. ending India's preferential trade status. Those tariffs took effect June 16 and come on top of a significant tariffs China placed on almonds last year. "We can deal with market disruption in one country, but to have it in multiple countries is a real challenge," said David Phippen, a partner of Travaille & Phippen, Inc., a farm and processing company in Manteca. California supplies 82% of the world's almonds and has almost 7,000 growers. The Almond Board of California estimates the industry generates about 104,000 jobs in California, and the effect of the tariffs might ripple outward. India is such an important market that the almond board, whose members engage in market research and promotion overseas, has an office in New Delhi with a $6 million annual advertising budget. The tariffs add about 12 cents per pound to shelled almonds, a 20 percent increase, and about 4 cents for those still in their shells, a rise of 17%. "That doesn't sound like a large number, but India was an important alternative to exports that would've gone into China," said Julie Adams, president of the Almond Board of California. "It's difficult to know what the long-term effect of (the tariffs) will be." The hit from China tariffs was much harder: the country imposed 50% tariffs on U.S. almonds in an escalating trade dispute. Exports to China decreased by about a third, according to the almond board. Story continues Bhupesh Gupta, a grocery store owner in New Delhi, believes higher prices will cut into sales. While India is one of the world's largest consumer markets, it also has huge income disparities and hundreds of millions live in poverty. Even a small increase in the cost could have a large ripple effect on what people buy. Still, other sellers say that Indians are so passionate about almonds that they will figure out a way to deal with price hikes. "It won't matter, as anyone who needs almonds will buy no matter what the price," said Delhi grocer Virender Kaneja. For California farmers, most immediately the tariffs mean planning difficulties as the harvest season approaches. For example, some may need to take on more of the shipping costs to make up for the increased prices, which will be negotiated in the contracts. The handlers then may absorb the increased costs themselves or pass them onto the growers. To cope, growers may cut down on spending on equipment and fertilizer, perhaps making the choice to forego replacing a tractor. If the Indian tariffs slow the flow of inventory, as happened after the Chinese tariffs, the capacity of storage facilities may be stretched. "From a grower perspective, we're along for the ride," said Jake Wenger, whose family has grown almonds on Wenger Ranch in Modesto, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) east of San Francisco, for four generations. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in India this week, meeting with officials amid growing tensions between the two countries over trade and tariffs. The trip is focused on Iran, but a California congressman has asked Pompeo to raise the almond tariff issue. Some growers worry that if California almonds get too expensive, buyers will look elsewhere. "They can buy other nuts or seeds, or if they're preparing a nut mix, they can lower the amount of almonds in that mix," said Phippen. Countries may also turn to other producers, such as Australia, whose free trade agreement with China allowed the country to supply almonds in the wake of its tariffs on U.S. almonds. Ultimately, the almond industry will need to make inroads in other markets, which is no small task. "It takes so long for us to build relationships to market our products," said Sara Neagu-Reed, associate director of the California Farm Bureau Federation's federal policy division. Still, no one is panicking, yet. California's export of almonds to India is valued at about $650 million, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department and California Department of Food and Agriculture, but the state tallied $4.5 billion in foreign sales in 2017. The USDA valued U.S. almond exports to China and Hong Kong at about $549 million in 2017-2018 In just over a month, the fruit will be harvested from farms and trucked to hulling businesses, where the nut will be separated from the shell and hull. "It's pretty amazing and gives you pride as a grower when you think about something that's making its way all over the world," Wegner said. In recent years, drought has been the biggest challenge for almond growers, and farmers noted that they have become accustomed to market fluctuations and cite the strong, worldwide demand for almonds as reason for optimism. The almonds at Wenger Ranch are part of this year's record-high crop of 2.5 billion pounds (1.1 billion kilograms), up from about 2.3 billion pounds last year. Most of those almonds are already committed into contracts, so Wenger isn't worried for now. It's the future that's in the air. "We can't do this every year," he said. "Long term, there has to be a solution to settle this." ___ Associated Press writers Emily Schmall and Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne Denounce Trump for Using ‘Crazy Train’ in Doctored Video Click here to read the full article. Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne have condemned President Donald Trump for playing the song “Crazy Train” in a video posted to his Twitter account teasing the 2020 Democratic candidates. The doctored video clip, which Trump posted Thursday morning, incorporates footage of the first round of primary Democratic debates that took place Wednesday night, and shows Trump appearing at the debate with Osbourne’s 1980 hit playing in the background. Trump posted the video as a jab at NBC after the network experienced technical difficulties during their live coverage — a snafu that forced the network to cut to a commercial break. The edited clip is one of two tweets Trump posted from the debates criticizing NBC ’s debate moderators Rachel Maddow and Chuck Todd. Related stories Live+3 Ratings for Week of June 17: 'Holey Moley' Grows 30% TV Ratings: Second Democratic Debate Tops First With 18.1 Million Viewers Dems Debate: Joe Biden Takes Arrows From All Sides “Thank you, @MSNBC, real professionals! @chucktodd @maddow,” Trump tweeted. Thank you @MSNBC , real professionals! @chucktodd @maddow pic.twitter.com/7ZCkcUQ4yA — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2019 In a statement, the Osbournes said, “Based on this morning’s unauthorized use of Ozzy Osbourne ’s ‘Crazy Train,’ we are sending notice to the Trump campaign (or any other campaigns) that they are forbidden from using any of Ozzy Osbourne ’s music in political ads or in any political campaigns. Ozzy’s music cannot be used for any means without approvals.” Story continues Cheekily, the Osbournes offered suggestions on other songs Trump could use. Referencing bold-faced names that have shown vocal support for the president, the couple wrote, “perhaps he should reach out to some of his musician friends. Maybe Kanye West (‘Gold Digger’), Kid Rock (‘I Am the Bullgod’) or Ted Nugent (‘Stranglehold’) will allow use of their music.” While Sharon Osbourne famously appeared in the ninth season of Trump’s reality series “The Apprentice,” the media personality has voiced her disdain towards Trump’s politics since he first declared his political ambitions. “It’s kind of fearful,” she said in an interview with Larry King shortly after his announcement to run for president. “I know a lot of my friends are fearful. We kind of wake up every day and go, ‘What’s gonna happen now?’ You don’t feel secure that everything will be smooth and people are in control of what they should be in control of and running it professionally.” This isn’t the first time public figures have called out Trump for using their copyrighted content or images to push his own agenda on social media. Queen, R.E.M, Neil Young, Everlast, and Aerosmith have all pushed back when the president has used their music without permission. Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter . For the latest news, follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .
Former FDA Chief Gottlieb Heads to Pfizer's Board: Brainstorm Health Good afternoon, readers – and a short one for you amid some busy times. Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottliebabruptly resigned from his post earlier this yearfollowing a tenure marked by aggressive changes is drug approval, digital health, and tobacco policy. On Thursday, he announced he’s already got a new gig – with one of the very pharmaceutical giants he recently regulated. “I’m honored to be joining the board of directors of Pfizer and working together with more than 90,000Pfizercolleagues to promote medical innovation, advance patient care, and secure access to better healthcare outcomes for families around the world,” Gottliebwrote in a tweet. Gottlieb’s ties to multiple health and biopharmaceutical companies riled critics during his confirmation process for the FDA’s top perch. He pledged to recuse himself from any decisions involving companies in which he’d had a financial interest in exchange, and garnered a reputation as a reformer (even as some of his decisions remained controversial).Fortunenamed Gottlieb to the 2019 listof World’s Greatest Leaders. Now, out from his government job, he appears to have gone back to the industry fold. Read on for the day’s news, back with more tomorrow. Sy Mukherjee@the_sy_guysayak.mukherjee@fortune.com 1. DIGITAL HEALTHCardiogram, Fitbit team up in health screening partnership.Digital health firms Fitbit and Cardiogram have joined hands in a large-scale health screening partnership, the companies announced. Cardiogram’s functionality (tracking health metrics such as sleep patterns and heart rate in relation to various activities and then turning them into personalized insights for users) makes sense as a, ahem, fit for Fitbit, which is still a wearables market giant. “Fitbit wearables have remarkably consistent heart rate accuracy, enhanced sleep tracking, and extended battery life, all of which improve a user’s experience with Cardiogram as well,” said Brandon Ballinger, co-founder and CEO of Cardiogram, in a statement. 2. INDICATIONSBiotech IPOs are popping.Yet another slew of biotechs had major market pops following recent public offerings this week: “First, Bridgebio Pharma Inc. opened 80% above Wednesday’s IPO price, the biggest opening gain by any biotech or pharma IPO this year. It dethroned Stoke Therapeutics Inc., which opened 51% above its IPO price just last week,” Bloomberg reports. Adaptive Biotechnologies got in on the action, too, trading twice as high as its IPO pricing.(Fortune) 3. REQUIRED READINGMeet Andrew Yang, the Entrepreneur and Democratic Candidate Who Wants to Give You $1,000 Each Month,by Sy MukherjeeApple’s Latest Acquisition Shows Self-Driving Cars Are in the Doldrums of Disappointment,by David Z. MorrisFord’s New Plan for Europe: Fewer Jobs, More SUVs,by David MeyerProduced by Sy Mukherjee@the_sy_guysayak.mukherjee@fortune.comFind past coverage.Sign up for other Fortune newsletters.
FOREX-Dollar holds steady, markets edgy ahead of Trump-Xi talks at G20 * Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh * Focus shifts to U.S.-China at G20 * Some optimism on deal to avert trade war escalation * Euro on holding pattern before consumer price data By Stanley White TOKYO, June 28 (Reuters) - The dollar trod water early on Friday as investors awaited a crucial meeting between the leaders of the United States and China at a Group of 20 summit over the weekend for any signs of progress to end their heated trade war. The mood improved the previous day after the South China Morning Post said Washington and Beijing were laying out an agreement that would help avert the next round of tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese imports. Negotiations between the world's two largest economies have been fraught, so traders and analysts caution that a resolution at the G20 summit is far from certain. Yet, markets seem to cling on to hopes of progress in a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 in the western Japanese city of Osaka. That was reflected in an easing of risk aversion as U.S. stocks gained and Treasury yields shifted lower. Trump is set to hold the much-anticipated trade talks with Xi at 11:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) on Saturday. "Market moves show there is less concern about the U.S.-China meeting, but the results of the meeting have to match these expectations for the dollar and risk assets to go higher," said Junichi Ishikawa, senior foreign exchange strategist at IG Securities. "Anything less than that will lead to a big reaction in the opposite direction." The dollar traded at 107.73 yen, little changed on the day but on course for a 0.4% gain this week as the greenback mounted a recovery from a five-month low of 106.77 yen reached on Tuesday. The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six of its peers, was at 96.195, down 0.3% on the week. The United States and China have already imposed tariffs of up to 25% on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other's goods in a dispute about China's trade practices that has lasted nearly a year. The drawn out trade war has slowed global growth and pushed many central banks toward cutting interest rates to support their economies. Any sign the trade war will come to an end would be a significant boost for the global economic outlook. The euro last traded at $1.1370, unchanged on the week. However, analysts say sentiment on the single currency remains weak due to speculation the European Central Bank will ease monetary policy. Any weakness in June inflation data for the euro zone, set for release later on Friday, would support the argument for monetary easing. In May, core inflation decelerated sharply. Sterling was unchanged at $1.2670, on course for a 0.6% weekly decline on uncertainty about who will be Britain's next prime minister and on worries about whether the nation would be able to avoid a no-deal, chaotic exit from the European Union. (Reporting by Stanley White Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
EU leaders warn of damage to global growth from trade war By Chris Gallagher and Leika Kihara OSAKA (Reuters) - European Union leaders warned on Friday against the damage that escalating U.S.-China trade friction was inflicting on the global economy, as the Group of 20 economies began a two-day summit in Japan's western city of Osaka. The annual G20 summit kicked off amid heightened global anxiety over a U.S.-China trade war and escalating tension over Iran's nuclear commitments that threatened to overshadow talks on other issues such as climate and the digital economy. All eyes are on a high-stakes meeting between Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 and whether the U.S. president will carry out his threat of additional tariffs on Chinese goods. "The trade relations between China and the U.S. are difficult, they are contributing to the slowdown of the global economy," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a news conference. "In our talks, both with the U.S. and the Chinese authorities ... I was drawing their attention to the harmful impact this controversial matter is creating." Juncker said the European Union was working closely with China, Japan, the United States and others to reform the World Trade Organization and create a level playing field. Work to draft the G20 communique continued, he added. European Council President Donald Tusk expressed concern about Iran potentially breaching its nuclear commitments, saying the European Union would continue to monitor Tehran's compliance. "We strongly urge Iran to continue the full implementation of all its commitments under the nuclear deal, and we take very seriously the possibility of any breach of its commitment," Tusk told the news conference. (Reporting by Leika Kihara and Chris Gallagher; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Oil prices fall, but post weekly gain ahead of G20 talks, OPEC By Devika Krishna Kumar NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Friday but posted their second straight week of gains ahead of trade talks between the U.S. and Chinese presidents this weekend, and on widely expected production cuts from OPEC on Monday. The most active September Brent crude futures <LCOU9> fell 93 cents to settle at $64.74 a barrel. Brent August crude <LCOc1> futures settled unchanged at $66.55 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude <CLc1> futures lost 96 cents to settle at $58.47 a barrel. Brent posted a gain of more than 20% in the first half of 2019, while WTI marked a gain of more than 25%. Both contracts also notched their second straight weekly gain. Oil futures fell just ahead of settlement as investors sized up positions before meetings this weekend and next week that could lend direction for the market. The leaders of the G20 countries meet on Friday and Saturday in Osaka, Japan, but the most anticipated meeting is between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday. A trade war between the world's two biggest economies has weighed on prices, fanning fears that slowing economic growth could dent demand for oil. Trump said he hoped for productive talks with the Chinese president, but said he had not made any promises about a reprieve from escalating tariffs. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and some non-members including Russia, known as OPEC+, will hold meetings on July 1-2 in Vienna to decide whether to extend their supply cuts. "You had a wave of selling come in advance of the OPEC and non-OPEC meeting on Monday, where it's fully expected that they're going to rollover production cuts," said Andrew Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston. "But ironically they're doing that because they're seeing the oil demand growth forecast get revised downward and that's contributing to a sense that we remain oversupplied." Russia is cutting its oil output in June by slightly more than envisaged in the OPEC+ deal, RIA news agency cited Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying. OPEC+ members agreed to curb oil output by 1.2 million barrels per day from Jan. 1. Oil prices could stall as a slowing global economy squeezes demand and U.S. crude floods the market, a Reuters poll of analysts found, despite an expected extension by OPEC and its allies of their output-cutting pact. The survey of 42 economists and analysts forecast Brent crude would average $67.59 a barrel in 2019, down from the $68.84 estimate in May. Tensions between the United Sates and Iran have also been keeping markets on edge. A week after Trump called off air strikes on Iran at the last minute, the prospect that Tehran could soon violate its nuclear commitments has created additional diplomatic urgency to find a way out of the crisis. Record U.S. crude production has also capped oil prices. U.S. crude output in April rose to a fresh monthly record, surpassing 12 million barrels per day, according to a government report on Friday. U.S. energy firms this week increased the number of oil rigs operating for a second week in a row, bringing the total count to 793, General Electric Co's <GE.N> Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report. <RIG-OL-USA-BHI> GRAPHIC: World crude oil production and demand by region png, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2ZFAZ0e (Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar and Stephanie Kelly in New York, Dmitry Zhdannikov in London and Jane Chung; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Alistair Bell)
Friends: Trump accuser told us of attack in the '90s NEW YORK (AP) Two women have confirmed that the writer E. Jean Carroll told them in the 1990s that she'd been sexually assaulted by Donald Trump in the dressing room of a New York City department store. The women, both journalists who were friends with Carroll, spoke publicly for the first time to The New York Times in a podcast released Thursday. Carol Martin, a former news anchor on WCBS-TV, and Lisa Birnbach, a writer and author of the best-selling book "The Official Preppy Handbook," said they had opposite reactions when Carroll told them of her alleged encounter with Trump at Bergdorf Goodman. Carroll, a feature writer and longtime Elle advice columnist, said that she had run into Trump at the store and was helping him shop for a gift when he pushed her up against a dressing room wall, unzipped his pants and forced himself on her. Carroll said she used her knee to distance herself and got out of the room. "I may have tried to hit him with my purse; I don't know," she said on the podcast. Birnbach said Carroll called her right after the alleged incident, "breathless and laughing." Birnbach initially laughed along. "I remember her saying repeatedly, 'He pulled down my tights ... which got me to think that was as far as it went," she said. Then more details emerged as Carroll described being penetrated. "And I said, 'What? He raped you?'" Birnbach said. "I said, 'Let's go to the police,'" she recalled, but Carroll refused. Martin said she spoke with Carroll within a few days. She recalled that her friend seemed to be "handling it" on her own. "She doesn't break down easily." "I said, 'Don't tell anybody,'" Martin said. Trump said that Carroll is "totally lying" and that the story is completely fabricated. "Number one, she's not my type. Number two, it never happened," Trump told The Hill in an interview at the White House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that while she has respect for women coming forward, she's not focused on the accusations and doesn't see Congress being involved. "I haven't spent any time on that," Pelosi told reporters Thursday. She said she's more concerned about immediate policy decisions confronting the nation. "I don't know what Congress' role would be in this," Pelosi said.
Uber Says Driverless Cars Can Only Happen in Lockstep With Regulators Eric Meyhofer, the head of Uber’s advanced technology group, dispelled any notion on Thursday that driverless cars are a pipe dream or laughable relics from an old Jetsons cartoon. Speaking atSkift Tech Forumin San Francisco, the executive made it clear the company, known now for ridesharing, is moving forward withdriverless, and even flying, car services. He’s built a team of 1,300 people at Uber over the past few years dedicated to the task. “We have a really phenomenal future in front of us… at Uber scale,” Meyhofer said. But he emphasized the rollout was in a “hybrid” phase, and that its progress to being a commercially viable venture must be in lockstep with consumers and regulators. “What we don’t want to do is build something that scares regulators or people. We want them to come along on the journey with us.” The challenge will be making people really believe it will make their lives better, but they must be educated properly for that to happen, Meyhofer said. “It’s about getting people to understand how the technology works.” But he claims Uber is patient. He added: “We truly are taking the long view.” So is the technology, he quipped. “The robots don’t care.” Meyhofer did reveal that Uber’s partner of four years on driverless cars, Volvo, has predicted 30 percent of its sales will be driverless cars by 2025. When asked if that can be achieved, Meyhofer said absolutely. Driverless cars won’t exist on scale at first, but maybe be used in 10 to 15 percent of cities, “the easy parts,”he pointed out. On flying cars, Meyhofer said the big challenge versus the ridesharing is that a network already existed for ridesharing, whereas flying cars will need to start from scratch. He said Uber’s foray into helicopter service was a start on that front. In the end, the advantages of autonomous driving will become clear, Meyhofer said, from the reduction in car crash fatalities to seeing a better and cheaper way to get from point A to point B. Subscribe to Skift newsletterscovering the business of travel, restaurants, and wellness.
Cuba announces increase in wages as part of economic reform HAVANA (AP) The Cuban government said Thursday that it is raising state salaries as part of a broader package of economic reforms, but it revealed no details of its larger plan beyond increasing worker compensation. A salary increase has long been seen as one of the first steps in the unification of Cuba's unique dual-currency system, a process that could be a risky gambit in the face of an economic crisis exacerbated by tightened U.S. sanctions. For the last quarter-century, Cubans have used one peso worth about four cents and another worth nearly a dollar. The stronger peso was introduced as a replacement for the dollars traded on the black market during the island's post-Soviet economic crisis in the 1990s. Over time, the two currencies have come to be used by the communist government to set extremely low prices for goods and services considered basic rights and extremely high prices for others considered luxuries, creating distortions that cripple economic growth. Cuban officials said Díaz-Canel presided over an important meeting of the country's governing Council of Ministers on June 21, although they did not specify the agenda of the meeting. The collapse of Venezuela's economy has led to a cut in aid to Cuba, and sharp slowdown worsened by a series of Trump administration measures designed to cut off funding to the island's government. "A meeting of the Council of Ministers approved economic measures to overcome the current situation, and an increase in the state sector," Díaz-Canel wrote on Twitter Thursday evening. He said details would be announced on state television at 8 p.m. When a state-run newspaper tweeted that a wide-ranging salary reform had been approved, the president quickly responded that, "this is an incremental salary increase. Next comes the reform." The announcement read on state television said that the minimum salary would be nearly $17 a month while the average salary would increase from $32 to $44. There were also slight rises in state pensions. Story continues The announcement made repeated references to a variety of measures approved by the Council of Ministers, but said only that, "in coming days, our population will receive more detailed information about the extent of the reforms through various media." Arturo Lopez-Levy, a visiting assistant professor of political science at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, called the announcement "a timid start to salary reform." He said it could be part of an attempt to create more autonomy and incentives for increased production at state-run enterprises, whose operations have long been dictated by the central government. "It could cushion a future monetary unification but it won't really facilitate that by itself," he said. "It helps, nothing more." Under Cuba's byzantine pricing system, an average water bill denominated in Cuban pesos will be a few dollars, for example, while home internet billed in the stronger convertible peso can cost hundreds of dollars a month. While the average Cuban must trade 24 or 25 Cuban pesos for a convertible one, many state-run enterprises can obtain a convertible peso for 10 Cuban pesos or even one peso, a privilege that effectively subsidizes the state sector by many hundreds of millions of dollars a year. "Every Cuban has the right to a salary increase," said Dariel Tejeda, a 28-year-old tour guide. "The country and all the state workers have needed this for a long time." Ending the dual-currency system is expected to lead to the eventual removal of subsidies and bankruptcy of dozens, even hundreds of state enterprises and the loss of many thousands of public sector jobs. With lower or no subsidies, state companies would be forced to raise prices. For that reason, a state salary increase has long been seen as a key precursor to monetary unification in Cuba.
MLB announces starters for All-Star Game in Cleveland We didn't know what to expect when Major League Baseball decided to shake things up by overhauling the All-Star voting system. Based on the primary results last week and the starters who were announced Thursday, the election process might be great again . Or at least closer to good than it’s been in quite some time. The new voting process saw each position narrowed down to a select group of finalists — nine in the outfield, three at every other non-pitching position — as determined by the primary voting round. That part alone produced some big surprises — the most notable being Bryce Harper's failure to make the top nine in the NL outfield. For a 28-hour period that began Wednesday, fans voted on a starter from the group of finalists. It seems that by trimming the fat early, it forced fans to familiarize themselves with candidates from other teams. The result of which led to a pretty fair and balanced outcome. There are some familiar and expected faces, like Mike Trout and Christian Yelich. There are some breakout stars of 2019, like Cody Bellinger and Jorge Polanco. Then there are some guys nobody would have predicted on opening day, like Ketel Marte, and a great comeback story in 36-year-old Hunter Pence. Here’s the full lists of players elected to start the All-Star Game on July 9 in Cleveland. Alex Bregman is in his second straight All-Star game for the Astros. (Getty Images) American League starters C –Gary Sanchez, New York Yankees 1B – Carlos Santana, Cleveland Indians 2B - DJ LeMahieu, Yankees SS – Jorge Polanco, Minnesota Twins 3B – Alex Bregman, Houston Astros OF – Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels OF – George Springer, Astros OF – Michael Brantley, Astros DH – Hunter Pence, Texas Rangers Javier Baez will start at shortstop for the NL team. (Getty Images) National League starters C – Willson Contreras, Chicago Cubs 1B – Freddie Freeman, Atlanta Braves 2B – Ketel Marte, Arizona Diamondbacks SS – Javier Báez, Chicago Cubs 3B – Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies OF – Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers OF – Cody Bellinger, Los Angeles Dodgers OF – Ronald Acuña Jr., Braves There are quite a few first-timers this year — including four first-time All-Stars overall, and 11 who were voted in by fans for the first time. There are six players in their second All-Star game. The only players on the starting roster with more than four appearances are Mike Trout (with eight) and Nolan Arenado (five). Story continues The pitchers and rest of the All-Star rosters will be announced Sunday. The game happens July 9 at Cleveland’s Progressive Field. More from Yahoo Sports: USWNT needs Alex Morgan to step up vs. France Rapinoe stands ground in cross-Atlantic Trump spat Report: Celtics are the favorite to land Walker Sources: Hill meets with NFL over child abuse charges
Jackie Kennedy's Martha's Vineyard Home Is Up for Sale [BLANK_AUDIO] [MUSIC] A major piece of Jackie Kennedy history is up on the auction block, but it'll take a pretty penny to snag this one. It's not letters, diamonds, or clothes, it's Kennedy's Martha’s Vineyard sanctuary, Red Gate Farm . Christie's is hosting the listing and has it on the market for $65 million, so anyone interested in this particular part of Kennedy's life should be prepared not only for the sticker shock, but also for the abundance of wildlife surrounding the private property. Kennedy purchased the home, which is located in Aquinnah, back in 1979. Since then, Caroline Kennedy, her daughter, has worked to preserve everything and keep the property in line with the values that her mother held, especially in keeping the untamed beauty alive. The actual residence was designed by Hugh Newell Jacobsen in the traditional Cape Cod style and the landscaping has a bit of a White House connection. Bunny Mellon, who designed the White House Rose Garden, also did the grounds at Red Gate Farm. It was all completed in 1981, but has kept pretty much the same style through expansions and renovations. Courtesy Christie's RELATED: Jackie Kennedy Once Said Press About Her Fashion Got "Vulgarly Out-of-Hand" "Forty years ago, my mother fell in love with Martha's Vineyard. When she found Red Gate Farm, it was a perfect expression of her romantic and adventurous spirit. The dunes and ponds and rolling hills of Aquinnah gave her the chance to create a world where she could be so close to nature, close to her family and friends, and, most importantly, close to her beloved books. She even built a fairy treehouse for her grandchildren," Caroline Kennedy said in a statement. "Those grandchildren are grown, so now it is time for us to follow my mother's example and create our own worlds. We hope that a new family will treasure this place as we have for three generations. We are excited about the next chapter for Red Gate Farm." Story continues Potential buyers will be interested to know that the main building spans 6,456 square feet and features a cedar-shingled home with five en-suite bedrooms, two half baths, a fully outfitted chef’s kitchen, and two offices that double as artist studios. Bonuses include three fireplaces and outdoor decks. The estate also has a two-story guest house which encompasses four bedrooms and three baths, plus a living room, kitchen, and laundry room. Tennis courts and a pool are perfect for summertime entertaining Kennedy-style, and for anyone who thinks the house is stuck in the '80s, there's some solar power to take it into the future. Courtesy Christie's RELATED: Jackie Kennedy's Skincare Routine Was Surprisingly Simple There's even a caretaker's house, complete with three bedrooms and a boathouse. The hunting cabin, which is actually the only building that was on the land when Jackie O. bought the 340-acre plot, is still there, too. The crown jewel may be the stretch of private beach, but there's plenty of wildlife to admire, too. It all makes for an incredible spot, whether or not you're a history buff. Courtesy Christie's RELATED: How Jackie Kennedy's Pillbox Faux Pas Inspired the Fashion Industry "The spirit of the property is in perfect balance. The family's reverence for nature and the joy of their immersion into the natural world is reflected in every corner of this magnificent estate," Dan Conn, CEO of Christie's International Real Estate, said. "The peacefulness one feels at Red Gate Farm is a direct result of its complete privacy, the level of care and commitment shown to the land for four decades, and the deep appreciation for the enduring memories created by those fortunate enough to pass through its red gates." Red Gate Farm is being marketed globally by Christie’s International Real Estate, with local representation by Tom LeClair and Gery Conover, agents of LandVest, the exclusive affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate on Martha's Vineyard.
