McDonald’s Buys AI Startup for Drive-Thru Menu Personalization

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) is turning to digital technology to bolster its sales as the burger chain will acquire an artificial intelligence (AI) startup with tech that will improve menu personalization for drive-thru customers.

Source: Shutterstock

The San Bernandino, Calif.-based restaurant said that it will buy Dynamic Yield, an AI business based out of Israel to create more personalized experiences for consumers. The tech will offer customers items on the menu boards at drive-thru outlets based on a number of factors, including the weather, how busy the restaurant is, as well as the time of the day.

The new McDonald’s tech will also instantly recommend additional items to customers based on their initial order, such as possibly offering hash browns or McCafe offerings with a breakfast sandwich. The Dynamic Yield acquisition will aid the company’s “ability to increase the role technology and data will play in our future,” according to a statement from McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook.

The move will also bolster “the speed with which we’ll be able to implement our vision of creating more personalized experiences for our customers,” he said. It is unclear how large the deal is as McDonald’s has not commented on the acquisition’s dollar amount, which The Wall Street Journal reported as being north of $300 million.

The burger giant first tested the AI company’s tech in U.S. locations last year, and it plans on adding it to its platform this year. It will then add Dynamic Yield’s capabilities to major international markets, ass well as self-order kiosks and the McDonald’s mobile app.

MCD stock is up 0.9% Tuesday.

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Jabil Circuit Inc (JBL) Q2 2019 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

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Jabil Circuit Inc  (NYSE:JBL)Q2 2019 Earnings Conference CallMarch 14, 2019, 4:30 p.m. ET

Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Jabil Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2019 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Adam Berry , Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Adam Berry -- Vice President, Investor Relations

Good afternoon, and welcome to Jabil's second quarter fiscal 2019 earnings call. Joining me on today's call are Chief Executive Officer, Mark Mondello; and Chief Financial Officer, Mike Dastoor. Please note that today's call is being webcast live, and during our prepared remarks, we will be referencing slides. To follow along with the discussion and view the slides, you will need to be logged into our webcast on jabil.com. At the end of today's call, both the presentation and a replay of the call will be available on Jabil's Investor Relations website. Before we begin, I would like to remind all listeners that during today's conference call, we will be making forward-looking statements, including, among other things, those regarding the anticipated outlook for our business, such as our currently expected third quarter and fiscal year 2019 net revenue and earnings. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions involving risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. An extensive list of these risks and uncertainties are identified in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2018, and other filings. Jabil disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

With that, it's now my pleasure to turn the call over to CEO, Mark Mondello.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Adam. Good afternoon. As always, I appreciate everyone taking time to join our call today. I'll begin by extending a warm thanks to our people here at Jabil for their hard work and never ending commitment to our customers. Also, I'm proud of the fact that keeping our people safe is a top priority for all. Thank you.

Now, turning to Slide 3. Let's take a look at our second quarter results. We had another excellent quarter as the team delivered core operating income of $191 million on revenues of $6.1 billion. Resulting in core earnings per share of $0.64, $0.03 above the midpoint of our guidance.

During the quarter, we experienced robust revenue in our EMS segment. This strength was driven by our cloud, retail and industrial sectors. Within our DMS segment, the results were terrific. Core operating margin came in at 4.5%, a 110 basis point improvement year-on-year. This despite weak demand in our mobility sector. Another testament that our broad-based diversification strategy is taking hold and it's working. Overall, I'm really pleased with the quarter and the results posted for the first half of the year. As is customary, Mike will provide more details around our results and our forward guidance during his prepared remarks.

Moving to Slide 4, you'll find the priorities of our management team. The first area is constructing market and product diversification, which we believe drives a higher degree of reliability in terms of our financial results.

The second is to ensure successful ramps of our new business. Businesses where our team maintains a high degree of confidence in their ability to deliver. And once delivered at scale, assure this $2.4 billion book of business has the most favorable outlook financially.

