Citi analyst Jim Suva raised his price target for Apple shares to $160 from $140 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The stock closed Friday up 82c to $139.78. While the shares are hitting all-time highs, the iPhone 8 “super-cycle” is coming soon, which, along with Apple’s growth opportunity in India, is likely to drive sales and earnings growth as well as valuation multiple expansion, Suva tells investors in a research note. India is now the world’s second largest smartphone market, yet Apple has less than 2% market share, the analyst points out. Suva recommends buying Apple shares ahead of the iPhone 8 launch. ...
There’s an old saying in Tennessee – it’s probably in Tennessee, I know it’s in Texas – that says fool me once shame on… shame on you… you fool me you can’t get fooled again. Those are the immortal words of George Bush who, thanks to Donald Trump, is no longer the least eloquent President in American history. I don’t know how many times we’re going to have to hear the old “demand is catching up with supply” story for crude before we take Bush’s bumbled adage to heart. Every week someone else tells us that the outlook is bullish for crude and every f*cking week we get another build in the US as stockpiles soar to sti...
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is one of only two companies to hold the coveted AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s. The other is Microsoft (MSFT ). This stellar credit rating is a testament to the strength and stability of Johnson & Johnson’s business model. The company has delivered strong shareholder returns over the years, driven by steadily increasing dividend payments. In fact, Johnson & Johnson is one of the most popular dividend growth stocks among dividend growth bloggers. Johnson & Johnson is also a Dividend Aristocrat, an elite group of companies with 25+ years of consecutive dividend increases. This post w...
This week’s news continued in a positive trend. All signs from the EU point to an uptick in overall activity. Canada continues to grow modestly but is still dealing with negative business investment. Japanese inflation was positive this month – a very welcome development for a country trying to undo decades of deflation. And finally, the UK continues to confound those (myself included) who predicted a post-Brexit recession. EU news continued its positive trend. Most important were the Markit numbers: the composite reading was 56, a 70-month high. The service sector was also near a 5-year high with a 55.5 reading. New orders and business ...
A proposed €29bn ($30.7bn) merger between the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Deutsche Börse is under threat after the LSEG warned it was unlikely to receive approval from the European Commission. As part of their conditions for approving the merger, Brussels-based antitrust regulators have ordered the LSEG to sell its 60 percent stake in the electronic trading platform MTS. However, the LSEG has said this demand is “disproportionate”, and confirmed it cannot commit to selling the Italy-based unit. [The proposed merger] has come under particular scrutiny following the UK’s vote to leave the EU In January, the LSEG agreed to se...
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reported a £7bn ($8.8bn) loss for 2016, prompting a new cost cutting plan that it is hoped will return the bank to profit in 2018. The figure is well above the £2bn ($2.5bn) loss posted by the bank in 2015, and has exceeded analysts’ expectations. This marks the ninth year in a row the bank has failed to post a profit. “The bottom-line loss we have reported today is, of course, disappointing but, given the scale of the legacy issues we worked through in 2016, it should not come as a surprise”, said RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan in a statement. “These costs are a stark reminder of what happens ...
On February 15, Japanese tech giant SoftBank announced an agreement to acquire Fortress; marking a drastic shift away from the company’s traditional focus on technology and communications holdings. Fortress is a prominent private equity firm managing a highly diversified range of assets including private equity, credit and real estate. The acquisition will cost SoftBank approximately $3.3bn, a mark above the private equity firm’s $2.3bn stock market valuation. The SoftBank Group boasts a global portfolio of companies spanning telecommunications, internet services, artificial intelligence, smart robotics and clean energy technology The Sof...
On February 8, the proposed merger between rival insurance giants Anthem and Cigna was blocked due to competition concerns. Had the merger gone ahead, the company would have become the largest insurance company in the US by membership – boasting a total annual revenue of $115bn and providing coverage to approximately 53 members. At the time of the agreement, Joseph Swedish, President and CEO of Anthem, claimed the merger would “deliver meaningful value to consumers and shareholders through expanded provider collaboration, enhanced affordability and cost of care management capabilities, and superior innovations that deliver a high quality ...
While the UK’s popular vote to leave the European Union took place over seven months ago, Parliament had the final say on February 1: voting to officially trigger the legal process of Brexit. The decision to invoke Article 50 – the bill establishing the legal proceedings through which member states may withdraw from the EU – was supported by both major parties and passed by 498 votes to 114. The vote in Parliament was the subject of an intense legal struggle, with the Supreme Court eventually ruling parliamentary approval was required despite the fact the issue had already gone to a popular vote. Once Article 50 is invoked, there will b...
The Dow Jones Industrial Average made financial history on January 25, breaking through the 20,000 barrier for the first time. The broader S&P 500 and the Nasdaq index also reached new records, bolstered by President Trump’s early executive actions on infrastructure and deregulation. The Dow Jones index broke the barrier following the president’s renewed pledge to build a wall along the US-Mexico border Wall Street stock markets have rallied since Trump’s election victory, with the Dow first coming close to the 20,000 landmark on December 13, and then finishing just 0.37 points shy of the milestone on January 6. It broke the barri...