Is it time to run with the bulls? Writing from investment bank JPMorgan, quantitative strategist Marko Kolanovic says it is. You may remember Kolanovic, if you follow market news regularly; he was one of the few who correctly called the bottom back in March. Now he says that the near- to mid-term prospects remain bullish. He notes two points of particular importance for investors, economic support policies, and the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic.Regarding policy support, Kolanovic is quick to connect recovery in liquidity with the massive fiscal and monetary support put in place by Congress and the Federal Reserve. He reminds investors that “liquidity has recovered meaningfully from the March lows.”The second point is more subtle. Kolanovic writes, “Higher COVID-19 incidence in mainly impacting younger populations, [with] drastically lower mortality rates and likely reflects high testing rates, recent protests, backlogs of hospital visits, and increased economic activity.” In other words, as we return to normal life, more people are getting exposed to the virus – but the people getting exposed are more resistant to the disease, and the death rates are dropping. The coronavirus crisis is turning out less dangerous than was originally feared, and that is good news – especially for stock bulls.Kolanovic’s colleagues at JPM have run with his bullish view, and are pinpointing stocks that have great upside potential. We’ve used the TipRanks database to pull the details on three of those stocks – the upsides start at 22%, but let’s see what else makes them compelling to JPM’s experts.Warner Music Group (WMG)After a nine-year run as a private company, Warner Music, the global music industry’s third largest recording company, completed a new IPO just last month. The stock sale raised almost $2 billion, and was considered a smashing success. Music is a competitive industry, and Warner has some aces in the hole. The company owns recording rights to a slew of big-name artists, including Madonna, Prince, the Rolling Stones, and Metallica. This playbook is an enormous asset, and one that puts Warner on solid footing.With just one month of market trading behind it, WMG hasn’t got a long history for analysts to review – but it does have that playbook, and JPM analyst Alexia Quadrani is suitably impressed. Quadrani writes, “As the only pure play music content company, WMG is well-positioned to benefit from the ongoing growth in paid music streaming globally. We believe WMG shares will maintain a premium valuation over the average of our large-cap media universe due to its higher growth profile, and our outlook reflects our confidence in the growth of streaming and WMG’s execution.”To this end, Quadrani rates WMG a Buy and suggests a $40 price target, which implies a robust upside of 36%. (To watch Quadrani’s track record, click here)In its first month since the IPO, WMG shares have earned a Moderate Buy rating from the analyst consensus. Wall Street’s stock watchers are divided 7 to 8 on Buys and Holds, mainly reflecting caution during the coronavirus crisis. The stock’s $33.64 average price target indicates a one-year upside potential of 15% from the current share price of $33.64. (See WMG stock analysis on TipRanks)Varonis Systems, Inc. (VRNS)With so many people moving to remote work, data security is at a greater premium than ever. Varonis Systems, a security software company, offers a platform that is perfect for the times. Using digital behavior analysis techniques, Varonis’ platform allows businesses to identify cyberattacks based on abnormal user behavior. It’s an idea whose time has clearly come, and Varonis is running with it. The company’s newest platform features remote work security capability.That doesn’t mean the company was able to fully dodge the corona bullet. The broad declines in Q1 – due to the social and economic lockdown policies – put a hurt on VRNS. The company reported steep losses in earnings, seeing the net loss drop sequentially from 47 cents to $1.05. Revenue performed better, beating the forecast at $54.18 million.The stock, however, has performed better than the earnings, rising nearly 27% year-to-date.Sterling Auty, 5-star analyst with JPM, lays out a clear case to explain Varonis’ strong share appreciation: “[We] believe Varonis represents one of those attractive situations as its subscription transition offers the opportunity for significant outperformance relative to revenue and margin estimates that we believe can deliver stock outperformance. This is aided by the growing need for data security solutions as cloud adoption increases and work-from-home setups drive usage of tools that create security challenges.”Auty’s Buy rating on the stock is supported by his $130 price target, which indicates room for a potential 31% upside in the coming year. (To watch Auty’s track record, click here)Overall, Varonis has a Strong Buy rating from the analyst consensus, based on 11 Buys versus just 2 Holds. The stock’s recent share gains, however, have pushed the price almost up to the average price target. VRNS currently trades at $98.58; the average target is $100.36. (See Varonis stock analysis on TipRanks)Masonite International (DOOR)Last on our list is a major name in the construction industry. Tampa-based Masonite, through its subsidiary companies, manufactures doors and their associated systems (frames, screens, windows, and locks) for both interiors and exteriors. It’s a niche product, but an important one; even a small house can have two exterior doors and 8 or 10 interior ones.Masonite posted a strong Q1, despite the corona crisis. Net sales increased 4%, reaching $551 million. EPS rose sharply, too, to $1.24. These gains came even as the company withdrew its full-year 2020 guidance due to COVID-19 concerns.JPM’s