Author: therawinformant

Over the last few years – and certainly since the March crash – tech stocks have been on a tear. However, veteran tech giant IBM (IBM) has found it difficult to keep up, and has lagged behind the whole market. Yet, with F2Q earnings due today after market close, could sentiment be changing?With the Street calling for a year-over-year drop of 35% to revenue of $17.7 billion and EPS to decline by 8% to $2.07, Merrill Lynch analyst Wamsi Mohan argues the low expectations could provide IBM with a minor victory when it releases its quarterly statement this evening.Mohan said, “We expect IBM to report a small beat relative to a very depressed consensus in the wake of COVID-19. Consensus is modeling a flat q/q trend vs normally up mid-single digits. However, while near term trends will be scrutinized, we think the more important catalyst will be an update from CEO Arvind Krishna at a later point in 2H20.”The problem for IBM has been one of reduced profits and declining revenue from its legacy businesses. This is something the company has been addressing with its pivot toward one of 2020’s most prominent trends – the accelerated move to cloud-based services. Last year’s $34 billion acquisition of open source, enterprise software maker Red Hat was the biggest in its history and a statement of intent. The onus is now on new CEO Arvind Krishna – whose appointment in April couldn’t have come at a worse time – to make his mark.For Mohan, “the potential for the new CEO to articulate his vision to drive growth,” along with a 5% dividend yield, means at present, IBM’s "valuation remains attractive.”Therefore, ahead of the print, Mohan reiterates a Buy rating on IBM along with a $145 price target. The implication for investors? Potential upside of 15% from current levels. (To watch Mohan’s track record, click here)Street sentiment toward IBM is currently split down the middle, with a tilt toward the bulls. IBM's Moderate Buy consensus rating is based on 4 Buys and Holds, each. With an average price target of $135.43, there’s possible upside of 7% over the next 12 months. (See IBM stock analysis on TipRanks)To find good ideas for tech stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Ford, Mobileye Join Forces To Boost Camera-Detection Systems * BeiGene, Assembly Bio Ink $540M China HBV Deal; Shares Surge In Pre-Market * Amazon Exports From India-Based Sellers Crosses $2B Mark – Report * Grifols Buys Plasma Assets From Green Cross For $460M To Boost Canada Business

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With the U.S. coronavirus case count zeroing in on 4 million, health experts ramped up their calls for a stronger federal leadership.

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Columbia University’s Dr. Bernard Chang joins Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman to discus the recent coronavirus developments as cases surge in states like Florida and California.

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(Bloomberg) — AstraZeneca Plc fell from a record high in New York trading after data for the company’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, though promising, fueled concerns about whether it can match competitors.Bernstein analysts led by Ronny Gal said the vaccine, developed in partnership with the University of Oxford, showed early positive data, but the benefits didn’t appear to match the bar set by programs from Pfizer Inc. and BioNtech SE, as well as Moderna Inc.“In the competitive context they fail to impress,” Gal wrote.Exacerbating concerns, the Lancet medical journal publication came just an hour after Pfizer and BioNtech had announced early positive data from their Covid-19 vaccine trial in Germany, which builds upon promising results from their program earlier this month.U.S. listed shares of AstraZeneca fell as much as 5.7% — the biggest intraday decline since March — bringing the stock’s year-to-date gain to 19%. Moderna, which is among biotech’s hottest stocks, was also down as much as 18% as JPMorgan downgraded its rating to the equivalent of a hold.Here’s what else analysts are saying:Bernstein, Ronny GalAstraZeneca results were positive as “virtually all vaccine recipients developed IgGs binding, and neutralizing the spike protein and cellular response was met as well. The data thus supports ongoing development.”The group’s data “fail to impress” in a competitive context. “The titers from immunized patients were lower than convalescent patients, whereas BioNtech and Moderna vaccines both elicited IgGs substantially higher than convalescent controls.”“Even the prime boost group was at most even with convalescent patients,” he said. However, “each company used different convalescent group, so direct comparison is not possible.”Jefferies, Peter WelfordData published in the Lancet medical journal “confirm broad immune responses and acceptable safety, in our view. Notably, neutralising antibody titers are similar-below other Covid-19 vaccines, boosted by a possible 2-dose regimen, and importantly, all subjects had marked increases in effector T-cells, which may bode well for durability.”Reiterates hold rating and says the share price move is overdone.Baird, Madhu KumarSays vaccine data from Astra and CanSino Biologics’ adenovirus vaccine programs that were published in The Lancet show a “cleaner adverse event profile than existing” vaccine candidates from Moderna as well as BioNtech and Pfizer.“All in all, we believe the existing clinical data from these adenovirus Covid vaccine trials provide a much higher safety bar for new Covid-19 vaccine entrants than that required by the mRNA-1273 data set so far.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Polen Capital Management recently released its Q2 2020 Investor Letter, a copy of which you can download here. During the second quarter of 2020, the Polen Global Growth Model Portfolio returned 20.58% gross of fees, while the MSCI All Country World Index was up 19.22%. You should check out Polen Capital’s top 5 stock picks […]