And third is driving outstanding financial performance across the Company, with a commitment to free cash flow and margins, as we look toward fiscal year '20. These three areas receive constant focus and attention from our leadership team. And form the platform from which we execute our strategy.

Next on Slide 5, you'll see a pie chart, which offers you an update of our current business portfolio. I love how this looks. With each passing year, the blend of our revenues become better balanced and far less dependent on any single product or product family. So why is this so important? Quite simply, greater diversification, increases the reliability of our earnings and our cash flows.

Turning to Slide 6, you'll see an update on our new business awards. Our healthcare and 5G wireless wins are both up $50 million since September. A 15% increase. Our wins in the cloud space are now up 30% to 40% since the beginning of the fiscal year. And our automotive business wins remain on plan. For me, this is good news all the way around. I'd now like to turn your attention to Slide 7, where I'll take you through a subset of our targeted new business awards. Starting with the progress we've made with Johnson & Johnson. But before I speak to the slide, I'm just so pleased to welcome our new team members in Torres and Albuquerque.

The first two factory sites transitioned to Jabil as part of this strategic collaboration. And I'm happy to report that our WAVE 1 integration was completed during the second quarter and completed on time. Thanks to everyone involved for making this a reality. The teamwork between Jabil and Johnson & Johnson has been sensational. Our healthcare team will continue to support and protect the J&J brand and everything they do.

Financially, we remain confident that annual revenues associated with this business will be in the range of $800 million to $1 billion in fiscal year '20.

Now, please turn to Slide 8, where I'd like to talk about why Jabil is actively participating in the cloud space. To start with, Jabil's value proposition is centered around an efficient model. A motto which helps eliminate what I'd refer to as historical supply chain desegregation. In addition, this model greatly reduces overall invested capital throughout the entire network.

Second, Jabil has put together an experienced engineering team specific to cloud. A technical team that engages early and often in the design for digital product integration and product enhancements, allowing for supply chain simplification and flexibility. In terms of revenue for this space, Jabil's revenue will be in excess of $1 billion this year. And with our asset light service model, I strongly believe this business will provide healthy free cash flows going forward.

As we transition to my final Slide, Slide 9. I think about where we're headed and the tremendous progress we've made in the past few years. Our business is solid and in good shape strategically, operationally and commercially. In terms of fiscal '19, it's worth noting that our semi-cap equipment business was weak during the first half of the year. But we operated it to plan, as we anticipated this weakness at the start of the year. We also believe that demand in semi-cap would begin to normalize in the June, July timeframe this year. But that's not going to happen. We're now planning for a more normalized recovery in early 2020. With that said, mid to longer term, we remain quite bullish on this sector. Largely based on our sound positioning in serving this market.

As for our mobility sector, demand remains weak for the balance of the fiscal year. So all this begs the question, what actions are we taking? And why do we have confidence to not only deliver core earnings, somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 a share? But also upping our target for free cash flow from $350 million to $400 million for the year. A 15% increase or said differently, a 60% improvement from fiscal '18. So action number one, we believe, we'll see further margin expansion from our base business. Two, execution and incremental efficiencies associated with our new business wins, especially in the areas of healthcare and cloud.

And three, we'll continue to delever our balance sheet specifically around the inventory buildup, which was driven by the initial bow wave of growth. In closing, I like the decisions we're making and the approach our team is taking. As I look beyond fiscal '19, the focus of our leadership team will be squarely on generating free cash flow and expanding margins.

Thank you, and I'll now turn the call over to Mike.

Michael Dastoor -- Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Mark. And good afternoon, everyone. I'm extremely pleased with our second quarter performance. During the quarter, both segments executed exceptionally well and delivered strong consolidated results, providing yet another proof point that our diversification strategy is working. Net revenue for the second quarter was $6.1 billion, an increase of 14% year-over-year. GAAP operating income was $154 million and our GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.43. Core operating income during the quarter was $191 million an increase of 7% year-over-year representing a core operating margin of 3.1%. Net interest expense during the quarter was $55 million, $5 million above previous expectations on higher levels of intra-quarter borrowing, driven mainly by two factors. First, the timing and scale of our ongoing new business ramps. And second, during the -- quarter, we continued to opportunistically repurchase our shares. Our core tax rate for the quarter was 27%. Core diluted earnings per share was $0.64. As Mark highlighted, we integrated two facilities associated with our strategic collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies.

