Month: April 2012

Markets are lower today, mainly in response to Friday’s disappointing jobs data. In afternoon trading, the Dow was down 105 points while the S&P 500 was lower by 1%.

SBA Communications (SBAC) was upgraded to buy from neutral with a price target of $60 by Citigroup (C). The firm believes that the stock is undervalued, given recent transactions made by the company.

Celanese Corporation (CE) maintained its quarterly dividend of 6 cents per share. The dividend is payable for the period beginning February 1, 2012 and ending on and including April 30, 2012 to owners of record as of April 17, 2012.

As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy — they expect to make money. So let’s look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

This is what’s in the news for Monday April 2, 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports in Q1, 174 companies worldwide launched IPOs, raising $16.5B, down 43% from the same period in 2011 when measured by the number of deals, and down 63% by dollar value, according to Dealogic. Reuters reports a private equity arm of Goldman Sachs (GS) may launch a $3B property debt fund to take advantage of a growing shortage of real estate financing across the U.K. and Europe, according to the Times. Bloomberg reports the best Q1 gain for the S&P’s 500 Index since 1998 pushed U.S. stocks above gold by the most in over a decade, signaling increasing investor confidence in corporate profits. Finally, Bloomberg also reports the worst is over for the $10T U.S. Treasury market following the biggest quarterly rout since 2010, according to Wall Street’s biggest bond trading firms.

After loosing its spot as the number 2 burger chain in America, Burger King is planning on changing its image.The fast food chain has decided to revamp its menu with ten new products, rolling out nation-wide today. These include, fruit smoothies, fresh new salads, and even made-to-order frappuccino drinks.Burger King also revealed a new look to the inside of their restaurants. A franchise in Miami already boasts the new decor which focuses more on casual dining and a modern feel.The complete revamping will cost the company about $750 million dollars with the remodeling coming to around 7,204 of its U.S. Stores in the next 12 months. Executives and franchisees hope these new products and ideas will help to bring customers back and put Burger King back in its number two spot again.

Coty Inc. announced it submitted a non-binding offer to acquire Avon Products (NYSE:AVP) for $23.25 a share in cash.The unsolicited offer represents a premium of almost 27% over the company’s three-month average price and values the company at approximately $10 billion.At that price, the offer would be the biggest takeover in the cosmetics and toiletries industry since 2005, when Procter & Gamble purchased Gillette for $57.3 billion including debt.However, Avon released its own statement saying it has rejected Coty’s offer because it wouldn’t be in the best interests of its shareholders.

Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE:GS) private-equity arm is looking to launch a $3 billion property fund that will aim to take advantage of a shortage of real estate financing in England and Europe, according to a report in the The Times.The fund will provide senior and mezzanine loans to property investors.Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) has potential upside of 7.8% based on a current price of $124.37 and an average consensus analyst price target of $134.13.

New information has surfaced in the MasterCard and Visa security breach. Global Payments, a company that processes card transactions, is reporting up to 1.5 million credit and debit card numbers could be compromised. The company added that the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of cardholders were not affected.This means that identity theft will not become an issue but fake cards could be made with the card numbers, leading to potential fraudulent charges for thousands of people. Global Payments did not specify which credit card companies were affected but Discover and American Express could have also had a breach in addition to MasterCard and Visa.If you are wondering what you can do the best advice is to wait and see. If your card issuer believes your account has been compromised they will contact you. And if there are fraudulent charges that come up on your account because of the breach, you will not be responsible for them.

The Financial Trade Commission has granted approval today of the merger between Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions. The $29.1 billion bid will create the biggest manager of prescription-drug benefits for corporate and government clients. The FTC investigated for eight months and ultimately approved the merger by a three-to-one vote of the commissioners. Bloomberg reported, citing Adam Fein, that the combined Express-Medco company would handle 34 percent of prescriptions in the U.S. On the news Express Scripts shares are soaring, up almost 4.5% to $56.45.