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(Bloomberg) — WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann is seeking a buyer for his 11-acre property in Corte Madera, California, after paying $21.4 million for the estate in 2018.The home, located about 15 miles north of San Francisco, will be listed at $27.5 million, according to a person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because the deliberations are private.A spokesman for Neumann confirmed the potential sale.Neumann amassed multiple homes across the U.S., including New York, when WeWork was one of the most valuable startups on the planet. Now he’s entangled in a legal battle with SoftBank Group Corp. after the Japanese conglomerate walked from a deal that would’ve allowed him to sell shares worth up to $970 million.Located at 800 Corte Madera Avenue and known to some as “Guitar House”, the mansion is known for a living room that’s shaped like the musical instrument. Designed by architect Sim Van der Ryn, it was formerly owned by the late music promoter Bill Graham, according to a prior Zillow listing. It has seven bedrooms, a pool, water slide, home theater, racquetball court and organic gardens and an orchard, the Zillow listing shows.Read more: WeWork’s Adam Neumann Eyes Potential Sale of Gramercy PenthouseNeumann has also listed one of his Manhattan residences. His wealth — on paper — has taken a battering, in part because SoftBank in May wrote down the co-working company’s valuation to $2.9 billion, a fraction of the $47 billion it commanded last January.Neumann’s family office, 166 2nd Financial Services, participated in a fundraising round for shared mobility startup GoTo Global, TechCrunch reported last week.(Updates with asking price in second paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Columbia University’s Dr. Bernard Chang joins Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman to discus the recent coronavirus developments as cases surge in Florida and California.

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Convinced of Tesla Inc’s imminent meteoric rise, Orestis Palampougioukis, a Netherlands-based software developer, took out a 43,000 euro ($49,000) loan in early October to invest it all in the electric carmaker, which at the time was trading at around $230 a share. Since then, Palampougioukis’ bet has paid off as Tesla’s share price has increased more than six-fold, trading around $1,500 on Monday and surpassing every rival to become the world’s highest-valued automaker. “To me it didn’t feel like a bet because I studied what Tesla does very closely and it’s simply inevitable that it would dominate,” Palampougioukis said, adding that he plans to own the shares for decades.