As a reminder, the majority of cash outlay and expense related to this collaboration is in the form of working capital and integration related expenses. In Q2, we incurred $13 million of acquisition and integration related expenses.

Now turning to our second quarter segment results. Revenue for our DMS segment was $2.3 billion, down 7% year-over-year. This was mainly due to weaker than expected mobility demand. Despite lower levels of revenue, core margins were 4.5%, an increase of 110 basis points over the prior year. The strength in core margin was mainly due to improved profitability in the balance of our DMS businesses. This impressive performance in the face of lower mobility demand highlights the progress we made in our diversification efforts.

For the quarter, DMS represented 37% of total Company revenue. Revenue for our EMS segment increased by 33% year-over-year to $3.8 billion. As Mark indicated, our teams did an excellent job ramping new wins, which contributed to our robust year-over-year growth. From an end market perspective, retail, industrial, 5G and cloud all performed well in the quarter, offset by continued weakness in semi-cap as expected. Core margins for the segment declined 100 basis points year-over-year to 2.3%, due to continued softness in the semi-cap space and costs associated with our ramping new business awards.

EMS represented 63% of total Company revenue in the quarter. Next, I'd like to outline our updated expectations for revenue in fiscal year '19 by end market. Within DMS, today's outlook suggests lower revenues, driven by continued weakness in mobility, partially offset by improved strength in healthcare.

As a reminder, mobility cuts across mechanics and edge devices and accessories. Given this new outlook, we now expect margins for DMS to be 3.7% on the year, a 20 basis point improvement from a quarter ago on slightly lower revenue of $10 billion.

Turning to EMS, we now expect stronger revenue in 5G, wireless and cloud, offset slightly by the protracted recovery in the semi-cap space, which is reflected in lower enterprise sales. While we still expect our semi-cap business to be profitable for the year, the continued weakness has lowered our EMS margin expectations by 20 basis points to 3.3% for the fiscal year on slightly higher revenues of $15 billion.

Turning now to our cash flows and balance sheet, during the quarter, our days in inventory increased sequentially by five days, this increase is mainly due to the following factors. First, as mentioned earlier, we integrated the first two Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices facilities at the end of February. As a result of this, we recorded the inventory with limited revenue. Second, we had higher levels of inventory at the end of the quarter to support the anticipated ramps in the second half of the year. These factors coupled with the ongoing tightness in the components markets, negatively impacted inventory days. As we move through the balance of the year, we expect our inventory levels to moderate from Q2 levels. Cash flows provided by operations grew $199 million in Q2 and net capital expenditures totaled $171 million.

As a result, free cash flow for the quarter was $28 million. Core return on invested capital for Q2 was 16.5%. We exited the quarter with total debt to core EBITDA levels of approximately 2.3 times and cash balances of $749 million.

Turning now to our capital return framework, since the inception of our capital return framework in June of 2016, we have repurchased 47 million shares, bringing our total returns to shareholders including repurchases and dividends to approximately $1.4 billion. In Q2, we purchased approximately 6 million shares at an average price per share of $24.35. These repurchases fully utilized our $350 million repurchase authorization. Moving forward, we remain committed to a balanced capital return framework inclusive of shareholder return and investments.

Turning now to our third quarter guidance, DMS segment revenue is expected to decrease 12% on a year-over-year basis to $2 billion, while the EMS segment revenue is expected to increase 27% on a year-over-year basis to $4 billion. We expect total company revenue in the third quarter of fiscal 2019 to be in the range of $5.7 billion to $6.3 billion for an increase of 10% at the midpoint of the range.

