Category: Stock Market

Shares in Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) rose 5.7% after the U.S. carrier said that it has seen a “modest improvement” in May demand as new passenger bookings outpaced trip cancellations.In the month through May 18, the U.S. airline recorded net positive bookings reversing net negative booking trends prevalent during most of March and April, where trip cancellations outpaced new passenger bookings, it said in a SEC filing disclosing preliminary figures. The reversal drove shares up 5.7% to $28.58 in early afternoon U.S. trading.The value of Southwest's shares has almost halved this year as stringent travel restrictions tied to the coronavirus pandemic have brought travel demand to an almost halt. U.S. airlines have been burning through billions of dollars in the first quarter incurring huge losses and implementing broad cost-cutting plans, as well as taking steps to shore up its cash buffers.Southwest said it expects average daily cash burn in June to be in the low-$20 million compared with average daily core cash spending of $30 million to $35 million in the second quarter.In May, capacity is set to decrease 60% to 70%, compared with an estimated decline of 45% to 55% in June, according to the preliminary figures. This month, the load factor is expected to be in the range of 25% to 30%, compared with a range of 35% to 45% expected in June.Bernstein analyst David Vernon last week maintained his Hold rating on the stock with a $29 price target, saying that although Southwest has some of the highest industry margins, it will have steeper capital spending as it upgrades its fleet with Boeing (BA) 737 MAX planes on order.“The company has the healthiest balance sheet among the four [U.S. airlines] and the equity dilution risk is already baked in,” Vernon wrote in a note to investors.Southwest said it currently has $13 billion in cash and short-term investments. Since the beginning of the year, it raised about $13.9 billion, including $10 billion in financings and sale-leaseback transactions and $2.2 billion through a common stock offering. Based on the preliminary figures, it currently estimates to have about 20 months of liquidity, it said.Overall, Wall Street analysts are cautiously optimistic on the stock. The 15 analyst ratings are divided between 9 Buys and 6 Holds adding up to a Moderate Buy consensus. The $42.50 average price target indicates 49% upside potential in the shares in the coming 12 months. (See Southwest Airlines stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Ryanair Cuts Traffic Target By Almost 50% For Coming Year, Seeks To Reduce Boeing Plane Deliveries Boeing Gets No Orders in April, Customers Cancel 737 MAX Jets Colombian Carrier Avianca Files for Bankruptcy Protection Due to Coronavirus Woes More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Walmart’s Quarterly Sales Surprise As Virus Lockdown Drives Online, Store Delivery Traffic * Kohl’s Posts Quarterly Loss, Sees April Online Sales Jumping 60%  * GM Director Displays Confidence in Company Despite Recent Troubles * iQIYI Sinks 4% As Online Ad-Revenue Falls Sharply

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Click here to read the full article. "The Joe Rogan Experience," one of podcasting's longest-running and most popular shows, will be launching on Spotify exclusively this year.The Rogan-hosted comedy talk-show series will debut on Spotify on Sept. 1, 2020, on a nonexclusive basis — before becoming exclusive to the platform later later in 2020 under the multiyear licensing deal.With Rogan, Spotify has landed one of the podcasting biz's whales. It currently ranks as the No. 2 most popular show on Apple Podcasts (after Barstool Sports' "Call Her Daddy"), per Podcast Insights. A source familiar with the deal said Rogan became sold on Spotify's ability to build his audience worldwide, after initially resisting distributing the podcast on the platform because he saw it as primarily a music service.In addition to the podcast, JRE also produces corresponding video episodes, which will also be available on Spotify as in-app "vodcasts."Rogan announced the deal on social media Tuesday."The podcast is moving to @spotify!" he wrote on Instagram. "It will remain FREE, and it will be the exact same show. It’s just a licensing deal, so Spotify won’t have any creative control over the show. They want me to just continue doing it the way I’m doing it right now."Rogan said there will still be clips from the show on YouTube "but full versions of the show will only be on Spotify after the end of the year. I’m excited to have the support of the largest audio platform in the world and I hope you folks are there when we make the switch!"Since its launch in 2009, "The Joe Rogan Experience" has built a large, loyal and engaged fanbase tuning in to hear his discussions with a range of guests, including comedians, actors, musicians, MMA fighters, authors, artists and more.Under the distribution deal with Spotify, "The Joe Rogan Experience" will be available to Spotify's 286 million active monthly users free with ads (and without ads for premium subscribers). According to Spotify, "The Joe Rogan Experience" has long been the most-searched-for podcast on its service.Rogan, a stand-up comedian and actor, was previously best known for hosting NBC reality competition show “Fear Factor” in the early 2000s (which he reprised in 2011-12). The Boston native previously appeared in NBC sitcom "NewsRadio." He also has two stand-up specials on Netflix, 2018's "Strange Times" and 2016's "Triggered."Rogan is repped by Chandra Keyes and Jeff Sussman at Jeff Sussman Management, Matt Lichtenberg at Level Four Business Management, and attorney Seth Horwitz at Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.

