Month: August 2012

Worthington Steel (WOR) was downgraded by Keybanc (KEY) from buy to hold due to slowing macro momentum domestically. Shares are lower by about 1.8 percent.

In trading on Tuesday, precious metals shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 3.4%. Leading the group were shares of Alexco Resource (AXU), up about 8.7% and shares of Golden Minerals (AUMN) up about 8.2% on the day.

Best Buy (BBY) announced that net income during the quarter fell by 90 percent, due to weak sales and restructuring charges. The company earned $12 million, or 4 cents per share, versus $128 million, or 34 cents per share in the same period last year.

This is the financial news network. Here’s what’s in the news for Monday August 20, 2012. The Wall Street Journal reports some early backers of Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN), including Silicon Valley veteran Marc Andreessen, are leaving, joining investors who have lost faith in companies that had been expected to drive a new Internet boom. Reuters reports Sharp (PINK:SHCAY) will submit an asset appraisal report to its banks in September that they will use to identify businesses the company has to sell in return for funding, sources at the lenders say. Reuters also reports Korea Life Insurance Co. is unlikely to pursue the purchase of ING’s (NYSE:ING) Southeast Asian life insurance operations, parent firm Hanwha Group says. Finally, Bloomberg reports Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) shares will face more pressure when an additional 1.44B shares are freed up through November. For more financial news and analysis follow us on Twitter @FNNOnline.

Finally, Zagg (NASDAQ:ZAGG) is losing its Chairman and CEO Robert Pedersen. Perdersen has resigned from the company and gave no reason for his departure. Chief Operating Officer Randall Hales was appointed at interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent replacement. Some analysts have cut their ratings on the stock in response to the resignation. So far this year Zagg’s stock is up 19%. Zagg stock plummeting on this personnel change. Its stock is down 14% to $7.25.

Big acquisition news on Wall Street this morning. Aetna has announced it will buy Coventry Health Care for $5.7 billion in an effort to deal with the government’s healthcare reform. The total value of the deal comes out to $42.08 per Coventry share, a 20.4% premium on the stock’s Friday closing price. Aenta says the acquisition will help strengthen its Medicare and Medicaid business units to provide sufficient coverage once the new government overhaul expands the federally funded programs. Both Coventry Healthcare and Aetna are seeing gains over this acquisition news. Aetna stock is up over 4% while Coventry shares are trading over 19% higher.

If you like your animal encounters from the comfort of your own car, we have some bad new for you. New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure has said today that it will be ending the practice of allowing guests to drive their own cars through its animal sanctuary. Before this announcement, Six Flags guests were permitted to drive personal vehicles through the sanctuary grounds, experiencing the wildlife at their own pace. The new rules will go into effect when the animal sanctuary closes for the season on September 30th. Six Flags said that the animal sanctuary will remain, as will the animals within it, but future plans for the area will not be available until August 30th. It is expected that the amusement park chain will announce changes at its other locations as well.

Certain investors received some startling news today as Zeekler.com and ZeekRewards are being accused of fraud. More specifically, The Securities and Exchange Commission claims that the two auction websites are actually a $600 million Ponzi scheme. The SEC says that, in line with a Ponzi scheme, 98% of the supposed revenue and net profit created by the two ventures was actually funds from new investors.Both ZeekRewards and Zeekler.com have been shut down, and federal courts have frozen their assets, amounting to $225 million.

Maria Sharapova may be best known for her tennis talents and marketing campaigns, but now she’s going into business for herself, and it sounds pretty sweet. That’s because Sharapova is launching a line of gummy candies under the name Sugarpova. Starting this monday, the new company will offer treats with names such as Flirty, Cheeky and Sporty. The new candies will be in shapes that exemplify their famous creator, like tennis balls and hand bags. The Candy Connoisseur is planning a big event in New York City to launch the candies, as well as an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. On top of all this Sharapova will be playing the U.S. Open as early as August 27th.

Regulus Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company founded by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY) and Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS), announced today that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC relating to a proposed IPO. All shares of the common stock to be sold in the offering will be offered by Regulus.