Core operating income is estimated to be in the range of $150 million to $200 million, with core operating margin in the range of 2.6% to 3.2%. Core diluted earnings per share is estimated to be in the range of $0.47 to $0.67. GAAP diluted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $0.19 to $0.46. The tax rate on core earnings in the third quarter is estimated to be in the range of 27% to 28%. As we enter the second half of FY '19, I'm confident in our ability to efficiently manage working capital and generate strong cash flows. The asset light nature of our cloud business, coupled with the anticipated improvements in inventory days and disciplined capital expenditures, gives me confidence in our ability to deliver higher adjusted free cash flows approaching $400 million, along with $3 in core EPS on $25 billion in revenue for the year.

Over the longer term, we remain committed to delivering shareholder value through strong margins, free cash flow and earnings growth as our diversification strategy further unfolds.

I'll now turn the call back over to Adam to begin Q&A.

Adam Berry -- Vice President, Investor Relations

Thanks, Mike. As we begin the Q&A session. I'd like to remind our call participants that per our customer agreements, we will not address any customer or product specific questions. We appreciate your cooperation. Operator, we're now ready for Q&A.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Steve Fox with Cross Research. Please proceed with your question.

Steven Fox -- Cross Research -- Analyst

Thanks. Good afternoon. Two questions, please. First, looking at your comments on retail mobility. I mean, those two markets are basically consumer facing at the end of the day, you have different outlooks. One is getting better and one is seems to be getting worse. So I was wondering, if you can maybe give us a little bit of color in terms of what is macro versus what is maybe Jabil controlled versus supply chain issues, et cetera. And then as a follow up, in terms of the upgraded outlook for cash flows, I guess my conclusion would be, it's mainly driven by inventories, Mike. But maybe you can provide some color in terms of how much is maybe J&J versus other things you're doing. That would be helpful. Thanks.

Michael Dastoor -- Chief Financial Officer

Okay, Steve. So, I'll answer your second question first. Cash flows, we feel good about for a couple of reasons. The first one actually is the asset light nature of our cloud business. As Mark pointed out, our cloud business has gone up again. It's looking really good. It is extremely light on working capital. It's extremely light on capital expenditure and it's got some real good free cash flows attached to it. And the second piece is -- what you mentioned, improvements in inventory days.

Steven Fox -- Cross Research -- Analyst

Okay. And then I'm sorry, just before Mark could chim in, on the asset like nature of the cloud business, so that basically reflects that the growth prospects are better than you previously thought and so the cash flow coming off of that is better also?

Michael Dastoor -- Chief Financial Officer

That's correct.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I think that's -- I think that's true, Steve. Hi, this is Mark. So I don't -- I guess, I don't drive the same connection you do, Steve, on connecting retail to mobility. I think mobility tends to be much more narrowed focus than retail. I look at retail as much more broad and much more retail infrastructure than -- than I would on mobility. So I don't -- I can see how you can call them both consumer, but for us, they are very different businesses.

Steven Fox -- Cross Research -- Analyst

Okay, so is there any color specifically around retail then in terms of what's driving the growth besides what you just said?

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Not yet.

Steven Fox -- Cross Research -- Analyst

Okay.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

We are -- I'd just say, it's broad based retail infrastructure type of -- type of business.

Steven Fox -- Cross Research -- Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Ruplu Bhattacharya with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question.

Ruplu Bhattacharya -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. I was wondering if you can give us your thoughts on DMS margins for the May quarter. Typically, you have a ramp in the mobility business, but your -- the Nypro business is doing well. So any guidance, any color there would be helpful.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, Ruplu. So I'd suggest that Q3, the May quarter is still going to be an area of some investment. But I think with what we're seeing in healthcare and in packaging as well as kind of non mobility in that area, I'd expect margins to be better this year -- year-on-year, last year for DMS, I think the third quarter was around percentage point or so, maybe a little bit better. This year, I would think it would be somewhere maybe 2x that. And then if I look at DMS in terms of back half of the year collectively, I think that that margins overall and maybe a better way to look at it would be absolute profit dollars for DMS, second half of '18 to second half of '19 would be up 6%, 7% over last year.

