Pilgrim’s Pride CEO and 3 other chicken producer executives have been indicted over allegations of price-fixing. Yahoo Finance’s Heidi Chung joins Zack Guzman to discuss.

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(Bloomberg) — Private-equity firms notched a major win in Washington with the Trump administration paving the way for the industry to tap a massive pot of money that has long been off limits: the trillions of dollars held in Americans’ retirement accounts.The Labor Department issued guidance Wednesday effectively allowing 401(k) plans to invest in buyout firms. The agency said the move will bolster investment options for consumers and let them access an asset class that can provide better returns than stocks and bonds.In a statement, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said the action “will help Americans saving for retirement gain access to alternative investments that often provide strong returns.”The announcement is a significant deregulatory decision that private-equity lobbyists have sought for years. It is sure to face harsh criticism from consumer groups and progressive Democratic lawmakers, who argue that high-fee private equity firms are inappropriate for unsophisticated investors because the industry locks up clients’ money for years and backs businesses seen as far more risky than a plain-vanilla bond fund.Deregulatory AgendaPublic pension funds that manage employees’ retirement savings have a long history of investing in private equity. But complex regulations and concerns about being sued have until now kept individuals’ 401(k) plans out. The private-equity industry has ramped up its campaign to change the rules during the Trump administration, which has made cutting back regulations a core element of its economic platform.Labor’s guidance was focused on professionally managed investment funds that include several types of assets. The agency said it wasn’t green-lighting private equity investments to be offered as a standalone option.The announcement was praised by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton, whose agency has been considering ways to let retail investors access asset classes that have been largely reserved for the wealthy.Under current SEC regulations, firms such as Apollo Global Management Inc., Blackstone Group Inc., Carlyle Group Inc. and KKR & Co. are mostly limited to raising money from the super rich, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds.Democratizing InvestmentsGroom Law Group principal David Levine, whose firm requested the Labor Department guidance on behalf of its clients, said the move would have a notable impact on workers saving for retirement.“By issuing the guidance, the Department of Labor has taken great steps to democratize the use of private equity in many Americans’ largest investment asset — their retirement accounts,” he said.(Updates with details on scope of guidance in sixth 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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The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 821 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F […]

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Without a doubt, Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO) is one of the year’s success stories. Heading into 2020, INO shares were going for $3.30 apiece. The stock is now priced at $13.30, an increase of a hefty 303%.As for how the biotech accumulated such impressive gains, the company has positioned itself as one to watch with its COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidate, INO-4800.However, even as investors’ optimism surges, some remain more skeptical. Among the skeptics is RBC Capital analyst Gregory Renza.The 5-star analyst rates INO shares a Sector Perform (i.e. Hold) along with a $10 price target. In other words, Renza expects shares to come down by a considerable 25% over the next year. (To watch Renza’s track record, click here)That’s not to say Renza thinks Inovio is doing anything particularly wrong. The promising preclinical data for the biotech’s COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidate, and overall progress – INO-4800 is currently in a Phase 1 trial with interim data expected in June and initiation of a larger Phase 2/3 trial expected in the summer – has impressed Renza. That being said, the analyst remains apprehensive when considering Inovio’s chances of bringing a viable solution to market.Renza said, “We are encouraged by the swift progress of the program, and increased our PoS (probability of success) for the accelerated development timeline scenario to 70% (from 50%) though we maintain our 25% level of ultimate success, and continue to monitor the development of the INO-4800 story and larger landscape.”Furthermore, after speaking to key opinion leaders (KOLs), Renza is concerned with another issue. Although encouraged by the early data, the KOLs have expressed doubt regarding the 12-18 month timeline for the vaccine, as more data will be required to “understand the protection levels of immune responses and the physiology of the responses.” Additionally, as highlighted by one KOL, the 12-18-month timeline “could be deemed aggressive, and can only be achieved if 'everything goes well’.”Overall, Renza’s colleagues take a more positive view. The consensus breakdown of 5 Buys and 3 Holds coalesce into a Moderate Buy consensus rating. With an average price target of $16.71, the analysts forecast possible upside of 27% over the next 12 months. (See Inovio stock analysis on TipRanks)To find good ideas for healthcare 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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New data suggests life is getting back to some form of normal after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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In this article we will take a look at whether hedge funds think Euronav NV (NYSE:EURN) is a good investment right now. We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, unconventional data sources, expert networks, and get tips from […]