Stocks advance to end first half as G20 in focus By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - A gauge of global stocks climbed on Friday in advance of a meeting on trade between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, as global equities notched their best first half since 1997. Trump and Xi will meet during a Group of 20 summit this weekend in Osaka, Japan, for talks that could help resolve a yearlong trade war between China and the United States, as signs of its dampening effect on global growth have become more prevalent. "Everybody's anticipating a positive meeting between Trump and President Xi," said Denis (Sandy) Villere, portfolio manager at Villere & Co in New Orleans. "It's priced in as if it’s a foregone conclusion. It's making us a little nervous that the market's already baked in all that good news." Economic data on Friday showed U.S. consumer spending increased moderately in May and prices rose slightly, pointing to slowing economic growth and benign inflation pressures, which could give the Federal Reserve enough leeway to cut interest rates in July. Wall Street rose, buoyed by financial shares in following the results of the U.S. Federal Reserve's "stress tests," although each of the major indexes snapped a three-week winning streak. The S&P 500 had its best June performance since 1955 while the Dow marked its best June since 1938. Graphic: Global assets in 2019, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.84 points, or 0.27%, to 26,599.42, the S&P 500 gained 16.53 points, or 0.57%, to 2,941.45 and the Nasdaq Composite added 38.49 points, or 0.48%, to 8,006.24. Banking shares also helped European indexes move higher ahead of the meeting, with Germany's DAX leading the way with a gain of more than 1% thanks to gains in Deutsche Bank AG . The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.70% to notch its best first half since 1998 and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.44%. MSCI's index scored its best month since January, gaining more than 6% in June as equities rallied after major central banks around the globe pivoted toward easier monetary policy stances. Graphic: Global currencies vs. dollar, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh That shift came as trade negotiations between the United States and China broke down earlier this year. Now markets are betting that an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve of at least a quarter of a percentage point is a virtual certainty as early as the next policy meeting in July, according to CME's FedWatch tool. On Thursday, China's central bank pledged to support a slowing economy, before the release of data that is expected to show China's factory activity slowed for a second consecutive month in June. The dollar index fell 0.01% against a basket of major currencies and was set to turn in its weakest monthly performance since January 2018 as anticipation of a Fed rate cut has pushed the index down about 1.7% this month. Graphic: MSCI All Country World Index Market Cap, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j (Additional reporting Sinéad Carew; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
2019 Democratic Debate Night 2: Highlights Former Vice President Joe Biden says Kamala Harris mispresented his position on school busing decades ago, but he doesn’t think she did it intentionally. The California senator challenged Biden’s stance on busing to desegregate public schools during the 1970s during Thursday’s Democratic debate in Miami. Harris, who is black, was part of a busing program as a child and her pointed questioning of Biden was one of the night’s breakout moments. Biden said he didn’t oppose busing but federal intervention in the issue. But in the early and mid-1970s, those were the fault lines in almost every U.S. community, from New Orleans to Boston, where there was stiff opposition to busing. If you were a politician opposing federally enforced busing, you were enabling any local school board or city government that was fighting against it. Ten Democratic presidential candidates drew the second night of debates to a close with calls for a new generation of elected leadership, pledges to protect reproductive rights and promises to move beyond the divisiveness of President Donald Trump’s tenure. California Sen. Kamala Harris says she would focus on kitchen-table issues. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg says a generational change is needed in the White House. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand pledged to ferociously defend abortion rights. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper warned that the burgeoning popularity of socialism within the Democratic Party could get Trump reelected. Former Vice President Joe Biden says America needs to restore its soul. The first Democratic debate on Wednesday night also drew 10 candidates. Smoothing over relationships with allies is top of mind for Democrats, who were asked how they’d repair frayed foreign ties if they’re picked to replace President Donald Trump. Former Vice President Joe Biden, California Sen. Kamala Harris and California Rep. Eric Swalwell said Thursday that they would reach out first to NATO alliance members to reinforce those ties. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders urged a focus on the United Nations, while author Marianne Williamson and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet said they’d call European allies. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and businessman Andrew Yang said they’d address China, while New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand would engage with Iran and work toward stabilizing the Middle East. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO’-tuh-juhj) says all U.S. international relationships should change because by the end of Trump’s term, the country “likely will have pissed off other allies.” Candidates in the Democratic presidential debate are echoing calls for greater gun control measures, though there was little consensus on how to be the most effective. Former Vice President Joe Biden championed his past work of what he said was beating the National Rifle Association. California Rep. Eric Swalwell championed his buyback program for assault weapons. Swalwell says, “Keep your pistols, keep your rifles, keep your shotguns. But we can take the most dangerous weapons from the most dangerous people.” California Sen. Kamala Harris says Swalwell’s idea is “a great one.” But she says, “The problem is Congress has not had the courage to act.” Harris says as president she will give Congress 100 days “to pull their act together” and get a bill to her desk. If not, she promises wide-ranging executive action on gun control. Candidates on stage at the Democratic presidential debate are struggling to limit their answers to the one thing they would hope to accomplish as president. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand rattled off several, including a family bill of rights that includes universal preschool and affordable day care. California Sen. Kamala Harris ticked off a list including a middle-class tax cut, reinstating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and gun control. Others followed with lists and nonspecific goals, such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders calling for a “political revolution” and former Vice President Joe Biden pledging to beat Donald Trump. Author Marianne Williamson notably said she would call the Prime Minister of New Zealand and declare the United States a better country to raise children. Moderator Chuck Todd graded the group a C-minus for their adherence to the rules. ___ Several Democratic presidential candidates are declaring the climate crisis an existential threat and promising sweeping government action to combat dangers of a warming planet. But they’re offering few specifics at Thursday’s debate, and only former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper named climate change as the first issue he’d tackle on Day One of his presidency. Former Vice President Joe Biden says he’d prioritize rebuilding world alliances committed to reducing emissions. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says taking on the fossil fuel industry is the key to reducing carbon pollution. California Sen. Kamala Harris says she supports a Green New Deal, a reference to proposals some Democrats are pushing on Capitol Hill. But Harris isn’t detailing any specific measures she’d take to reduce carbon pollution. ___ Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says if the Supreme Court overturns the ruling legalizing abortion, women would have access to the procedure when he’s president through his health care plan, “Medicare For All.” Several states have passed restrictions on abortion in recent months. Conservatives are hoping the laws will make their way to the Supreme Court, where a new conservative majority could reverse Roe v. Wade. Sanders said during Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate that Medicare For All “guarantees every woman in this country the right to have an abortion if she wants it.” He also said he would only nominate justices who support Roe v. Wade, and he believes justices could be rotated to other courts to “bring in new blood” to the Supreme Court. Former Vice President Joe Biden is the focus of a discussion on partisan gridlock among some Democrats vying for the chance to challenge President Donald Trump. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet said Thursday night at the second of two Democratic debates that the key to making progress is winning back the Senate and ousting Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Bennet called for a reversal of Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United, listing issues he said had arisen during former Biden’s long Washington tenure. In response, Biden said he secured bipartisan funds for cancer research and led the charge to win back congressional seats, arguing, “Sometimes you have to just go out and beat them.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand rounded out the discussion, promoting her plan for “clean,” publicly funded elections and saying Republicans implemented tax cuts “to pay back their donors.” In an emotional exchange, Sen. Kamala Harris challenged Joe Biden’s stance on busing to desegregate public schools during the 1970s, telling the former vice president that she was bused as a child two decades after the Brown v. Board decision to end the separate but equal policy in the American education system. Harris told Biden on Thursday that she did not believe he is a racist, but that his recollection of working with segregationist senators a generation ago in discussing partisan gridlock in Washington today was “hurtful.” Biden said Harris was mischaracterizing his position. Harris asked Biden, “Do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America?” Biden said that he did not oppose busing but federal intervention in the issue. Harris shot back: “There are moments in history where states fail to support the civil rights of people.” Candidates on the second night of the Democratic presidential debate are continuing to highlight Russia and China as geopolitical threats to the United States. Both Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and businessman Andrew Yang said at Thursday’s debate that Russia poses a great threat, but they also criticized President Donald Trump’s international relations approach with China. Yang says Russia “is our greatest geopolitical threat because they’ve been hacking our democracy successfully.” Yang says, “They’ve been laughing their asses off about it for the last couple of years.” South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO’-tuh-juhj) took the opportunity to attack Trump on tariffs. Buttigieg says, “The biggest thing we’ve got to do is invest in our own domestic competitiveness.” All but one Democratic candidate onstage for the second night of the presidential debate say they would make illegal border crossings a civil, not, criminal offense. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet was the only one of 10 candidates Thursday night to not raise his hand to seek to decriminalize illegal border crossings. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO’-tuh-juhj) says he would end the felony criminalization because it is “dead wrong,” and called Republicans who “cloak” themselves “in faith” hypocrites for letting children languish in cages. Former Vice President Joe Biden promised a “surge” of aid and relief workers to the border to release children from the enclosures and reunite them with their families. Asked about the Obama administration’s deportation of 3 million, Biden said the president that he served under “did a heck of a job” and that it would be wrong to compare him to President Donald Trump. The Democratic candidates squaring off on the second night of presidential debates are decrying the Trump administration’s immigration policies, but in different ways than those who debated the previous night. California Sen. Kamala Harris promised Thursday to use her first day in office to help people brought to the country illegally as children become citizens. She declared she’d use “the microphone that the president of the United States holds in her hand” to be a voice for real reform on the issue. Former Vice President Joe Biden said he’d invest in Central America. Sen. Bernie Sanders promised to repeal “every damn thing” President Donald Trump has done on immigration. On Wednesday, Democratic presidential hopefuls blamed Trump for a searing photograph of a father and his daughter lying dead near the Rio Grande. President Donald Trump says Democratic White House contenders’ willingness to extend government health care to people in the country illegally will get him reelected. Trump is at a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Japan. But he said that he “passed a TV set” and saw the Democrats debating. All Democrats on the stage for the second night of the debates Thursday in Miami raised their hands when asked if they would give health care to migrants in the country illegally. Trump tweeted: “All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare. How about taking care of American Citizens first!?” He then added: “That’s the end of that race!” All 10 candidates at the second Democratic presidential debate say their proposals for government health insurance would include coverage for immigrants in the country illegally. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, argued Thursday that not discriminating against covering all immigrants is humane, fiscally responsible and a matter of public health. Buttigieg says even immigrants in the country illegally pay sales taxes, indirect or direct property taxes and, in many cases, payroll taxes. Biden says covering everyone means more people would get primary care and wouldn’t have to wait until they needed emergency room care that taxpayers have to finance. Federal law already requires ERs to treat anyone in need. President Donald Trump immediately tweeted about Democrats’ answers, saying, “that’s the end of the race.” Only two of the 10 candidates on the second night of the 2020 Democratic presidential debate raised their hands when asked who supported abolishing private health insurance. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and California Sen. Kamala Harris both signaled their support for “Medicare for All” and eliminating private insurance. Sanders has long championed a Medicare-style system to cover all Americans’ health care services. The question was also asked on Wednesday to the first 10 debate candidates. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio were the only two to raise their hands. Several Democratic presidential candidates are talking about the importance of health insurance in their personal lives as their family members were dying or they dealt with their own illnesses. Vice President Joe Biden recalled during Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate the deaths of his first wife and baby daughter and, years later, his adult son. He says the best way to ensure all Americans have coverage is to build on “Obamacare” rather than to pass “Medicare For All.” South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg says as his father was dying earlier this year, he didn’t have to make medical decisions based on cost because his father had Medicare. He says all people should have the option to access “Medicare for all who want it.” Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet spoke about his cancer diagnosis earlier this year. Generational differences have quickly taken center stage at the second night of the Democratic presidential debate, with a light shown on the age of 76-year-old front-runner Joe Biden. Thirty-eight-year-old California Rep. Eric Swalwell recalled being only 6 years old when he saw Biden speak, saying the former senator and vice president was “right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans.” Biden quickly retorted, “I’m still holding onto that torch.” Biden’s contemporary, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders argued the issue “is not generational,” insisting the field should be focused on things like “who has the guts to take on Wall Street.” California Sen. Kamala Harris added her voice to the fray, saying, “Hey guys. You wanna know what America does not want to witness, a food fight. They want to know how they’re going to put food on the table.” Three of the senators running for president are calling for health care reform without even waiting for questions about it. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado said at Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate that he agreed with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that “health care is a right” for all Americans. But he questioned Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan that would extend coverage to everyone in the country, saying the U.S. isn’t ready for it. Sanders smirked as he listened to Bennet’s answer before defending his plan. Then, unprompted, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand jumped in and said that she wrote the portion of the bill that Sanders had proposed that would transition the country toward Medicare for All plans. Struggling to restore order, the moderators said repeatedly that they’d “get to” health care questions later. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is defending his warnings on the Democratic Party veering toward socialism. Hickenlooper said Thursday at the second Democratic presidential debate that if Democrats fail to clearly define themselves as not being socialists, Republicans are going to come at the party “every way they can and call us socialists.” Hickenlooper says, “We can’t promise every American a government job.” The former governor also expressed reluctance to the Green New Deal and eliminating private medical insurance. Former Vice President Joe Biden became the first to invoke Donald Trump during the second round of the Democratic presidential debate, blasting the Republican president for crediting wealthy Americans for building the nation. Biden said Thursday that “ordinary middle-class Americans built America.” Biden says Trump has “put us in a horrible situation,” by signing tax cuts that favor higher-income Americans. Biden says he would make “massive cuts” in the 2017 act’s loopholes and be “about eliminating Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy.” However, Biden did not address directly the question to him, which was about comments he made during a recent fundraiser, where he assured donors their lifestyles would not suffer by the tax cut reversal. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is acknowledging that his proposals for sweeping government programs would require middle-class Americans to pay more taxes. But he says they’d still spend less on health care under his system than they do today through the private insurance system. Sanders is a self-professed democratic socialist who wants a Medicare-style system to cover all Americans’ health care services. He says he’d make public colleges and universities tuition free and eliminate existing student debt. Sanders said Thursday at the second Democratic presidential debate that education proposals would be paid for by taxes on the wealthy and corporations. But he confirms that other Americans would have to pay more taxes for his health care program, in lieu of the existing system of private premiums, deductibles and co-pays. The second debate of the 2020 Democratic presidential debate is kicking off with 10 more candidates, including many of the leading White House hopefuls. Former Vice President Joe Biden is center stage Thursday night in Miami alongside Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Joining them for the two-hour event are two other top contenders: California Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. At either end will be the candidates polling at the bottom of the field: author Marianne Williamson and California congressman Eric Swalwell. Candidates will not get opening statements but will have time for closings. Ten other candidates debated on Wednesday, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. —4 times 2020 candidates clashed during theDemocratic debate —5 things to watch for onnight 2of the Democratic presidential debate —What the2020 Democratic candidates didn’t sayduring the first debate —Elizabeth Warrenholds her own as lesser-knowns break out in first debate —Julián Castrobreaks out in a debate defined by border policy and immigration —Can socialism win in 2020?Democrats aren’t embracing it
Stocks advance to cap first half as G20 eyed By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) - A gauge of global stocks advanced on Friday ahead of a meeting on trade between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, as global equities were poised to close out their best first half since 1997. Trump and Xi will meet during a Group of 20 summit this weekend in Osaka, Japan, for talks that could help resolve a yearlong trade war between China and the United States, as signs of its dampening effect on global growth have become more prevalent. "At the end of the day both of these guys are smart enough, but they are both tough negotiators," said Gordon Charlop, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York. "So we are where we are and each guy is standing tall and trying to get the best deal he can and they will continue to work – this is the big leagues." Charlop also pointed to the annual reconstitution of FTSE Russell's indexes, likely to provide a surge of volume toward the close of trading, as a focus. Economic data on Friday showed U.S. consumer spending increased moderately in May and prices rose slightly, pointing to slowing economic growth and benign inflation pressures, which could give the Federal Reserve enough leeway to cut interest rates in July. Wall Street rose modestly, although each of the major indexes were on pace to snap a three-week winning streak, buoyed by financial shares in following the results of the U.S. Federal Reserve's "stress tests." The S&P 500 was set for its best June performance since 1955. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44.66 points, or 0.17%, to 26,571.24, the S&P 500 gained 9.52 points, or 0.33%, to 2,934.44 and the Nasdaq Composite added 18.00 points, or 0.23%, to 7,985.76. Banking shares also helped European indexes move higher ahead of the meeting, with Germany's DAX leading the way with a gain of more than 1% thanks to gains in Deutsche Bank AG . The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.70% to notch its best first half since 1998 and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.29%. MSCI's index was also set to break a three-week streak of gains but was on course for its best month since January, gaining more than 6% in June as equities rallied after major central banks around the globe pivoted toward easier monetary policy stances. That shift came as trade negotiations between the United States and China broke down earlier this year. Now markets are betting that an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve of at least a quarter of a percentage point is a virtual certainty as early as the next policy meeting in July, according to CME's FedWatch tool. On Thursday, China's central bank pledged to support a slowing economy, before the release of data that is expected to show China's factory activity slowed for a second consecutive month in June. The dollar index fell 0.02% against a basket of other currencies and was set to turn in its weakest monthly performance since January 2018 as anticipation of a Fed rate cut has pushed the index down about 1.7% this month. (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Travel Needs to Consider Life Without Facebook and Google, Says Former Facebook Investor The constant refrain in travel over the last five years has involved Facebook and Google’s role in not just travel inspiration and discovery but their emerging role disintermediating established players if they don’t pay up for advertising. The reality, though, represents an existential threat for travel companies. With the two tech giants owning the top of the funnel and essentially spying on potential travelers, the calculus surrounding working with the biggest businesses in the world needs to change. “If you’re not worried about it, you’re not paying attention; you should be,” saidRoger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners, early Facebook investor, and former mentor to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg atSkift Tech Forum 2019 in San Francisco, Calif. “They have one [modus operandi], you do the work and they take the profit. They’re going to run over Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan like they’re not even there. We have to use what power we have left to stop that or you will be working for them on their terms.” McNamee, who has embarked on a three-year speaking tour pushing back on Facebook’s influence in both politics and business, sees Facebook as not only a pernicious and self-interested player in global affairs but a company exploiting loopholes in global law to assert its influence. “They are undermining globalization, free trade, and the prosperity that has been so important to the last 70 years,” said McNamee. “Maybe the thing that comes after will be OK, but its not because they have a plan… Facebook is more about disruption than optimizing what comes after.” He singled out both Facebook’s use of behavioral data and Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs division, which recently released a variety of reports detailing its intention to turn Toronto’s waterfront district into a testbed for data-based exploitation of not just visitors but locals. “They are basically doing a full conversion of a democratic system into an algorithmic system,” said McNamee. “Maybe the people of Toronto are going to be happy about that, but until two months ago people didn’t know [about it].” The business model of Google’s Waze, which lets companies pay for foot traffic, is just one manifestation of Silicon Valley’s fixation on driving revenue through data-based manipulation of city life instead of usefulness for users. Facebook couches its business moves in public health terms, he said, pretending that its motivation is the public good instead of profit. The introduction last week of Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra is just the latest example of the company’s willingness to undermine global institutions while building another revenue stream for Facebook. “Libra is essentially a tool that, if it works, destabilizes the global currency system,” said McNamee. “If it doesn’t work, it blows things up in an unexpected way.” What can travel learn, then, to be ahead of the curve as legislators and citizens alike slowly rebel against big tech’s pervasive global influence campaign? It starts with protecting consumer privacy: treating users and customers as people with the right to protect their data instead of pawns to be manipulated for financial gain. McNamee compared Boeing’s denials in the wake of the Boeing 737 Max tragedies to the outcome facing Facebook if it doesn’t enact some sort of reform in the near future. He connected the nascent conversation about regulating technology companies to the conversation around child labor in the early 1900s; companies that are successful without relying on extractive data processes will have a competitive advantage once this wave breaks. Companies like Apple and DuckDuckGo, for instance, have already adopted privacy-first stances that will pay off down the road. “There is the opportunity to fix this, for all of us this data is a drug,” said McNamee. “The notion of being able to see into the thoughts of consumers is compelling but the cost of it is incredibly high, it is so destructive to brands, because brand literally doesn’t matter [in Google and Facebook’s world].” “It’s so destructive because it is inherently authoritarian. We make zero progress unless we go aftersurveillance capitalism, and that means a change in our collective thinking.” Subscribe to Skift newsletterscovering the business of travel, restaurants, and wellness.
Is Art Nirman Limited's (NSE:ARTNIRMAN) ROE Of 4.6% Impressive? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of Art Nirman Limited (NSE:ARTNIRMAN). Our data showsArt Nirman has a return on equity of 4.6%for the last year. Another way to think of that is that for every ₹1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn ₹0.046. Check out our latest analysis for Art Nirman Theformula for return on equityis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Art Nirman: 4.6% = ₹13m ÷ ₹288m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) It's easy to understand the 'net profit' part of that equation, but 'shareholders' equity' requires further explanation. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. The easiest way to calculate shareholders' equity is to subtract the company's total liabilities from the total assets. ROE measures a company's profitability against the profit it retains, and any outside investments. The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, as a general rule,a high ROE is a good thing. That means it can be interesting to compare the ROE of different companies. Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. Pleasingly, Art Nirman has a superior ROE than the average (3.4%) company in the Real Estate industry. That is a good sign. I usually take a closer look when a company has a better ROE than industry peers. For example,I often check if insiders have been buying shares. Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. That cash can come from issuing shares, retained earnings, or debt. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same. Art Nirman has a debt to equity ratio of 0.81, which is far from excessive. Its ROE is certainly on the low side, and since it already uses debt, we're not too excited about the company. Careful use of debt to boost returns is often very good for shareholders. However, it could reduce the company's ability to take advantage of future opportunities. Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. All else being equal, a higher ROE is better. Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. Check the past profit growth by Art Nirman by looking at thisvisualization of past earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of courseArt Nirman may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see thisfreecollection of other companies that have high ROE and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Does Aarti Industries Limited's (NSE:AARTIIND) 45% Earnings Growth Reflect The Long-Term Trend? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Understanding Aarti Industries Limited's (NSE:AARTIIND) performance as a company requires examining more than earnings from one point in time. Today I will take you through a basic sense check to gain perspective on how Aarti Industries is doing by evaluating its latest earnings with its longer term trend as well as its industry peers' performance over the same period. View our latest analysis for Aarti Industries AARTIIND's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 March 2019) of ₹4.8b has jumped 45% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, this one-year growth rate has exceeded its 5-year annual growth average of 20%, indicating the rate at which AARTIIND is growing has accelerated. What's enabled this growth? Well, let’s take a look at whether it is only attributable to an industry uplift, or if Aarti Industries has seen some company-specific growth. In terms of returns from investment, Aarti Industries has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 17% instead. However, its return on assets (ROA) of 11% exceeds the IN Chemicals industry of 9.1%, indicating Aarti Industries has used its assets more efficiently. Though, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Aarti Industries’s debt level, has declined over the past 3 years from 26% to 19%. Though Aarti Industries's past data is helpful, it is only one aspect of my investment thesis. Companies that have performed well in the past, such as Aarti Industries gives investors conviction. However, the next step would be to assess whether the future looks as optimistic. I suggest you continue to research Aarti Industries to get a better picture of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for AARTIIND’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor AARTIIND’s outlook. 2. Financial Health: Are AARTIIND’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out ourfinancial health checks here. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 March 2019. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Trish Regan: What 2020 Democrats don’t understand: Higher taxes are never the answer If you had any doubt, any doubt at all, about the direction the left wants to take our country in, it is now crystal clear. The United States as we know it — with the world’s largest, most productive, most creative, nimble and successful economy in the world — will cease to exist. There are two paths ahead: that of economic success and that of economic failure. Now, let’s be clear, I don’t disagree with many of the complaints we heard from the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates about our economy last night. The balance between labor and capital or employees and business owners is totally messed up (in the favor of business owners.) But, are you really going to ditch capitalism in favor of Venezuela-style socialism because of it? In other words, the diagnosis of the problem, that our middle class is struggling is correct. I mean, it’s way better now and much improved compared to where it had been given our strong economy but, yeah, the middle class keeps losing out. So, they got that right. However, their prescription for this problem is just so wrong. Can anyone come up with an idea that won’t penalize the middle class, please? Higher taxes are their answer to everything and that’s dangerous. The left wants to tax businesses, investors and income earners. Well? Anyone who can afford to will leave. And, the government will be left with everyone else, the ones who want to be supported by government, the people who come here for open borders, free health care, free college and basic income — do you have any idea how much that will all cost? The tax bill on the middle class will be enormous. The rich will leave, just like they did in France when Francois Hollande pushed his insane 75 percent tax rate, and the poor won’t have to pay. So what do you get? Even more taxes on the middle class. It’s just wrong. It won’t work. They ought to be more responsible citizens but, wait, they’re politicians. They’re politicians who just want to sell a bunch of pipe dreams grounded in nothing but fiction. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP On a brighter note, Ireland is now advertising that it needs new citizens. An island there is trying to entice Americans to relocate. If any of those ludicrous socialist economic policies actually go into effect Ireland might get some takers! Related Articles • Fmr. Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz Predictions for Trump vs. Media • Trump May Have Dropped Another Clinton Bombshell • Carson: Trump Could Destroy Obama's Legacy
The Best Way to Protect Against HPV Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site. Over the past few years, the rate of vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV) , which helps prevent most genital warts and cervical cancers, along with some other cancers, has continued to rise steadily among adolescents. And new research published in The Lancet has found that immunization efforts are paying off. The World Health Organization analysis of 65 studies found that in 14 countries with HPV vaccination programs—including the U.S.—the prevalence of HPV, genital warts, and cervical lesions in teen girls and women dropped significantly. While HPV immunization efforts remain focused on adolescents, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices—which guides the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines—recommended on Wednesday that men get the shot up to age 26, up from an earlier limit of age 21. The ACIP also said that previously unvaccinated adults can consider getting the HPV vaccine up to age 45. Here, the rundown on why the vaccine is important, and who should get it and when. Who Should Get the HPV Vaccine The CDC recommends that youngsters get two shots of the HPV vaccine at age 11 or 12, between 6 and 12 months apart. Those who are 15 or older when they begin the series need three shots within 6 months for full protection. If your child hasn’t received the first dose at age 11 or 12, you do have some time. It's true that it's best for people to get the HPV vaccine before they become sexually active , because it's somewhat less effective once people have been exposed to the virus. And "adolescents remain the most important focus of the HPV vaccination program in the U.S.," said the CDC in an emailed statement to Consumer Reports. But in recent years, the CDC began to recommend the vaccine for men up to age 21, women up to age 26, men who have sex with men, and a few other specific groups. Story continues Now, ACIP has extended that recommendation for men to age 26. It also said unvaccinated adults between age 27 and 45 can decide with their doctors whether to get the HPV vaccine. If you're in that latter group, you might want to discuss potential benefits and risks with your healthcare provider. According to the CDC statement, "HPV vaccine is safe for people between the ages of 9 and 45 years. In the mid-adult age range, there could be some individuals who might be able to benefit from vaccination to prevent new infections with HPV types they have not encountered before, even though the population benefit from vaccinating in this age range would be low." Why This Vaccine Is Important HPV, which often shows no signs or symptoms early on, is responsible for more than 90 percent of all cervical and anal cancers, CDC statistics show , and a large share of cancers of the vagina, penis, vulva, and throat. In total, HPV causes about 33,700 cancers in the U.S. each year . And research shows that the vaccine is highly effective at preventing the development of several types of abnormal cervical cells that can progress to cervical cancer. The new study in The Lancet, for instance, found that five to eight years after the start of a vaccination program, rates of two types of HPV most likely to cause cervical cancer dropped by 83 percent in female teens and by 66 percent in women ages 20 to 24. Researchers also found that rates of genital warts fell in teen boys and young men after the vaccination programs were put in place. “The ability to have a vaccine that can prevent the infection that causes those cancers is such an important advancement in public health,” says Robert Bednarczyk, Ph.D., an assistant professor of global health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, who was not involved in this study. “It should be a top priority for parents to get their adolescents this vaccine.” Vaccination Rates Are Better but Not Ideal The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 66 percent of teens ages 13 to 17 have had at least their first dose of the vaccine. That suggests vaccination rates are going up. According to a 2018 study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases , 27.4 percent of boys and men ages 9 to 26 reported receiving at least one dose in 2015 or 2016, up from just 7.8 percent a few years earlier. For girls and women, 45.7 percent had at least one dose of vaccine in 2015 or 2016. But there’s still room for improvement: The federal government’s official goal is to have 80 percent of girls and boys ages 13 to 15 receive all necessary doses of the vaccine by 2020. “It’s encouraging that we are seeing an overall increase among males,” says Eshan Patel, M.P.H., a public-health researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the lead author of the Journal of Infectious Diseases study. “However, overall, we’re still doing not that great.” And rates of HPV infection in the U.S. remain high. An April 2017 report from the National Center for Health Statistics found that 25 percent of men and 20 percent of women ages 18 to 59 were infected with what's called high-risk HPV, the type that can cause cancer. Previous studies of just women put the prevalence closer to 15 percent. "That’s pretty startling," says Geraldine McQuillan, Ph.D., an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the CDC and the lead author of the NCHS report. "People tend to ho-hum this whole thing, not think it’s really an issue. This is an infection that leads to cancer—it's important." In addition, completing the series is a challenge for some. Research published in January in the The Journal of Infectious Diseases found that as of 2016, just 16 percent of children had finished the vaccine series by age 13, which is when the CDC recommends they complete it. And just 35 percent had finished the series by age 15. Also of concern is that some earlier research, such as a study published in 2018 in the American Journal of Public Health , suggests that the percentage of people completing the series—at least in a timely way—may actually be dropping. According to the American Journal of Public Health study, about two-thirds of the girls and young women who started the HPV vaccine series had completed it within a year. But by 2014, just 38 percent had done so. “We don't know how effective it is if you have this very delayed completion” or don’t finish the series, says that study's author, Jennifer Spencer, M.S.P.H., a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Completing the Series Research has shown that primary care physicians don't recommend the HPV vaccine as strongly as they do other vaccines for adolescents, in large part because it takes a good bit of time to discuss and they think parents don't support it for their kids. And some doctors may not consider completing the series a priority for their patients, Spencer says. Also, doctors may not see kids this age very regularly. Adolescents may be less likely than younger children to go to a doctor for a yearly checkup. So if your doctor doesn't bring up the HPV vaccine, ask about it. And to make it easier for your youngster to finish the series, schedule an appointment for the second dose (or third, when needed) right after he or she gets the first, Spencer says. That way, it’s on your schedule. Or ask your doctor’s office staff whether they can send you a notice when it’s time for your child’s next dose. A 2016 study found that not receiving a reminder was a key reason parents forgot to take kids in to finish the HPV vaccine series . More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2019, Consumer Reports, Inc.