Ruplu Bhattacharya -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Okay, that's actually very helpful. Thank you. My second question is just on free cash flow. Can you give us. You know, going forward, what would be your estimate of CapEx in fiscal '20, '21 (ph)? Any guidance there? And should we expect. Is it reasonable to expect increasing cash flow in subsequent years or do you anticipate any significant investment having to be made in the subsequent years?

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

I'm not going to get into CapEx for the next couple of years because that's a body of work that's in process. I think in the September call, I said something about free cash flow for fiscal '21 to be around $600 million. This year, we think, it's going to be in the neighborhood of $400 million. And I think in FY '20, it's going to be somewhere in between.

Ruplu Bhattacharya -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Okay, great. I mean, that's helpful. Thank you so much, and my last question is Nypro seasonality, does that -- does that change with the J&J acquisition?

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Maybe slightly, but I would kind of model that much the same.

Ruplu Bhattacharya -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Okay. Thank you so much. Really, appreciate all the color. Thank you.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Adam Tindle with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Adam Tindle -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Thanks. Good afternoon. I just wanted to start with DMS and the decline in revenue. Maybe start by acknowledging quite a impressive job on maintaining margins during this. But how long do we see the revenue decline persisting? I mean, the miss in the quarter was over $1 billion (ph) in terms of run rate versus your expectations. And the year-over-year percentage declines are greater in Q3. But I think if I heard the comments on FY '19, it seems like a pretty big snap-back in Q4 for DMS. I know, you've got J&J ramping, but just hoping that you can maybe work through some of the revenue declines in the cadence of that and then maybe also speak to how you've kept margins intact during this time. We would've thought, you'd be battling some pretty big underutilization.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Thanks for the question, Adam. There was a lot of pieces to that. Let me try to shake that up and maybe this is a simplistic way to look at it. I think, if you take a look at our guide for the third quarter and you kind of look at the whole year. I think DMS year-on-year is going to be relatively flat '18 to '19. And I think, you've got one big put and take there, which is mobility is weak and everything else is at or above plan. So I feel really good about the composition of our DMS business, especially as we exit overall '19. In terms of -- we saw some decline in DMS in the second quarter, how did we end up delivering margins 110 basis points greater than last year. It's really again the composition and the diversification to DMS. As I look at that business today, tomorrow, next quarter, the end of the year and going into '20, it's just a much different business with really good diversification.

Adam Tindle -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Okay. That's helpful. Maybe one then shifting gears on EMS, I know you've had costs that you've been incurring in the first half of the year, but adding those back, I think margins there would still be down pretty noticeably. Revenues growing quite healthily. You said clouds ramping fast and I think that's supposed to be higher margin than the core. Maybe just walk through the moving parts, in terms of what we're missing when we're observing the first half EMS operating margin to where you think it's going to go?

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Are you saying EMS? You are, right?

Adam Tindle -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Yes, EMS.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I was a little bit confused because I think you lost me a little bit. We've been really consistent with EMS in the September call, then the December call. I think, we've been talking about EMS op margins for the first half -- first half to the year to be in around 2.4% -- 2.5%, that still holds. And we talked about that in the last couple calls. It's largely just around the costs related to ramping it $2 billion book of business and positioning it well for fiscal year '20. So none of that's changed.

The only thing that's changed in our EMS business since September, largely is -- our cloud business is growing a bit faster than we expected with really nice free cash flows attached to it.

And then our enterprise business. If you're to look at the -- for lack of better word, the green and the blue slide, the beginning of the year, I don't remember exactly where we're at. But let's just say enterprise was somewhere around $5.5 billion. We see that business today being about $4.8 billion -- $4.9 billion. That's largely due to semi-cap equipment. I covered that in my prepared remarks. And we thought that business would snap back a bit in early 2020 with recovery starting in kind of the June, July time frame this year and now, we won't see the recovery beginning until 2020. So again, that impacts a bit overall, but we're still looking at first half margins being kind of right on top of what we thought they would be. And then as you kind of look at the math of our guide for Q3, EMS margins should be back up over 3%. And as you look at the fourth quarter of this year, even with sustained weakness in semi cap, those margins will be back up over 4%. So I feel really, really good about that business overall.