Michael Rehaut likes what he sees in Masonite, noting, "[Not] only did the company provide a positive sales update – pointing to June sales down only mid single-digits (with N. America Residential up modestly), following May down low teens – but importantly, DOOR also pointed to some positive margin trends as well,""[We] point to the company’s pricing strategy, strong execution and longer term margin optimization efforts as positive differentiators, along with its attractive relative valuation trading at only roughly 8.5x and 7.3x our 2020E and 2021E EBITDA, respectively," the analyst concluded. In line with his comments, Rehaut puts a $95 price target and a Buy rating on DOOR shares. His target implies an upside of 22% for the next 12 months. (To watch Rehaut’s track record, click here)DOOR is another stock with a Strong Buy consensus rating, in this case based on 6 Buys and 2 Holds. Shares are currently trading at $77.54, and the average price target of $85.38 suggests a one-year upside of 10%. (See Masonite’s stock-price forecast on TipRanks)To find good ideas for 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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Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi, Alexis Christoforous, and Dan Roberts discuss the Disney+ release of ‘Hamilton’ and what it means for the future of streaming. How do you pick the next stock to invest in? One way would be to spend days of research browsing through thousands of publicly traded companies. However, an easier way is to look at the stocks that smart money investors are collectively bullish on. Hedge funds and other institutional investors usually invest large amounts of […]
(Bloomberg) — To be an energy superpower, U.S. oil and gas requires a suitably gargantuan pipeline network that stretches for millions of miles. The country’s ability to expand that infrastructure is being tested like never before.In what’s possibly the biggest victory yet for an environmental movement targeting the conduits carrying fossil fuels, Dominion Energy Inc. and its partner Duke Energy Corp. said Sunday they’ll no longer pursue their $8 billion Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline after years of delays and ballooning costs.It’s the third such project this year to be sidelined or canceled altogether amid mounting opposition to development of coal, oil and gas. Armed with experienced lawyers and record funding, environmental groups are finding enormous success blocking key pipeline permits in court. The keep-it-in-the-ground movement has increasingly turned its attention to the pipes, rather than the wells themselves, because they require various federal and state permits, which, for the most part, can be more easily litigated.A lack of new pipelines in areas like the U.S. Northeast, which faces gas supply constraints, may hobble some producers and potentially hasten the pace of transition to renewable energy. The demise of Atlantic Coast also casts a dark cloud on Mountain Valley Pipeline, a $4.7 billion gas project being developed by EQM Midstream Partners alongside utility giants NextEra Corp., Consolidated Edison Inc. and others.The pipeline industry’s challenges come despite support from President Donald Trump. In his first week in office, Trump greenlighted the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines. Last year, the White House signed an executive order aimed at short-circuiting regulators who held up gas lines by refusing permits. But the measure has so far failed to save any major projects, and Keystone XL and Dakota Access remain embattled. In February, Williams Cos. scrapped its Constitution natural gas pipeline after failing repeatedly to gain a water permit from New York. Just three months later, the company said it wouldn’t refile a state application for another gas pipeline routed through the state.In contrast to Trump, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has vowed to kill Keystone XL and is supporting a push to lower-carbon energy sources, even if it comes at the expense of oil and gas jobs.“Investors have lost patience with big infrastructure projects, and the 2020 election poses too much risk for major projects to move forward,” said Katie Bays, co-founder of Washington-based Sandhill Strategy LLC.When Atlantic Coast was proposed in 2014, it was expected to cost $5 billion and connect Appalachian shale gas plays with markets in the southeast. The price tag rose to $8 billion as the pipeline’s date to enter service was pushed back over and over again. The project faced opposition at various points along its route, including the proposed site of an associated plant in Union Hill, a community west of Richmond, Virginia, that was founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. Ex-U.S. Vice President and fossil fuel critic Al Gore said last year the pipeline represented “environmental racism.”The project won a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court in June, but a long list of other obstacles remained. In the end, not only did Dominion cancel it, the company also announced Sunday the sale of almost all its gas pipeline and storage business to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway for $4 billion, while highlighting its target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.