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Coronavirus is a monster, a pandemic, a threat to humanity on a global scale.Do I overstate the case? Perhaps, but after nearly 375,000 deaths globally, and 6.2 million infections — meaning there will be more deaths to come — I don't think I overstate the case by much.Coronavirus has already tipped the United States into a recession, and most of the rest of the world as well. Airlines are barely flying, restaurants half-open — if they're lucky — and amusement parks even in countries such as China, which claims to have largely recovered from the epidemic, operate at a fraction of capacity. Before the world economy can recover, we simply must have a vaccine that permits businesses to open back up, full force.But here's the problem with that (for investors). The urgency of the need means that there will be intense pressure upon the companies, that discover COVID-19 vaccines, to distribute them regardless of whether they make a profit — or even give their vaccines away for free. (Witness, for example, Gilead Sciences' commitment to distribute its first 1.5 million doses of the remdesivir anti-viral drug free of charge).And how is a company supposed to make a profit off of that kind of business model?The answer, as 5-star Chardan analyst Geulah Livshits explains in her latest note on Moderna (MRNA), could include the ability to use lessons learned from making one vaccine at low or no profit, to the production of other vaccines for a profit.Moderna, you see, is working to get U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its new mRNA vaccine candidate (mRNA-1273) to prevent infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In so doing, Moderna is perfecting such processes as using DNA plasmid templates, along with enzymes and buffer systems, "to assemble nucleotides into mRNA, which can then be formulated into lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that can then be filtered, fill-finished into vials, and quality controlled" to produce safe, effective vaccines against COVID-19.In previous notes, Livshits has cautioned that Moderna's work on mRNA-1273 might produce only "modest" sales and perhaps even weaker profits. However, Moderna should be able to take expertise, generated in creating vaccines from mRNA without the need to grow chemicals in live cells, and apply it to the development of other vaccines in its pipeline. Such pipeline products include the company's vaccine against cytomegalovirus, which can cause permanent neurological injury in newborns, its Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) vaccine, and other vaccine programs aiming to defend against autoimmune diseases — all of which may have longer-lived commercial potential than a COVID-19 vaccine.This is more than just a theory, by the way. As Livshits explains, Moderna has already used lessons learned from its Chikungunya (a virus transmitted by mosquitoes) vaccine program to optimize mRNA stability when manufacturing long mRNA strands such as those used to create the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Taking lessons learned from creating its coronavirus vaccine, and applying them to the creation of yet more vaccines against other diseases, would just be adding one more link in the chain, ultimately resulting in "faster production and easy switching from 1 program to another" — and hopefully, reducing development costs and enabling fatter profit margins in the process.Overall, based on the 10 Buy ratings vs just 2 Holds assigned in the last three months, Wall Street analysts believe that this ‘Strong Buy’ is a solid bet. It also doesn’t hurt that its $89.33 average price target implies nearly 50% upside potential from current levels. (See Moderna stock analysis on TipRanks)To find good ideas for healthcare 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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Warner Music Group priced its IPO at $25 a share on Wednesday. Ines Ferre joins the On The Move panel to discuss.


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The S&P 500 is showing a sustained rally, and has powered past the 2,750 to 2,850 range analysts had just three weeks ago predicted as resistance levels. That the economy is still in the midst of a serious recession, no one doubts – but the stock market’s performance is giving investors some reason for hope.Finding the right stock plays in the current environment is a challenge for every investor. The crisis sparked by the coronavirus and the unprecedented economic shutdown policies has defied all the rules, making it difficult to predict where a given stock may head. Fortunately, TipRanks has developed the tool you need to interpret the market.The Smart Score uses the accumulated information in the TipRanks database to develop a single rating for every stock. Based on 8 factors – ranging from analyst views to news sentiment to traditional fundamentals – the Smart Score lets you know at a glance how a stock is likely to perform. Today we’ll peer under the hood at three stocks with the coveted ‘perfect 10’ Smart Score – and upside potentials starting at 30%.Vistra Energy (VST)First up is Vistra Energy, a power company in the US. Like most utilities, Texas-based Vistra operates across the electricity utility industry: from power generation, to distribution, to transmission. As an electric utility provider, Vistra found itself with a natural advantage during the past several months, as its services are essential and its product is necessary for, well, most everything.That Vistra is confident, even in these times, can be seen from