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Novavax (NVAX) filed a prospectus to sell up to $250 million of shares of common stock as it prepares to scale up production of its coronavirus vaccine candidate.Shares in Novavax jumped 31% to close at $56.96 in U.S. trading on Monday after their value more than doubled over the past month.The late-stage biotech company, which is in the process of developing a coronavirus antigen vaccine candidate, said that the net proceeds from the sale of common stock will depend on the number of shares actually sold and the offering price for such shares. The company based its calculation on the event that all of the offered shares would be sold at $43.63, the closing price per share on May 15.“We intend to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including but not limited to working capital, capital expenditures, research and development expenditures, clinical trial expenditures, as well as acquisitions and other strategic purposes,” Novavax said in the prospectus filing.The offering comes after Novavax announced last week that it will receive $384 million in funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to develop and produce its coronavirus vaccine candidate. The biotech company has set itself the aim of producing up to 100 million vaccine doses by end of 2020. For 2021, it is planning to target large-scale manufacturing capacity in multiple countries with a goal of potentially producing over one billion doses during the year.Five-star analyst Mayank Mamtani at B. Riley FBR on Monday raised his price target on the biotech stock to $53 a share from $43 and kept his Buy rating, following a meeting with Novavax management to review progress on on its COVID-19 vaccine development.“We believe NVAX not only offers a clinically validated adjuvanted recombinant nanoparticle platform (recently reporting overwhelmingly positive data in the Ph. III NanoFlu) but, also, demonstrates the ability to illicit a potent immune response at extremely low doses, boding favorably for both safety and scalability, with management guiding to 100M doses by YE20 and >1B during 2021,” Mamtani wrote in a note to investors. “With a regulatory path becoming relatively clearer, likely on the basis of Ph. IIb results by leveraging Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), we increase the probability of success, from 25% to 40%, which drives our PT increase.”The rest of Wall Street analysts covering the stock in the past three months join Mamtani in their recommendation to Buy the shares adding up to a Strong Buy consensus. Following the stock’s rally, the $47.60 average price target indicates 16% downside potential in the coming 12 months. (See Novavax stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Novavax Spikes 31% on $384 Million Cash Injection for Vaccine Production AstraZeneca, Daiichi Get FDA Breakthrough Status For Gastro Cancer Drug Seres Therapeutics Reports Weak Earnings, But Significant Upside Lies Ahead More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Southwest Pops Almost 6% As May Passenger Bookings Outpace Cancellations * Aurora Cannabis (ACB) Has a Positive Outlook, But the Stock Needs to Settle Down * Walmart’s Quarterly Sales Surprise As Virus Lockdown Drives Online, Store Delivery Traffic * Kohl’s Posts Quarterly Loss, Sees April Online Sales Jumping 60%

