Globe Life Tumbles on Short Seller Report Alleging Fraud
5 minutes ago
Globe Life (GL) was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 on Thursday after short seller Fuzzy Panda Research said it had taken a short position in the company and alleged management turned a blind eye to accusations of wide-ranging insurance fraud.
“We uncovered extensive allegations of insurance fraud ignored by management despite being obvious and reported hundreds of times,” the researchers wrote in their report.
Fuzzy Panda accused executives of partaking in a kickback scheme, and alleged Globe Life sales teams wrote policies for deceased and fictitious customers.
Globe Life did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shares fell more than 23% Thursday to a more than three year low of about $80.
Fastenal Stock Slips After Q1 Results Miss Estimates on ‘Poor Demand’
58 minutes ago
Shares of Fastenal (FAST) slipped Thursday as the distributor of fasteners and tools attributed lower-than-expected quarterly results to weakness in the manufacturing sector.
The company reported first-quarter earnings per share (EPS) of $0.52, with revenue increasing 1.9% year-over-year to $1.9 billion. Both were slightly below estimates. Operating profit margin was 20.6%, also short of forecasts. Sales of fasteners dropped 4.4% from a year earlier.
CEO Daniel Florness said in an investor presentation that the “core issue remains poor demand.” He pointed to a sluggish Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), explaining that “such slow growth” resulted in pressure on margins and EPS. He argued that “it is difficult to sustain margins at current sales growth rates.”
Fastenal shares fell 4.9% to $71.10 Thursday morning but remained up about 10% this year.
Key Takeaways From CEO Andy Jassy’s Letter to Amazon Shareholders
2 hr 9 min ago
Amazon Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andy Jassy released his annual letter to Amazon (AMZN) shareholders Thursday, covering a range of topics across its business from the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) to the benefits of regionalizing its warehouse network.
Jassy thinks “Generative AI may be the largest technology transformation since the cloud (which itself, is still in the early stages), and perhaps since the Internet,” echoing JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s shareholder letter from earlier this week, and highlighted the benefits of Amazon’s shift to a more regionalized warehouse network that has allowed for more same-day and overnight deliveries.
Jassy also wrote that the company has seen significant benefits from its cost-cutting efforts, with plans to continue to identify areas of the business where Amazon could trim costs going forward.
The company hasn’t announced a date to report first-quarter earnings yet, but has usually done so in late April, and plans to hold its annual shareholder event May 22.
Amazon shares were up slightly Thursday morning, and have risen nearly 23% so far in 2024 and 86% over the last year.
See here for more insights from Jassy’s letter.
Analysts Unfazed by Nvidia’s Recent Correction
2 hr 41 min ago
Nvidia (NVDA) shares rose early trading Thursday, extending yesterday’s rebound from its recent slide into correction territory with analysts saying investors shouldn’t worry, citing Nvidia’s strengths amid the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
Bank of America (BAC) analysts called Nvidia’s recent selloff a “refreshing pause,” noting that volatility is not unusual for the stock, and said they are confident in the chipmaker’s ability to maintain or gain market share.
The sell-off that saw Nvidia fall 10% between March 25 and April 9 marked the ninth time since ChatGPT’s launch in 2022 that Nvidia shares saw a drop of 10% or more, according to Bank of America research.
While some investors may be worried about recent chip announcements by tech giants such as Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google Axion Processor and Intel’s (INTC) Gaudi 3 AI accelerator, Bank of America reiterated its “core view” that Nvidia is a top pick.
The analysts said they project Nvidia will “continue to dominate,” capturing more than 75% of the approximately $90 billion accelerator market. Bank of America anticipates In-house custom chips by companies like Google, Microsoft (MSFT), and Amazon (AMZN) will account for 15% to 20% of the market, while another 15% to 20% could be spread across others like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Intel (INTC).
Read more of what analysts are saying about Nvidia.
Stocks Making the Biggest Moves Premarket
3 hr 16 min ago
Gains:
- Alpine Immune Sciences (ALPN): Shares jumped about 37% after Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) offered to acquire the immunotherapy company for about $4.9 billion.
- AstraZeneca Plc (AZN): Shares rose about 2% after the British biotech hiked its dividend ahead of a shareholder vote on whether to raise CEO Pascal Soriot’s pay.
- Albemarle (ALB): Shares advanced about 1% as analysts at Berenberg upgraded the lithium miner’s stock to “buy” and Wells Fargo reiterated its “buy” rating, both citing an anticipated bottoming of lithium prices.
Losses:
- CarMax (KMX): Shares of the used-car retailer fell 8% after it missed earnings and sales estimates in the fiscal fourth quarter and said it would take longer to reach its goal of selling two million units a year than previously expected.
- Fastenal (FAST): The industrial distributor’s stock dropped about 5% after it also reported lower-than-expected earnings and sales in the first quarter.
- Robinhood (HOOD): Shares of the online brokerage fell nearly 3% after Citi analysts downgraded its stock to “sell,” citing the disconnect between the company’s bitcoin-boosted stock price and the valuation warranted by its core business.
Futures Point to Further Losses for Stocks
4 hr 7 min ago
Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.4% in premarket trading on Thursday.
S&P 500 futures were also off 0.4%.
Nasdaq 100 futures traded 0.3% lower about an hour before markets opened.