Is Aarti Industries Limited's (NSE:AARTIIND) 17% ROE Better Than Average? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. We'll use ROE to examine Aarti Industries Limited (NSE:AARTIIND), by way of a worked example. Over the last twelve monthsAarti Industries has recorded a ROE of 17%. One way to conceptualize this, is that for each ₹1 of shareholders' equity it has, the company made ₹0.17 in profit. Check out our latest analysis for Aarti Industries Theformula for ROEis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Aarti Industries: 17% = ₹4.8b ÷ ₹29b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) Most readers would understand what net profit is, but it’s worth explaining the concept of shareholders’ equity. It is all the money paid into the company from shareholders, plus any earnings retained. The easiest way to calculate shareholders' equity is to subtract the company's total liabilities from the total assets. Return on Equity measures a company's profitability against the profit it has kept for the business (plus any capital injections). The 'return' is the yearly profit. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, as a general rule,a high ROE is a good thing. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses. By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. The limitation of this approach is that some companies are quite different from others, even within the same industry classification. As is clear from the image below, Aarti Industries has a better ROE than the average (13%) in the Chemicals industry. That's what I like to see. We think a high ROE, alone, is usually enough to justify further research into a company. One data point to check is ifinsiders have bought shares recently. Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the case of the first and second options, the ROE will reflect this use of cash, for growth. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking. Although Aarti Industries does use debt, its debt to equity ratio of 0.86 is still low. Its very respectable ROE, combined with only modest debt, suggests the business is in good shape. Conservative use of debt to boost returns is usually a good move for shareholders, though it does leave the company more exposed to interest rate rises. Return on equity is useful for comparing the quality of different businesses. In my book the highest quality companies have high return on equity, despite low debt. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE. Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So you might want to check this FREEvisualization of analyst forecasts for the company. If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Charles Hoskinson Thinks Cardano Will Prevail Over Libra in Emerging Markets Cardanofounder Charles Hoskinson claimed that emerging markets are wherecryptocurrenciesmatter, and thatFacebook’sannounced virtual currencyLibrais not going to find success in this area, according to areportby Finance Magnates on June 26. According to Hoskinson, emerging markets are the future. He says: “Emerging markets are where cryptocurrencies matter [...] When I look at the developed world, I don’t care. It’s highly regulated and, in many cases, a rigged system. If I decide to compete with a tech company they can just push me out via regulation. [...] Then I sit down with the prime minister of Georgia and he says, ‘we’re open for business.’ We can rebuild parts of theireducationinfrastructure, create a newpaymentssystem or do amedicalrecords system. The keys to the kingdom are right there. That’s 4 million people who in ten or twenty years will be very high-value users.” In contrast, Hoskinson predicted a struggle for Facebook in promoting Libra due to its lack of relationships, which he said need to be built over time, based on tangible benefits specific to the emerging markets in question. In his words: “Facebook has to come into countries it doesn’t know a lot about and convince them to enslave themselves to an economic monopoly and give nothing in return. And their only pitch is that you’ll pay less on fees. [...] I’m going there and saying, ‘we’re going to rebuild all your systems so you havefraud-free land registration, bettervotingsystems and improvedsupply chains.’ We’re already doing this stuff but it took years. These are relationship-based markets – and Facebook doesn’t have those relationships.” Nonetheless, as previouslyreportedby Cointelegraph, Facebook’s stated aim with Libra is: “Our ultimate goal is to help billions of people with access to things they don’t have now — that could be things like healthcare, equitable financial services, or new ways to save or share information.” Other major industry players like Coinbase have made promoted crypto’s potential benefits to citizens in developing countries. When the crypto exchangeaddedsupport for 50 new jurisdictions in May, Coinbase made the following remark in its officialannouncement: “For new customers in countries like Argentina and Uzbekistan, where consumer prices are expected to inflate by 10–20% in 2020, stablecoins like USDC could provide an opportunity to protect against inflation.” • Binance Research: Facebook’s Libra Could Spark Additional Cryptocurrency Volume • Facebook Releases Cryptocurrency White Paper for Libra Currency • Research: Only 30% of Known Stablecoins Are Live and Operational • Goldman Sachs ‘Looking at Potential’ of Creating Virtual Currency, CEO Reveals
Get to Know Potential First Lady Robin Pringle Photo credit: Getty Images From Town & Country Former Governor John Hickenlooper is one of the many politicians vying for a nomination from the Democratic Party to face off against President Trump in 2020. And while the caucasus are still months away, there are a ton of candidates with their hats in the race-and with that comes spouses. But who are our potential first ladies and first husbands? Today we take a look at the very impressive, Robin Pringle, who has been married to Hickenlooper since 2016. Pringle was born in California and educated at Duke University and Northwestern University She holds a Bachelors Degree in public policy and received her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. Congratulations and best wishes to @hickforco and Robin Pringle! pic.twitter.com/wQEg5k7Y5J - Debra Johnson (@CRDenver) January 15, 2016 She is the Vice President at Liberty Media In her role overseeing corporate development at Liberty Media, which owns QVC, Charter Communications, SiriusXM, the Atlanta Braves, Provide Commerce, and Barnes and Noble, Pringle maintains the company's investment portfolio and looks for new investments in media, tech and e-commerce. She is also on the Board of Directors at SiriusXM. Robin is more than 20 years younger than her husband John Hickenlooper and Robin Pringle were 63 and 37 years old respectively when they married, but to them, the age difference is of no issue. Pringle, who is a self-described old soul, explained to the Denver Post , "I think anybody who actually knows me thinks I'm older than he is, so it doesn't actually phase most people once they spend an hour with us..." Today, Robin Pringle made me the happiest man in #Colorado . #IDo #SheDo #WeDid pic.twitter.com/dOP9lBLwyI - John Hickenlooper (@Hickenlooper) January 16, 2016 Hickenlooper and Pringle's relationship makes even more sense given his experience of having an incredibly strong female role model in his mother. In 2016 he told Town and Country that his mother's creativity was a defining factor of his childhood. "She was always resourceful," he explained while telling of how she helped him overcome bullying by making him stay accountable for his own behavior. Story continues Pringle was briefly the first lady of Colorado. She and Hickenlooper married during his term as Governor of Colorado in 2016 and she was first lady of the state until he was succeeded by Jared Polis in January 2019. ENGAGED! Gov Hickenlooper proposes to Robin Pringle! CONGATS @hickforco ! pic.twitter.com/0IfgHMbWMA - Denver7 News (@DenverChannel) December 29, 2015 She's not a Democrat. Despite growing up in the outskirts of San Francisco, a hotbed for liberals, Pringle was at one point a registered Republican. She has reportedly made contributions to the campaigns of Republicans and Democrats, including republican state treasurer Walker Stapleton, as well as democratic senator Michael Bennet-and Hillary Clinton. She is now a registered Independent. ('You Might Also Like',) 12 Weekend Getaway Spas For Every Type of Occasion What Your Favorite Champagne Brand Says About You Beauty Gurus Share Their Makeup Secrets for Older Women
Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 28/06/19 Bitcoin Cash ABC tumbled by 14.9% on Thursday. Reversing a 1.9% gain from Wednesday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the day at $408.5. It was bearish all the way. Bitcoin Cash ABC slid from a start of a day intraday high $486.35 to a late afternoon intraday low $381.8. Falling well short of the major resistance levels, Bitcoin Cash ABC fell through the first major support level at $450.62 and second major support level at $417.31. Of greater significance on the day was a fall through the 23.6% FIB of $418. Finding support late in the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC managed to recover to $400 levels. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 1.52% to $414.72. Late support from Thursday continued into this morning, with Bitcoin Cash ABC rising from a morning low $408.5 to a high $414.72. Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a move through to $425 levels would signal a run at $450 levels on the day. Bitcoin Cash ABC would need support from the broader market, however, to take a run at the first major resistance level at $469.30. We would expect Bitcoin Cash ABC to come up short of Thursday’s high $486.35, however, in the event of a rebound. Failure to move through to $425 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC take another hit. A fall through to sub-$400 levels would bring the first major support level at $364.75 into play. Litecoin tumbled by 12.61% on Thursday. Following on from a 3.6% fall from Wednesday, Litecoin ended the day at $114.16. A particularly bearish morning saw Litecoin slide from an intraday high $132.11 to a late morning low $110.12. Litecoin fell through the first major support level at $122.66 and second major support level at $114.69. The start of the day high fell well short of the major resistance levels. The reversal also saw Litecoin slide through the 23.6% FIB of $117. Support through the afternoon led to a brief recovery to $122 levels before sliding back to an intraday low $109.09. At the time of writing, Litecoin was up by 1.53% to $115.91. A bullish start to the day saw Litecoin rise from a morning low $112.82 to a high $116.62 before easing back. Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a move through the 23.6% FIB of $117 levels would support a return to $120 levels later in the day. Litecoin would need support from the broader market, however, to take a run at the first major resistance level at $127.82. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, Litecoin would likely come up short of $130 levels on the day. Failure to move through the 23.6% FIB could see Litecoin slide back into the red. A fall through the morning low $112.82 would bring the first major support level at $104.8 into play. Barring a crypto meltdown, Litecoin should steer clear of sub-$100 support levels. Ripple’s XRP slid by 11.69% on Thursday. Following on from a 1.27% fall from Wednesday, Ripple’s XRP ended the day at $0.40589. Tracking the broader market, Ripple’s XRP slid from an intraday high $0.46433 to a mid-morning low $0.40450. The reversal saw Ripple’s XRP fall through the first major support level at $0.4376 and second major support level at $0.4158. Of greater significance was a fall through the 23.6% FIB of $0.4164. A recovery to $0.43 levels was short-lived, with Ripple’s XRP sliding to a late afternoon intraday low $0.3900. The only positive on the day was a recovery to $0.40 levels. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was up by 0.78% to $0.40904. A positive start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rise from a morning low $0.40304 to a high $0.41234. Ripple’s XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a move through to $0.4200 levels would be needed to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.4495. Ripple’s XRP would need support from the broader market, however, to break out from $0.42 levels on the day. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Ripple’s XRP would likely come up short of $0.43 levels. Failure to move through to $0.42 levels could see Ripple’s XRP hit reverse. A fall through the morning low $0.40304 would bring sub-$0.40 levels into play before any recovery. Barring another crypto meltdown, Ripple’s XRP should steer well clear of the first major support level at $0.3762. Please let us know what you think in the comments below Thanks, Bob Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 29/06/19 • S&P 500 Price Forecast – Slow grind higher on Friday • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Straddling Price Cluster at 26601 to 26602 • S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – S&P 500 struggling at the highs • E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – Inside Move Indicates Investor Indecision • Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude oil markets quiet on Friday
Should You Be Impressed By Aarti Industries Limited's (NSE:AARTIIND) ROE? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of Aarti Industries Limited (NSE:AARTIIND). Over the last twelve monthsAarti Industries has recorded a ROE of 17%. Another way to think of that is that for every ₹1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn ₹0.17. Check out our latest analysis for Aarti Industries Theformula for return on equityis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Aarti Industries: 17% = ₹4.8b ÷ ₹29b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) It's easy to understand the 'net profit' part of that equation, but 'shareholders' equity' requires further explanation. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company. ROE measures a company's profitability against the profit it retains, and any outside investments. The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, as a general rule,a high ROE is a good thing. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses. By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. However, this method is only useful as a rough check, because companies do differ quite a bit within the same industry classification. As you can see in the graphic below, Aarti Industries has a higher ROE than the average (13%) in the Chemicals industry. That's clearly a positive. I usually take a closer look when a company has a better ROE than industry peers. For exampleyou might checkif insiders are buying shares. Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking. Although Aarti Industries does use debt, its debt to equity ratio of 0.86 is still low. The combination of modest debt and a very respectable ROE suggests this is a business worth watching. Judicious use of debt to improve returns can certainly be a good thing, although it does elevate risk slightly and reduce future optionality. Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt. But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So I think it may be worth checking thisfreereport on analyst forecasts for the company. If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Maple Leafs re-sign Michael Hutchinson to one-year deal Michael Hutchinson inking a one-year, one-way deal with Toronto should make the team's backup situation a little more interesting heading into the 2019-20 season. (Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images) Move over Mitch Marner, Michael Hutchinson is the talk of #LeafsNation right now. Well, at least for the time being. The 29-year-old goaltender signed a one-year, one-way deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs worth $700,000 on Thursday night, according to CapFriendly on Thursday. The team made the news official via their official Twitter account on Saturday afternoon. . @SportChek Player Alert: The @MapleLeafs have signed goaltender Michael Hutchinson and defenceman Martin Marincin to one-year contracts. Details >> https://t.co/7znjsLbRH5 #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/ADOY5xFTsP — Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) June 29, 2019 Hutchinson is coming off an interesting 2018-19 campaign. After starting the season with the Florida Panthers, he was traded to the Leafs for a fifth-round pick on December 29th, 2018 . Less than a week later, he was called up from the AHL on an emergency basis while Frederik Andersen and Garret Sparks — Toronto’s primary netminders — battled injuries. In his five starts in early January with Toronto, Hutchinson posted a 2-3-0 record with a 2.64 GAA and .914 SV%. And although the sample size of his work with the team in the NHL was small, he did prove to be a steady, calming influence between the pipes (for teammates and fans alike). The native of Barrie, Ontario, has played in 111 NHL regular season games over parts of six seasons with the Winnipeg Jets, Panthers and Maple Leafs. He owns a solid 2.70 GAA and .908 SV% over his career. His combination of experience and recent strong play — he went 14-7-1 with a 2.70 GAA and .910 SV% with the Toronto Marlies in the AHL last season — will definitely make the Maple Leafs’ goaltending situation a little more interesting. Story continues While there’s no doubt that Andersen is the team’s starter, Sparks had a 2018-19 to forget. The 25-year-old went 8-9-1 with a nasty 3.15 GAA and .902 SV% during the regular season. His play resulted in his squad losing faith in him down the stretch and, to make matters worse, he called out his teammates for their lack of “emotion” in March. Is Hutchinson going to replace him, though? Only time will tell. However, there’s no doubting that Sparks didn’t do himself any favours with his play and actions as of late. The AHL’s top goaltender for the 2017-18 season is currently signed to a one-year deal worth $750,000 that he inked back in March. More NHL coverage from Yahoo Sports
Down $1.7K: Bitcoin’s Price Dives Amid Crypto Market Boost Bitcoin is down more than $1,700 since yesterday after a violent sell-off that rocked the markets and caught even seasoned traders off-guard. At 16:00 UTC on June 27, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, bitcoin (BTC), suffered a steep correction in its price, dropping to a low of $10,300 after eight straight days in thegreen. Prices attempted a rally above $11,300 with 30 minutes out from the daily close, which would have provided greater confidence in price consolidation for the bulls. Yet, instead, BTC closed on a down note below former resistance at $11,086. Related:ShapeShift Founder Says Crypto Exchange Service Will Support Libra BTC is currently changing hands at $11,067 and is down 14 percent over a 24-hour period. As can be viewed above, BTC suffered a massive correction to the parabolic uptrend that had been ongoing for over two weeks.The move down was accompanied by a large surge in trading volume, with June 27’s daily total matching, if not, besting June 26’s postings across most exchanges. For example, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, Binance, recorded $2.1 billion in total volume alone, while Huobi Global and OKEx recorded $1.7 billion and $1.4 billion over a 24-hour period, respectively. Related:Bitcoin Price Takes Another Tumble, Shedding Nearly $1K in 20 Minutes Further, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies combined suffered a $46.1 billion loss over the last 24-hours, marking the biggest single day loss in market value since May 17, 2019. The total market cap is down from $372.4 billion to stand at $324.5 billion at press time while the total amount for BTC’s loss in value by trades end amounted to just over $33 billion. Perhaps the greater story, howecer, is the altcoin market’s rise against BTC pairings, which has driven up their value while BTC continued to decline in price. All but two out of the top 20 are in the green today, up between 1.3 and 15.72 percent and are demonstrating a small bounce across the lower timeframes. The idea that traders have switched from BTC to altcoins in the short-term is supported by a change in the BTC dominance rate, down 1.41 percent over 24-hours, from 63.37 percent to 61.96 percent. This suggests traders are currently moving to tether (USDT) or major altcoins to conserve some profit from BTC’s violent drop. The short-term remains highly volatile, so BTC could experience a brief bounce on today’s price action, but that will need to be accompanied by similar levels in volume in order to end the recent sell-off. Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing. Bitcoin imageviaShutterstock; Charts viaTradingViewandCoinMarketCap • Watch CoinDesk LIVE: Bitcoin in FLUX • Bitcoin Drops Below $12K After Biggest Daily Price Move Since January 2018
Free agents or not, Knicks want to build the right way The New York Knicks are in position to go from the outhouse to the penthouse in a matter of days with free agency set to open Sunday after methodically preparing for the chance through trades and shedding salaries over the last two years. But they’re also building through the draft, compiling players who register in talent and youth. General manager Scott Perry is one of the keys to the Knicks getting in the door with the likes of Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard and Kyrie Irving, but even he is preaching patience. Patience? And the Knicks? Those two things haven’t been synonymous over the last two decades but that appears to be the approach, even as the rumor mill has linked Durant with the Knicks for the better part of the season. And more fuel has been added to the speculation after the Knicks didn’t tender a qualifying offer to Emmanuel Mudiay — a former top-five pick who had a breakout year of sorts following his 2018 trade to the Knicks — because they needed the additional cap space. Perry, following his second full season as GM, chuckles at the perceived champagne dreams and the assumption it’s “superstars or bust” this summer. “We’re not paying attention to the noise,” Perry told Yahoo Sports. “We're gonna continue to be opportunistic and build this the right way. This summer will allow us to shape the team in the image that we want, be able to bring in some guys to field a more competitive team for next season.” The noise isn’t all negative. The Knicks are one of a handful of teams Durant is expected to consider this offseason — along with the L.A. Clippers, the crosstown rival Brooklyn Nets and even the Golden State Warriors, depending on whom you believe. New York Knicks general manager Scott Perry has big plans for the franchise. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) There’s been so much speculation surrounding Durant, it’s hard not to get caught up in it and to connect the dots about a possible union with the Knicks. Perry was the Seattle Supersonics’ assistant general manager when they selected Durant in 2007, and the two maintained a strong relationship. Irving didn’t do much to quell rumors about coming back to the New York area — he’s a New Jersey native — and many have believed until recently that he and Durant have long planned to play together. The Knicks, who are projected to have a little more than $70 million in cap space, can absorb two max contracts if Durant and Irving choose them. The February trade of Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas allowed them to shed Tim Hardaway Jr.’s long contract to open up space and netted promising guard Dennis Smith Jr. and two future first-round picks. Perry wouldn’t relitigate the Porzingis trade, but given Porzingis’ desire to leave New York, it wouldn’t be a great sell to free agents to have such an influential player on the roster who wasn’t with the team’s direction. Story continues It now leaves Perry and Knicks president Steve Mills in front of some of the league’s best players. Perry was a college coach at Eastern Kentucky and an assistant at the University of Michigan in the 1990s, so recruiting is in his blood. “I think what we're gonna do, and what I've done every day of my life, is present a realness,” Perry told Yahoo Sports. “A relatability, a knowledge about this game, a knowledge about people. Look, we're here to build something special. “It's gonna be an environment, that's highly competitive, that's winning. We want to be versatile. We're gonna sell who we are as people and our ability to connect and relate to players, support them and give them the best form to allow them to be their best selves that will ultimately help us win.” In his pro stops in addition to Seattle — Detroit, Orlando, a short stint in Sacramento — Perry has been around teams at various stages of development. In Detroit, he was part of a staff that helped Joe Dumars build a champion in 2004 and a perennial contender without a superstar. In Orlando, the Magic were embryonic following the trade of Dwight Howard, and Perry helped draft Victor Oladipo and acquire Tobias Harris, players who developed into future stars. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s an African-American in a top position, one of the few who hold such a post in the NBA. That’s the relatability of which he speaks, a black man from the West Side of Detroit. He’ll have Madison Square Garden to sell, a stage on which visiting players love to perform. New York isn’t so shabby, either, and a chance to help lift a franchise that hasn’t won a championship in the modern NBA will make anyone who accomplishes the feat an instant legend. “You get an opportunity to do it for a historical organization in the world's greatest city and a tremendous fan base,” Perry told Yahoo Sports. “It's an unparalleled fan base in terms of support and reach. Globally, it gets no better than the Knicks. I saw it from afar when I was in those other places, but now I live it.” He also lives the expectations from a full building of fans tired of losing. If they were parched for a star, they’re in full-thirst mode now. Perry is aware of the franchise’s history, which is why he’s making no promises about the tricky waters of free agency. What the Knicks won’t do, sources told Yahoo Sports, is throw long-term, cap-crippling money at second-tier stars that will hamstring their flexibility for the future and stifle the growth of the young players they’ve acquired the last two years. Durant — likely to miss next season with an Achilles injury — and Leonard are likely worth the max slots. Perhaps Irving, too, under the right circumstances. Ships that lift all tides. But the Knicks could also go after New Orleans forward Julius Randle, Washington Wizards restricted free agent Bobby Portis or Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins — although it’s not expected they would offer extended, maximum-type contracts. “The people I’ve seen around New York have told me to keep building, moving in the right direction with draft picks and our young players,” Perry told Yahoo Sports. Duke’s R.J. Barrett (third overall) and Michigan’s Ignas Brazdeikis (47th overall) are the latest additions to a core that includes Mitchell Robinson, Kevin Knox and Allonzo Trier — players who each had their moments last season. “Collectively, we feel those three, they would hold up against any of the draft classes in the league last year,” Perry told Yahoo Sports. “Allonzo has shown he can score at the NBA level, he can get his own shot, he continues to grow and broaden his game. “Kevin Knox, for all the scrutiny, he was the youngest player in the league last year. He was put in a tough situation last year, but all things considered, he played well, which you could expect for a 19-year-old guy coming into the NBA. He's got a ton of room to grow, big-time worker and a big student of the game. “Mitchell Robinson, getting him in the second round. If there was a redraft, he would've been a lottery pick, really pleased in how he grew on the court and off it. Really high ceiling. Second in the league in blocked shots, only played 20 minutes a game.” This is the patience of which he speaks, with so many young players playing big-time minutes. “You're talking about 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds,” Perry said. “The one thing we can't do is snap our fingers and make them 24 tomorrow. They gotta grow and go through the process of growing and playing.” That process would be sped up by adding a superstar, but even if that doesn’t happen, Perry and the Knicks will press on, building with depth, flexibility and patience. He pointed to the champion Toronto Raptors, and his teams in Detroit that won with top-to-bottom talent. “The way the game is played today, you gotta have depth,” Perry told Yahoo Sports. “Through the rigors of an 82-game season, if you can be two deep at every position, you can be highly competitive. We've seen teams in the playoffs who had that kind of depth.” Finally, he says with assuredness: “I'm confident we'll be a better basketball team one way or the other.” More from Yahoo Sports: USWNT needs Alex Morgan to step up vs. France Rapinoe stands ground in cross-Atlantic Trump spat Report: Celtics are the favorite to land Walker Sources: Hill meets with NFL over child abuse charges View comments
Fact-Checking Night 2 of the Democratic Debate A fired-up field of Democrats stumbled on some facts at the most visceral turns in their debate Thursday as they took on and sometimes sparred over race, the treatment of migrant children, the climate and the super-rich. Here’s a review of the rhetoric in the second night of the opening round of 2020 campaign debates, as 10 more candidates took their turn on the stage in Miami: BERNIE SANDERS:“Eighty-three percent of your tax benefits go to the top 1 percent.” THE FACTS:That statistic is not close to true now. The Vermont senator is referring to 2027, not the present day. He didn’t include that critical context in his statement. His figures come from an analysis by the Tax Policy Center. That analysis found that in 2027 the top 1% of earners would get 83% of the savings from the tax overhaul signed into law by President Donald Trump. Why is that? Simple: Most of the tax cuts for individuals are set to expire after 2025, so the benefits for everyone else simply go away. The 2017 tax overhaul does disproportionately favor the wealthy and corporations, but just 20.5% of the benefits went to the top 1% last year. ___ KAMALA HARRIS, senator from California: “Vice President Biden, do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America, then?” JOE BIDEN: “I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That’s what I opposed.” THE FACTS:That’s hairsplitting. The former vice president is claiming that he only opposed the U.S. Education Department’s push for busing to desegregate schools because he didn’t want federal mandates forced on local school boards. But in the early and mid-1970s, those were the fault lines in almost every U.S. community, from New Orleans to Boston, where there was stiff opposition to busing. If you were a politician opposing federally enforced busing, you were enabling any local school board or city government that was fighting against it. As a senator in the late 1970s, Biden supported several measures, including one signed by President Jimmy Carter, that restricted the federal government’s role in forced busing. ___ BIDEN,on President Barack Obama’s record: “He is the first man to bring together the entire world — 196 nations — to commit to deal with climate change.” Not really. Biden is minimizing a major climate deal from 22 years ago, a decade before Obama became president. In 1997, nations across the world met in Japan and hammered out the Kyoto Protocol to limit climate change in a treaty that involved more than 190 countries at different points in time. And that treaty itself stemmed from the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Biden is referring to an agreement that came out of a 2015 meeting in Paris that was the 21st climate change convention meeting. However, the Kyoto Protocol only required specific greenhouse gas emission cuts of developed nations, fewer than half the countries in the world. The Paris agreement, where several world leaders pushed hard, including France’s president, has every country agreeing to do something. But each country proposed its own goals. ___ BIDEN,on Trump’s treatment of migrant children at the border: “The idea that he’s in court with his Justice Department saying, children in cages do not need a bed, do not need a blanket, do not need a toothbrush — that is outrageous.” HARRIS:“I will release children from cages.” JOHN HICKENLOOPER, former Colorado governor: “If you would have ever told me any time in my life that this country would sanction federal agents to take children from the arms of their parents, put them in cages, actually put them up for adoption — in Colorado we call that kidnapping — I would have told you it was unbelievable.” THE FACTS:They are tapping into a misleading and common insinuation by Democrats about Trump placing “children in cages.” The cages are actually chain-link fences and the Obama-Biden administration used them, too. Children and adults are held behind them, inside holding Border Patrol facilities, under the Trump administration as well. Obama’s administration detained large numbers of unaccompanied children inside chain link fences in 2014. Images that circulated online of children in cages during the height of Trump’s family separations controversy were actually from 2014 when Obama was in office. Children are placed in such areas by age and sex for safety reasons and are supposed to be held for no longer than 72 hours by the Border Patrol. But as the number of migrants continues to grow under the Trump administration, the system is clogged at every end, so Health and Human Services, which manages the care of children in custody, can’t come get the children in time. Officials say they are increasingly holding children for 5 days or longer. Health and Human Services facilities are better equipped to manage the care of children, but, facing budget concerns, officials cut activities like soccer, and English classes and legal aid for children in their care. As for Hickenlooper’s claim about the government forcing those children into unwanted adoption, that is not federal policy. ___ SANDERS:Under Medicare for All, “the vast majority of the people in this country will be paying significantly less for health care than they are now.” THE FACTS:Probably true, but that’s only part of the equation for a family. Sanders’ plan for a government-run health care system to replace private insurance calls for no premiums, and no copays and deductibles. But taxes would have to go up significantly as the government takes on trillions of dollars in health care costs now covered by employers and individuals. Independent studies estimate the government would be spending an additional $28 trillion to $36 trillion over 10 years, although Medicare for All supporters say that’s overstating it. —What the2020 Democratic candidates didn’t sayduring the second debate —Harris has a strong showing, stuns Biden on night 2 of Democratic debate —Democratic debate night 1: what we learned from each candidate —2019Democratic debate night 1: Highlights —2019Democratic debate night 2: Highlights —Fact-checkingclaims from night 1 of the Democratic debate
Gold gains ahead of U.S.-China trade talks; Platinum jumps 3% By Karthika Suresh Namboothiri (Reuters) - Gold prices held steady on Friday as investors waited to see if a crucial round of U.S.-China trade talks over the weekend would resolve the bilateral dispute, while platinum surged more than 3%. However, bullion was on track to mark its best month in three years, up 8% in June alone, on the back of expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve would ease monetary policy. Prices were up 9.1% in the quarter, its biggest percentage gain since the first quarter of 2016. Spot gold was little changed at $1,409.33 per ounce as of 1:35 p.m. EDT(1735 GMT). Prices surpassed the key psychological $1,400 level earlier this week to reach $1,438.63 for the first time in six years. U.S. gold futures settled 0.1% higher to $1,413.70 per ounce. "There is some nervousness and uncertainty floating around the trade war. ... We have seen a flock to safe haven as trade tensions continue," said David Meger, director of metals trading at High Ridge Futures. Any easing of trade tensions could take away some safe haven demand for the precious metal, Meger added. U.S. President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping will meet during a Group of 20 summit this weekend in Osaka, Japan, for talks that could help resolve a year-long trade war between the two nations. Meanwhile, the dollar was little changed, set for its weakest month since the start of 2018. Bets on interest rate cuts by the Fed have pushed the dollar index down 1.7% this month. A weaker dollar makes greenback-denominated gold more attractive for buyers with other currencies. "We are still seeing huge investor interest in the precious metal. Markets are pricing in growing expectation for two interest rate cuts to the Fed's base rate in the next few months," said Carlo Alberto De Casa, chief analyst with ActivTrades. "We can now see a first support area at the psychological threshold of $1,400, while the first resistances are placed at $1,424 and $1,440, the recent peaks. Silver rose 0.3% to $15.30 per ounce. It has gained 5% in June alone, its biggest monthly gain so far in the year. Palladium was down 0.5% to $1,543.01. Platinum gained more than 3% to $839.76, its highest since May 16. "The surge in gold prices has caused traders to reassess the whole precious metals space," said Rob Lutts, chief investment officer at Cabot Wealth Management, adding that growing demand for electric vehicle parts was also lifting platinum prices. Traders would be watching out for Tesla Inc's production figures expected next week, which could indicate demand for electric vehicles, and hence industrial demand for platinum and palladium, analysts said. (Reporting by Karthika Suresh Namboothiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang)
Gold Price Prediction – Prices Rebound Follow Soft Claims Data Gold prices rebounded on Thursday, ahead of Saturday’s meeting between President Trump and President Xi. Expectations are for the two to agree to restart discussions toward a trade deal. Both sides have cautioned market participants not to get too exuberant. US jobless claims rose more than expected putting downward pressure on US yields which capped any upward momentum in the dollar allow gold prices to rally. Gold prices rebounded on Thursday after dropping on Wednesday and hitting a 6-year high earlier in the week. Support on the yellow metal is seen near the 10-day moving average at 1,391. Momentum remains positive as the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) histogram prints in the black with an upward sloping trajectory which points to higher prices. Prices are overbought. The relative strength index (RSI) surged higher reflecting accelerating positive momentum. The current reading on the RSI is 78, well above the overbought trigger level of 70 which could foreshadow a correction. Prices can remain overbought for an extended period when a breakout such as this one occurs. The fast stochastic generated a crossover sell signal in overbought territory. The currency reading on the fast stochastic is 78, below the overbought trigger level of 80. Initial claims increased 10,000 to 227,000 for the week ended June 22, according to the Labor Department. Data for the prior week was revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported. Expectations were for close to rise 3,000 to 220,000. Claims could rise further in the coming weeks as auto manufacturers temporarily shut down assembly plants for summer retooling. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 2,250 to 221,250 last week. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural gas markets run into exhaustion • Weekly Wrap – Geopolitics, Stats and the G20 Summit Provided Direction • Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude oil markets rally for the week • E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – Inside Move Indicates Investor Indecision • Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold markets for massive shooting star • Gold Price Prediction – Prices Whipsaw Despite Slowing Inflation
US economy grew at solid 3.1% rate in first quarter WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a healthy 3.1% rate in the first three months of this year, but signs are mounting that growth has slowed sharply in the current quarter amid slower global growth and a confidence-shaking trade battle between the United States and China. The gain in the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, was unchanged from an estimate made a month ago, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. However, the components of growth shifted slightly with stronger business investment and consumer spending slowing more than previously estimated. Economists believe growth has slowed sharply in the current April-June quarter to around 2%. They expect similar meager gains for the rest of the year, a forecast that runs counter to the Trump administration's expectations for strong growth above 3%. The 3.1% growth in the first quarter marked a rebound from a 2.2% growth rate in the fourth quarter of last year. But it was slower than a sizzling increase of 4.2% in the second quarter and a solid increase of 3.4% in the third quarter last year. For all of 2018, GDP grew 2.9%, the best annual gain since 2015. Last year's strength was powered by the implementation of a $1.5 trillion tax cut, President Donald Trump's signature domestic achievement, and billions of dollars in increased government spending on the military and domestic programs Congress approved in early 2018. However, the impact of the tax cuts and the higher government spending are expected to fade this year, leaving the economy growing very close to the 2.2% average seen over the 10 years of the current expansion, which will become the longest in U.S. history next month. Economists at Capital Economics are forecasting that growth will slow to 2.3% this year and even further to 1.2% in 2020 before rebounding a bit to 2% growth in 2021. Paul Ashworth, the firm's chief U.S. economist, said that the slowdown from the fading of the tax cuts and increased government spending was being "exacerbated by a dramatic slowdown in other parts of the global economy," in particular Europe and Japan. Trump's "trade war with China is also sapping confidence," Ashworth said. The Trump administration disputes forecasts of a U.S. slowdown, believing that its economic policies will lift growth to levels of 3% or better over the next six years. Trump, who is counting on a strong economy as he campaigns for re-election next year, has pushed the Federal Reserve to immediately start cutting interest rates to undo what he sees as the damage from four unnecessary Fed rate hikes last year. At its meeting last week, the Fed did signal that it was prepared to cut rates if needed to protect the economy from a growing trade dispute between the United States and China. Trump is scheduled to meet Saturday with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a Group of 20 major nations summit in Japan to see if a way can be found to restart trade negotiations between the world's two biggest economies. The trade tensions have increased uncertainty over what higher tariffs on Chinese imports will do to the U.S. economy, resulting in declines in manufacturing activity and a drop in consumer confidence. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said if this week's talks don't achieve at least a truce in the trade war and Trump carries through with his threats to expand his existing tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods to cover virtually all of Chinese imports, that could be enough to trigger a full-blown recession. "I think we are on the razor's edge here," Zandi said. "The real threat now is an expanding trade war which would push growth below potential and result in unemployment starting to rise." In the first quarter, consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of economic activity, slowed to a small 0.9% rate of gain, down from a previous estimate of 1.9%. This downward revision was offset by several factors including stronger spending by businesses on investment in such areas as computer software. While economists believe consumer spending will rebound a bit in the second quarter, other factors that contributed about half of the first quarter growth — a big improvement in the trade deficit and a big rise in business restocking — were not expected to be repeated in the second quarter, resulting in lower overall growth. __ This story corrects 2018 GDP growth to 2.9%, rather than 3.9%.