Adam Tindle -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Got it. Thank you.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yeah.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Jim Suva with Citi. Please proceed with your question.

Jim Suva -- Citi -- Analyst

Thanks very much for the details, so far. A lot of focus has been on the DMS, but I had a question more on the other segment, the EMS side. The upside there was quite material and impressive, especially relative to your guidance in the EMS side again. Is that where the Johnson & Johnson facilities come into play? Or can you help us understand about the upside which is so big? Did they come in earlier than expected or ramp better than expected? Or was it more these consumer and cloud businesses that did better than expected or help us maybe, level set about here's the biggest, second biggest and third biggest. Thank you.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

So a couple of things. The EMS upside for the quarter and I assume you're talking about Q2 was in the range of about $275 million, Jim. The composition of that was had nothing to do with Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson's in our healthcare business, which is a subset of our DMS business. The upside on the EMS side was a really good blend of really nice business for us. It was a blend of a COD (ph) business that we like a lot. There was a component of retail in there, which I talked about earlier. I think, Steve was asking a question around that and then our industrial sector. So for the quarter, those are the three areas that drove the upside.

Jim Suva -- Citi -- Analyst

Got you. Then a quick follow up on the Johnson & Johnson side. Are those transitioning kind of according to the tempo that you wanted? Are they taking a little bit longer? Are they accelerating a little bit faster? Just trying to get a cadence because it sounds like you've got two of them under your roof now. And if I remember correctly (ph) they were ballpark 12, 14, (ph) or maybe you can just help me update that there's more than just two sites.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

You're correct, there's more than two sites. And the first wave is -- was two sites completed on plan and then there'll be further sites transitioning over. And so far, so good in terms of us operating to our expectation around that deal. We're -- we continue to be very excited about it. And it is complicated, but the teams are executing perfectly.

Jim Suva -- Citi -- Analyst

Thank you so much for the details and additional clarifications, that's greatly appreciated.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes.

Operator

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Matt Sheerin with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.

Matt Sheerin -- Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc. -- Analyst

Yes, thanks. Good afternoon. A few questions regarding the cloud business, which has been ramping nicely and looks like a really good runway opportunity. Could you just talk about what number one? How diversified is your customer base there? Because obviously, we've seen other competitors with heavy exposure, one or two customers, which has led to some lumpiness in the business and some margin pressure. So could you talk about that? And then as you continue to win opportunities, how positioned are you from a infrastructure and scale, opportunity -- scale position in order to take on new business without incrementally adding CapEx?

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes. So again, I'll say it again, we're pretty excited about the business. I am not going to get into customer composition. We typically don't do that with any sectors. In terms of -- do we have the scale, capacity and what not. The model works again very, very well from a cash flow perspective, because our model is again asset light and extremely scalable on a variable cost basis. So if we deviate from that model, we'll let you know. But that's our intent, as we continue to drive the business.

Matt Sheerin -- Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc. -- Analyst

And could you just elaborate on that, that asset light model?And does that mean, I know that the inventory turn very quickly, because a lot of it is sort of assembly and integration. But are -- is there confined inventory that customer zone, whether it would be memory or other things that are volatile? Where you're not involved?

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

I'm not going to get into that.

Matt Sheerin -- Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc. -- Analyst

Okay, fair enough. And then on the 5G ramp that you're seeing there. Do you see that like competitors that you're sort of in the early stages and you could see accelerated growth over the next few quarters, as we get into your more global ramps?

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes, I think we -- I could be mistaken. But I think we showed on our new business wins, I think we took 5G wireless up about $50 million, which again is a good illustration of where we're positioned and headed in terms of 5G infrastructure. I think, we're in really nice position there and we think that's a business that's going to be around for quite some time.

Matt Sheerin -- Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc. -- Analyst

Okay. Thanks very much.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thank you.

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our next question is from the line of Ryan Krieger with Wolfe Research. Please proceed with your question.