“The well-funded, obstructionist environmental lobby has successfully killed the Atlantic Coast Pipeline,” U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said in a statement. “Duke and Dominion have had to make the difficult decision to end this project because it is no longer economically viable due to the costly legal battles they would continue to face.”The Natural Resources Defense Council was among the environmental groups hailing the decision. The organization said the project threatened waterways and its cancellation marks a victory for landowners along the proposed route.Gas pipelines that traverse state lines have typically required more extensive environmental reviews than oil pipelines, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to legal challenges and permitting problems. But even crude lines are increasingly running into major roadblocks. The Keystone XL oil project is still stalled after more than a decade, while Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 and Line 5 pipelines remain ensnared in court battles and regulatory pushback. Although Dakota Access is already carrying oil, it could see operations halted if a legal challenge is successful.Even in Texas, long considered a safe haven for the oil and gas industry, Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Permian Highway Pipeline is experiencing a backlash from landowners and conservationists who argue the project would harm aquifer recharge zones.“We have to be honest with ourselves that a world where ACP is too risky to get done is probably also a world where KXL is too risky to get done,” said Bays, using acronyms for Atlantic Coast and Keystone XL. “We’ll see companies pivot toward smaller, strategic investments and away from large interstate oil and gas pipelines.”The Supreme Court victory for Atlantic Coast offered a glimmer of hope for Mountain Valley, which has also seen delays and cost hikes as it too seeks to carry Appalachian gas out of the Marcellus shale field. But its time may be running out after two customers in May amended a 2016 agreement to terminate the deal if service doesn’t begin by the end of 2021.Christi Tezak, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, said she still expects Mountain Valley to get across the finish line, in part because the project is mostly constructed and faces slightly different circumstances than Atlantic Coast.“Is the landscape more challenging? Absolutely. But for the projects that are in play right now there are situational characteristics that make them all different,” she said. “I would say that what we’re seeing is the end of a cyclical boom in energy infrastructure, combined with a trend toward lower greenhouse-gas-intensive power generation.”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.
On this episode of Yahoo Finance Presents, Social Captial Founder and CEO Chamath Palihapitiya sat down with Yahoo Finance’s Julia La Roche to discuss topics such as capitalism in the modern era, big tech, the future of social media, fiscal and monetary policy, trickle down economics, and many more.Insider Monkey has processed numerous 13F filings of hedge funds and successful value investors to create an extensive database of hedge fund holdings. The 13F filings show the hedge funds' and successful investors' positions as of the end of the first quarter. You can find articles about an individual hedge fund's trades on numerous financial […]
Uber bought the food delivery company Postmates for $2.65 billion dollars in shares. Yahoo Finance’s Emily McCormick joins The First Trade to discuss. 
Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi and Alexis Christoforous discuss the latest coronavirus news with Yahoo Medical Contributor and Columbia University Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Dara Kass. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk announced Sunday that the automaker was selling a pair of red "short shorts" on its online store, which led to the item being sold off in minutes and the company's retail website crashing.What Happened Musk took to Twitter to announce the sale of the short shorts.> Limited edition short shorts now available at https://t.co/5EmNcTBvJv> > — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2020The Tesla chief executive said the limited edition shorts were on sale for "only $69.420," a thinly veiled reference to the $420 price point at which Musk had wanted to take the automaker private in 2018.Minutes after the shorts went on sale, they were all sold out, and the Tesla online store became inaccessible. > Dang, we broke the website> > — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2020The shorts' product description mocks the short-sellers of Tesla stock. It reads, "Celebrate summer with Tesla Short Shorts. Run like the wind or entertain like Liberace with our red satin and gold trim design. Relax poolside or lounge indoors year-round with our limited-edition Tesla Short Shorts, featuring our signature Tesla logo in front with "S3XY" across the back. Enjoy exceptional comfort from the closing bell."Why It Matters Musk had taunted both short-sellers and the Securities and Exchange Commission on Twitter last week promising that Tesla will "make fabulous short shorts in radiant red satin with gold trim," and "will send some to the Shortseller Enrichment Commission to comfort them through these difficult time."Musk is taking a victory lap with a series of tweets against his supposed detractors as Tesla's stock price surges. Last week, the company emerged as the world's foremost automaker in terms of market cap. Last Thursday, Tesla announced it had delivered 90,650 cars in the second quarter, which is impressive considering the company's factory at Fremont, California, remained shut during this period due to the ongoing pandemic.Price Action Tesla shares traded 0.38% higher at $1,213.20 in the after-hours session on Thursday. The shares had closed the regular session 7.95% higher at $1,208.66.Image: Tesla.comSee more from Benzinga * Uber Buying Postmates In All-Stock Deal Valued At .65B: Report * SoftBank Shuns Elliot Management's Call For Board Oversight Of Vision Fund * McDonald's, Apple Further Delay Reopening Due To Coronavirus Cases Spike(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.