Iraqi general, U.S. Marine dispute murder charge against Navy SEAL By Marty Graham SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - An Iraqi general and a U.S. Marine testifying in the murder trial of a U.S. Navy SEAL said on Thursday they never saw the platoon leader stab a wounded detainee in the neck, disputing the central allegation in the prosecution's war crimes case. A sworn deposition of Major General Abbas al-Jubouri, videotaped in San Diego earlier this month, was played for the seven-member jury on the second day of defense testimony in the court-martial of Navy Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher. Contrary to prior testimony that Gallagher, or a medic on his team, had acted deliberately to cause the death of a helpless Islamic State fighter in their custody, Jubouri said the Navy SEALs did all they could to save the teenager's life. "They support him. They did their best to get him to survive," Jubouri testified in broken English. His account was echoed by Marine Staff Sergeant Giorgio Kirylo, who was the U.S. intelligence officer for Gallagher's platoon and took the witness stand after the presentation of Jubouri's testimony. Kirylo said he was also present during the entire time the captured Iraqi fighter was alive at the U.S. platoon's outpost and that the detainee appeared to have died from grave combat wounds, not from any mistreatment. Gallagher, 39, a decorated career combat veteran, is charged with committing premeditated murder of the Iraqi prisoner, brought to his unit for medical treatment, by repeatedly stabbing the youth in the neck with a custom-made knife. He is also charged with attempted murder in the wounding of two civilians - a school girl and an elderly man - shot from a sniper's perch, as well as with obstruction of justice and other offenses. Those include unlawfully posing for photos with the dead captive's corpse. Gallagher could face life in prison if convicted. He has denied all charges and says he is wrongly accused. The thrust of his defense has been that fellow SEAL team members testifying against him under grants of immunity are disgruntled subordinates fabricating the allegations to force him from the Navy. Story continues The Navy opened its investigation in September 2018, about a year after Gallagher and his platoon had returned from Iraq. FAIR TRIAL The case has drawn the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, who ordered Gallagher moved from pre-trial detention in a military brig to confinement at a Navy base months ago. The presiding judge later released him from custody in a rebuke to prosecutors for conduct the judge said infringed on Gallagher's right to a fair trial. In another setback to the prosecution's case last week, a Navy SEAL medic testifying for prosecutors asserted it was he, not Gallagher, who caused the death of the Iraqi detainee by blocking the youth's breathing tube in what he described as a mercy killing. Several SEAL team members testified they saw Gallagher deliver what appeared to be fatal stab wounds to the prisoner's neck, and prosecutors accused the medic of changing his story on the witness stand. Kirylo testified the Iraqi detainee was a potentially valuable intelligence asset as the first Islamic State fighter captured alive in a battle to retake part of Mosul. He said Gallagher went to work with two medics trying to save his life but it became clear their efforts were futile. Jubouri also said the detainee, who had given his age as 17, "was at the last moment of life." Asked under cross-examination what he would have done had he noticed the Navy SEALs do anything untoward in treating the captive, Jubouri replied: "Any mistake, I would stop him. I would be very upset." Kirylo testified he did not particularly like Gallagher personally but nevertheless called him an innocent man. He also admitted posing with several Navy SEALs for "trophy" pictures with the body of the captured Islamic State fighter. Closing arguments in the case were expected to begin next week. (Reporting by Marty Graham in San Diego; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Grant McCool and Paul Tait)
After Hours: Top Apple Exec to Depart, Most Big Banks Raising Dividends Who says the middle of the week is boring for stocks? That's definitely not the case in post-market trading this evening -- some big news items came down the pole that are affecting related companies on the exchange. The Federal Reserve published the results of its annual capital allocation review after market close, plus a big personnel move was announced atApple(NASDAQ: AAPL).Nike(NYSE: NKE), meanwhile, reported the last set of results from its fiscal 2019. Jony Ivy and Tim Cook. Image source: Apple. The man who designed Apple's most iconic products will no longer be employed by the company. Apple announced that Jony Ive, its chief designer and the person most directly responsible for the sleek and distinctive look of signature offerings such asthe iPhone, will leave the company later this year at an unspecified date. Apple said Ive will found an independent design company called LoveFrom. Apple is to be a client of that company, although the details of this relationship have not been revealed. Ive has been an Apple employee since 1992, rising through the ranks to his current position. He first came to prominence among the public with his team's design for the iMac computer, a hit product in the 1990s for the resurgent company. It says something about Apple that it has elevated its top design executive to C-level, an unusual move in most types of corporations. Although Ive's departure is unexpected, it shouldn't affect Apple much if it utilizes Ive's new company as planned. Apple's stock is down following the news about Ive, but only marginally. The Fed has published the results of the second part of its two-part 2019 Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) set ofstress tests. In this phase of the CCAR, the capital allocation plans of such companies are analyzed, and essentially either approved or rejected. This year the Fed approved all but one of the 18 plans under review. The one disapproval was for the proposal of Switzerland-based lenderCredit Suisse. In the CCAR, the Fed said in order for it to flip that decision to approval, it "is requiring the firm to address weaknesses in its capital adequacy process by October 27, 2019." The other capital allocation plans were approved. This is particularly happy news for income investors, as the banks under review were generally aiming to raise their dividends.Bank of America(NYSE: BAC), for example, is now permitted to hike its quarterly common stock dividend by 20% to $0.18 per share. On top of that, Bank of America now has the Fed's OK for a one-year, $30.9 billion stock buyback program. Banks are generally trotting with the bulls in after-market trading on the back of this news. Bank of America stock is up by 2%. As for the other "big four" U.S. banks,JPMorgan ChaseandCitigroupare also in positive territory more or less at that level, andWells Fargois adding around 1%. After-hours traders seem mildly disappointed in Nike's Q4, as they're pushing the share price down tonight, but only slightly. The company reaped $10.18 billion in revenue for the period, up a respectable 4% on a year-over-year basis. Net profit went in the opposite direction, however, sliding 13% to $989 million ($0.62 per share). Nike's revenue growth came from sales increases in nearly every region and category save for Asia Pacific/Latin America, which saw a 4% decline. The company specifically mentioned higher selling and administrative costs as a factor in the overall net profit drop. On average, analysts were collectively modeling $10.16 billion on the top line for Nike's Q4, and $0.66 in per-share profit. That earnings-per-share miss was Nike's first in 27 quarters. Still, the company is well in the black and taking advantage of growth opportunities such as the ever-hungry Chinese consumer market. Nike is also managing to hold its own amid intensifying competition, which is perhaps why post-market investors aren't selling off the stock too heavily. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market Eric Volkmanhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple and Nike. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
Kamala Harris Shuts Down Debate Squabble With Raised Hands Joe Biden vowed to roll back the tax cuts passed under Donald Trump as he and nine other Democrats opened up a second night of debates with a series of attacks on the president, setting out the contrasts that voters will face next year.”Donald Trump thinks Wall Street built America.Ordinary middle-class Americans built America,” Biden said. “Donald Trump has put us in a horrible situation.” The former vice president had been asked to address recent comments he made promising not to demonize the wealthy but instead ducked it to discuss what he wants to do. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, said he would raise taxes on the wealthy and even on the middle class to pay for his Medicare for all plan. “Yes they will pay more in taxes but less in health care for what they get,” he said. The back-and-forth came early on at the second night of the first debate of the Democrats’ presidential nominating process, as party voters begin to get a clearer view of the ideological choices they’ll face in caucuses and primaries early next year. The candidates on the stage quickly got into testy exchanges, talking over each other, until Senator Kamala Harris stepped in. “America doesn’t want to witness a food fight, they want to know how we’re going to put food on their tables,” Harris said, putting an end to the squabble. Thursday night’s debate in Miami was the first side-by-side appearance of the campaign for Biden and Sanders, and the contrasts between the two are being carefully watched as they chart starkly different paths to the party’s nomination and beyond that, the 2020 general election. Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, has already begun highlighting where he diverges with Biden, aiming to expose the former vice president’s weaknesses with left-leaning voters on issues such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. The debate is giving voters a chance to see four of the five top-polling candidates for the Democratic nomination interacting with one another, plus half a dozen candidates who’ve averaged 1% or less in key state and national polling. Biden and Sanders, two white male septuagenarians, are positioned at podiums in the middle of the stage, flanked by younger, more diverse opponents. On one side is the 37-year-old openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, and on the other is Senator Harris of California, 54, an African- and Indian-American woman. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who’s edging out Sanders for second in a growing number of polls, was the only candidate among the leading contenders who ended up on Wednesday’s debate stage. Warren’s lower-polling rivals did nothing to knock her off course or didn’t challenge her attempt to overtake Sanders as the strongest alternative to Biden. That allowed her to stick largely to her stump speech and deliver a progressive message to millions of people on everything from the corrosive effect of corporate money to gun control, without getting distracted or having to react to a sharp retort. Representing the Democrats’ centrist wing, Biden, 76, represents a target for Sanders, 77, who’s running on a platform he describes as democratic socialism. As the clear leader in polls at this early stage of the race, Biden also is in the sites of the other eight candidates on the stage, who’ve been delivering their critiques of him for weeks even as they avoid attacking him directly. There was little discussion of Trump during Wednesday’s debate, but with Biden and Sanders more explicitly building their campaigns around their arguments of electability the president was a more central foil on Thursday. The president, who’d suggested he may live-tweet the debates, posted just twice on Wednesday, complaining that the event was “BORING!” and about host network NBC’s technical difficulties. During Thursday’s event he’ll presumably be out of pocket at the start of a long day of bilateral meetings at the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Wednesday’s event drew a total of 15.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen data cited by NBCUniversal, to be the most-watched TV program of the night. Ratings were dwarfed by those of the first Republican deb ate of 2015, when 24 million viewers tuned in to watch Trump spar with moderator Megyn Kelly. While the first round of debating isn’t likely to shake up the race, a handful of middle-tier candidates including New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro were able to breathe new oxygen into their bids with strong performances on Wednesday night. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Michael Bennet,of Colorado, as well as former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, all of whom rarely crack 1% in polls, may be hoping to do the same on Thursday. The stage tonight also features two candidates who have never held elected office: former tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, whose core promise is to establish a universal basic income of $12,000 for every American adult, and spirituality author Marianne Williamson. The candidates won’t have much time to make their cases, with no opening statements, 60 seconds to answer questions, and 30 seconds to respond to attacks. A crew of five moderators from NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo on Wednesday held candidates closely to their time limits, though they did allow some candidates to interject as others spoke and for a handful of brief back-and-forths between pairs of contenders. Moderators directed a disproportionate share of early questions to Warren on Wednesday and could do the same Thursday with Biden and Sanders, and perhaps also Buttigieg and Harris. —Harris has a strong showing, stuns Biden on night 2 of Democratic debate —Democratic debate night 1:What we learnedfrom each candidate —2019Democratic debate night 1: Highlights —2019Democratic debate night 2: Highlights —Fact-checkingclaims from night 1 of the Democratic debate —Fact-checkingclaims from night 2 of the Democratic debate
Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rebound Following EIA Inventory Report Natural gas prices rallied on Thursday climbing 1.4%, following a smaller than expected build in natural gas inventories. Stockpiles are on the rise, and will continue until the withdrawal season which begins in November. The trajectory of natural gas inventory increases are poised to test the average of the 5-year range. There is currently no tropical storms brewing in the Atlantic, which is keeping natural gas volatility subdued. Natural gas prices rebounded on Thursday rallying 1.4%, closing below resistance which is now support the 10-day moving average at 2.295. Additional support on natural gas is seen near the June lows at 2.16. Short term momentum has turned negative as the fast stochastic generate a crossover sell signal after recently generating a buy signal. Medium term momentum is neutral as the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) histogram is flat, hovering near the zero-index line which reflects consolidation. The Energy Information Administration reported that working gas in storage was 2,301 Bcf as of Friday, June 21, 2019. This represents a net increase of 98 Bcf from the previous week. Expectations were for a 103 bcf increase according to Estimize. Stocks were 236 Bcf higher than last year at this time and 171 Bcf below the five-year average of 2,472 Bcf. At 2,301 Bcf, total working gas is within the five-year historical range. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Gold Price Prediction – Prices Whipsaw Despite Slowing Inflation • Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 29/06/19 • S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – S&P 500 struggling at the highs • Dollar Index Rebounds after Fed Member Comments Spook Short-Sellers • Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude oil markets rally for the week • Gold Price Forecast – Gold markets continue to consolidate
Bank of America to cut ties with companies that help run immigrant detention centers, private prisons Bank of America announced Wednesday that it would no longer finance operators of immigrant detention centers and private prisons. The bank has decided to "exit the relationships" it has with companies that provide detention services at the state and federal level and has been discussing the issue "for some time," according to a statement provided to USA TODAY. "The private sector is attempting to respond to public policy and government needs and demands in the absence of long standing and widely recognized reforms needed in criminal justice and immigration policies," the statement read. "Lacking further legal and policy clarity, and in recognition of the concerns of our employees and stakeholders in the communities we serve, it is our intention to exit these relationships." 'Shut down the concentration camps': Wayfair employees walk out, hundreds protest Bank of America was a chief financier of Caliburn, which runs a facility called Homestead that houses unaccompanied migrant children, The Miami Herald reported last month. Caliburn, which operates under a U.S. government contract, received a $380 million loan and a $75 million credit line from Bank of America, the Herald reported, citing documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Immigrant detention centers have become a hotly debated topic in recent weeks. Scrutiny over deplorable conditions at border detention camps has heightened since a group of lawyers reported a lack of food, water, soap and medical care inside a Border Patrol facility in Clint, Texas. Migrant shelters: Trump administration cuts English classes, soccer and legal aid for migrant children at shelters President Donald Trump has pushed a "zero tolerance" immigration policy, resulting in the separation of children from migrant families in detention camps. Six children have died in detention since September as a large surge of immigrants from Central America seek asylum. Story continues Bank of America has also underwritten bonds or given syndicated loans to CoreCivic Inc and GEO Group Inc, two major private prison operators, Reuters reported. CoreCivic released a statement Wednesday saying Bank of America misrepresented the company. "Bank of America’s decision is about politics, not about the company we are," the statement read. "Bank of America knows we care deeply about doing business in an ethical, responsible way, and that we have stepped up as a leader in helping address some of the most serious challenges facing our country." George C. Zoley, GEO’s board chairman, chief executive officer and founder, released a statement Wednesday saying that his company has never managed border patrol holding facilities or any facilities that house unaccompanied minors. “The Processing Centers we manage on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are not overcrowded and comply with performance-based standards, which were first established under President Barack Obama’s administration," Zoley said. "These modern Processing Centers provide safe and humane residential care, high quality medical services, and enhanced amenities including artificial turf soccer fields, flat screen TVs in living areas, indoor and outdoor recreation, classrooms, multipurpose rooms, and libraries.” The move was lauded as a "welcome step" by Families Belong Together, a grassroots coalition that opposes family separation. "FBT’s corporate accountability group has been calling on companies to defund hate and divest from contracts with private prisons that house migrants," the group said in a statement . "Other companies should do the right thing and divest as well — no one should profiting from family separation." JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo reportedly made similar announcements earlier this year. Contributing: Nathan Bomey and Joey Garrison, USA TODAY Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bank of America to cut ties with companies that help run immigrant detention centers, private prisons
ARTEXB 360° Releases New Model for Contemporary Art Collection BEIJING, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE /June28, 2019 /ARTEXB, a Beijing based 360°VR company, is about to release a series of virtual reality art collections in 2019. Dahuang Lu, the founder CEO ofWEME DAM Creative Agencyand the data media curator atNOUS xLab, will continue to the next term of digital technology and strategic advisory role to make an expert interpretation of this new collection. Dahuang Lu, ARTEXB Supervisor Advisor Technology is changing the art world to exhibit things beyond whitened walls and hung paintings. Now, people can collect a virtual reality work that is 4000 miles away from them or don't exist at all. This benefits from the ARTEXB 360° virtual reality documentary system.It's increased the dimension of the art world. With user-friendly hypermedia and machine-based data media, an amazing experience for the arts can be created, which makes the curation more memorable to the audience. This can be accomplished by putting art exhibitions online in virtual reality spaces with rich content including text, audio, and video that aren't just pictures of it. That's what separates the virtual reality from the Google Art Project. In one, people are the observer of the piece, but on the other, they also become the owner of the art museum. With the ability to build a world in virtual space, ARTEXB is not only representing the art, but also the methodology of curation and collection. Let's talk more about ARTEXB or Virtual Reality for a moment. Basically, after visiting the biggest art shows each year like the Venice Biennale, and record the entire surrounding of the exhibition into virtual reality spaces at Artexb.com. people can view the exhibitions on their phone or laptop, and click to walk around and zoom in on the space, or through a headset. As having been talking with Longping Derek Zhao, ARTEXB's founder, it finally reached the point that ARTEXB is not just a digital technology service.ARTEXB has a higher vision to become a permanent data-media documentation hub of contemporary art. AndARTEXB aims to capture the creative mindset of the artist, the spatial concept of the curator, and the unique qualities of the space. It focuses on contemporary artists for now because want to present a track record of their work, and keep up with changing times and the exhibitions that are influential right now. Now,ARTEXB is working hard to achieve a wider range of VR exhibition records and copyright cooperation. It aims to ultimately separate the data-media platform and digital services by doing so. Thus, it can distribute the authorized contents and create more possibilities at ARTEXB. Maybe people can even start collecting art in virtual reality. Some critics worry that since VR technology is still developing, the VR exhibitions of today will be obsolete tomorrow. However, the art market puts a higher price on older pieces. As video game enthusiasts collect Nintendo consoles from the '90s, so will art enthusiasts collect and try to preserve new media when it becomes old. Further plans for advancing the VR technology itself 360 ° VR movies are evolving the industry. It is on the move to do VR video shooting because as of now, ARTEXB's VR exhibitions are still images. Derek has an amazing idea to integrate VR exhibitions with talk shows. Imagine being able to see a live talk show as it occurs, especially if it's one that relies on its audience's reply. That's part of what makes art impactful, is how it makes people think and reflect on themselves. To be honest, the VR helmet has always been a relatively awkward technology product. All along, how to collect a series of VR art based on physical media and make it an amazing experience are still under consideration. Maybe an artistic naked eye device is a good choice to make VR exhibitions more ceremonial and realistic. ARTEXB 360° VR collection of Xu Bing:A Retrospective, XU Bing,Taipei Fine Arts Museum The new perspective surface in art history that will be made possible by new media and technology A lot of historical art are paintings or sculptures that students can read about in schools and museums, but that doesn't catch their interest in what's being created right now, for the future. Showing young people that contemporary art can be anything - - readymade products, 3D prints, hypermedia, even basic code - - will increase how likely the arts can intersect with their knowledge and tools. It will make the art world feel less elitist to them. Artists will have the most fun with new technology. Some artists have created sculptures with 3D printing and CNC mechanisms. Others create entirely digital art. It will be also interesting to see how these mechanisms can help curators, too. If people can download a prototype of art and exhibition spaces, people can curate an exhibition before it's occurred. That would make a curator's job much creative, and help to reduce the time it takes to prepare it. Of course, some people don't know how to approach new technology. Especially developing systems like blockchain and AI are difficult for people to understand. But it was like the ALS challenge. People only needed a phone and a bucket of water, and just like that, everyone joined in. Since Facebook has adopted Libra, the new cryptocurrency based on blockchain, more industries will start opening themselves to it. It's a good sign. All these collaborations bring up a lot of new questions. How to price digital art that can be replicated? How can people preserve a piece that only exists in a headset? But art is anything but constant. The changes happening right now will create a new page in art history years from now. Contact Info: Website:http://artexb.comEmail:JadyLiu@artexb.com SOURCE:ARTEXBView source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/550233/ARTEXB-360-Releases-New-Model-for-Contemporary-Art-Collection
With the G20 Underway, the Markets Play it Safe Early Economic data was on the heavier side through the Asia session this morning. Out of Japan, key stats included May’s job/application ratio, industrial production figures, and Tokyo’s June inflation numbers. Out of Australia, May private sector credit figures provided the Aussie Dollar with direction. Ultimately, however, the stats had a muted impact on the pairings. The G20 Summit got underway this morning and there was plenty for the markets to consider going into the weekend. May’s job/applications ratio came in at 1.62, marginally lower than April’s 1.63. Tokyo’s annual rate of baseline inflation eased from 1.1% to 0.9%, which was worse than a forecasted 1%. According to consumer price figures released by theMinistry of Internal Affairs and Communication, • Prices for transportation and communication fell by 1.4%, weighing on core inflation. • A 3.6% jump in charges for fuel, light and water and a 2.4% rise in prices for furniture and household utensils provided support. • There were also price increases for culture and recreation (+1.6%), clothes and footwear (+0.8%), housing (+0.7%), and education (+0.7%). • Prices for Medical Care rose by just 0.6%. • By sector, prices for goods rose by 1.6%, whilst prices for services increased by just 0.7%. The Japanese Yen moved from ¥107.729 to ¥107.728 upon release of the figures, which preceded the industrial production numbers. Industrial production rose by 2.3% in May, month-on-month, according to prelim figures. Forecasts were for a 0.2% rise off the back of a 0.6% increase in April. According to prelim figures released by theMinistry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, • Industries that mainly contributed to an increase were:Motor vehiclesElectrical machinery and information and communication electronics equipment.Production machinery. • Industries that mainly contributed to a decrease were:Transport equipment (excl. motor vehicles).Other manufacturing. The Japanese Yen moved from ¥107.04 to ¥107.748 upon release of the figures. At the time of writing, theJapanese Yenwas up by 0.09% to ¥107.69 against the U.S Dollar. Private sector credit rose by 0.2% in May, month-on-month, following a 0.2% increase in April. Economists had forecast for a 0.2% increase in May According to figures released byRBA, • Personal credit fell by 0.6%, following a 0.3% fall in April. • Housing credit rose by 0.2%, following a 0.3% rise in April. • Business credit rose by 0.1%, after stalling in April. • Year-on-year, total credit increased by 3.6%, compared with 4.8% in May 2018. • Housing credit slid by 3.2%, year-on-year. In May 2018, housing credit had fallen by 1.4%. The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.70048 to $0.70006 upon release of the figures. At the time of writing, theAussie Dollarwas down by 0.12% to $0.6999. At the time of writing, theKiwi Dollarwas flat at $0.6700. It’s another relatively busy day ahead on the economic data front. Key stats include June prelim inflation figures for France, Italy and the Eurozone. French consumer spending and Spanish 1stquarter GDP numbers are also due out. We would expect the inflation numbers to be the key driver and the Eurozone core inflation figures in particular. The stats will likely have a muted impact on the day, however, with updates from the G20 Summit the key driver on the day. At the time of writing, theEURwas down by 0.02% to $1.1367. It’s a busier day ahead. Key stats due out of the UK include finalized 1stquarter GDP, current account and business investment figures. Barring deviation from prelim, the stats are unlikely to have an impact, with the focus remaining on Brexit and the leadership race. Away from the UK, the G20 Summit will also be in focus, though we would expect the Pound to be more resilient to any negative chatter. At the time of writing, thePoundwas down by 0.02% to $1.2672. It’s a relatively busy day on the economic calendar. Key stats due out of the U.S include the FED’s preferred core PCE price index and personal spending numbers in the early part of the session. The focus will then shift to Chicago’s June PMI numbers and finalized consumer sentiment figures for July. We will expect the inflation and personal spending figures to be the key driver from the economic calendar. FED Chair Powell as assured the markets of monetary support should inflation soften… Outside of the stats, Trump is back on the world stage at the G20 Summit. Will China cower to Trump’s demands or draw support from the rest of the world. At the time of writing, theDollar Spot Indexwas up by 0.02% to 96.211. Following a quiet week, April GDP and May RMPI numbers will provide direction in the early afternoon. By the time the stats are out, the markets will have an idea of how Trump – Xi talks are progressing. It will all boil down to when the two will meet and then update via the news media. It’s not just China that will be in focus, with the latest sanctions on Iran likely to also create some debate over the right approach. Will Trump snub Canadian Prime Trudeau for a 2ndtime? Trudeau has been caught in the middle of the U.S – China trade war and it hasn’t been the best place to be… TheLooniewas down by 0.02% to C$1.3098, against the U.S Dollar, at the time of writing. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • The Crypto Week – Bitcoin Leads the Way as Volatility Grips the Majors • Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – Natural gas markets recover for the week • E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – Inside Move Indicates Investor Indecision • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Straddling Price Cluster at 26601 to 26602 • Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – Crude oil markets rally for the week • Forex Daily Recap – Cable Surged +0.50% Despite Johnson’s Parliament Proroguing Stance
Americans Are Losing Sleep Over Money, Data Shows We all have our share of stress in life. For some of us, it's our jobs. For others, it's relationship woes. But for 56% of Americans, it's money issues, according to a newBankrate survey. Here are the top financial matters U.S. adults are losing sleep over -- and what to do about them. The greatest point of financial stress for Americans today is paying for everyday expenses. If that's a concern for you, start following abudget. Having one in place will help you better track your spending and avoid wasting money on things you don't need. Just as importantly, mapping out your expenses will help you identify which ones you can most easily cut back on so that if you're currently overspending, you can break that unhealthy cycle. IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES. Many people worry they're not setting enough money aside for retirement, but the truth is that if you're relatively young, you don't need to part with a huge chunk of your paycheck. Rather, you just need to fund an IRA or 401(k) consistently and invest your savings aggressively. A stock-heavy portfolio, for example, will likely give you a 7% average yearly return over a lengthy savings window. If you're able to set aside $250 a month for retirement purposes over 40 years, and snag that 7% return, you'll wind up with roughly $600,000 for your golden years. It's not surprising that many Americans worry about affording healthcare, but if you budget for it accordingly, you'll have less to stress about. But more so than that, make sure to haveemergency savingson hand so that you're equipped to tackle medical bills than come in higher than expected. At the same time, read up on your insurance plan's policies so that you understand what coverage you're entitled to. Following certain rules (like getting referrals before seeing specialists) could spell the difference between whopping bills and modest copayments. Many Americans carry credit card debt, but the more of your monthly income those debt payments eat up, the more anxious you're apt to be. That's why you need a plan to eliminate that debt. You can start by reviewing your various credit card balances, ordering them by highest to lowest interest rate, and then attacking them in that order. Another option? Look at abalance transfer. This will allow you to move higher-interest debt onto a credit card with a lower interest rate, thereby making it easier for you to pay it off. Housing is the typical American's greatest monthly expense. To avoid having it become a source of stress, keeping your housing costs to 30% of your income or less. If you rent, that 30% covers your monthly rent payment and insurance. If you own, that figure covers your mortgage payment, insurance, and property taxes. If you're already spending more than 30% of your earnings on a place to live, consider moving to a cheaper neighborhood ordownsizingto a smaller place that's less costly. Many Americans with children are aware of the student debt crisis, and don't want their kids racking up mountains of loans on the road to getting a degree. If you're worried about affording college, start saving for it when your kids are young -- ideally, as soon as they're born. An efficient way to save is in a529 plan. The money you invest in a 529 gets to grow tax-free provided it's used for qualified education purposes, and some states offer tax incentives for funding such an account. Many people worry about putting money into stocks because the market has a tendency to move dramatically, for better and for worse. If you're losing sleep over your investments, remember that despite numerous instances of decline, the stock market has historically proven itself able to recover. Therefore, if you take a long-term approach to investing, you're more likely than not to come out ahead. If money concerns have been keeping you awake at night, don't let that unhealthy cycle continue. Make a plan to address the specific worries you have, whether alone or with the help of a financial advisor. Your physical and financial health depend on it. More From The Motley Fool • 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today • The $16,728 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss • 20 of the Top Stocks to Buy (Including the Two Every Investor Should Own) • What Is an ETF? • 5 Recession-Proof Stocks • How to Beat the Market The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
US Stock Market Overview – Stocks Trade Mixed, Nasdaq Rallies US stocks were mixed on Thursday with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 rallying and the Dow declining. The Dow was capped by declines in Boeing. The airplane maker reported on Thursday that the company found additional issues with the 737 max. Traders now await the Trump-XI meeting which is scheduled for the weekend on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Osaka Japan. US jobless claims moved up more than expected allowing US yields to slip. Most sectors were higher, led by Financials and Healthcare, Energy shares bucked the trend. President Xi Jinping of China plans to present President Trump with a set of terms he wants the US to meet before Beijing is ready to settle their trade dispute, raising questions of whether the two leaders will agree to relaunch talks. Among the preconditions for a trade agreement, Chinese officials with knowledge of the plan said, Beijing is insisting the US remove its ban on the sale of US technology to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. Beijing also wants the US to lift all punitive tariffs. The US head trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, and his Chinese counterpart, Liu He, talked by telephone this week on ways to get the talks back on track and expect to meet in person in advance of the presidents’ Saturday lunch meeting after a Group of 20 summits in Osaka. US jobless claims increased 10,000 to 227,000 for the week ended June 22, according to the Labor Department. Data for the prior week was revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported. Expectations were for close to rise 3,000 to 220,000. Claims could rise further in the coming weeks as auto manufacturers temporarily shut down assembly plants for summer retooling. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 2,250 to 221,250 last week. The continuing claims data covered the week of the household survey, from which June’s unemployment rate will be calculated. The four-week average of claims rose 13,000 between the May and June survey weeks, suggesting little change in the unemployment rate, which is hovering near a 50-year low of 3.6%. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – Inside Move Indicates Investor Indecision • Headline Tease and Tangles • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Straddling Price Cluster at 26601 to 26602 • Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Slip but Rise 5.4% for the Week • Weekly Wrap – Geopolitics, Stats and the G20 Summit Provided Direction • Gold Price Prediction – Prices Whipsaw Despite Slowing Inflation
Want to Try House Flipping? Don't Make These Rookie Mistakes House flipping is back, and in a very big way. Home flips were at an all-time high during the first three months of 2019, representing 7.2% of all home sales, according toATTOM Data Solutions. But while there's more flipping going on, there's less money to be made doing it. The average return on investment from a flip is the lowest in nearly eight years, ATTOM says. Shows likeFlip or Flopcan temp you togo shopping for a fixer-upperso you can give flipping a try. But it's a lot harder than it looks on reality TV. Avoid these 10 first-timer mistakes that often lead to house-flipping disasters. You must know going in what you’ll walk away with before purchasing a home to flip. To do this accurately however requires three steps: 1. Estimate your total repair and renovation expenses, including equipment and labor. Seasoned flippers then add an additional 10-15% to this total for the unexpected. 2. Estimate the after-repair value, or ARV, that the home will sell for once your renovation is complete. 3. Apply the "70% rule" tocalculate the maximum you should spend for the home. To do this, multiply your ARV by 0.7, then subtract your total reno costs. Because you’re understandably focused on a home’s reno details, you may overlook the subtle but important property details available from a Realtor. Find a good agent (if they haven’t already found you) and seek their counsel on your planned renovations and expected return, as well as other neighborhood factors that could affect your profit. You do, rookie. It may not be cheap, but a once-over by a knowledgeable home inspector can prove priceless should the inspection uncover hidden home problemssuch as mold, crazy wiring or a cracked foundation. In order to bring an inspector into the mix, you'll first have to place an offer on a home. If the inspection turns up expensive flaws, you'll have the option to require the seller to fix them, negotiate a better price or back out of the deal. Let’s face it, we all do some things better than others. The problem with first-time flippers is, they often don’t know when to override that DIY impulse and bring in subcontractors to handle the portions of a remodel that exceed their skill set. Justin Pierce, an ex-Marine turned flipper and president ofSnow Goose Homesin Woodbridge, Virginia, says DIY left unchecked can result in a flip being DOA. “I sometimes will be contacted about taking over a project because the investor has a bad flipper," he says. "It’s basically, ‘Will you take over this project and 'unscrew' it?’” A well-turned flip doesn’t call attention to itself, but instead integrates seamlessly into the look and feel of the home’s décor while upgrading its appearance and functionality. Although buyers do placepriority on certain rooms, primarily kitchens and baths, it’s important to avoid overly tricking out any rooms for fear of triggering suspicion, about what the bling may be hiding and the lack of flash in the rest of the house. Buyers favor a cohesive, well-maintained look that feels like home. Want more MoneyWise?Sign up for our email newsletter. One of the subtle challenges of renovation is the tendency to overlook the unobtrusive or inexpensive improvements that could both help sell the home and enhance the experience of living there. While the former owners may have long ago learned to live with such nuisances as misaligned doorknobs and locks, uneven flooring and bewildering electrical wiring, those issues can collectively trigger suspicion and undermine your flip. Once you close on the house you’re about to renovate and flip, time is money. One of the best ways to fall off schedule is to pay contractors in advance. Why? Because they will always, always, always have another gig to finish before they show up to address yours. If it comes down to deal or no deal, offer instead to pay them in installments — giving them the incentive to make your flip a priority. Oh, and while you’re at it? Check to make sure they’re licensed and insured. Building permit requirements can vary widely by city, county and state. Failure to pull the appropriate ones to complete your reno can not only slow your progress but cause resale problems when it comes time to flip. “It’s easy to check to see if they pulled permits most everywhere,” says Pierce. “That doesn’t mean it was quality work, but at least they took the effort to pull permits.” If your renovation lags behind your timeline, you may be tempted tolist the place for salebefore work is completed. If you’re really under the gun, you may even convince yourself that house hunters willing to tiptoe around the debris will surely be able to envision it completed. Trust me, they won’t. Buyers want a completed picture, not a work in progress. You also run the risk that unsettling images of new replacing old will overshadow the improvements you’ve made. For the best outcome, resist the urge to list until the flip is move-in ready. The longer you flip, the more you’ll appreciate your contractors and other assorted helpers — those caring, talented souls who helped transform ordinary into extraordinary. Use whatever incentives you have, including a couple C-notes in a parting handshake, to show you value them and want them to join your inner circle on future flips. Subscribe now to our free weekly newsletter.Don’t miss out!
