Equity research firm, Oppenheimer downgraded Dick’s Sporting Goods (NYSE: DKS) to a “market-perform” from a “outperform”, citing continuation of weak sales trend and certain “acute products issues” which the company will have to pay attention to. The price target on the stock was slashed to $44 from $56. Earlier on Wednesday, Deutsche Bank reiterated a “buy” rating on the stock but cut the price target to $52 from $57 while analysts at Citigroup Inc. cut price target to $54. The Company on Tuesday handed weaker-than-expected fiscal second quarter results.
Month: August 2013
Ann Inc. Cuts Full-Year Revenue Outlook
Specialty retailer for women’s apparels and accessories, Ann Inc. (NYSE: ANN) said on Friday that fiscal second quarter profit rose 16%, aided by higher sales at its Loft and Ann Taylor stores. However, the retailer, just like its peers, slashed the full-year outlook. For the latest period, the adjusted earnings stood at 76 cents a share, comfortably beating analysts’ estimate for 65 cents a share. Revenue rose 7% to $638.2 million but missed Street’s forecast of $639.7 million. For the full-fiscal year, the Company anticipates revenue of $2.52 billion down from earlier projection for $2.54 billion.
GameStop Corp. Lifts Full-Year Guidance
Although GameStop Corp.’s (NYSE: GME) fiscal second-quarter sales and profit fell amid growing trend of mobile based games over consoles, shares rallied on Thursday after the company raised its full-year outlook. Both earnings and revenue for the latest period were also better-than-expected. For the full-fiscal year, the Company now expects earnings to be in the range of $3 to $3.20 up from its earlier forecast of $2.90 to $3.15. Same-store-sales are expected in the range of 3.5% fall to 1.5% growth. Earlier the Company projected a decline of 5% to 1.5% gain.
Abercrombie & Fitch Q2 Results and Q3 Guidance Way Below Forecasts
The teen apparel retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) reported 33% plunge in fiscal second-quarter profit. The retailer’s earnings and revenue also missed Wall Street’s expectation by a wide margin. Speaking to analysts in a conference call, Abercrombie & Fitch’s CEO Mike Jefferies said that weakness in female apparel business and lower customer traffic were the key factors behind poor showing. For the fiscal third quarter, the Company expects earnings to be in the range of 40 cents to 45 cents while analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were anticipating $1.06 a share.
American Eagle Q3 Earnings Forecast Sharply Below Expectation
Shares of American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) were hammered on Wednesday after the teen apparel chain provided a very disappointing fiscal third quarter earnings outlook even as it said that it will continue selling its products at discounted prices to push sales during the back-to-school season. For the fiscal third quarter, American Eagle Outfitters anticipates earnings of 14 cents to 16 cents a share while analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected 35 cents. In the latest period, the adjusted earnings stood at 10 cents a share, in line with its most recent projection, made two weeks ago. At that time, analysts had a consensus forecast for earnings of 21 cents a share.
Facebook Aims To Make Internet Accessible For Everyone
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of social networking giant Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has one dream; to make internet accessible for those people who cannot afford it. To achieve this goal, Zuckerberg has chosen Samsung Electronics and four more companies. The project dubbed as Internet.org will aim at bringing internet access to next 5 billion people around the world for whom accessing internet is like a luxury. The project will kick start from Wednesday August 21.
Boeing Step Closer To Clinch a Big Deal From South Korea: Reuters
Reuters, quoting sources familiar with the matter, has reported that Boeing (NYSE: BA) is very close to clinch a huge deal from South Korea. The Company’s bid of $7.4 billion to supply South Korea with 60 fighter jets was only the offer which below the price ceiling set out by the nation’s arm procurement agency. The final decision regarding the procurement will be made in September but these sources said that the U.S. aircraft manufacturer’s bid was very likely to win them the contract. Boeing’s latest fighter jet, F-15Silent Eagle was pitted against Eurofighter consortium’s Typhoon and Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Stealth aircraft.
Microsoft Patent Sale: Judge Rejects Lawsuit Against AOL
A federal judge on Monday rejected a lawsuit against AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL). Litigants in this case had accused AOL and some of its executives for fraud. They said that the company deliberately bought 14.8 million shares in 2011, keeping investors in dark about its plans to sell $1 billion worth patents to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) few months later. Litigants said that they suffered substantial losses as they sold shares before the patent deal. Following the deal, the stock had surged 43% in a single trading day. Litigants argued that both the CEO Tim Armstrong and ex-CFO Arthur Minson bought shares at discounted price and made windfall gains.
Zillow Offers Shares at 3% Discount, To Acquire StreetEasy
The real-estate listings services provider, Zillow Inc. (NASDAQ: Z) said on Monday that it will offer 5 million shares (A Class) at price of $82.00 per share, which implies a 3% discount to the stock’s closing price on Monday. Shares tumbled 7.11% to $84.74 in regular trading hours. In afterhours, shares slipped another 2.47%. The Company said that it will offer 2.5 million shares while the remaining will be offered by some Zillow’s stakeholders. Zillow said that it intends to buy its smaller rival StreetEasy for nearly $50 million in cash through these proceeds. The acquisition will allow Zillow to gain traction in the New York home shopping market.
Amazon.com Website Goes Down in the U.S., Canada
The world’s largest e-commerce platform, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) went down for nearly 15 minutes on Monday. Users across Canada and the U.S. couldn’t gain access to the website. Despite several requests to comment over the issue, the Company did not reveal what exactly went wrong which caused rare interruption in its services. Amazon.com is spending heavily on its IT infrastructure, in particularly ramping up the server capacity to avert disruptions. On Monday, users spread from Toronto to New York received error messages on their screens when trying to access Amazon.com. Just last week, New York Times also suffered a technical glitch with its website going down for about two hours.