Author: therawinformant

Halliburton (HAL) has announced today a 2020 second quarter dividend of $0.045 a share on the company’s common stock payable on June 24, 2020, to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 3, 2020.This translates into a 75% decrease from the previous dividend payout of $0.180 and represents a forward yield of 1.61%.“The decision to set the quarterly dividend at a lower level reflects the current market conditions and uncertainties regarding the depth and duration of this downturn” Halliburton says.At the same time, the company’s board of directors also approved a 20% voluntary reduction to their annual retainer. This follows salary reductions already taken by the members of the executive committee.“Halliburton continues to take measures to strengthen our liquidity and financial resilience under the current circumstances. We implemented a $1 billion action plan to reduce overhead and other costs, lowered capital expenditures roughly 50% from 2019 levels and accelerated the implementation of our North American service delivery improvement strategy,” said Jeff Miller, Halliburton CEO.According to Miller, the lower dividend reflects a reasonable payout during these uncertain times.Shares in Halliburton, one of the world’s largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, have plummeted 54% so far year-to-date. And analysts are staying on the sidelines, with a Hold consensus and an average price target of $8.54- indicating further downside potential of 23%.Nonetheless RBC Capital’s Kurt Hallead maintains his buy rating on the stock, arguing “We continue to see HAL as a through-cycle core holding for mid- and large-cap energy investors given its disciplined approach to maximizing profitability, free cash flow and shareholder returns.” (See HAL stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: GM Plans to Reopen Mexican Pickup Plant Next Week- Report Billionaire Steven Cohen Bets Big on These 3 Stocks 3 Airline Stocks to Bet on After the Coronavirus Crash More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Clorox Bumps Up Dividend By 5%; Shares Rise In Pre-Market * Urban Outfitters Reports Slow Quarter, Predicts More Dramatic Sales Decline in Upcoming Quarter * Facebook Canada Faces C$9 Million Fine Over ‘False’ Privacy Claims * Revance Acquires HintMD In All-Stock Deal, Analyst Praises Bold Step Forward

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Some stocks are best avoided. We don't wish catastrophic capital loss on anyone. Imagine if you held Rite Aid…

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Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi discuss Target’s first quarter earnings, and break down what Target CEO Brian Cornell had to say about the results.

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Delta Air Lines Inc is likely to increase capacity this summer by adding flights in June and July as U.S. domestic travel slowly picks up amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, its chief executive officer said on Wednesday. CEO Edward Bastian told Fox Business Network the airline’s 60% cap on passenger load would help it maintain social distancing, while it also undertakes other efforts such as cleaning to boost customer confidence. “Today our load factor on Delta is somewhere about 35-40% full,” he said in an interview.

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The 21st century was ushered in by fears about Y2k and how it might impact computer programming that was already in place. Part of the concern centered on the financial markets.

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“We saw antibody responses that do many of the things we would want to see in an eventual vaccine,” said Dr. David Weiner, director of the vaccine and immunotherapy center at the Wistar Institute, which has collaborated with Inovio. Inovio, which began human testing of its vaccine in April, said preliminary results from that trial are expected in June.

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“Last quarter was unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Chief Executive Brian Cornell told reporters. Stay-at-home orders imposed to contain the virus powered a 141% jump in Target’s online comparable sales, accounting for almost all of its same-store sales growth. At the start of the quarter, Target, like Walmart, benefited from customers stockpiling staples and cleaning products, but as the lockdown extended and the stimulus checks arrived, demand rose for discretionary items including apparel.

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AstraZeneca Plc’s (AZN) and Merck Co.’s (MRK) Lynparza drug has received a green light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with advanced prostate cancer.The FDA approval was awarded following results from a Phase III trial, which found that the Lynparza drug treatment reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 66%.Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer type in men and despite an increase in the number of available therapies for men suffering from the disease, five-year survival remains low.Lynparza is a first-in-class PARP inhibitor, which is a targeted treatment to potentially block DNA damage response (DDR) pathway deficiencies, such as so-called BRCA mutations to kill cancer cells. It is being tested in a range of tumor types. Regulatory reviews are underway in several jurisdictions for ovarian, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancers.“Today marks the first approval for Lynparza in prostate cancer,” said Dave Fredrickson, Executive VP at AstraZeneca. “In the trial, Lynparza more than doubled the median radiographic progression-free survival and is the only PARP inhibitor to improve overall survival.”Following this approval for Lynparza in the U.S., AstraZeneca said it will get a regulatory milestone payment of $35 million from MSD Laboratories. The payment is expected to be booked as collaboration revenue in its second-quarter results, the drugmaker said.In the race for the development of a coronavirus vaccine, the UK-based pharmaceutical drugmaker announced this week that it is hoping to make up to 30 million Covid-19 vaccine doses available by September for people in the UK, as part of an agreement to deliver 100 million doses in total.Shares in both AstraZeneca and Merck are advancing in Wednesday’s pre-market U.S. trading. AstraZeneca’s stock has seen a steep increase over the past two months erasing all of this year’s losses and at $53.57 it is now trading higher than at the beginning of the year.TipRanks data shows that Wall Street analysts have a bullish outlook on the stock boasting only Buy ratings. Following the recent share rally, the $57.50 average price target puts the upside potential at 7.3% in the coming 12 months. (See AstraZeneca stock analysis on TipRanks). Related News: Bluebird Prices New Shares At $55, Seeks To Raise $500 Million Moderna Spikes 21% Amid “Positive” Early-Stage Covid-19 Vaccine Data AstraZeneca Aiming For 30M UK Covid-19 Vaccine Doses By September More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Halliburton Wipes 75% Off Dividend; Board Takes Pay Cut * Zoom Suspends Free China Service As Trade Tensions Intensify * Unclear If President Trump Will Wear Mask At Ford’s Repurposed Factory Tour * Facebook Rolls Out Online Shopping Platform For Businesses

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Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan’s Chicago-area home is still on the market. The 9 bedrooms and 15 bathroom estate has yet to find a buyer since 2014.

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