Sanders admits he would raise taxes on the middle class to pay for programs Sen. Bernie Sanders, challenged at Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate on how he would pay for universal health care and his other proposed programs, admitted income taxes on the middle class would have to go up — but maintained that the savings in medical expenses would more than offset the tax hike. Sanders, who took the first question from NBC correspondent Savannah Guthrie, talked about his Medicare for All proposal for his allotted minute. But when Guthrie followed up and pressed him about taxes on the middle class, he conceded, “Yes, they will pay more in taxes.” “We have a new vision for America,” Sanders began. “And at a time when we have three people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom half of America while 500,000 people are sleeping out on the streets today, we think it is time for change, real change. And by that, I mean that health care in my view is a human right and we have got to pass a Medicare for All single-payer system. “Under that system, by the way, [the] vast majority of the people in this country will be paying significantly less for health care than they are right now.” “I believe that education is the future for this country and that is why I believe we must make public colleges and universities tuition-free and eliminate student debt, and we do that by placing a tax on Wall Street.” He continued: “Every proposal that I have brought forth is fully paid for.” Guthrie said she would give Sanders “10 seconds just to answer the very direct question: Will you raise taxes for the middle class in a Sanders administration.” “People who have health care under Medicare for All will have no premiums, no deductibles, no copayments, no out of pocket expenses. Yes, they will pay more in taxes, but less in health care for what they get.” Bernie Sanders (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) Still, taxes would significantly increase as “the government takes on trillions of dollars in health care costs now covered by employers and individuals,” the Associated Press fact checked . “Independent studies estimate the government would be spending an additional $28 trillion to $36 trillion over 10 years, although Medicare for All supporters say that’s overstating it. How those tax increases would be divvied up remains to be seen, as Sanders has not released a blueprint for how to finance his plan.” Story continues Health care, a contentious topic among candidates in the first debate night, was expected to be an explosive talking point during the second debate with top-polling candidates like Sanders and Joe Biden. But lower-profile candidates also dove into the health care debate. Sen. Michael Bennet, who was the last candidate to earn a spot on the debate stage, took a shot at Sanders on taxes. Bennet said he believed in getting to universal health care. “I believe the way to do that is by finishing the work we started with Obamacare and creating a public option that every family and every person in America can make a choice for their family about whether they want a public option which for them would be like having Medicare for All or whether they want to keep their private insurance. I believe we will get there much more quickly if we do that.” “Bernie mentioned the taxes that we would have to pay, because of those taxes, Vermont rejected Medicare for All,” he added. Sanders shook his head in response. When asked which candidates would abolish private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan, only Sanders and Harris raised their hands. Supporters of a single-payer plan like Medicare for All say that a “public option” to buy insurance, the competing approach, is just another incremental step, like Obamacare, that perpetuates the power and profits of the private insurance industry while failing to achieve universal coverage. Those against Medicare for All say it would be too hard to implement, resulting in underfunded hospitals due to lower Medicare-rate payments, and not provide enough options for consumers. “Everybody who says Medicare for All, every person in politics who allows that phrase to escape their lips has a responsibility to explain how you're actually supposed to get from here to there,” said South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. “I would call it Medicare for All Who Want It.” Buttigieg said he would take parts of Medicare and give people an option to buy into it, providing “a very natural glide path to the single-payer environment.” _____ Read more from Yahoo News: 5 key takeaways in the first Democratic debate 'BORING!': How the Trump team reacted to the debate Beto breaks into Spanish in first answer NBC hot mic mars a moment Health care question divides the field Here's the one thing Democratic candidates want you to remember about them after tonight's debate
Five Japanese automakers sign on to SoftBank-Toyota self-drive venture TOKYO (Reuters) - Five Japanese automakers including Suzuki Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp on Friday said they would each invest 2% in the on-demand, self-driving car service venture set up by SoftBank Corp and Toyota Motor Corp. Suzuki, Mazda, Subaru Corp, Isuzu Motors Ltd and Toyota's compact car unit Daihatsu will each invest 57.1 million yen ($530,620) in the venture - dubbed Monet - in return for a 2% stake, the companies said in a statement. SoftBank and Toyota will each retain their 35% stakes in the company, which is now capitalized at $26.6 million. The latest investors join Honda Motor Co Ltd and Hino Motors Ltd, Toyota's truck-making operations, which each own 10% stakes. Launched in October, the venture plans to roll out on-demand bus and car services in Japan in the next year, and a services platform for electric vehicles in the country as early as 2023 based on Toyota's boxy "e-palette" multi-purpose vehicle. Monet is building up members as it joins the ride-sharing sphere which is dominated by startups such as Uber Technologies Inc, Didi Chuxing and Lyft Inc, as traditional automakers band together to compete in an industry which is placing growing emphasis on offering vehicle services rather than selling cars to individual drivers. Automakers are increasingly joining forces with technology companies as well as each other as they grapple with the massive investment and software expertise required to develop these new services for which demand has yet to be tested. The new investment will see Suzuki, Mazda and Subaru deepen their partnership with Toyota, as they have already agreed to tap the R&D firepower of Japan's biggest automaker for electric cars and other future vehicle technologies. Friday's announcement comes after Monet's chief executive told Reuters earlier this month it was planning to expand its investor base and start operating in Southeast Asia next year. ($1 = 107.6100 yen) (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
Inside Google's Civil War It started in Tokyo onNov. 1, 2018, when 100 employees walked out of Google’s office at 11:10 a.m. local time. Thirteen hours later, the elevators at the company’s New York City headquarters were so packed that workers took the stairs down to the street to protest.Googleemployees in Austin observed two minutes of silence for victims of sexual assault as part of their demonstration. In San Francisco, hundreds of employees gathered across from the historic Ferry Building and chanted “Time’s Up at Google” and held signs with slogans like “Workers’ Rights Are Women’s Rights” and “Free Food ≠ Safe Space.” After Googlers in Sydney walked out, 25 hours after Asia had kicked things off, 20,000 Google employees in 50 cities around the world had joined their colleagues to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment. The spark that ignited the walkout was aNew York Timesarticlethat had appeared a week earlier, reporting that Google paid former executive Andy Rubin a $90 million exit package, despite facing a sexual misconduct accusation Google deemed credible. (In a statement to theTimes, Rubin said the story contained “numerous inaccuracies about my employment.”) It was the first time the world had seen such a massive worker protest erupt out of one of the giants of the technology industry—and certainly the first time outsiders got a glimpse at the depth of anger and frustration felt by some Google employees. But inside the Googleplex, the fuel that fed the walkout had been collecting for months. Tensions had been on the rise as employees clashed with management over allegations of controversial business decisions made in secret, treatment of marginalized groups of employees, and harassment and trolling of workers on the company’s internal platforms. “It’s the U.S. culture war playing out at micro-scale,” says Colin McMillen, an engineer who left the company in February. To many observers, the tech workforce—notoriously well-paid and pampered with perks—hardly seems in a position to complain. And it’s a surprising tune to hear from employees of one of the titans of Silicon Valley, a place that has long worshipped at the altar of meritocracy and utopian techno-futurism. But in the past few years, the industry’s de facto mission statement—change the world (and make money doing it!)—has been called into question as examples of tech’s destructive power multiply, from election interference to toxicity on social media platforms to privacy breaches to tech addiction. No one is closer to tech’s growing might, as well as its ethical quandaries, than the employees who help create it. “People are beginning to say, ‘I don’t want to be complicit in this,’ ” says Meredith Whittaker, who leads Google’s Open Research group and is one of the walkout organizers. Workers are beginning to take responsibility, she says: “I don’t see many other structures in place right now that are checking tech power.” As the so-called techlash has cast a pall over the entire sector, organized employee pushback is slowly becoming part of the landscape:Amazonworkers are demanding more action from the company on battling climate change; atMicrosoft, employees say they don’t want to build technology for warfare; at Salesforce, a group has lobbied management to end its work with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. Meanwhile, there’s not a company in the sector that isn’t grappling at some level with the ways bro-gramming culture has made tech a toxic space for women and employees of color. But nowhere has the furor been as loud, as public, and as insistent as it has been at Google. That’s no surprise to Silicon Valley insiders, who say Google was purpose-built to amplify employee voices. With its “Don’t be evil” mantra, Google was a central player in creating the rosy optimism of the tech boom. “It has very consciously cultivated this image,” says Terry Winograd, a professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford who was Google cofounder Larry Page’s grad school adviser and would go on to serve on the company’s technical advisory board. “It makes them much more prone to this kind of uprising.” Page, now 46, and cofounder Sergey Brin, 45, intentionally created a culture that encouraged the questioning of authority and the status quo, famously writing in their 2004 IPO letter that Google was not a conventional company and did not intend to become one. Some workers say Google’s promise to remain unconventional is in question. Interviews with 32 current and former employees revealed a demarcation between what several called “Old Google” and “New Google.” Whether there’s a clear-cut line between these eras—the company got its start in a Menlo Park, Calif., garage in 1998, when Page and Brin were still Ph.D. students at Stanford—depends on whom you ask. But there is a pattern in how they describe the change: At Old Google, employees say they had a voice in how the company was run. At New Google, the communication and trust between the rank and file and executives is in decline. Decision-making power, some say, is now concentrated at the very top of a company run by executives who are increasingly driven by conventional business metrics. Now Google finds itself in the awkward position of trying to temper the radical culture that it spent the past 20 years stoking. Boasting more than 100,000 employees between Google and its parent company, Alphabet, executives acknowledge that the company is struggling to balance its size with maintenance of the principles, like employee voice, that were so foundational. “You can’t go through that kind of growth without the culture needing to evolve,” says Jen Fitzpatrick, a Google SVP and a member of CEO Sundar Pichai’s leadership team. (Pichai declinedFortune’s requests for an interview.) The company says it is trying to manage its ballooning diversity of perspectives and projects, as well as do a better job predicting the kinds of issues for which employees will demand full transparency. However, it adds that the activist employees are a small but vocal group, and that their opinions don’t represent those of employees at large. “Twenty-eighteen was a different year for us—the magnitude and the nature of some of these issues is just different,” says Brian Welle, VP of people analytics at Google. The tumult was reflected in the results of the annual companywide Googlegeist survey, which was leaked to the press in February. Key metrics were down double-digit percentage points over 2017. For instance, while 74% of respondents said they had confidence in Pichai and the management team, that’s an 18 percentage point drop from the previous year. Most challenging to Google is employees’ refusal to keep their discontent within the company’s walls, a strategy that’s been bolstered by activists’ sophisticated use of the media and the world’s fascination with the iconic company. The scene that played out at the walkout was, on one level, as familiar as a factory strike—a labor force flexing its collective power to send a message to The Man (in this case, CEO Pichai). But even as activists inside Google are relying on traditional labor organizing tactics, their demands are not just the typical wage or benefits ask. It’s about much more than a paycheck; employees, it’s clear, want a say in and control over the products they build. Google has already transformed so many aspects of the way we work today. The walkout was an inflection point, a sign that the company is now poised to disrupt something even more foundational to our economic system: the relationship between labor and capital. It’s a shift that could perhaps begin only in Silicon Valley, a place that has long believed itself above such traditional business concerns—and, more to the point, only at this company, one that hired and retained employees on the premise of do no evil. Now employees seem determined to view that manifesto through their own lens and apply it without compromise, even at the cost of the company’s growth. “Who decides what is the soul of Google and what Google is?” asks Lokman Tsui, formerly Google’s go-to executive on issues of free expression and censorship in Asia and the Pacific. “Is it leadership or employees? There’s a real battle for the soul of these companies right now.” Google’s broad missionof organizing the world’s information and making it more accessible has led the company to digitize books, mount cameras on the top of cars in order to map the world through images, and design virtual reality viewers made of cardboard. But as the company has grown ever larger, so have its ambitions. In 2018, as Google employees found out about two new secretive projects that were underway, some questioned whether the tech giant had stretched too far beyond the bounds of its mandate in the name of expansion. The first was the Pentagon’s Project Maven, which uses artificial intelligence to help analyze drone footage. Google became a subcontractor to the Department of Defense for Maven in 2017, but most people inside the company didn’t learn about it until the following year, when an employee wrote an unsanctioned post about the clandestine project on Google’s internal social media platform. Executives told worried employees that Maven was defensive rather than offensive. Still, some workers were concerned that Google’s technology could ultimately be used to make drone strikes more lethal, and that Maven would lead to additional deals between Google and the military. What’s more, some say management’s argument that the contract was in support of “our” military did not always resonate with a global workforce. For Laura Nolan, then a Google engineer working in Ireland, “It was such a betrayal,” she says. “We’re pretending to be a happy company that does lovely information organizing, and then you’re building several steps toward killer drones flying around.” Nolan, who says her work would have enabled future stages of Maven, quit the company over it. Employees like Nolan didn’t expect Google to be a defense contractor like Raytheon—or even like Amazon, which has been open and unapologetic about working with the military. Even before the bulk of the company learned about Maven, several senior engineers were escalating their concerns internally. Once Maven became more widely known, the resistance spread, with a group of employees writing a letter to Pichai asking that he cancel the project. In March 2018 the company tried to address concerns at its weekly all-hands meeting, known as TGIF. The gathering has been core to Google’s culture since its early days, in large part because it gives anyone the chance to question senior management. At the meeting, an employee told executives she used to work for the Department of Defense but left to avoid contributing to military technology. What, she asked, were her avenues for letting management know this was not okay? The fact that you can ask that question here is a powerful voice, Brin told her. At some companies this would have been a sufficient answer. At Google it was not. Management continued to put together forums to try to address employee concerns and explain why they believed Maven was a worthwhile project, holding three town halls to discuss the ethics of A.I. A group of organizers kept up the pressure, making sure there was a Maven question every week at TGIF. They tracked the number of employees who quit over the issue, handed out stickers, and made mocking memes about Maven on Google’s internal meme creator. The debate turned public in April 2018 when the original letter sent to Pichai, which would eventually garner nearly 5,000 employee signatures, was leaked to theNew York Times. In June, Google announced that it would not renew its contract for Maven and released a set of A.I. principles laying out guidelines for the future of the technology—including a vow not to use it to create weapons. Most of the employee activists viewed the announcement as a win, but speaking at aTimesconference later that year, Pichai played down the influence of the internal pressures. “We don’t run the company by referendum,” he said. He explained that he had listened to people actually working on building A.I. in making the decision. He stressed, however, that the company continued to do work with the military in areas like cybersecurity. Then, in August, just as the tensions over Maven were beginning to dissolve, The Intercept published a story revealing that Google was working on a censored search engine for China—code-named Dragonfly—that would block information related to topics like human rights and democracy. For most employees, this was the first they had heard of it. (Google says the project was exploratory and was therefore still confidential.) Jack Poulson says he was the sixth or seventh employee to cite Dragonfly as a reason for quitting. “It was crossing a line for what it was I felt I wanted to do with my life,” says Poulson, who was a senior research scientist at Google. “I was literally profiting from a company suppressing political speech.” When, the following month, the U.S. Senate’s Commerce Committee called on Google’s chief privacy officer to testify at a hearing about data privacy, Poulson sent his own letter to the committee: “I am part of a growing movement in the tech industry advocating for more transparency, oversight, and accountability for the systems we build.” Google had previously operated a search engine in China but pulled out in 2010 after the company got hacked. At the time, management had taken what some viewed as a moral stand, with Brin saying he saw “earmarks of totalitarianism” in the country. With Dragonfly, some employees supported the return. But for those who described the 2010 decision as a defining moment for Google’s culture, the reversal was galling. “I wondered what the heck had changed in the eight years since then,” says McMillen. Pichai was asked that question at theNew York Timesconference. His response: “Our mission is to serve everyone in the world. As part of that, it’s natural we would think about users in China as well.” He added that Dragonfly was an experiment, and “nothing was imminent.” Then a new employee, McMillen recalls the company’s 2010 decision to pull out of search in China as foundational—the literal embodiment of Google’s “don’t be evil” ethos. “As part of the perks, Google offered you the self-satisfaction of doing good in the world,” says Whittaker, who was involved in the employee resistance to both Maven and Dragonfly. “That was profound for a lot of people.” Paul Buchheit, a onetime Google engineer who’s credited with coining the mantra in the early 2000s, says “Don’t be evil” was not a magical, black-and-white standard. It was a way to pause and be reflective about the work. How did the company decide whether a given project met the criteria? “Any arbitrary employee was empowered to ask,” he says. Because Dragonfly began in secret, some employees believed they’d been robbed of that opportunity. Nor were they convinced that Google management had asked itself the hard questions. “There was never any communication that they had thought through the ethical ramifications,” says McMillen. Workers should be able to make their own well-informed ethical decisions about giving their labor to Google, he says. Some workers indirectly involved in Dragonfly hadn’t even known what they were working on. “What are Google’s red lines around censorship and surveillance?” asks Poulson. “I researched this as much as I could as an employee and still didn’t know.” While Maven, Dragonfly, and even the Rubin payout that gave rise to the walkout angered employees for different reasons, there’s at least one connecting thread: secrecy. The company that was built around the value of information sharing had hit a threshold where a growing number of decisions were made behind closed doors. “We’ve always had confidential projects as a company,” said Pichai at a TGIF, according to a transcript of the meeting provided toFortune. “I think what happened when the company was smaller, you had a higher chance of knowing about it.” But where Googlemanagement has increasingly used confidentiality as a tool to maintain control of decision-making, some of Google’s activist employees have gone in the opposite direction—turning to the media to amplify their concerns. That’s a dramatic cultural shift for a company at which talking to the press without approval once guaranteed you’d be “viewed as a pariah,” says Liz Fong-Jones. A former Google site reliability engineer, Fong-Jones had never had a problem criticizing Google, provided it stayed within the company’s (virtual) walls. But in January 2018, her perspective changed. The catalyst: Google engineer James Damore’s infamous July 2017 memo, an internally published 10-page document arguing that women are underrepresented in the industry owing to biological differences rather than societal factors like bias, and that the company’s diversity efforts were discriminatory. The posting by Damore, who was ultimately fired, created a furor on Google’s freewheeling message boards and mailing lists. These internal communication channels are one of the oddities of Google’s culture: The company has tens of thousands of them dedicated to everything from engineering to all things cats—run by the so-called Mewglers. From clandestine projects to leaks to walkouts, it’s been an eventful couple of years at Google. Things got even uglier when Damore sympathizers leaked comments made on the message boards by Fong-Jones, a trans woman, and other Google diversity advocates to right-wing news sites. As a result, Fong-Jones says, the group was besieged by harassment and violent threats, which, despite their repeated pleas for help, management was unable to halt. “We were asking them to stop these malicious leaks,” she says. Fong-Jones had a proven track record of getting management to listen to her. She’d successfully spearheaded an effort to get the company to end its policy requiring people to use their real names on its social media site Google Plus, convincing executives that such a policy would expose the most vulnerable users to trolling and worse. But now she felt like the lines of communication between management and employees had broken down. It was enough for her to decide that this was a problem that would not be solved internally. In October 2017, Fong-Jones and a group of other targeted employees met with Coworker.org, an organization that usually works with low-wage workers, to help think through a PR and internal organizing strategy. “It was clear to us the company wasn’t going to do anything, and we needed to apply media pressure,” Fong-Jones says. In January she and 14 other current and former employees talked about the harassment—and Google’s response to the issue—withWired. Understanding that going toWiredwithout company approval had broken a Google taboo, members of the group published an internal post explaining their motivation—and making clear that they drew a distinction between discussing working conditions (a protected right under labor law) and leaking information about Google products or other confidential company information, which they continued to believe was off limits. Unsurprisingly, not all of their fellow employees bought the justification: “I got some negative comments along the lines of, this really sucks for you, but why did you air Google’s dirty laundry?” says McMillen, one of the then-Google employees who spoke toWired. One reason Fong-Jones says she takes a hard line against product leaks is that they provide management with a strong justification for sharing less information with employees. Some point to what happened last August as a prime example. Brin and Pichai were addressing the weekly TGIF meeting when it became clear that someone in the room or watching the livestream of the event was leaking what was being said to aNew York Timesreporter—who was tweeting the discussion, in real time, to the world at large. One employee stood up and said “Fuck you!” to the anonymous leaker, to the applause of his colleagues. “That ruined TGIF forever,” says McMillen. “Nothing of interest is going to be said at TGIF anymore.” When he left Google, Poulson says he was warned against talking to the media. “I was explicitly told that should I ever want to come back to the company, they could ignore my politics and focus on my technical contribution as long as I didn’t do something as unforgivable as speak to the press,” he toldFortune. “To be blunt, I don’t think they will be happy I’m having this phone call with you.” When it comes to employee activism, Silicon Valley is at a crossroads. At some tech giants (Apple,Facebook, Oracle), workers are still largely toeing the company line. But others are contending with employees who seem to be following the Google playbook: Ahead of the walkout, Pichai sent out a memo to employees voicing his support and acknowledged at a conference that day that Google had not always gotten it right. “There’s anger and frustration within the company,” he said. “We all feel it. I feel it too.” At headquarters in Mountain View, CFO Ruth Porat joined the walkout with her team. Other executives simply avoided the question of whether to participate. Fitzpatrick toldFortuneshe had been out of the office that day and declined to revisit it when asked if she would have participated had she been on campus. Parts of the corporate response rubbed organizers the wrong way. They viewed executives’ embrace as an attempt to recast the walkout as some sort of sanctioned company picnic. And if Porat supported the walkout, some asked, why didn’t she use her power as a C-suite executive to implement their demands? Both McMillen and Fong-Jones quit not long after, saying they found the company’s response lackadaisical. For Fong-Jones, the biggest disappointment was the company’s unwillingness to comply with the organizers’ demand to put a worker representative on the board. “Employees are in a really good position to understand the issues,” she says. She was happy people were staying to fight, but she was burned out. Google management has shown a willingness to listen to employees—and, in some cases, to change. The company says it had become over-reliant on TGIF and is now too big and sprawling to address every issue in the weekly one-hour meeting. It’s experimenting with adding different forums, like town halls focused on single topics, such as its recently published diversity report. “That was a realization that we came to as we started to see people raising their hands and saying, ‘My voice isn’t getting heard enough,’ ” says Fitzpatrick. And in an attempt to quell the increase in uncivil interactions on its internal platforms, its new “community guidelines” ban slurs and references to sex acts in any work document and require every online group to have a moderator, who must go through training. The company has also revamped internal reporting channels for issues like sexual harassment. The Google organizers have taken to calling themselves the “entitled vocal majority,” after one employee publicly referred to them as the “entitled vocal minority.” No matter its size, there’s no denying the group has been impactful, playing a role in Google’s decision to not renew its contract for Project Maven. The company also has killed Dragonfly, saying there are no plans to launch search in China and that no work is being undertaken on such a project. Google has also pulled out of its sponsorship of the Conservative Political Action Conference—it irked the company’s liberal employees to see the company’s logo next to the NRA’s—and disbanded its artificial intelligence ethics council after employees published an open letter contesting the appointment of the president of conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. Google employees have started to flex their power beyond the company too. The one walkout demand Google met was doing away with forced arbitration, which required employees settle their disputes with the company behind closed doors. A group of Googlers has taken the fight to Washington, where it is pushing for legislation that would ban the practice. “Congresspeople take meetings with Google workers that they didn’t take with Chipotle workers,” says Vicki Tardif, an ontologist at Google, who has been with the company for eight years. If they’re able to help push something through, she says, “then we’ve done that greater good that we came to Google to do.” In April, the conflict inside the company reached a new level when Whittaker and Claire Stapleton, two women instrumental in planning the walkout, published an open letter accusing Google of retaliating against them for their organizing activities. Whittaker wrote that after the A.I. council was disbanded, she was told that in order to remain at the company, she would have to abandon her work on A.I. ethics at Google as well as at the AI Now Institute, an outside organization she cofounded. Stapleton said that after almost 12 years at Google, she was told two months after the walkout that she would be demoted and later that she should go on medical leave, even though she wasn’t sick. It wasn’t until she hired a lawyer that Google conducted an investigation and walked back her demotion, she wrote. “We’re tapping into something that’s an existential threat to Google,” Stapleton toldFortune. The company responded to their accusations that day with a statement saying there was no retaliation and that it prohibits “retaliation in the workplace and investigates all allegations.” To some employees, the charges of retaliation are the most serious yet levied against the company. Much of the organizing efforts have been led by site reliability engineers (SREs). Their remit is to operate the most critical services Google runs. When something breaks, they’re the ones who get paged to fix it. They troubleshoot and diagnose problems, and they are expected to have opinions and questions. “You have to go probe for weaknesses,” says Fong-Jones, who was an SRE, “and also challenge people when you think something that they’re trying to railroad through is not okay.” Within the SRE world, there’s a concept called blameless postmortem—it’s a way of looking back at mistakes made without throwing anyone under the bus. “It’s a fundamental part of the culture at Google,” says Tariq Yusuf, a privacy engineer who’s been with the company almost five years. “It’s an ability to say this is a thing that’s wrong.” Retaliation, he says, removes the core barrier of being able to safely raise issues. “The whole process breaks down.” The organizers have started to label their tactics as labor organizing, which some had previously avoided, fearing that it would be off-putting to a workforce that had traditionally aligned itself more with management. During Maven, a few employees went on “interview strikes,” declining to participate in interviewing and recruiting candidates—a form of protest they accelerated in response to the retaliation claims. On May 1, International Workers’ Day, six months after the walkout, employees embraced another old-school labor organizing strategy, staging a sit-in to address retaliation. In New York, the mood was somber, almost vigil-like. A couple hundred employees gathered to talk about the different kinds of retaliation they said they had faced: for organizing, for reporting sexual harassment. Some cried. There was even talk of forming a union. “We’re not walking back our gains,” says Whittaker, “and we’re not going to shut up.” A version of this article appears in the June 2019 issue of Fortune with the headline “Google’s Civil War.” —The2019Fortune500 listdemonstrates theprize of size —Fortune500CEO Survey: The results are in —What theFortune500 would look like as amicrobiome —TheOccidental-Anadarko mergerreveals the crude truth about oil prices —Whythe giantsamong this year’sFortune500 should intimidate you Catch up withData Sheet,Fortune‘s daily digest on the business of tech.
Bids to destroy WTO or lower its role counter-productive: Putin OSAKA (Reuters) - Attempts to lower the role of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) or to destroy it are counter-productive, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. "This is clear that it (global trade) needs to be adapted to the present-day developments," Putin told a meeting of leaders from BRICS nations on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Japan's western city of Osaka. "We consider counter-productive any attempts to destroy WTO or to lower its role." The current situation in the global economy was worrying, he added, as global trade was feeling the effect of "protectionism, (and) politically motivated restrictions." (Reporting by Katya Golubkova in OSAKA and Maria Vasilyeva in MOSCOW; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Clarence Fernandez)
Trump Slams Democrats Over Health Care for Undocumented Immigrants It was unclear whether President Donald Trump would be following along with the second night of the Democratic primary presidential debates from Osaka, Japan, where he isattending the G-20 summit. But Trump found time to take to Twitter when Democrats backed healthcare for undocumented immigrations Thursday night. “All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare. How about taking care of American Citizens first!?” the president said as Republicans in the previous Congress had failed to pass the Senate’s version of a reformed Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. “That’s the end of that race!” Trump tweeted, perhaps indicating he will hit the campaign trail hard with repealing and replacing Obamacare as he did in 2016. The topics of discussion mostly focused on health care and immigration in the first half of the debate hosted by NBC and MSNBC, not a surprise given the robust debate on both from the night before. Candidates were asked whether an undocumented migrant would necessarily have to be deported under their potential presidency as well as whether those people would be absorbed into a universal healthcare in whatever form each candidate is proposing. The second debate of 10 candidates includes former Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Bernie Sanders, as well as South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg. —Harris has a strong showing, stuns Biden on night 2 of Democratic debate —Democratic debate night 1:What we learnedfrom each candidate —2019Democratic debate night 1: Highlights —2019Democratic debate night 2: Highlights —Fact-checkingclaims from night 1 of the Democratic debate —Fact-checkingclaims from night 2 of the Democratic debate
Jackie Kennedy Onassis' Luxurious Martha's Vineyard Estate Is on the Market for $65 Million A piece of Kennedy family history is up for grabs — for a presidential price. Jackie Kennedy Onassis ‘ breathtaking Martha’s Vineyard estate, known as the Red Gate Farm, was recently put on the market by her daughter Caroline Kennedy . The ocean-front property, which Jackie purchased in 1978 for around $1 million , is now being listed for an impressive $65 million. “Forty years ago, my mother fell in love with Martha’s Vineyard. When she found Red Gate Farm, it was a perfect expression of her romantic and adventurous spirit,” Caroline explained in a statement to Christie’s International Real Estate. “We are excited about the next chapter for Red Gate Farm.” Christie’s International Real Estate Christie’s International Real Estate RELATED: With $3 Million and Two Years of Work, Jackie Onassis Buys Some Peace and Quiet by the Sea The new owner of the 340-acre Aquinnah, Massachusetts estate will have plenty of room to host, as it includes a 6,456-square-foot main residence with five bedrooms and five bathrooms; a two-story, four-bedroom/three-bathroom guest house; a three-bedroom caretaker’s house; and a two-bedroom guest/staff apartment, according to the listing . The estate also features an outdoor pool, a tennis court, a fairy treehouse (built for the grandkids by Jackie, herself), a vegetable garden, a blueberry patch, a barn, a boathouse, two freshwater ponds, and a private beach stretching more than a mile long. John F. Kennedy and Jackie pose with their children Caroline and John Jr. at the Kennedy Compound Additionally, the hunting cabin, which was the only structure there when Jackie purchased Red Gate Farm in the late 1970s, is still a part of the legendary property. Since her passing, the former first lady’s Massachusetts residence, which was used as a summer home and a getaway from her glamorous life, has been preserved by her daughter over the past 40 years. Christie’s International Real Estate Christie’s International Real Estate Christie’s International Real Estate RELATED: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: Rare, Gorgeous Photos of the Iconic First Lady Caroline, 61, said she is hoping that the next people to take over Red Gate Farm will treasure it as much as their family, including her three children Rose, 31, Tatiana, 29, and Jack, 26, with husband Edwin Schlossberg, did. Story continues “The dunes and ponds and rolling hills of Aquinnah gave her the chance to create a world where she could be so close to nature, close to her family and friends, and, most importantly, close to her beloved books,” she continued. “She even built a fairy treehouse for her grandchildren.” “Those grandchildren are grown so now it is time for us to follow my mother’s example and create our own worlds,” Caroline added. “We hope that a new family will treasure this place as we have for three generations.” Christie’s International Real Estate Christie’s International Real Estate Christie’s International Real Estate Christie’s International Real Estate RELATED: A Tribute to the ‘Magic’ of Jackie Kennedy’s Life, Legacy, Style 25 Years After Her Death Before purchasing the private estate, Jackie spent her summers living with her first husband John F. Kennedy at his family’s Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, according to the Wall Street Journal. She continued to spend summers there, even after the former president was assassinated in 1963. Five years following his tragic death, Jackie married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis . Once Onassis died in 1975, Jackie went searching for a place of her own and stumbled upon the private Martha’s Vineyard oasis, the outlet reports. The former first lady passed away in May 1994 after a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Red Gate Farm is being marketed globally by Christie’s International Real Estate, which is represented locally by Tom LeClair and Gery Conover, agents of LandVest, the exclusive Affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate on Martha’s Vineyard .