the company’s dividend. VST paid out 13.5 cents per share in Q1, and announced another 13.5 cent payment for Q2, representing an increase from 2019’s quarterly payments. At 54 cents per share annualized, VST’s dividend yields 2.62%.In Vistra’s Smart Score calculation, 6 of the 8 factors were strongly positive. Of particular note are the news sentiment, which is 100% bullish over the past week; the blogger sentiment, which at 100% bullish is much better than the utility sector average of 66%; and the insider sentiment, which is strongly positive as corporate officers have bought up over $2 million worth of the shares in the past two months.Shahriar Pourreza, 5-star analyst with Guggenheim, is plainly optimistic about this stock. He writes, “We remain of the view that while VST’s high FCF yield valuation is frustrating, the model is poised to perform in a COVID-wracked 2020 and beyond – this is the year to prove-out the stability of the integrated business model. We continue to be strong supporters of shares…”Pourreza rates VST shares a Buy and gives the stock a $34 price target, indicating strong confidence and a one-year upside of 64%. (To watch Pourreza’s track record, click here)With 5 analyst review, breaking down to 4 Buy and 1 Hold, VST gets a Strong Buy from the analyst consensus. The share is priced at $20.63, while the average price target of $30.50 suggests it has room for a robust 47% upside potential. (See Vistra stock analysis on TipRanks)PDC Energy (PDCE)Next up we have an oil company, PDC Energy. This company both produces and distributes crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the lower 48 states. The main production operations are located in Colorado and Texas. Oil production has been growing in recent years; in 2018, PDC averaged 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, and that number is forecast to reach 170,000 to 180,000 per day for 2020.Company earnings had been running near the break-even level through 2019, and took a sharp dive in Q1 2020 – the corona quarter. EPS came in for Q1 at a $8.07 net loss per share. Q2, however, is projected to show a loss of only 27 cents per share – much more in line with recent quarterly results than the Q1 numbers.Turning to the Smart Score, we find that PDCE’s perfect 10 is mainly based on the hedge activity, insider sentiment, and blogger opinions. Hedge activity and insider trades both increased recently, showing institutional confidence in the stock. Hedge activity is up over 953,000 shares, while insider purchases have totaled almost $75,000 in the past three months. The bloggers are 100% bullish on this stock, well above the sector average of 65%.One of PDC Energy's biggest supporters on Wall Street is Wells Fargo's Thomas Hughes. With a price target of $20 a share, the analyst sees 43% upside potential to back his Buy rating. (To watch Hughes’ track record, click here)In his comments on the stock, Hughes wrote, “We think PDCE’s strong balance sheet (<2.5x levered by YE21) will one day be rewarded by the market. While the borrowing base was reduced ~19% with the spring redetermination, elected commitments are unchanged…”Overall, the Strong Buy analyst consensus rating here is based on 7 Buys and 1 Hold set in recent months. Shares are selling for $14.05, and the average price target of $20.88 suggests a healthy 48% premium. (See PDC Energy stock analysis on TipRanks)SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW)Last up we have a regional airline. SkyWest operates connector airlines for Alaskan, American, Delta, and United, is the largest regional carrier in the US market. You may think that the airlines have been hurt badly by the coronavirus, most especially by the general economic shutdown and the further restrictions on trade and travel, and you would be right. SKYW shares are down over 40% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is only down 3.5% in that period.Between a solid balance sheet and Federal aid, SkyWest is actually in reasonably good shape, especially compared to its airline peers. The company reported $578 million in cash on hand at the end of Q1, along with a $438 million assistance package under the CARES Act, passed by Congress to help companies ride out the corona recession. Of the CARES money, only $101 million is a loan; the remainder was a direct grant. SkyWest’s liquidity is secure, at least for now.In the Smart Score, SkyWest shows near-unanimity in the positive indicators. Only the technical analysis, which follows long-term chart movements and momentum, is in the red, that is easily understood as an artifact of the market slump. Other indicators – analyst consensus, blogger opinions, hedge and insider activity, and individual investor sentiment – are strongly positive.Covering this stock for Deutsche Bank, 5-star analyst Michael Linenberg writes, “After incorporating all of the cash flow "puts and takes" we are estimating for 2020, we are projecting SkyWest's year-end cash balance north of $600 million. As the company focuses on enhancing its liquidity and reducing its cash burn, we think SkyWest is well-positioned to be the regional aircraft solutions provider for its major airline partners. And the timing couldn't be more propitious for SkyWest to take on that role in light of the volatile backdrop."To this end, Linenberg reiterates a Buy rating on SkyWest shares along with a $47 price target, which implies nearly 27% upside from current levels. (To watch Linenberg's track record, click here)The overall rating on SKYW shares is a Strong Buy, with that analyst consensus rating based on 6 reviews. These include 5 Buys and just a single Hold. The average price target stands at $44.25, and implies an 18% upside potential for the year ahead. (See SkyWest stock analysis 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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