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The share price of Aurora Cannabis (ACB) has been exploding since the company released its surprisingly positive earnings. The report showed the company generating much more revenue than expected, while revealing the numbers associated with cutting costs and expenditures.Investors need to be very cautious now that it has run up so high, as there is no doubt when it starts correcting it's going to happen fast. You don't want to be on the wrong side of the trade, although those shorting it correctly will make a lot of money, just as those that went long have.Indeed, most of Wall Street is surveying the cannabis producer from the sidelines, with TipRanks analytics demonstrating ACB as a Hold. The 12-month average price target stands at $10.93, marking a nearly 26% downside from current levels. (See Aurora stock analysis on TipRanks)In this article, however, I want to talk about the overall strategy of Aurora and why its future, for the first time in a long time, looks a lot brighter.Surprising resultsThe market was surprised by the revenue generated by Aurora in the reporting period, but I wrote in a couple of articles not too long ago that there would be a nice boost from people buying and hoarding pot before the guidelines in Canada went in place in response to COVID-19.I also mentioned it was likely that the current quarter could be more challenging because consumers may have more than enough product for their usage.In regard to that, the company did state in the earnings report that through the first half of the quarter they haven't seen any decline in sales. I think a major reason for that is because of an increase in derivative sales, and sales from the introduction of its value brand called Daily Special, its low-cost product introduced into the market last quarter.The company said for the months of March and April, it has been the market leader in the important Ontario market, which has over 14 million people living there.Although Ontario still only has 54 retail outlets to acquire pot from, and not all of them open at this time, it's obvious that Aurora will be able to leverage its quality brands and production capacity into long-term growth as Ontario increases the number of retail stores by about five per month going forward.Other positives were the company reiterated its commitment to cutting costs and expenditures, and expects to be EBITDA positive early in the next fiscal year.It also remains the medical cannabis leader in Canada, and is winning back market share in Germany after a licensing issue was resolved in the last quarter.The most important takeaway for me in the quarter was how Aurora was able to boost sales and cut costs in a very difficult market environment, and also after changing much of its management team.Weighing the performanceIt has to be understood that even though this was a good quarter for Aurora, and I believe it has turned the corner, it'll still take time for it to accelerate growth because of challenges in Ontario in the near term, and uncertainty on the ongoing limitations as a result of COVID-19.On the medical marijuana segment of its business in Canada, it did have a slightly smaller customer base than it had in the prior quarter, but that was probably from some customers using recreational pot instead of approved of medical cannabis.With the strong performance of its value brand and the inevitable increase in stores in Ontario, the company should be able to take share away from the illegal market over time, further adding to its sales growth trajectory.Being a market leader in Ontario means the company has the potential to take significant share in Canada in the months and years ahead because of its being easily the largest Canadian market as measured by population.On the cost and investment side, I have no trouble believing the company has the will and ability to cut costs and expenditures to the point of rapidly moving toward positive EBITDA.That and the company continuing to be a market leader in cost per gram, means it is positioning itself to be tough to compete against as the Canadian cannabis market starts to mature.ConclusionThere was a lot to like about the latest earnings report of Aurora Cannabis, it is only the beginning of a big turnaround for the company, Much of the short term growth will be incremental rather than exponential, and once the smoke clears from the explosion of its share price, shareholder will have to adjust their expectations to a more modest growth trajectory.The company will need to raise capital to fund its growth. With its visible growth strategy that is being executed very well, and nothing but improvement in the Canadian cannabis market in the short and long term, it looks to me like Aurora now has the worst behind it and is starting to walk with a swagger again, with the caveat it's going to take time for growth to accelerate to exciting levels that will sustainably drive its share price up.To find good ideas for cannabis stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.

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U.S. Walmart sales jumped 10% in the first quarter, boosted by a 74% surge in online buying amid the coronavirus pandemic. Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel discusses.

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Democratic politicians are unhappy with the Trump administration’s latest report on the coronavirus pandemic.

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The automaker also is working on next-generation batteries even more advanced than the new Ultium battery that it unveiled in March, according to GM Executive Vice President Doug Parks, who was speaking at an online investor conference. Reuters reported exclusively in early May that Tesla, in partnership with Chinese battery maker CATL, plans to introduce its own million-mile battery later this year or early next.

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Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema grills Mnuchin for his lack of urgency on providing PPP loans to small businesses.

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It continues to be a world of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google.

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