Boasting A 15% Return On Equity, Is Shenzhen International Holdings Limited (HKG:152) A Top Quality Stock? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. We'll use ROE to examine Shenzhen International Holdings Limited (HKG:152), by way of a worked example. Over the last twelve monthsShenzhen International Holdings has recorded a ROE of 15%. That means that for every HK$1 worth of shareholders' equity, it generated HK$0.15 in profit. Check out our latest analysis for Shenzhen International Holdings Theformula for return on equityis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Shenzhen International Holdings: 15% = HK$4.2b ÷ HK$44b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) Most know that net profit is the total earnings after all expenses, but the concept of shareholders' equity is a little more complicated. It is the capital paid in by shareholders, plus any retained earnings. The easiest way to calculate shareholders' equity is to subtract the company's total liabilities from the total assets. ROE measures a company's profitability against the profit it retains, and any outside investments. The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. A higher profit will lead to a higher ROE. So, all else equal,investors should like a high ROE. That means it can be interesting to compare the ROE of different companies. By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. As is clear from the image below, Shenzhen International Holdings has a better ROE than the average (10%) in the Infrastructure industry. That's what I like to see. We think a high ROE, alone, is usually enough to justify further research into a company. For example,I often check if insiders have been buying shares. Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the debt required for growth will boost returns, but will not impact the shareholders' equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking. Although Shenzhen International Holdings does use debt, its debt to equity ratio of 0.60 is still low. The combination of modest debt and a very respectable ROE suggests this is a business worth watching. Conservative use of debt to boost returns is usually a good move for shareholders, though it does leave the company more exposed to interest rate rises. Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies. In my book the highest quality companies have high return on equity, despite low debt. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt. But ROE is just one piece of a bigger puzzle, since high quality businesses often trade on high multiples of earnings. The rate at which profits are likely to grow, relative to the expectations of profit growth reflected in the current price, must be considered, too. So you might want to check this FREEvisualization of analyst forecasts for the company. If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Modi says one-sided decisions drive development of global economy OSAKA (Reuters) - The development of the global economy is largely driven by one-sided decisions and disputes felt by the entire system, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday. "We should still focus on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) reform to achieve balanced development of the global economy and so this growth is open to everyone," Modi told a meeting of leaders of the grouping of BRICS nations on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan's western city of Osaka. (Reporting by Katya Golubkova in OSAKA and Maria Vasilyeva in MOSCOW; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Is China Lesso Group Holdings Limited's (HKG:2128) P/E Ratio Really That Good? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll show how you can use China Lesso Group Holdings Limited's (HKG:2128) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity.What is China Lesso Group Holdings's P/E ratio?Well, based on the last twelve months it is 6.4. That means that at current prices, buyers pay HK$6.4 for every HK$1 in trailing yearly profits. View our latest analysis for China Lesso Group Holdings Theformula for price to earningsis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share (in the reporting currency) ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for China Lesso Group Holdings: P/E of 6.4 = CN¥5.14(Note: this is the share price in the reporting currency, namely, CNY )÷ CN¥0.80 (Based on the year to December 2018.) A higher P/E ratio implies that investors paya higher pricefor the earning power of the business. That isn't a good or a bad thing on its own, but a high P/E means that buyers have a higher opinion of the business's prospects, relative to stocks with a lower P/E. Generally speaking the rate of earnings growth has a profound impact on a company's P/E multiple. Earnings growth means that in the future the 'E' will be higher. And in that case, the P/E ratio itself will drop rather quickly. So while a stock may look expensive based on past earnings, it could be cheap based on future earnings. China Lesso Group Holdings increased earnings per share by 8.7% last year. And its annual EPS growth rate over 5 years is 11%. The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. We can see in the image below that the average P/E (7.9) for companies in the building industry is higher than China Lesso Group Holdings's P/E. This suggests that market participants think China Lesso Group Holdings will underperform other companies in its industry. Many investors like to buy stocks when the market is pessimistic about their prospects. You should delve deeper. I like to checkif company insiders have been buying or selling. One drawback of using a P/E ratio is that it considers market capitalization, but not the balance sheet. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings. Spending on growth might be good or bad a few years later, but the point is that the P/E ratio does not account for the option (or lack thereof). China Lesso Group Holdings's net debt equates to 39% of its market capitalization. While that's enough to warrant consideration, it doesn't really concern us. China Lesso Group Holdings trades on a P/E ratio of 6.4, which is below the HK market average of 10.8. The company does have a little debt, and EPS is moving in the right direction. If you believe growth will continue - or even increase - then the low P/E may signify opportunity. Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. If it is underestimating a company, investors can make money by buying and holding the shares until the market corrects itself. So thisfreevisualization of the analyst consensus on future earningscould help you make theright decisionabout whether to buy, sell, or hold. Of courseyou might be able to find a better stock than China Lesso Group Holdings. So you may wish to see thisfreecollection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
I Built A List Of Growing Companies And China Lesso Group Holdings (HKG:2128) Made The Cut Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Like a puppy chasing its tail, some new investors often chase 'the next big thing', even if that means buying 'story stocks' without revenue, let alone profit. Unfortunately, high risk investments often have little probability of ever paying off, and many investors pay a price to learn their lesson. If, on the other hand, you like companies that have revenue, and even earn profits, then you may well be interested inChina Lesso Group Holdings(HKG:2128). Even if the shares are fully valued today, most capitalists would recognize its profits as the demonstration of steady value generation. While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, unless its owners have an endless appetite for subsidizing the customer, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else breathe its last breath. View our latest analysis for China Lesso Group Holdings If a company can keep growing earnings per share (EPS) long enough, its share price will eventually follow. It's no surprise, then, that I like to invest in companies with EPS growth. We can see that in the last three years China Lesso Group Holdings grew its EPS by 15% per year. That growth rate is fairly good, assuming the company can keep it up. Careful consideration of revenue growth and earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margins can help inform a view on the sustainability of the recent profit growth. While we note China Lesso Group Holdings's EBIT margins were flat over the last year, revenue grew by a solid 17% to CN¥24b. That's progress. In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings, and revenue, over time. To see the actual numbers, click on the chart. In investing, as in life, the future matters more than the past. So why not check out thisfreeinteractive visualization of China Lesso Group Holdings'sforecastprofits? Personally, I like to see high insider ownership of a company, since it suggests that it will be managed in the interests of shareholders. So we're pleased to report that China Lesso Group Holdings insiders own a meaningful share of the business. Indeed, with a collective holding of 69%, company insiders are in control and have plenty of capital behind the venture. This makes me think they will be incentivised to plan for the long term - something I like to see. And their holding is extremely valuable at the current share price, totalling CN¥12b. Now that's what I call some serious skin in the game! It means a lot to see insiders invested in the business, but I find myself wondering if remuneration policies are shareholder friendly. Well, based on the CEO pay, I'd say they are indeed. I discovered that the median total compensation for the CEOs of companies like China Lesso Group Holdings with market caps between CN¥6.9b and CN¥22b is about CN¥3.5m. The China Lesso Group Holdings CEO received total compensation of just CN¥1.2m in the year to December 2018. That's clearly well below average, so at a glance, that arrangement seems generous to shareholders, and points to a modest remuneration culture. While the level of CEO compensation isn't a huge factor in my view of the company, modest remuneration is a positive, because it suggests that the board keeps shareholder interests in mind. It can also be a sign of good governance, more generally. As I already mentioned, China Lesso Group Holdings is a growing business, which is what I like to see. Earnings growth might be the main game for China Lesso Group Holdings, but the fun doesnotstop there. With a meaningful level of insider ownership, and reasonable CEO pay, a reasonable mind might conclude that this is one stock worth watching. Of course, just because China Lesso Group Holdings is growing does not mean it is undervalued. If you're wondering about the valuation, check outthis gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry. You can invest in any company you want. But if you prefer to focus on stocks that have demonstrated insider buying, here isa list of companies with insider buying in the last three months. Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Kingdee International Software Group Company Limited (HKG:268): Will The Growth Last? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Looking at Kingdee International Software Group Company Limited's (HKG:268) earnings update in December 2018, analyst consensus outlook appear cautiously subdued, as a 11% rise in profits is expected in the upcoming year, compared with the higher past 5-year average growth rate of 18%. Presently, with latest-twelve-month earnings at CN¥412m, we should see this growing to CN¥456m by 2020. In this article, I've outline a few earnings growth rates to give you a sense of the market sentiment for Kingdee International Software Group in the longer term. Investors wanting to learn more about other aspects of the company shouldresearch its fundamentals here. View our latest analysis for Kingdee International Software Group Longer term expectations from the 19 analysts covering 268’s stock is one of positive sentiment. Since forecasting becomes more difficult further into the future, broker analysts generally project out to around three years. I've plotted out each year's earnings expectations and inserted a line of best fit to calculate an annual growth rate from the slope in order to understand the overall trajectory of 268's earnings growth over these next few years. From the current net income level of CN¥412m and the final forecast of CN¥730m by 2022, the annual rate of growth for 268’s earnings is 19%. EPS reaches CN¥0.22 in the final year of forecast compared to the current CN¥0.13 EPS today. Margins are currently sitting at 15%, approximately the same as previous years. With analysts forecasting revenue growth of 0.79976 and 268's net income growth expected to roughly track that, this company may add value for shareholders over time. Future outlook is only one aspect when you're building an investment case for a stock. For Kingdee International Software Group, I've compiled three important factors you should further research: 1. Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Valuation: What is Kingdee International Software Group worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether Kingdee International Software Group is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Growth Alternatives: Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of Kingdee International Software Group? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large growth potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is Now The Time To Put AGL Energy (ASX:AGL) On Your Watchlist? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Some have more dollars than sense, they say, so even companies that have no revenue, no profit, and a record of falling short, can easily find investors. But as Peter Lynch said inOne Up On Wall Street, 'Long shots almost never pay off.' So if you're like me, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, likeAGL Energy(ASX:AGL). While that doesn't make the shares worth buying at any price, you can't deny that successful capitalism requires profit, eventually. In comparison, loss making companies act like a sponge for capital - but unlike such a sponge they do not always produce something when squeezed. Check out our latest analysis for AGL Energy Over the last three years, AGL Energy has grown earnings per share (EPS) like young bamboo after rain; fast, and from a low base. So I don't think the percent growth rate is particularly meaningful. Thus, it makes sense to focus on more recent growth rates, instead. Like a wedge-tailed eagle on the wind, AGL Energy's EPS soared from AU$1.26 to AU$1.92, in just one year. That's a impressive gain of 53%. One way to double-check a company's growth is to look at how its revenue, and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins are changing. AGL Energy's EBIT margins are flat but, of some concern, its revenue is actually down. Suffice it to say that is not a great sign of growth. In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings, and revenue, over time. For finer detail, click on the image. Fortunately, we've got access to analyst forecasts of AGL Energy'sfutureprofits. You can do your own forecasts without looking, or you cantake a peek at what the professionals are predicting. Like the kids in the streets standing up for their beliefs, insider share purchases give me reason to believe in a brighter future. Because oftentimes, the purchase of stock is a sign that the buyer views it as undervalued. However, insiders are sometimes wrong, and we don't know the exact thinking behind their acquisitions. Despite -AU$79.1k worth of sales, AGL Energy insiders have overwhelmingly been buying the stock, spending AU$393k on purchases in the last twelve months. On balance, to me, this signals their optimism. It is also worth noting that it was Chairman Graeme Hunt who made the biggest single purchase, worth AU$246k, paying AU$19.66 per share. It's me that AGL Energy insiders are buying the stock, but that's not the only reason to think leader are fair to shareholders. I refer to the very reasonable level of CEO pay. I discovered that the median total compensation for the CEOs of companies like AGL Energy with market caps between AU$5.7b and AU$17b is about AU$4.1m. The AGL Energy CEO received total compensation of just AU$1.9m in the year to June 2018. That looks like modest pay to me, and may hint at a certain respect for the interests of shareholders. While the level of CEO compensation isn't a huge factor in my view of the company, modest remuneration is a positive, because it suggests that the board keeps shareholder interests in mind. I'd also argue reasonable pay levels attest to good decision making more generally. You can't deny that AGL Energy has grown its earnings per share at a very impressive rate. That's attractive. And that's not the only positive, either. We have both insider buying and reasonable and remuneration to consider. The message I'd take from this quick rundown is that, yes, this stock is worth investigating further. If you think AGL Energy might suit your style as an investor, you could go straight to its annual report, or you could first checkour discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation for the company. There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. So if you like the sound of AGL Energy, you'll probably love thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
tZERO Launches Second Digital Security to Trade on PRO Securities ATS tZERO, a blockchain company focused on capital markets, announced today that the Digital Voting Series A-1 Preferred Stock is the second digital security available for trade on its PRO Securities ATS, an SEC registered alternative trading system. Listed as OSTKO – formerly OSTKP – it is available on the non-exchange venue that matches buyer and seller counterparties for transactions. The venue is backed by tZERO’s security token trading technology. This follows on “the commencement of secondary resales among accredited investors of tZERO’s security tokens in January 2019,” according to a company statement. Related:tZero’s New Wallet Lets Users Trade Bitcoin and Ethereum “This is a key step in the drive to attract additional assets, such as private companies, real estate, debt instruments, and commodities,” said Saum Noursalehi, CEO of tZERO. Dinosaur Financial Group, a subscriber to PRO, will serve as broker-dealer. Trades can only be placed through a digital securities brokerage account at Dinosaur. Additionally, clearing and custody will be provided by Electronic Transaction Clearing, and Computershare will act as transfer agent. Overstock issued the first SEC-registered digital security in the world, in 2016, the Blockchain Voting Series A Preferred Stock – OSTKP – using the same technology behind OSTKO, which will take over as its predecessor is retired. tZERO is a subsidiary of Overstock.com, which develops blockchain-based financial technologies. • Securitize Open-Sources Its Protocol, Partners With tZERO Token Exchange • Hong Kong Fund’s Projected $400 Million Overstock Investment Ends With $5 Million Close • Florincoin – The 2013 Altcoin You Don’t Remember – Is Attracting Real Users
How Do Analysts See Ansell Limited (ASX:ANN) Performing Over The Next Year? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! After Ansell Limited's (ASX:ANN) earnings announcement in December 2018, analysts seem fairly confident, with earnings expected to grow by 23% in the upcoming year against the past 5-year average growth rate of 4.6%. Currently with trailing-twelve-month earnings of US$139m, we can expect this to reach US$171m by 2020. Below is a brief commentary around Ansell's earnings outlook going forward, which may give you a sense of market sentiment for the company. Investors wanting to learn more about other aspects of the company shouldresearch its fundamentals here. See our latest analysis for Ansell Longer term expectations from the 10 analysts covering ANN’s stock is one of positive sentiment. Given that it becomes hard to forecast far into the future, broker analysts tend to project ahead roughly three years. I've plotted out each year's earnings expectations and inserted a line of best fit to calculate an annual growth rate from the slope in order to understand the overall trajectory of ANN's earnings growth over these next few years. This results in an annual growth rate of 8.2% based on the most recent earnings level of US$139m to the final forecast of US$200m by 2022. This leads to an EPS of $1.26 in the final year of projections relative to the current EPS of $0.96. In 2022, ANN's profit margin will have expanded from 9.3% to 12%. Future outlook is only one aspect when you're building an investment case for a stock. For Ansell, I've put together three essential aspects you should further research: 1. Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Valuation: What is Ansell worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether Ansell is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Growth Alternatives: Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of Ansell? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large growth potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Sparks fly as Kamala Harris challenges Joe Biden's record on race Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., attacked former Vice President Joe Biden over his record on race during Thursday night's Democratic debate, sharply criticizing him for his fond recollection of serving with civility in the Senate with two segregationist senators. I do not believe you are a racist, Harris said, turning to Biden. And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground. Harris, the only African-American woman in the 2020 presidential race, said it was personal and hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on segregation of race in this country. Speaking at a fundraiser in New York City last month, Biden waxed nostalgic for the times of political fellowship when he was a senator in the 1970s and 1980s, contrasting it to today when political rivals are considered the enemy. To emphasize his point, Biden cited his ability to work with staunch supporters of racial segregation like the senators James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, who Biden said was one of the meanest guys I ever knew. I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland, Biden said and then, imitating a Southern accent, added that the senator never called me boy, a racial epithet used against black men. He always called me son. Harris also accused Biden of working with them to oppose busing. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. (Photos: Drew Angerer/Getty Images) There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public school, and she bused to school every day, Harris said. And that little girl was me. So I will tell you that on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly. Biden called it a mischaracterization of his position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true, number one, he said. Number two, if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, Im happy to do that. Story continues I was a public defender, I didnt become a prosecutor, Biden said, taking an implied swipe at Harris's résumé . (Harris was a prosecutor, district attorney and state attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator.) I was a public defender when in fact my city was in flames because of the assassination of Dr. [Martin Luther] King, Biden said. He said that Harriss childhood busing would not have been affected under the federal plan he supported as a senator because it was a local decision made by your city council. Biden added: The bottom line here is, look, everything Ive done in my career, I ran because of civil rights, I continue to think we have to make fundamental changes in civil rights. And those civil rights by the way include not just African-Americans but the LGBT community. There was a little girl in California who was bussed to school. That little girl was me. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/XKm2xP1MDH Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 28, 2019 Harris asked Biden if he was wrong to oppose busing. I did not oppose busing in America, he replied. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. Harris argued that the federal government must step in. Thats why we have the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, she said, her voice rising. Thats why we need to pass the Equality Act. There are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people. Read more original 2020 coverage from Yahoo News: Biden responds to attack on his age: Im still holding on to that torch Dem candidates pledge to provide health care to undocumented immigrants Bernie Sanders admits he would raise taxes to pay for programs For Democratic underdogs, first debate gave a much-needed boost NBC hot mic mars first Democratic debate Beto breaks into Spanish in first answer at Democratic debate Warren has big lead among young progressives, NextGen poll finds Bernie Sanders launches livestream TV channel Biden wants more 'civility.' His rivals want more power. In rambling interview, Trump pronounces Biden 'a lost soul' Trump isn't afraid of Elizabeth Warren. But he should be.
What Should You Know About A.P. Eagers Limited's (ASX:APE) Earnings Trend? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! A.P. Eagers Limited's (ASX:APE) released its most recent earnings update in February 2019, which indicated that the business gained from a slight tailwind, eventuating to a single-digit earnings growth of 3.7%. Below, I've laid out key numbers on how market analysts perceive A.P. Eagers's earnings growth outlook over the next few years and whether the future looks even brighter than the past. I will be looking at earnings excluding extraordinary items to exclude one-off activities to get a better understanding of the underlying drivers of earnings. See our latest analysis for A.P. Eagers Market analysts' prospects for next year seems pessimistic, with earnings declining by a double-digit -17%. Over the medium term, earnings will begin to improve, increasing year on year, and reaching AU$101m by 2022. While it is helpful to be aware of the rate of growth year by year relative to today’s level, it may be more beneficial to gauge the rate at which the business is moving every year, on average. The pro of this approach is that we can get a better picture of the direction of A.P. Eagers's earnings trajectory over the long run, irrespective of near term fluctuations, which may be more relevant for long term investors. To compute this rate, I've inserted a line of best fit through analyst consensus of forecasted earnings. The slope of this line is the rate of earnings growth, which in this case is 6.2%. This means that, we can presume A.P. Eagers will grow its earnings by 6.2% every year for the next few years. For A.P. Eagers, I've compiled three relevant aspects you should further examine: 1. Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Valuation: What is APE worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether APE is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Growth Alternatives: Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of APE? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large growth potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is Air New Zealand Limited (NZSE:AIR) A Smart Pick For Income Investors? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Could Air New Zealand Limited (NZSE:AIR) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. Unfortunately, it's common for investors to be enticed in by the seemingly attractive yield, and lose money when the company has to cut its dividend payments. With Air New Zealand yielding 8.2% and having paid a dividend for over 10 years, many investors likely find the company quite interesting. We'd guess that plenty of investors have purchased it for the income. Some simple analysis can offer a lot of insights when buying a company for its dividend, and we'll go through this below. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Air New Zealand! Companies (usually) pay dividends out of their earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, the dividend might have to be cut. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. Looking at the data, we can see that 80% of Air New Zealand's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. Paying out a majority of its earnings limits the amount that can be reinvested in the business. This may indicate a commitment to paying a dividend, or a dearth of investment opportunities. In addition to comparing dividends against profits, we should inspect whether the company generated enough cash to pay its dividend. With a cash payout ratio of 109%, Air New Zealand's dividend payments are poorly covered by cash flow. While Air New Zealand's dividends were covered by the company's reported profits, free cash flow is somewhat more important, so it's not great to see that the company didn't generate enough cash to pay its dividend. Were it to repeatedly pay dividends that were not well covered by cash flow, this could be a risk to Air New Zealand's ability to maintain its dividend. Consider gettingour latest analysis on Air New Zealand's financial position here. One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of Air New Zealand's dividend payments. This dividend has been unstable, which we define as having fallen by at least 20% one or more times over this time. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was NZ$0.085 in 2009, compared to NZ$0.22 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 10.0% a year over that time. The dividends haven't grown at precisely 10.0% every year, but this is a useful way to average out the historical rate of growth. A reasonable rate of dividend growth is good to see, but we're wary that the dividend history is not as solid as we'd like, having been cut at least once. Given that the dividend has been cut in the past, we need to check if earnings are growing and if that might lead to stronger dividends in the future. It's good to see Air New Zealand has been growing its earnings per share at 11% a year over the past 5 years. Earnings per share are growing nicely, but the company is paying out most of its earnings as dividends. This might be sustainable, but we wonder why Air New Zealand is not retaining those earnings to reinvest in growth. Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. Air New Zealand gets a pass on its dividend payout ratio, but it paid out virtually all of its cash flow as dividends. This may just be a one-off, but we'd keep an eye on this. Next, earnings growth has been good, but unfortunately the dividend has been cut at least once in the past. While we're not hugely bearish on it, overall we think there are potentially better dividend stocks than Air New Zealand out there. Companies that are growing earnings tend to be the best dividend stocks over the long term. See what the 7 analysts we track are forecasting for Air New Zealandfor freewith publicanalyst estimates for the company. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at ourcurated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Democratic debate highlights: Food fights and racial divisions By Letitia Stein MIAMI, June 27 (Reuters) - The front-runners of the crowded Democratic presidential contest jostled on Thursday night over issues of race relations and whether the time had come for a new generation of leaders. In heated exchanges on the second night of the primary's first head-to-head debates, lesser-known candidates trained their fire at former Vice President Joe Biden and prominent U.S. senators engaged in shouting matches. Here are some highlights from the debate. 'FOOD FIGHT' Biden, the race's front-runner, took the heat of the night's first fiery exchange. Eric Swalwell, a 38-year-old congressman from California, labeled Biden a relic of the party's past by genially recalling an event he attended as a child, when Biden told a Democratic audience the time had come to pass the torch to the next generation. Swalwell said that time had come again to solve the problems dominating the party's debates today: climate change, student loan debt and technological advancement. "Joe Biden was right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans 32 years ago," he said. "He's still right today." Biden smiled broadly as he responded to laughter from the audience: "I'm still holding onto that torch." The exchange triggered a melee, with several of the other eight candidates raising their voices to inject the last word. Senator Kamala Harris of California silenced the shouting with a memorable one-liner: "America does not want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we're going to put food on their table." RACIAL FAULT LINES The party's rapidly shifting equilibrium on issues of race led to another dramatic exchange between Biden and Harris, who would be the first black female nominee for president. She called out Biden for recently speaking with fondness about a past political era when he could collaborate with pro-segregationists when he was in the U.S. Senate decades ago. "It's personal and it was hurtful to hear you," she told Biden, noting the party needed more than "intellectual debate" about the nation's ongoing racial disparities. "I do not believe you are a racist," she told Biden, but still pressed him over past opposition to school busing plans that aimed to end racial segregation in schools. Visibly rattled, Biden was terse as he defended his record. "It's a mischaracterization of my position across the board: I did not praise racists. That is not true," he said. "If we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I'm happy to do that." HANDS UP? Debate moderators used an old-school approach to test the policy differences in the long row of candidates, asking for a collective show of hands to see who agreed on tricky positions. All 10 raised their hands to show their healthcare plans would provide medical services for undocumented immigrants. But only two - Harris and fellow Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont - signaled agreement for eliminating the nation's current private insurance system in favor of government-run healthcare for all. Earlier in the evening, moderators pushed Sanders on whether the financing for such a plan would mean higher taxes. "Yes, they will pay more in taxes but less in healthcare for what they get," he said in the second round of questioning seeking his direct answer. (Reporting by Letitia Stein Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)
How Many AMP Limited (ASX:AMP) Shares Did Insiders Buy, In The Last Year? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! We've lost count of how many times insiders have accumulated shares in a company that goes on to improve markedly. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of examples of share prices declining precipitously after insiders have sold shares. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares inAMP Limited(ASX:AMP). It's quite normal to see company insiders, such as board members, trading in company stock, from time to time. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required. We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Harvard Universitystudyfound that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.' See our latest analysis for AMP Independent Director Michael Wilkins made the biggest insider purchase in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for AU$150k worth of shares at a price of AU$2.22 each. That means that even when the share price was higher than AU$2.09 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. It's very possible they regret the purchase, but it's more likely they are bullish about the company. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when insiders have purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price. Over the last year, we can see that insiders have bought 141k shares worth AU$321k. In the last twelve months AMP insiders were buying shares, but not selling. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date! AMP is not the only stock that insiders are buying. For those who like to findwinning investmentsthisfreelist of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Insiders own 0.2% of AMP shares, worth about AU$9.6m, according to our data. Overall, this level of ownership isn't that impressive, but it's certainly better than nothing! It doesn't really mean much that no insider has traded AMP shares in the last quarter. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. We'd like to see bigger individual holdings. However, we don't see anything to make us think AMP insiders are doubting the company. Of course,the future is what matters most. So if you are interested in AMP, you should check out thisfreereport on analyst forecasts for the company. But note:AMP may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
What is Kirsten Gillibrand's net worth? Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has been open about her finances since launching her campaign for president. She was the first of the 2020 Democrats toreveal her 2018 tax returnsin March, which showed she paid $29,710 in federal taxes on an adjusted income of about $214,000. Her tax returns from 2007 to 2018 arealso posted on her Senate website. Her income included her nearly $168,000 Senate salary and a $50,000 book payment for her children’s book “Bold & Brave” — about ten women who fought for the right to vote, released in November 2018 — according to her2018 Senate financial disclosure documents, which she filed in May. Her income also included a $3,000 capital gains loss. The capital loss was carried over from investments made in previous years, campaign spokeswoman Meredith Kelly said in March. The 2018 return lists only one holding, Wind Crest LLC, a medical services company that is an inactive investment vehicle. Gillibrand's financial disclosures have shown a $15,000 to $50,000 investment in the company. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP According toCelebrity Net Worth, Gillibrand has a net worth of $600,000. However, an estimate fromOpenSecrets.orgput Gillibrand's total worth at about $498,502 back in 2015, ranking her at the lower end of U.S. senators' net worth, according to the site. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Related Articles • Here's How You Get a Body Like An Olympian • Fmr. Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz Predictions for Trump vs. Media • The Controversial Way Wealthy Americans Are Lowering Estate Taxes
At the Democratic debate, Kamala Harris said the next president would be a woman — and then she made me believe her Thursday’s was a much more spirited debate than Wednesday’s, and a much more confrontational one. In the middle of ten candidates stood the three who made a lasting impression: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris. The first two were always predicted to come out on top (albeit on different ends of the ideological spectrum) while Harris was a bit more of a wild card. Along with Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke and Elizabeth Warren, she had a healthy presence in the polls and in the papers in the weeks preceding the debate, but sometimes for underwhelming reasons. The most widely circulated news items concerned speculations that she might be a useful VP to boost a Bernie Sanders ticket. Harris came onto the stage tonight fully intending to shatter that illusion. Her biggest cheer of the night came after she said that “the mic that the president holds in her hand” should be used to further humanitarian causes rather than to increase divisiveness. Loud female cheers were heard from the audience in response to the unexpected pronoun. The message was clear: if an old white man wants to share a ticket with me, then he’s not going to be at the top of it. Harris, whose background as a court prosecutor no doubt helped prepare her for that moment, peppered her policy-led speeches with personal anecdotes. She spoke movingly of how she benefited from the policy of busing, and told Joe Biden directly that she found it “hurtful” how he’d spoken of working with segregationists and unacceptable that he’d opposed busing while in government (“There was a little girl in California who was bussed to school every day, and that little girl was me.”) Minutes later, photographs of Harris as a child standing at a bus stop started circulating on social media. Biden kept his mouth shut rather than interrupt her, which was wise. He then gave an unclear response where he made half-truths about his legacy. Uncle Joe clearly wasn’t prepared to be challenged so directly by his fellow opponents, but he should have been. Seen by most as the establishment candidate, he was an easy target: Eric Swalwell in particular rowed with him onstage about why he hadn’t come out to support a ban on assault weapons (again, Biden’s response to that was unclear) after urging him to “pass the torch”. Story continues “I’m still holding on to that torch,” Biden said, before summarising his progressive credentials in the Obama administration and before. When asked if he regretted his stance on bussing, he said that he didn’t; when asked if he regretted voting for the Iraq War, he said that he did. Harris, who had previously been seen as unpalatable by the so-called Bernie Bros and Elizabeth Warren supporters (Lizards?), made a clear play for those more left-leaning Democrats across the US tonight. Instead of positioning herself, as she did in previous weeks, as a “steady hand” or a “sensible choice” — a slightly more diverse version of Joe Biden — she spoke about how Trump saying the stock market is doing well means nothing for the US economy, because it’s only “fine if you have stocks”. She talked about the importance of Medicare-for-All, saying that private insurance doesn’t work for the mother standing outside the emergency room with her child and facing the reality of a $5,000 deductible. When NBC presenters asked for a show of hands over who supported a full Medicare-for-All package, it was just her and Bernie Sanders who identified themselves. And she spoke about how she disagreed with Obama over the deportation of undocumented immigrants who hadn’t committed any crimes. In a stroke of personal fortune, she somehow managed to escape criticism of an anti-truancy program she was responsible for in California that many say unjustly criminalised parents of colour. Bernie Sanders relied heavily on a favourite statistic: three people in America (Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, according to a 2017 report, though Sanders didn’t mention them by name) are making more wealth than the entire bottom half of America. He said it at least four times, shoehorning it in even when the question was about healthcare, racial issues or women’s reproductive rights. He came dangerously close, on a couple of questions, to repeating that old socialist adage that so long as we concentrate on getting it right for working people (meaning, of course, working men) then everyone else’s rights will follow. Sanders was another who was told by the much younger Eric Swalwell to “pass the torch”, and he was also asked by the hosts, in a roundabout way, whether another white man running for president out of such a diverse set of Democratic candidates would be a good thing. “We need a party that is diverse but also has the guts to stand up to Wall Street and the guts to stand up to health insurers,” he said, presumably meaning that a white man still counts as progressive so long as he has the guts to do just that. With his head down and his eyes on the prize, he repeated that line about “having the guts” to deliver about as often as he repeated his “three people” statistic. He’s a good orator, but it felt repetitive during the end — especially with Harris thinking so quickly on her feet, Swalwell making jibes about his age and Pete Buttigieg joining in to remind everyone that he’ll only reach Donald Trump’s age by the year 2055. Sanders also struggled when he was asked about gun rights and read out a statement he’d made in the 1980s. “That’s a mischaracterisation,” he said, to which the host replied, unimpressed, that it was in fact a direct quote. He’d have done better to admit, like Joe Biden, that over the years his views have changed. Pete Buttigieg had been expected to come out from Thursday’s debate swinging but he held back. At one point, he was pretty much handed a rhetorical victory on a plate when he was asked, as the only veteran onstage (he served in the US Army in Afghanistan) how he felt about assault weapons. He delivered a surprisingly sparse reply, lacking in the passion the subject needed. He was, almost unbelievably, overshadowed by Eric Swalwell, who nobody seriously believes will get much further in the race. There were some great lines in this debate, many of which were ridiculously overdone but entertaining nonetheless. Swalwell’s “when I’m not changing diapers, I’m changing Washington — and usually the diapers smell better” was one. Self-help author Marianne Williamson’s bizarre claim (repeated each time she spoke) that people running for presidents “don’t need plans” was interesting. And John Hickenlooper and Kirsten Gillibrand sparred in a way which laid bare the current divisions within the Democratic Party when he claimed picking “a socialist” would hand 2020 to Donald Trump and she responded that “now is not the time to play it safe.” Overall, Biden, Sanders and Harris were equally strong on policy, but Biden and Sanders seemed overwhelmed with how to cope with people bringing up some of their past mistakes, many of which were made decades ago. Harris, however, had an eloquent answer for everything, and is the only one of them who massively benefited from being seen debating on national television tonight. In her closing statement, she spoke of having a “3am agenda” which solves everything American families might worry about in the middle of the night. She sounded like she was at a national campaign rally weeks before standing against Donald Trump. I could see her there.