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(Bloomberg) — Earlier this month, a federal judge stunned the U.S. energy sector with an order to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline. Environmentalists hailed it as the first time a fully operating system had been forced to close by a legal challenge.As it turns out, it was actually the second time an oil pipeline was ordered shut in a matter of four days.On July 2, a lesser-known conduit called Tesoro High Plains was ordered shut for the first time in its 67 years of operation. Together, the two pipelines ship more than one-third of crude from America’s prolific Bakken shale formation to market. Their travails signal the ebbing of the oil industry’s sway in the U.S. heartland and underscore the growing heft and savvy of challengers who’ve become emboldened to demand higher compensation and safeguards.“In the past, it was a shotgun approach of challenging pipelines,” said Brandon Barnes, an analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. “Now, the resources are more plentiful and the challengers are far more nuanced and sophisticated in their approach.”The stakes are high. If the shutdown of both pipelines proceeds, it would force the region’s drillers to turn to more expensive options to ship their oil — or shut in production altogether, just as the entire oil industry is reeling from depressed prices that have pushed a steady stream of producers into bankruptcy.The outlook for the U.S. pipeline industry has perhaps never been more uncertain. Earlier this month, Dominion Energy Inc. and its partner Duke Energy Corp. announced they were no longer moving forward with their $8 billion Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline after years of delays and ballooning costs. In the ensuing 24 hours, the Supreme Court left in force a lower court order blocking the start of construction on TC Energy Corp’s Keystone XL pipeline, while a district court ordered the shutdown of Dakota Access (although that project scored temporary relief last week).In the case of High Plains, which delivers oil to Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s 74,000 barrel-a-day Mandan refinery, the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs ordered it shut after determining the pipeline was trespassing on Native American land. The ruling also found the company responsible for $187 million in damages and gave it 30 days to appeal.Rights of WayThe legal right-of-way for High Plains to cross some 90 acres of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota was first initiated in 1953 and renewed every 20 years — in 1973 and again 1993 — according to court documents.In 2013, Andeavor, the owner of the pipeline at the time, started negotiations for a new right-of-way with the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. Once that was accomplished, the company moved on to discussions about compensation for individual owners whose land is traversed by High Plains. But those talks broke down, according to an October 2018 lawsuit seeking payment and damages from Andeavor and the removal of the pipeline.The case involves roughly 450 people who own some 65 acres, according to Tex Hall, one of the plaintiffs. About four years ago, Hall said, he and other landowners started receiving letters from Andeavor offering $850 an acre, an amount later increased to $6,000. He said they discovered the company offered a much more favorable agreement to the MHA Nation government.According to Bureau of Indian Affairs documents, Marathon, which acquired Andeavor in 2018, signed over $53.8 million to the MHA Nation, which owns about 28 acres of affected land, a sum that included trespass damages. According to the lawsuit, that works out at more than $615,000 an acre.Because it failed to reach an agreement with the individual landowners, Marathon has been trespassing for seven years, according to Reed Soderstrom, an attorney for Pringle & Herigstad, P.C., which is representing the plaintiffs. He said the suit isn’t a rebellion against oil and gas pipelines or producers but a push for individuals to be adequately protected.Fair ValueThat’s echoed by Hall, who’s the president of the Fort Berthold Allottee Land and Mineral Owners Association. He said pipelines are generally the safest way to transport oil and he doesn’t want to ban High Plains, so long as Marathon acts responsibly and negotiates in good faith. “Pay us fair market value,” he said.“People are now rising up to say, you’re not going to put a pipeline in, without our consent, that’s potentially damaging our drinking water or disingenuous in the way you’re paying us,” Hall said. “You can’t do that anymore.”Marathon spokesman Jamal Kheiry declined to comment on the operational status of the pipeline and whether the company will appeal the shutdown order. He added that while Marathon doesn’t discuss plans regarding litigation, it respects the rights of the MHA Nation and hopes to “come to an agreement that benefits all parties.”Whatever happens with High Plains, further uncertainty for pipelines may come with the U.S. presidential election in November. While President Donald Trump has worked to pave the way for both Dakota Access and Keystone XL early in his presidency, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has vowed to support lower-carbon energy sources.As more constituents clamor to be heard in the increasingly politicized discussion over what America’s energy landscape will look like, existing and potential projects are likely to become ensnared. As a result, more companies could follow Dominion and Duke and shy away from building new energy infrastructure.“Operators think they know where the goal post is,” said Kevin Birn, vice president of North American crude oil markets at IHS Markit. “But the goal post ends up moving around on them. As that goal moves, the costs associated escalate and the ultimate return for projects” is less certain.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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