Here's how much Pete Buttigieg, husband have in student loan debt Democratic presidential candidatePete Buttigiegand his husband, Chasten Glezman, together have a six-figure student loan debt, a point he touched on in Thursday's Democratic primary debate. In his financial disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics in mid-May, Buttigieg reported that he and his husband have between $110,000 and $265,000 in student loan debt, The Associated Press reported. The report requires a range. Chris Meagher, a campaign spokesman, confirmed to FOX Business that the exact amount is $131,296. During night two of the first Democratic debates, Buttigieg said "college affordability is personal" to him and his husband. "It's logical to me that if you can refinance your house, you ought to be able to refinance your student debt," he said, adding that he believes in free college specifically for low- and middle-income students. If elected, Buttigieg, 37, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., would likely be the first president with student loan debt. Buttigieg has been open on the campaign trail about his and his husband’s student loan debt. The mayor graduated from Harvard University in 2004, then won a Rhodes scholarship and graduated from Oxford in 2007. The presidential hopeful told Vice he was able to get through school without much debt but his husband racked up student loans while getting his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Buttigieg and Glezman were far from alone with the burden of student loan debt. The two are among 43 million people in the U.S. who owe federal student loans. Outstanding student loan debt is around $1.5 trillion, as of 2018 according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, second only to mortgage debt as a share of Americans’ total debt burdens. Data from Deutsche Bank Research found most people have student debt balances between $10,000 and $25,000. However, in some areas of the country, the amounts are higher, including in the states of New Hampshire, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP Statistics show 7.8 million people age 50 and older owe a combined $291.9 billion in student loans. Meanwhile, people age 35 to 49, closer to Buttigieg’s age, owe $548.4 billion. That group includes more than 14 million people. Fox Business’ Brittany De Lea and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Related Articles • Here's How You Get a Body Like An Olympian • Fmr. Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz Predictions for Trump vs. Media • The Controversial Way Wealthy Americans Are Lowering Estate Taxes
The AMP (ASX:AMP) Share Price Is Down 61% So Some Shareholders Are Wishing They Sold Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! The main aim of stock picking is to find the market-beating stocks. But every investor is virtually certain to have both over-performing and under-performing stocks. So we wouldn't blame long termAMP Limited(ASX:AMP) shareholders for doubting their decision to hold, with the stock down 61% over a half decade. We also note that the stock has performed poorly over the last year, with the share price down 42%. See our latest analysis for AMP While AMP made a small profit, in the last year, we think that the market is probably more focussed on the top line growth at the moment. Generally speaking, we'd consider a stock like this alongside loss-making companies, simply because the quantum of the profit is so low. It would be hard to believe in a more profitable future without growing revenues. In the last five years AMP saw its revenue shrink by 6.0% per year. While far from catastrophic that is not good. The share price decline of 17% compound, over five years, is understandable given the company is losing money, and revenue is moving in the wrong direction. The chance of imminent investor enthusiasm for this stock seems slimmer than Louise Brooks. Ultimately, it may be worth watching - should revenue pick up, the share price might follow. You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image). We like that insiders have been buying shares in the last twelve months. Even so, future earnings will be far more important to whether current shareholders make money. So it makes a lot of sense to check out what analysts think AMP willearn in the future (free profit forecasts). As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. We note that for AMP the TSR over the last 5 years was -50%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted thetotalshareholder return. While the broader market gained around 12% in the last year, AMP shareholders lost 39% (even including dividends). However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Unfortunately, last year's performance may indicate unresolved challenges, given that it was worse than the annualised loss of 13% over the last half decade. We realise that Buffett has said investors should 'buy when there is blood on the streets', but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality businesses. If you want to research this stock further, the data on insider buying is an obvious place to start. You canclick here to see who has been buying shares - and the price they paid. There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably donotwant to miss thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Could CSR Limited's (ASX:CSR) Investor Composition Influence The Stock Price? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! If you want to know who really controls CSR Limited (ASX:CSR), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned. CSR has a market capitalization of AU$2.0b, so we would expect some institutional investors to have noticed the stock. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutional investors have bought into the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about CSR. Check out our latest analysis for CSR Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index. As you can see, institutional investors own 65% of CSR. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of CSR, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too. Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. Hedge funds don't have many shares in CSR. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily. The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it. I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions. Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of CSR Limited. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own AU$11m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checkingif those insiders have been buying. The general public holds a 34% stake in CSR. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run. It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand CSR better, we need to consider many other factors. I like to dive deeperinto how a company has performed in the past. You can accessthisinteractive graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free. But ultimatelyit is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look atthis free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is CSR Limited's (ASX:CSR) ROE Of 12% Impressive? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. We'll use ROE to examine CSR Limited (ASX:CSR), by way of a worked example. Over the last twelve monthsCSR has recorded a ROE of 12%. That means that for every A$1 worth of shareholders' equity, it generated A$0.12 in profit. View our latest analysis for CSR Theformula for ROEis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for CSR: 12% = AU$139m ÷ AU$1.2b (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) Most readers would understand what net profit is, but it’s worth explaining the concept of shareholders’ equity. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. You can calculate shareholders' equity by subtracting the company's total liabilities from its total assets. Return on Equity measures a company's profitability against the profit it has kept for the business (plus any capital injections). The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, all else being equal,a high ROE is better than a low one. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses. Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. You can see in the graphic below that CSR has an ROE that is fairly close to the average for the Basic Materials industry (12%). That's neither particularly good, nor bad. ROE tells us about the quality of the business, but it does not give us much of an idea if the share price is cheap. If you are like me, then you willnotwant to miss thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. That cash can come from issuing shares, retained earnings, or debt. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking. CSR is free of net debt, which is a positive for shareholders. Its solid ROE indicates a good business, especially when you consider it is not using leverage. After all, with cash on the balance sheet, a company has a lot more optionality in good times and bad. Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt. Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So you might want to take a peek at thisdata-rich interactive graph of forecasts for the company. Of courseCSR may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see thisfreecollection of other companies that have high ROE and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Kamala Harris On The Money: Hollywood Fundraiser Announced Mid-Debate Click here to read the full article. One of the most memorable moments in the spirited second Democratic debate was when California Sen. Kamala Harris shut-down all nine of her rivals with her food fight zinger. Minutes later, in a bit of deft timing, an email pinged out across Hollywood announcing a July 21st fundraiser for the fiery longtime prosecutor and former State Attorney General. The former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, John B. Emerson, and his wife, Kimberly Marteau Emerson, will host the evening reception for Kamala Harris For the People in their Los Angeles home. The price to attend is a donation of $1,000 for supporter status or $2,800 for sponsor level. Related stories 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' Sees Kamala Harris Admit Impeachment Is Unlikely Democratic Debate Night 2 Viewership Hits All-Time Debate High For Party Of FDR, JFK & HRC - Update Democratic Debate Night 2 Review: Joe Biden Takes A Beating But Keeps On Tickin', Kamala Harris Comes Out Swinging On NBC Stage Co-hosts for the event include TV producer Debra Martin Chase (Zoe Ever After); actress Scarlett Byrne (Harry Potter films ); Cooper Hefner of Playboy Enterprises; retired U.S. Ambassador Crystal Nix-Hines; former Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen; attorney Brad Brian; documentary filmmaker Yasmine Johnson; attorney Matt Johnson, managing partner of Ziffren Brittenham; producer Ron Silverman (The Wild, Wild West). Also attending: Lynda Carter, the statuesque actress who wore the star-spangled metallic bikini of the DC Comics icon back in the days of disco. Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter . For the latest news, follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .
Will EBOS Group Limited's (NZSE:EBO) Earnings Grow In The Year Ahead? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Looking at EBOS Group Limited's (NZSE:EBO) earnings update in December 2018, it seems that analyst expectations are fairly bearish, with profits predicted to rise by 9.9% next year compared with the higher past 5-year average growth rate of 13%. Currently with trailing-twelve-month earnings of AU$137m, we can expect this to reach AU$151m by 2020. I will provide a brief commentary around the figures and analyst expectations in the near term. Investors wanting to learn more about other aspects of the company shouldresearch its fundamentals here. Check out our latest analysis for EBOS Group Longer term expectations from the 6 analysts covering EBO’s stock is one of positive sentiment. Since forecasting becomes more difficult further into the future, broker analysts generally project out to around three years. To get an idea of the overall earnings growth trend for EBO, I’ve plotted out each year’s earnings expectations and inserted a line of best fit to determine an annual rate of growth from the slope of this line. From the current net income level of AU$137m and the final forecast of AU$184m by 2022, the annual rate of growth for EBO’s earnings is 10%. This leads to an EPS of A$1.18 in the final year of projections relative to the current EPS of A$0.90. In 2022, EBO's profit margin will have expanded from 2.0% to 2.2%. Future outlook is only one aspect when you're building an investment case for a stock. For EBOS Group, I've put together three essential aspects you should further examine: 1. Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Valuation: What is EBOS Group worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether EBOS Group is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Growth Alternatives: Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of EBOS Group? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large growth potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Why Dicker Data Limited (ASX:DDR) Looks Like A Quality Company Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of Dicker Data Limited (ASX:DDR). Over the last twelve monthsDicker Data has recorded a ROE of 41%. One way to conceptualize this, is that for each A$1 of shareholders' equity it has, the company made A$0.41 in profit. See our latest analysis for Dicker Data Theformula for return on equityis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Dicker Data: 41% = AU$32m ÷ AU$80m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) Most readers would understand what net profit is, but it’s worth explaining the concept of shareholders’ equity. It is all the money paid into the company from shareholders, plus any earnings retained. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company. ROE looks at the amount a company earns relative to the money it has kept within the business. The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. A higher profit will lead to a higher ROE. So, all else being equal,a high ROE is better than a low one. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses. By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. The limitation of this approach is that some companies are quite different from others, even within the same industry classification. Pleasingly, Dicker Data has a superior ROE than the average (15%) company in the Electronic industry. That's what I like to see. We think a high ROE, alone, is usually enough to justify further research into a company. For example,I often check if insiders have been buying shares. Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the case of the first and second options, the ROE will reflect this use of cash, for growth. In the latter case, the debt required for growth will boost returns, but will not impact the shareholders' equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same. Dicker Data clearly uses a significant amount of debt to boost returns, as it has a debt to equity ratio of 1.37. While the ROE is impressive, that metric has clearly benefited from the company's use of debt. Investors should think carefully about how a company might perform if it was unable to borrow so easily, because credit markets do change over time. Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies. A company that can achieve a high return on equity without debt could be considered a high quality business. If two companies have around the same level of debt to equity, and one has a higher ROE, I'd generally prefer the one with higher ROE. But ROE is just one piece of a bigger puzzle, since high quality businesses often trade on high multiples of earnings. It is important to consider other factors, such as future profit growth -- and how much investment is required going forward. So I think it may be worth checking thisfreethisdetailed graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow. If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Here's How P/E Ratios Can Help Us Understand Event Hospitality & Entertainment Limited (ASX:EVT) Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll apply a basic P/E ratio analysis to Event Hospitality & Entertainment Limited's (ASX:EVT), to help you decide if the stock is worth further research.Event Hospitality & Entertainment has a price to earnings ratio of 16.59, based on the last twelve months. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 6.0%. Check out our latest analysis for Event Hospitality & Entertainment Theformula for price to earningsis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Event Hospitality & Entertainment: P/E of 16.59 = A$12.28 ÷ A$0.74 (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) A higher P/E ratio means that investors are payinga higher pricefor each A$1 of company earnings. That isn't a good or a bad thing on its own, but a high P/E means that buyers have a higher opinion of the business's prospects, relative to stocks with a lower P/E. Companies that shrink earnings per share quickly will rapidly decrease the 'E' in the equation. That means unless the share price falls, the P/E will increase in a few years. Then, a higher P/E might scare off shareholders, pushing the share price down. Event Hospitality & Entertainment increased earnings per share by 7.8% last year. And earnings per share have improved by 7.7% annually, over the last five years. But earnings per share are down 4.5% per year over the last three years. The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. We can see in the image below that the average P/E (23.6) for companies in the entertainment industry is higher than Event Hospitality & Entertainment's P/E. Event Hospitality & Entertainment's P/E tells us that market participants think it will not fare as well as its peers in the same industry. Since the market seems unimpressed with Event Hospitality & Entertainment, it's quite possible it could surprise on the upside. If you consider the stock interesting, further research is recommended. For example, I often monitordirector buying and selling. It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth. Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context. Event Hospitality & Entertainment's net debt is 17% of its market cap. This could bring some additional risk, and reduce the number of investment options for management; worth remembering if you compare its P/E to businesses without debt. Event Hospitality & Entertainment has a P/E of 16.6. That's around the same as the average in the AU market, which is 16. When you consider the modest EPS growth last year (along with some debt), it seems the market thinks the growth is sustainable. Investors have an opportunity when market expectations about a stock are wrong. People often underestimate remarkable growth -- so investors can make money when fast growth is not fully appreciated. So thisfreevisual report on analyst forecastscould hold the key to an excellent investment decision. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates.So take a peek at thisfreelist of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Here's Why I Think GPT Group (ASX:GPT) Might Deserve Your Attention Today Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it completely lacks a track record of revenue and profit. But as Warren Buffett has mused, 'If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.' When they buy such story stocks, investors are all too often the patsy. In contrast to all that, I prefer to spend time on companies likeGPT Group(ASX:GPT), which has not only revenues, but also profits. While profit is not necessarily a social good, it's easy to admire a business than can consistently produce it. Conversely, a loss-making company is yet to prove itself with profit, and eventually the sweet milk of external capital may run sour. Check out our latest analysis for GPT Group As one of my mentors once told me, share price follows earnings per share (EPS). Therefore, there are plenty of investors who like to buy shares in companies that are growing EPS. Impressively, GPT Group has grown EPS by 18% per year, compound, in the last three years. As a general rule, we'd say that if a company can keep upthatsort of growth, shareholders will be smiling. I like to see top-line growth as an indication that growth is sustainable, and I look for a high earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin to point to a competitive moat (though some companies with low margins also have moats). I note that GPT Group's revenuefrom operationswas lower than its revenue in the last twelve months, so that could distort my analysis of its margins. While GPT Group did well to grow revenue over the last year, EBIT margins were dampened at the same time. So if EBIT margins can stabilize, this top-line growth should pay off for shareholders. You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. To see the actual numbers, click on the chart. Of course the knack is to find stocks that have their best days in the future, not in the past. You could base your opinion on past performance, of course, but you may also want tocheck this interactive graph of professional analyst EPS forecasts for GPT Group. We would not expect to see insiders owning a large percentage of a AU$12b company like GPT Group. But we are reassured by the fact they have invested in the company. To be specific, they have AU$21m worth of shares. That shows significant buy-in, and may indicate conviction in the business strategy. Even though that's only about 0.2% of the company, it's enough money to indicate alignment between the leaders of the business and ordinary shareholders. For growth investors like me, GPT Group's raw rate of earnings growth is a beacon in the night. Further, the high level of insider buying impresses me, and suggests that I'm not the only one who appreciates the EPS growth. Fast growth and confident insiders should be enough to warrant further research. So the answer is that I do think this is a good stock to follow along with. Once you've identified a business you like, the next step is to consider what you think it's worth. And right now is your chance to view our exclusivediscounted cashflow valuationof GPT Group. You might benefit from giving it a glance today. You can invest in any company you want. But if you prefer to focus on stocks that have demonstrated insider buying, here isa list of companies with insider buying in the last three months. Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
What is Marianne Williamson's net worth? Presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson is one of the top-earning candidates on the 2020 campaign trail. The 66-year-old best-selling author and spiritual leader reached the Democraticdebate stageon Thursday night after announcing her candidacy for president back in January. Williamson offers an online course and has published numerous books, including several New York Times bestsellers. According to financialdisclosure documentsthat she filed when she ran for a California congressional seat in 2014, her assets were worth somewhere between $957,000 and $4.48 million in 2013, which included various stocks in Apple, Google and Whole Foods, which was acquired by Amazon, according toThe Center for Public Integrity. She even funded her unsuccessful congressional campaign with $581,000, the center reported. Today, Williamson -- who is friends with Oprah -- has a net worth between $783,031 and $2,126,006, according to various reports. Her publicfinancial disclosure reportsfrom January said her assets include income from her business, speaking fees, and many of the same stocks from her previous reports. That puts her ahead of the two top Democrats campaigning for 2020. Sen. Bernie Sanders released10 years worth of returnsin April, which showed his adjusted gross income in 2017 was $1,131,925 — mainly thanks to royalties from his book "Where We Go From Here." Former Vice President Joe Biden, who earned around $230,000 annually during his time in the White House, is worth about $1.5 million, perCelebrity Net Worth. That doesn't include themulti-million dollar book dealhe signed with Flatiron Books in 2017. In order to make it to the first two debates, candidates have to either have 1 percent support in three approved polls or have at least 65,000 individual donations, with at least 200 donors in at least 20 states. Williamson was able to lock in both requirements, according to Politico. In early May she reached thedonorbenchmark, and later that month, she reached thepollingbenchmark. When she declared her candidacy in January in Los Angeles, shesaid: “We need a new burst of freedom, we need a whole uprising of consciousness among the American people. New paradigm leadership is not about saying, ‘I’ll do it, send me to Washington.’ New paradigm leadership is where the leader is holding the space for the brilliance of others, and that is what I have done throughout my entire career.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX BUSINESS APP She previously toldRefinery29: “The principles of health and wellness and an attitude of peace-creation and love is exactly what this country needs." “I’ve felt for a long time that people within this space should not be standing on the sidelines," she added. "If anything, we should be the biggest grownups in the room… Because if you have a clue as to what changes your life, then you’re the one who has a clue what can change the world.” Fox News' Jennifer Earl contributed to this report. Related Articles • Here's How You Get a Body Like An Olympian • Fmr. Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz Predictions for Trump vs. Media • The Controversial Way Wealthy Americans Are Lowering Estate Taxes
Are JB Hi-Fi Limited’s (ASX:JBH) High Returns Really That Great? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll evaluate JB Hi-Fi Limited (ASX:JBH) to determine whether it could have potential as an investment idea. Specifically, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), since that will give us an insight into how efficiently the business can generate profits from the capital it requires. First, we'll go over how we calculate ROCE. Second, we'll look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. Finally, we'll look at how its current liabilities affect its ROCE. ROCE measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. In general, businesses with a higher ROCE are usually better quality. In brief, it is a useful tool, but it is not without drawbacks. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussinhas suggestedthat a high ROCE can indicate that 'one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar'. The formula for calculating the return on capital employed is: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) Or for JB Hi-Fi: 0.24 = AU$363m ÷ (AU$2.8b - AU$1.3b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) Therefore,JB Hi-Fi has an ROCE of 24%. Check out our latest analysis for JB Hi-Fi ROCE can be useful when making comparisons, such as between similar companies. Using our data, we find that JB Hi-Fi's ROCE is meaningfully better than the 15% average in the Specialty Retail industry. We consider this a positive sign, because it suggests it uses capital more efficiently than similar companies. Setting aside the comparison to its industry for a moment, JB Hi-Fi's ROCE in absolute terms currently looks quite high. JB Hi-Fi's current ROCE of 24% is lower than its ROCE in the past, which was 48%, 3 years ago. So investors might consider if it has had issues recently. You can see in the image below how JB Hi-Fi's ROCE compares to its industry. Click to see more on past growth. When considering ROCE, bear in mind that it reflects the past and does not necessarily predict the future. ROCE can be deceptive for cyclical businesses, as returns can look incredible in boom times, and terribly low in downturns. ROCE is only a point-in-time measure. What happens in the future is pretty important for investors, so we have prepared afreereport on analyst forecasts for JB Hi-Fi. Current liabilities include invoices, such as supplier payments, short-term debt, or a tax bill, that need to be paid within 12 months. The ROCE equation subtracts current liabilities from capital employed, so a company with a lot of current liabilities appears to have less capital employed, and a higher ROCE than otherwise. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets. JB Hi-Fi has total liabilities of AU$1.3b and total assets of AU$2.8b. Therefore its current liabilities are equivalent to approximately 46% of its total assets. JB Hi-Fi's ROCE is boosted somewhat by its middling amount of current liabilities. Despite this, it reports a high ROCE, and may be worth investigating further. JB Hi-Fi looks strong on this analysis,but there are plenty of other companies that could be a good opportunity. Here is afree listof companies growing earnings rapidly. For those who like to findwinning investmentsthisfreelist of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Vietnam's Vingroup in deal with Fujitsu unit, Qualcomm to make 5G phones HANOI (Reuters) - Vingroup JSC, Vietnam's biggest-listed firm by market value, said on Friday it had signed a deal with Qualcomm and a unit of Japan's Fujitsu Ltd to produce 5G smartphones in the country. The Vsmart phones will be manufactured at its factory in the capital city of Hanoi and will be sold in the U.S. and European markets from April next year, Vingroup said in a statement. Earlier this month, the company started construction of the factory that can produce 125 million units a year.. Vingroup launched Vsmart brand in December last year, seeking to win market share from popular brands Samsung and Apple in Vietnam, which has a population of 95 million people. The company began selling Vsmart phones in Spain in March and plans to expand into other European markets. Its phones went on sale in regional neighbor Myanmar last month. (Reporting by Khanh Vu; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
What Kind Of Shareholders Own IRESS Limited (ASX:IRE)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Every investor in IRESS Limited (ASX:IRE) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. Companies that used to be publicly owned tend to have lower insider ownership. IRESS isn't enormous, but it's not particularly small either. It has a market capitalization of AU$2.4b, which means it would generally expect to see some institutions on the share registry. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about IRE. Check out our latest analysis for IRESS Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index. IRESS already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own 61% of the company. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of IRESS, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too. Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. IRESS is not owned by hedge funds. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily. While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Management ultimately answers to the board. However, it is not uncommon for managers to be executive board members, especially if they are a founder or the CEO. Most consider insider ownership a positive because it can indicate the board is well aligned with other shareholders. However, on some occasions too much power is concentrated within this group. Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of IRESS Limited. Keep in mind that it's a big company, and the insiders own AU$8.6m worth of shares. The absolute value might be more important than the proportional share. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You canclick here to see if insiders have been buying or selling. The general public holds a 38% stake in IRE. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies. While it is well worth considering the different groups that own a company, there are other factors that are even more important. I always like to check for ahistory of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart ofhistoric revenue and earnings in thisdetailed graph. But ultimatelyit is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look atthis free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Japan PM Abe calls for strong G20 message on free trade OSAKA (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday urged leaders from the Group of 20 major economies to deliver a strong message to support "free, fair and indiscriminate" trade as he expressed "deep concerns" over the current landscape of global trade. Speaking on the first day of the two-day Osaka G20 summit meeting, Abe also said Japan, as a flag-bearer of free trade, would strongly promote improvement in a multilateral trade system and negotiations over agreements on economic cooperation. "Today, I want to discuss with leaders measures to further enhance momentum towards reform in WTO, (World Trade Organisation)", he said. (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)
Did JB Hi-Fi Limited (ASX:JBH) Insiders Sell Shares? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. On the other hand, we'd be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares inJB Hi-Fi Limited(ASX:JBH). It is perfectly legal for company insiders, including board members, to buy and sell stock in a company. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information. We would never suggest that investors should base their decisions solely on what the directors of a company have been doing. But logic dictates you should pay some attention to whether insiders are buying or selling shares. For example, a Harvard Universitystudyfound that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.' See our latest analysis for JB Hi-Fi In the last twelve months, the biggest single sale by an insider was when the Group CEO & Executive Director, Richard Murray, sold AU$2.2m worth of shares at a price of AU$25.54 per share. That means that even when the share price was slightly below the current price of AU$25.75, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling on market, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. While insider selling is not a positive sign, we can't be sure if it does mean insiders think the shares are fully valued, so it's only a weak sign. It is worth noting that this sale was only 44.3% of Richard Murray's holding. The only individual insider seller over the last year was Richard Murray. Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid AU$130k for 5500 shares. But insiders sold 87521 shares worth AU$2.2m. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below! If you are like me, then you willnotwant to miss thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. JB Hi-Fi insiders own about AU$146m worth of shares (which is 4.9% of the company). I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders. The fact that there have been no JB Hi-Fi insider transactions recently certainly doesn't bother us. It's great to see high levels of insider ownership, but looking back at the last year, we don't gain confidence from the JB Hi-Fi insiders selling. Of course,the future is what matters most. So if you are interested in JB Hi-Fi, you should check out thisfreereport on analyst forecasts for the company. If you would prefer to check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
I Built A List Of Growing Companies And Lovisa Holdings (ASX:LOV) Made The Cut Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Some have more dollars than sense, they say, so even companies that have no revenue, no profit, and a record of falling short, can easily find investors. But as Warren Buffett has mused, 'If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.' When they buy such story stocks, investors are all too often the patsy. In contrast to all that, I prefer to spend time on companies likeLovisa Holdings(ASX:LOV), which has not only revenues, but also profits. While that doesn't make the shares worth buying at any price, you can't deny that successful capitalism requires profit, eventually. While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, unless its owners have an endless appetite for subsidizing the customer, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else breathe its last breath. See our latest analysis for Lovisa Holdings If a company can keep growing earnings per share (EPS) long enough, its share price will eventually follow. Therefore, there are plenty of investors who like to buy shares in companies that are growing EPS. It certainly is nice to see that Lovisa Holdings has managed to grow EPS by 25% per year over three years. If the company can sustain that sort of growth, we'd expect shareholders to come away winners. I like to see top-line growth as an indication that growth is sustainable, and I look for a high earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin to point to a competitive moat (though some companies with low margins also have moats). Lovisa Holdings maintained stable EBIT margins over the last year, all while growing revenue 17% to AU$232m. That's a real positive. In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings, and revenue, over time. To see the actual numbers, click on the chart. Fortunately, we've got access to analyst forecasts of Lovisa Holdings'sfutureprofits. You can do your own forecasts without looking, or you cantake a peek at what the professionals are predicting. Personally, I like to see high insider ownership of a company, since it suggests that it will be managed in the interests of shareholders. So we're pleased to report that Lovisa Holdings insiders own a meaningful share of the business. In fact, they own 47% of the shares, making insiders a very influential shareholder group. I'm reassured by this kind of alignment, as it suggests the business will be run for the benefit of shareholders. And their holding is extremely valuable at the current share price, totalling AU$547m. Now that's what I call some serious skin in the game! Given my belief that share price follows earnings per share you can easily imagine how I feel about Lovisa Holdings's strong EPS growth. Further, the high level of insider buying impresses me, and suggests that I'm not the only one who appreciates the EPS growth. Fast growth and confident insiders should be enough to warrant further research. So the answer is that I do think this is a good stock to follow along with. While we've looked at the quality of the earnings, we haven't yet done any work to value the stock. So if you like to buy cheap, you may want tocheck if Lovisa Holdings is trading on a high P/E or a low P/E, relative to its industry. You can invest in any company you want. But if you prefer to focus on stocks that have demonstrated insider buying, here isa list of companies with insider buying in the last three months. Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Trump at G20 tells Russia's Putin not to meddle in US elections President Trump hit the ground running in Osaka, Japan as the G20 meetings kicked off, tweeting Great to be back in Japan for the #G20OsakaSummit Trump on Friday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to please not meddle in U.S. elections, the issue that led to an investigation of his campaign's contact with the Kremlin during 2016 elections. it was the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin since their high-profile summit in Helsinki last July. Trump had a brief photo op with the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe. He also had some comments with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Global investors want to hear that the US and China are making progress on a trade deal. While many do not expect a firm agreement, signals of advancement will likely be well received by the global financial markets. Trump said that he expects the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping would be productive. As Trump meets with his foreign counterparts - back at home, U.S. Democratic rivals vying for his job in 2020 joined in a second round of debates. Twenty candidates in 48 hours took the opportunity to lash out at Trump for his support of capitalism over socialism, lack of universal healthcare, botched foreign policy, immigration reform and gun control. While Trump did not watch the entire debate Thursday evening, he had at least one eye on the television. He also fired off a tweet protesting Democratic support of healthcare for undocumented immigrants. CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX BUSINESS APP All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare. How about taking care of American Citizens first!? Thats the end of that race! Related Articles Fmr. Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz Predictions for Trump vs. Media Trump May Have Dropped Another Clinton Bombshell Carson: Trump Could Destroy Obama's Legacy
The Latest: Biden says Harris misrepresented busing stance MIAMI (AP) — The Latest on the second Democratic presidential debate (all times local): 11:45 p.m. Former Vice President Joe Biden says Kamala Harris mispresented his position on school busing decades ago, but he doesn't think she did it intentionally. The California senator challenged Biden's stance on busing to desegregate public schools during the 1970s during Thursday's Democratic debate in Miami. Harris, who is black, was part of a busing program as a child and her pointed questioning of Biden was one of the night's breakout moments. Biden said he didn't oppose busing but federal intervention in the issue. But in the early and mid-1970s, those were the fault lines in almost every U.S. community, from New Orleans to Boston, where there was stiff opposition to busing. If you were a politician opposing federally enforced busing, you were enabling any local school board or city government that was fighting against it. ___ 11:15 p.m. Ten Democratic presidential candidates drew the second night of debates to a close with calls for a new generation of elected leadership, pledges to protect reproductive rights and promises to move beyond the divisiveness of President Donald Trump's tenure. California Sen. Kamala (KAH'-mah-lah) Harris says she would focus on kitchen-table issues. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tuh-juhj) says a generational change is needed in the White House. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand pledged to ferociously defend abortion rights. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper warned that the burgeoning popularity of socialism within the Democratic Party could get Trump reelected. Former Vice President Joe Biden says America needs to restore its soul. The first Democratic debate on Wednesday night also drew 10 candidates. ___ 10:55 p.m. Smoothing over relationships with allies is top of mind for Democrats, who were asked how they'd repair frayed foreign ties if they're picked to replace President Donald Trump. Story continues Former Vice President Joe Biden, California Sen. Kamala Harris and California Rep. Eric Swalwell said Thursday that they would reach out first to NATO alliance members to reinforce those ties. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders urged a focus on the United Nations, while author Marianne Williamson and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet said they'd call European allies. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and businessman Andrew Yang said they'd address China, while New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand would engage with Iran and work toward stabilizing the Middle East. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tuh-juhj) says all U.S. international relationships should change because by the end of Trump's term, the country "likely will have pissed off other allies." ___ 10:50 p.m. Candidates in the Democratic presidential debate are echoing calls for greater gun control measures, though there was little consensus on how to be the most effective. Former Vice President Joe Biden championed his past work of what he said was beating the National Rifle Association. California Rep. Eric Swalwell championed his buyback program for assault weapons. Swalwell says, "Keep your pistols, keep your rifles, keep your shotguns. But we can take the most dangerous weapons from the most dangerous people." California Sen. Kamala Harris says Swalwell's idea is "a great one." But she says, "The problem is Congress has not had the courage to act." Harris says as president she will give Congress 100 days "to pull their act together" and get a bill to her desk. If not, she promises wide-ranging executive action on gun control. ___ 10:40 p.m. Candidates on stage at the Democratic presidential debate are struggling to limit their answers to the one thing they would hope to accomplish as president. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand rattled off several, including a family bill of rights that includes universal preschool and affordable day care. California Sen. Kamala Harris ticked off a list including a middle-class tax cut, reinstating the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and gun control. Others followed with lists and nonspecific goals, such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders calling for a "political revolution" and former Vice President Joe Biden pledging to beat Donald Trump. Author Marianne Williamson notably said she would call the Prime Minister of New Zealand and declare the United States a better country to raise children. Moderator Chuck Todd graded the group a C-minus for their adherence to the rules. ___ 10:35 p.m. Several Democratic presidential candidates are declaring the climate crisis an existential threat and promising sweeping government action to combat dangers of a warming planet. But they're offering few specifics at Thursday's debate, and only former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper named climate change as the first issue he'd tackle on Day One of his presidency. Former Vice President Joe Biden says he'd prioritize rebuilding world alliances committed to reducing emissions. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says taking on the fossil fuel industry is the key to reducing carbon pollution. California Sen. Kamala Harris says she supports a Green New Deal, a reference to proposals some Democrats are pushing on Capitol Hill. But Harris isn't detailing any specific measures she'd take to reduce carbon pollution. ___ 10:30 p.m. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says if the Supreme Court overturns the ruling legalizing abortion, women would have access to the procedure when he's president through his health care plan, "Medicare For All." Several states have passed restrictions on abortion in recent months. Conservatives are hoping the laws will make their way to the Supreme Court, where a new conservative majority could reverse Roe v. Wade. Sanders said during Thursday's Democratic presidential debate that Medicare For All "guarantees every woman in this country the right to have an abortion if she wants it." He also said he would only nominate justices who support Roe v. Wade, and he believes justices could be rotated to other courts to "bring in new blood" to the Supreme Court. ___ 10:25 p.m. Former Vice President Joe Biden is the focus of a discussion on partisan gridlock among some Democrats vying for the chance to challenge President Donald Trump. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet said Thursday night at the second of two Democratic debates that the key to making progress is winning back the Senate and ousting Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Bennet called for a reversal of Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United, listing issues he said had arisen during former Biden's long Washington tenure. In response, Biden said he secured bipartisan funds for cancer research and led the charge to win back congressional seats, arguing, "Sometimes you have to just go out and beat them." Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand rounded out the discussion, promoting her plan for "clean," publicly funded elections and saying Republicans implemented tax cuts "to pay back their donors." ___ 10:15 p.m. In an emotional exchange, Sen. Kamala Harris challenged Joe Biden's stance on busing to desegregate public schools during the 1970s, telling the former vice president that she was bused as a child two decades after the Brown v. Board decision to end the separate but equal policy in the American education system. Harris told Biden on Thursday that she did not believe he is a racist, but that his recollection of working with segregationist senators a generation ago in discussing partisan gridlock in Washington today was "hurtful." Biden said Harris was mischaracterizing his position. Harris asked Biden, "Do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America?" Biden said he didn't oppose busing but federal intervention in the issue. Harris shot back: "There are moments in history where states fail to support the civil rights of people." ___ 10:05 p.m. Candidates on the second night of the Democratic presidential debate are continuing to highlight Russia and China as geopolitical threats to the United States. Both Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and businessman Andrew Yang said at Thursday's debate that Russia poses a great threat, but they also criticized President Donald Trump's international relations approach with China. Yang says Russia "is our greatest geopolitical threat because they've been hacking our democracy successfully." Yang says, "They've been laughing their asses off about it for the last couple of years." South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tuh-juhj) took the opportunity to attack Trump on tariffs. Buttigieg says, "The biggest thing we've got to do is invest in our own domestic competitiveness." ___ 10 p.m. All but one Democratic candidate onstage for the second night of the presidential debate say they would make illegal border crossings a civil, not, criminal offense. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet was the only one of 10 candidates Thursday night to not raise his hand to seek to decriminalize illegal border crossings. South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tuh-juhj) says he would end the felony criminalization because it is "dead wrong," and called Republicans who "cloak" themselves "in faith" hypocrites for letting children languish in cages. Former Vice President Joe Biden promised a "surge" of aid and relief workers to the border to release children from the enclosures and reunite them with their families. Asked about the Obama administration's deportation of 3 million, Biden said the president that he served under "did a heck of a job" and that it would be wrong to compare him to President Donald Trump. ___ 9:55 p.m. The Democratic candidates squaring off on the second night of presidential debates are decrying the Trump administration's immigration policies, but in different ways than those who debated the previous night. California Sen. Kamala Harris promised Thursday to use her first day in office to help people brought to the country illegally as children become citizens. She declared she'd use "the microphone that the president of the United States holds in her hand" to be a voice for real reform on the issue. Former Vice President Joe Biden said he'd invest in Central America. Sen. Bernie Sanders promised to repeal "every damn thing" President Donald Trump has done on immigration. On Wednesday, Democratic presidential hopefuls blamed Trump for the deaths of a father and his daughter found lying face-down near the Rio Grande. ___ 9:50 p.m. President Donald Trump says Democratic White House contenders' willingness to extend government health care to people in the country illegally will get him reelected. Trump is at a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Japan. But he said that he "passed a TV set" and saw the Democrats debating. All Democrats on the stage for the second night of the debates Thursday in Miami raised their hands when asked if they would give health care to migrants in the country illegally. Trump tweeted: "All Democrats just raised their hands for giving millions of illegal aliens unlimited healthcare. How about taking care of American Citizens first!?" He then added: "That's the end of that race!" ___ 9:45 p.m. All 10 candidates at the second Democratic presidential debate say their proposals for government health insurance would include coverage for immigrants in the country illegally. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, argued Thursday that not discriminating against covering all immigrants is humane, fiscally responsible and a matter of public health. Buttigieg says even immigrants in the country illegally pay sales taxes, indirect or direct property taxes and, in many cases, payroll taxes. Biden says covering everyone means more people would get primary care and wouldn't have to wait until they needed emergency room care that taxpayers have to finance. Federal law already requires ERs to treat anyone in need. President Donald Trump immediately tweeted about Democrats' answers, saying, "that's the end of the race." ___ 9:40 p.m. Only two of the 10 candidates on the second night of the 2020 Democratic presidential debate raised their hands when asked who supported abolishing private health insurance. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and California Sen. Kamala Harris both signaled their support for "Medicare for All" and eliminating private insurance. Sanders has long championed a Medicare-style system to cover all Americans' health care services. The question was also asked on Wednesday to the first 10 debate candidates. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio were the only two to raise their hands. ___ 9:35 p.m. Several Democratic presidential candidates are talking about the importance of health insurance in their personal lives as their family members were dying or they dealt with their own illnesses. Vice President Joe Biden recalled during Thursday's Democratic presidential debate the deaths of his first wife and baby daughter and, years later, his adult son. He says the best way to ensure all Americans have coverage is to build on "Obamacare" rather than to pass "Medicare For All." South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tuh-juhj) says as his father was dying earlier this year, he didn't have to make medical decisions based on cost because his father had Medicare. He says all people should have the option to access "Medicare for all who want it." Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet spoke about his cancer diagnosis earlier this year. ___ 9:30 p.m. Generational differences have quickly taken center stage at the second night of the Democratic presidential debate, with a light shown on the age of 76-year-old front-runner Joe Biden. Thirty-eight-year-old California Rep. Eric Swalwell recalled being only 6 years old when he saw Biden speak, saying the former senator and vice president was "right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans." Biden retorted, "I'm still holding onto that torch." Biden's contemporary, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, argued the issue "is not generational," insisting the field should be focused on things like "who has the guts to take on Wall Street." California Sen. Kamala Harris added her voice to the fray, saying, "Hey, guys. You wanna know what America does not want to witness? A food fight. They want to know how they're going to put food on the table." ___ 9:25 p.m. Three of the senators running for president are calling for health care reform without even waiting for questions about it. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado said at Thursday's Democratic presidential debate that he agreed with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that "health care is a right" for all Americans. But he questioned Sanders' "Medicare for All" plan that would extend coverage to everyone in the country, saying the U.S. isn't ready for it. Sanders smirked as he listened to Bennet's answer before defending his plan. Then, unprompted, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand jumped in and said that she wrote the portion of the bill that Sanders had proposed that would transition the country toward Medicare for All plans. Struggling to restore order, the moderators said repeatedly that they'd "get to" health care questions later. ___ 9:20 p.m. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is defending his warnings on the Democratic Party veering toward socialism. Hickenlooper said Thursday at the second Democratic presidential debate that if Democrats fail to clearly define themselves as not being socialists, Republicans are going to come at the party "every way they can and call us socialists." Hickenlooper says, "We can't promise every American a government job." The former governor also expressed reluctance to the Green New Deal and eliminating private medical insurance. ___ 9:15 p.m. Former Vice President Joe Biden became the first to invoke Donald Trump during the second round of the Democratic presidential debate, blasting the Republican president for crediting wealthy Americans for building the nation. Biden said Thursday that "ordinary middle-class Americans built America." Biden says Trump has "put us in a horrible situation," by signing tax cuts that favor higher-income Americans. Biden says he would make "massive cuts" in the 2017 act's loopholes and be "about eliminating Donald Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy." However, Biden did not address directly the question to him, which was about comments he made during a recent fundraiser, where he assured donors their lifestyles would not suffer by the tax cut reversal. ___ 9:10 p.m. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is acknowledging that his proposals for sweeping government programs would require middle-class Americans to pay more taxes. But he says they'd still spend less on health care under his system than they do today through the private insurance system. Sanders is a self-professed democratic socialist who wants a Medicare-style system to cover all Americans' health care services. He says he'd make public colleges and universities tuition free and eliminate existing student debt. Sanders said Thursday at the second Democratic presidential debate that education proposals would be paid for by taxes on the wealthy and corporations. But he confirms that other Americans would have to pay more taxes for his health care program, in lieu of the existing system of private premiums, deductibles and co-pays. ___ 9 a.m. The second debate of the 2020 Democratic presidential debate is kicking off with 10 more candidates, including many of the leading White House hopefuls. Former Vice President Joe Biden is center stage Thursday night in Miami alongside Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Joining them for the two-hour event are two other top contenders: California Sen. Kamala (KAH'-mah-lah) Harris and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tuh-juhj). At either end will be the candidates polling at the bottom of the field: author Marianne Williamson and California congressman Eric Swalwell. Candidates will not get opening statements but will have time for closings. Ten other candidates debated on Wednesday, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
How Good Is Monadelphous Group Limited (ASX:MND), When It Comes To ROE? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. By way of learning-by-doing, we'll look at ROE to gain a better understanding of Monadelphous Group Limited (ASX:MND). Over the last twelve monthsMonadelphous Group has recorded a ROE of 17%. One way to conceptualize this, is that for each A$1 of shareholders' equity it has, the company made A$0.17 in profit. View our latest analysis for Monadelphous Group Theformula for ROEis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Monadelphous Group: 17% = AU$65m ÷ AU$395m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) Most know that net profit is the total earnings after all expenses, but the concept of shareholders' equity is a little more complicated. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company. ROE looks at the amount a company earns relative to the money it has kept within the business. The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, all else being equal,a high ROE is better than a low one. That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses. By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. If you look at the image below, you can see Monadelphous Group has a similar ROE to the average in the Construction industry classification (16%). That isn't amazing, but it is respectable. ROE tells us about the quality of the business, but it does not give us much of an idea if the share price is cheap. I will like Monadelphous Group better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out thisfreelist of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying. Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. That cash can come from issuing shares, retained earnings, or debt. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking. Although Monadelphous Group does use a little debt, its debt to equity ratio of just 0.068 is very low. The fact that it achieved a fairly good ROE with only modest debt suggests the business might be worth putting on your watchlist. Conservative use of debt to boost returns is usually a good move for shareholders, though it does leave the company more exposed to interest rate rises. Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt. But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So you might want to check this FREEvisualization of analyst forecasts for the company. If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Calculating The Intrinsic Value Of APG\|SGA SA (VTX:APGN) Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of APG\|SGA SA (VTX:APGN) as an investment opportunity by projecting its future cash flows and then discounting them to today's value. I will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward. Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in theSimply Wall St analysis model. View our latest analysis for APG\|SGA We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars: [{"": "Levered FCF (CHF, Millions)", "2019": "CHF40.27", "2020": "CHF48.46", "2021": "CHF50.39", "2022": "CHF52.25", "2023": "CHF54.13", "2024": "CHF56.01", "2025": "CHF57.93", "2026": "CHF59.89", "2027": "CHF61.89", "2028": "CHF63.95"}, {"": "Growth Rate Estimate Source", "2019": "Analyst x1", "2020": "Analyst x1", "2021": "Analyst x1", "2022": "Est @ 3.71%", "2023": "Est @ 3.58%", "2024": "Est @ 3.49%", "2025": "Est @ 3.42%", "2026": "Est @ 3.38%", "2027": "Est @ 3.35%", "2028": "Est @ 3.33%"}, {"": "Present Value (CHF, Millions) Discounted @ 8.32%", "2019": "CHF37.18", "2020": "CHF41.30", "2021": "CHF39.64", "2022": "CHF37.95", "2023": "CHF36.29", "2024": "CHF34.67", "2025": "CHF33.10", "2026": "CHF31.59", "2027": "CHF30.14", "2028": "CHF28.75"}] Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= CHF350.62m "Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the intial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 3.3%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.3%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2029× (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = CHF64m × (1 + 3.3%) ÷ (8.3% – 3.3%) = CHF1.3b Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= CHFCHF1.3b ÷ ( 1 + 8.3%)10= CHF588.23m The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is CHF938.85m. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding.This results in an intrinsic value estimate of CHF313.17. Compared to the current share price of CHF266, the company appears about fair value at a 15% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind. The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at APG\|SGA as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.3%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.847. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Whilst important, DCF calculation shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For APG\|SGA, I've compiled three relevant aspects you should further research: 1. Financial Health: Does APGN have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Future Earnings: How does APGN's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with ourfree analyst growth expectation chart. 3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of APGN? Exploreour interactive list of high quality stocksto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every CH stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock justsearch here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Why I Like APG\|SGA SA (VTX:APGN) Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Building up an investment case requires looking at a stock holistically. Today I've chosen to put the spotlight on APG\|SGA SA (VTX:APGN) due to its excellent fundamentals in more than one area. APGN is a dependable dividend-paying company that has been able to sustain great financial health over the past. Below is a brief commentary on these key aspects. For those interested in understanding where the figures come from and want to see the analysis, read the fullreport on APG\|SGA here. APGN is financially robust, with ample cash on hand and short-term investments to meet upcoming liabilities. This suggests prudent control over cash and cost by management, which is a key determinant of the company’s health. Looking at APGN's capital structure, the company has no debt on its balance sheet. It has only utilized funding from its equity capital to run the business, which is typically normal for a small-cap company. Investors’ risk associated with debt is virtually non-existent and the company has plenty of headroom to grow debt in the future, should the need arise. APGN’s reputation for being one of the best dividend payers in the market is supported by the fact that it has been steadily growing its dividend payments over the past ten years and currently is one of the top yielding companies on the markets, at 7.5%. For APG\|SGA, there are three important factors you should further research: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for APGN’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor APGN’s outlook. 2. Historical Performance: What has APGN's returns been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look atthe free visual representations of our analysisfor more clarity. 3. Other Attractive Alternatives: Are there other well-rounded stocks you could be holding instead of APGN? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Should You Worry About Nanosonics Limited’s (ASX:NAN) ROCE? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll look at Nanosonics Limited (ASX:NAN) and reflect on its potential as an investment. To be precise, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), as that will inform our view of the quality of the business. Firstly, we'll go over how we calculate ROCE. Second, we'll look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. Finally, we'll look at how its current liabilities affect its ROCE. ROCE measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. In general, businesses with a higher ROCE are usually better quality. In brief, it is a useful tool, but it is not without drawbacks. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussinhas suggestedthat a high ROCE can indicate that 'one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar'. Analysts use this formula to calculate return on capital employed: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) Or for Nanosonics: 0.078 = AU$8.2m ÷ (AU$117m - AU$12m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) Therefore,Nanosonics has an ROCE of 7.8%. Check out our latest analysis for Nanosonics One way to assess ROCE is to compare similar companies. Using our data, Nanosonics's ROCE appears to be significantly below the 15% average in the Medical Equipment industry. This could be seen as a negative, as it suggests some competitors may be employing their capital more efficiently. Setting aside the industry comparison for now, Nanosonics's ROCE is mediocre in absolute terms, considering the risk of investing in stocks versus the safety of a bank account. It is possible that there are more rewarding investments out there. Nanosonics reported an ROCE of 7.8% -- better than 3 years ago, when the company didn't make a profit. That implies the business has been improving. You can see in the image below how Nanosonics's ROCE compares to its industry. Click to see more on past growth. When considering ROCE, bear in mind that it reflects the past and does not necessarily predict the future. ROCE can be deceptive for cyclical businesses, as returns can look incredible in boom times, and terribly low in downturns. ROCE is only a point-in-time measure. Since the future is so important for investors, you should check out ourfreereport on analyst forecasts for Nanosonics. Short term (or current) liabilities, are things like supplier invoices, overdrafts, or tax bills that need to be paid within 12 months. The ROCE equation subtracts current liabilities from capital employed, so a company with a lot of current liabilities appears to have less capital employed, and a higher ROCE than otherwise. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets. Nanosonics has total assets of AU$117m and current liabilities of AU$12m. As a result, its current liabilities are equal to approximately 10% of its total assets. This is a modest level of current liabilities, which would only have a small effect on ROCE. With that in mind, we're not overly impressed with Nanosonics's ROCE, so it may not be the most appealing prospect. You might be able to find a better investment than Nanosonics. If you want a selection of possible winners, check out thisfreelist of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20 (but have proven they can grow earnings). If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love thisfreelist of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Korg's Minilogue and Monologue synths are getting a major update TheMinilogueandMonologueare a few years old at this point, and approaching modern classic status in the synth world. But that doesn't mean thatKorgis content to simply let them coast through life the same way they left the factory. Today the company is releasing a major update to the firmware for both that in a lot of ways is about making them a little closer to each other in terms of features. For one, Minilogue users are getting micro tuning capability. That means they'll no longer be bound by the constraints of theWestern 12-tone equal temperament, and it's particularly great if your goal is to be the nextAphex Twin. The sequencer is also getting a much needed refresh, especially on the "motion" side which controls the parameters and settings rather than notes. A new view lets you dig a bit deeper and makes it clearer what you're working on. Monologue is getting some tweaks too, including to the MIDI filter, which will be a huge boon to anyone that likes to control it with an external sequencer. There have also been changes to the active step programming features, though we've been unable to test them out, so we can't tell you exactly how useful they are. Lastly, both synths are getting original value indicators. That will make finding your way back to where a patch started much easier after you're done twiddling the knobs. Version 2.0 of the Minilogue and Monologue firmware is available today for free atKorg.com.
Elders Limited (ASX:ELD): Will The Growth Last? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Looking at Elders Limited's (ASX:ELD) earnings update in March 2019, analyst consensus outlook appear cautiously subdued, with profits predicted to rise by 6.7% next year relative to the higher past 5-year average growth rate of 44%. Presently, with latest-twelve-month earnings at AU$79m, we should see this growing to AU$84m by 2020. In this article, I've outline a few earnings growth rates to give you a sense of the market sentiment for Elders in the longer term. For those keen to understand more about other aspects of the company, you canresearch its fundamentals here. Check out our latest analysis for Elders The longer term view from the 4 analysts covering ELD is one of positive sentiment. Given that it becomes hard to forecast far into the future, broker analysts tend to project ahead roughly three years. To understand the overall trajectory of ELD's earnings growth over these next fews years, I've fitted a line through these analyst earnings forecast to determine an annual growth rate from the slope. By 2022, ELD's earnings should reach AU$103m, from current levels of AU$79m, resulting in an annual growth rate of 9.4%. However, if we exclude extraordinary items from net income, we see that earnings is projected to fall over time, resulting in an EPS of A$0.66 in the final year of forecast compared to the current A$0.68 EPS today. Margins are currently sitting at 4.9%, which is expected to expand to 5.6% by 2022. Future outlook is only one aspect when you're building an investment case for a stock. For Elders, there are three fundamental factors you should look at: 1. Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Valuation: What is Elders worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether Elders is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Growth Alternatives: Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of Elders? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large growth potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Have an old car? You're not alone. Vehicle age hits record DETROIT (AP) â€” The average age of cars and trucks in the U.S. has hit a record 11.8 years, as better quality and technology allows people to keep them on the road longer. The 2019 figures from data provider IHS Markit show that the rate of increase is slowing, but the average age is still expected to go over 12 years early in the next decade. The average age is up 0.1 years from 2018. People are feeling comfortable keeping vehicles longer because they're built better than in the past, said IHS Markit Director of Global Automotive Aftermarket Mark Seng. "The quality is higher, lasting longer, withstanding the weather," Seng said. Plus, original owners are keeping their vehicles longer and maintaining them better because they're financing them for longer, six or even seven years in many cases, he said. "That helps improve the overall life of the vehicle," he said. Western states have the oldest vehicles at 12.4 years, while in the Northeast the average age is only 10.9 years. That's due largely to less stop-and-start traffic that wears on a vehicle. Weather conditions also play a part. Montana has the oldest average age at 16.6 years, while the youngest is Vermont, with an average age of 9.9 years. The aging vehicles should be a boon to repair shops, which may want to change strategies to cater to owners of older vehicles who may want to spend less on parts, Seng said. The number of light vehicles in use in the U.S. also hit a record of more than 278 million this year, according to IHS, which tracks vehicle registrations nationally.
What Kind Of Shareholders Own Evolution Mining Limited (ASX:EVN)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! The big shareholder groups in Evolution Mining Limited (ASX:EVN) have power over the company. Insiders often own a large chunk of younger, smaller, companies while huge companies tend to have institutions as shareholders. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned. Evolution Mining has a market capitalization of AU$7.5b, so it's too big to fly under the radar. We'd expect to see both institutions and retail investors owning a portion of the company. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutions own shares in the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about EVN. See our latest analysis for Evolution Mining Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index. Evolution Mining already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own 43% of the company. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Evolution Mining's earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Evolution Mining. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future. While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it. I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions. Our information suggests that Evolution Mining Limited insiders own under 1% of the company. However, it's possible that insiders might have an indirect interest through a more complex structure. It's a big company, so even a small proportional interest can create alignment between the board and shareholders. In this case insiders own AU$68m worth of shares. Arguably, recent buying and selling is just as important to consider. You canclick here to see if insiders have been buying or selling. The general public, with a 46% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run. We can see that Private Companies own 9.8%, of the shares on issue. It might be worth looking deeper into this. If related parties, such as insiders, have an interest in one of these private companies, that should be disclosed in the annual report. Private companies may also have a strategic interest in the company. It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Evolution Mining better, we need to consider many other factors. I always like to check for ahistory of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart ofhistoric revenue and earnings in thisdetailed graph. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can checkthis free report showing analyst forecasts for its future. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Estimating The Intrinsic Value Of Evolution Mining Limited (ASX:EVN) Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of Evolution Mining Limited (ASX:EVN) by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. This is done using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward. We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in theSimply Wall St analysis model. See our latest analysis for Evolution Mining We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars: [{"": "Levered FCF (A$, Millions)", "2019": "A$271.18", "2020": "A$534.05", "2021": "A$533.10", "2022": "A$536.13", "2023": "A$541.99", "2024": "A$549.89", "2025": "A$559.31", "2026": "A$569.90", "2027": "A$581.41", "2028": "A$593.66"}, {"": "Growth Rate Estimate Source", "2019": "Analyst x3", "2020": "Analyst x4", "2021": "Analyst x4", "2022": "Est @ 0.57%", "2023": "Est @ 1.09%", "2024": "Est @ 1.46%", "2025": "Est @ 1.71%", "2026": "Est @ 1.89%", "2027": "Est @ 2.02%", "2028": "Est @ 2.11%"}, {"": "Present Value (A$, Millions) Discounted @ 8.57%", "2019": "A$249.78", "2020": "A$453.07", "2021": "A$416.57", "2022": "A$385.87", "2023": "A$359.29", "2024": "A$335.76", "2025": "A$314.56", "2026": "A$295.21", "2027": "A$277.40", "2028": "A$260.89"}] Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= A$3.35b "Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 2.3%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 8.6%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2029× (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = AU$594m × (1 + 2.3%) ÷ (8.6% – 2.3%) = AU$9.7b Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= A$AU$9.7b ÷ ( 1 + 8.6%)10= A$4.27b The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is A$7.61b. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding.This results in an intrinsic value estimate of A$4.49. Compared to the current share price of A$4.32, the company appears about fair value at a 3.7% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Remember though, that this is just an approximate valuation, and like any complex formula - garbage in, garbage out. Now the most important inputs to a discounted cash flow are the discount rate, and of course, the actual cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Evolution Mining as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 8.6%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.05. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Although the valuation of a company is important, it shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Evolution Mining, There are three essential aspects you should further research: 1. Financial Health: Does EVN have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Future Earnings: How does EVN's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with ourfree analyst growth expectation chart. 3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of EVN? Exploreour interactive list of high quality stocksto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the ASX every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks justsearch here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is Premier Investments Limited (ASX:PMV) An Attractive Dividend Stock? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll take a closer look at Premier Investments Limited (ASX:PMV) from a dividend investor's perspective. Owning a strong business and reinvesting the dividends is widely seen as an attractive way of growing your wealth. On the other hand, investors have been known to buy a stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations. In this case, Premier Investments likely looks attractive to investors, given its 4.4% dividend yield and a payment history of over ten years. It would not be a surprise to discover that many investors buy it for the dividends. Some simple analysis can reduce the risk of holding Premier Investments for its dividend, and we'll focus on the most important aspects below. Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. In the last year, Premier Investments paid out 111% of its profit as dividends. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, from the perspective of an investor who hopes to own the company for many years, a payout ratio of above 100% is definitely a concern. In addition to comparing dividends against profits, we should inspect whether the company generated enough cash to pay its dividend. Premier Investments paid out 99% of its free cash last year. Cash flows can be lumpy, but this dividend was not well covered by cash flow. Cash is slightly more important than profit from a dividend perspective, but given Premier Investments's payouts were not well covered by either earnings or cash flow, we would definitely be concerned about the sustainability of this dividend. Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Premier Investments's latest financial position,by checking our visualisation of its financial health. From the perspective of an income investor who wants to earn dividends for many years, there is not much point buying a stock if its dividend is regularly cut or is not reliable. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of Premier Investments's dividend payments. Its dividend payments have fallen by 20% or more on at least one occasion over the past ten years. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was AU$0.36 in 2009, compared to AU$0.66 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 6.2% a year over that time. The growth in dividends has not been linear, but the CAGR is a decent approximation of the rate of change over this time frame. It's good to see the dividend growing at a decent rate, but the dividend has been cut at least once in the past. Premier Investments might have put its house in order since then, but we remain cautious. With a relatively unstable dividend, it's even more important to see if earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Why take the risk of a dividend getting cut, unless there's a good chance of bigger dividends in future? Over the past five years, it looks as though Premier Investments's EPS have declined at around 12% a year. Declining earnings per share over a number of years is not a great sign for the dividend investor. Without some improvement, this does not bode well for the long term value of a company's dividend. When we look at a dividend stock, we need to form a judgement on whether the dividend will grow, if the company is able to maintain it in a wide range of economic circumstances, and if the dividend payout is sustainable. It's a concern to see that the company paid out such a high percentage of its earnings and cashflow as dividends. Earnings per share have been falling, and the company has cut its dividend at least once in the past. From a dividend perspective, this is a cause for concern. Using these criteria, Premier Investments looks quite suboptimal from a dividend investment perspective. Given that earnings are not growing, the dividend does not look nearly so attractive. See if the 8 analysts are forecasting a turnaround in ourfree collection of analyst estimates here. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at ourcurated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Why Premier Investments Limited (ASX:PMV) Could Be Worth Watching Want to participate in a short research study ? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Premier Investments Limited ( ASX:PMV ), which is in the specialty retail business, and is based in Australia, received a lot of attention from a substantial price movement on the ASX over the last few months, increasing to A$17.69 at one point, and dropping to the lows of A$15.08. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Premier Investments's current trading price of A$15.08 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Let’s take a look at Premier Investments’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change. See our latest analysis for Premier Investments What's the opportunity in Premier Investments? The stock seems fairly valued at the moment according to my valuation model. It’s trading around 16% below my intrinsic value, which means if you buy Premier Investments today, you’d be paying a fair price for it. And if you believe that the stock is really worth A$17.97, then there’s not much of an upside to gain from mispricing. In addition to this, Premier Investments has a low beta, which suggests its share price is less volatile than the wider market. What kind of growth will Premier Investments generate? ASX:PMV Past and Future Earnings, June 28th 2019 Future outlook is an important aspect when you’re looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company's future expectations. Premier Investments’s earnings over the next few years are expected to increase by 84%, indicating a highly optimistic future ahead. This should lead to more robust cash flows, feeding into a higher share value. Story continues What this means for you: Are you a shareholder? PMV’s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we haven’t considered today, such as the track record of its management team. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at the stock? Will you have enough confidence to invest in the company should the price drop below its fair value? Are you a potential investor? If you’ve been keeping tabs on PMV, now may not be the most advantageous time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the positive outlook is encouraging for the company, which means it’s worth further examining other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop. Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters – the fundamentals – before you make a decision on Premier Investments. You can find everything you need to know about Premier Investments in the latest infographic research report . If you are no longer interested in Premier Investments, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential . We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com . This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
U.S. urges Cambodia to probe China-owned economic zone on tariff dodging By Prak Chan Thul PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The United States on Friday urged Cambodia to investigate a Chinese-owned special economic zone after uncovering efforts by firms operating there to evade duties on products destined for export to the United States. The Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone (SSEZ), west of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, has denied U.S. accusations that it allowed companies to transship goods through the zone, saying an internal investigation had found no such activity. "The United States will aggressively pursue allegations of duty evasion and utilize all available legal tools, to deter violators of U.S. customs and trade laws," embassy spokeswoman Emily Zeeberg said in a statement emailed to Reuters. Such tools could include civil and criminal penalties or other enforcement actions, she added. "We call on Cambodian government authorities to look closely at governance and compliance issues at the Sihanoukville SEZ," she added. The SSEZ did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. A spokesman for Cambodia's commerce ministry, Seng Thai, declined to comment and referred to a June 23 government statement that denied the allegations as "baseless", and added that the operating procedure in such zones was clear. Since 2017, there have been two cases of companies operating from the SSEZ having been found importing transshipped goods, such as the chemical glycine and steel pipe-fittings, and charged anti-dumping duties, the embassy added in its statement. "In both cases, U.S. officials conducted on-site inspections in the Sihanoukville SEZ and determined that, although being represented as Cambodian, the goods in question were of Chinese origin on importation into the United States," it added. Vietnam's customs this month said it had also found scores of cases of exporters illegally relabeling Chinese goods "Made in Vietnam" to avoid tariffs imposed in the U.S.-China trade war. (Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by James Pearson and Clarence Fernandez)

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