Ryan Krieger -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst

Thank you. And this is Ryan for Steve Milunovich. I appreciate you taking my question. And so I just wanted to go back quickly to the strength in EMS. Just for some clarification. How much of that was due to better demand versus revenue ramping quicker than expected? And I have a follow up also.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

I would say, 70% of it was revenue coming in a little bit faster on the new wins and 30% was kind of what I'd call standard business as usual.

Ryan Krieger -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst

Okay, great. And so you briefly discuss diversification, which is obviously been key narrative. Can you talk a little bit about where you are in your diversification roadmap? Do you feel you still have ways to go? And then also, is there a point where too much diversification could actually start to put pressure on the business?

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I love where we're at especially compared to just three, four years ago. I -- why I think it's so important is, is I think the word diversification can be very broad. There's a lot of times that companies might talk about diversification in different markets. And it's viewed as a negative, especially from large institutional investors, where they look at it and say, look, just stick to your knitting and let me decide where I want to invest. We use the term a bit differently. Everything we do is around manufacturing, manufacturing services, engineering technology and supply chain management.

So all of our business is tied together beautifully and there's great synergies with the portfolio that we have. We really look at diversification more across everything that fits into that bucket technology, engineering, supply chain management, et cetera. The better diverse we are in terms of product, product family and end markets, it just drives much better reliability on the Company in terms of cash flow and earnings. So it's a journey, I don't know where we sit. I think, I've said it multiple times. You know, ideally I'd like this to be a $30 billion, $32 billion, $34 billion, $36 billion Company, where no product or product families more than 5% of our cash flows or our earnings. And that's what we're striving to do.

Ryan Krieger -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst

Great. I appreciate it.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Paul Coster with JP Morgan. Please proceed with your question.

Paul Chung -- JP Morgan -- Analyst

Hi. Thanks. This is Paul Chung on for Coster. Thanks for taking my question. So first, can you just expand on the state of component constraints? Looks like they're kind of normalizing somewhat. Do you expect to seek some inventory turns to accelerate in the second half and maybe some working cap benefit this year from inventories?

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Maybe I'll take that in reverse order. So I think, we'll see our balance sheet normalize in terms of days of inventory over the next 6, 9 months and in terms of the component market itself, we've seen pockets of that ease. I think, we'll see the components market start to normalize in the back half of calendar '19 and early 2020.

Paul Chung -- JP Morgan -- Analyst

Okay, thanks. And then any update on tariff noise? Are you -- are your customers kind of taking actions to move operations? Or is everyone still really in wait and see mode? And if something does come soon, can you move quickly to kind of accommodate moves?

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

I would say that the activity in the last year has been up and down, ebbed and flowed. I think we've been very helpful to a significant amount of our customers in terms of game plans and some have been proactive and some are taking a wait and see. If people want to act on it, I think I said this in the December call. We are very well positioned to -- to accommodate them. So I think it's kind of a wait and see for a lot of us in the next 6, 8 weeks. It seems like decisions keep moving to the right. But again, overall, with our global footprint, the way our IT systems are et cetera, we're really well positioned to assist customers if need be.

Paul Chung -- JP Morgan -- Analyst

Okay, and then my last question. So at CES, you were showcasing your supply chain analytics, lots of value added features. So have you started taking step to kind of monetize the service? And can we expect to see some margin contribution from the service maybe over the next 6 to 12 months? Thank you.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yes. Paul, I don't want to get into too much in that. I think, I don't know that we want to take a -- what we think is a really, really nice tool that helps our customers and certainly helps us run our business really efficiently across 25, 26 (ph) and what's going to be higher revenues and monetize it. I think first and foremost, we want to be sure we have a very real tool that allows us to run our business as efficiently as possible. And I think that's where our focus is going to be. And we really, really like the tool we have. We like the additions that we're making to it, but I think most importantly, taking good care of our customers, increasing our own margins and -- and running a really efficient business is kind of job one. If we ever think about monetizing it, we'll certainly talk about it.

Paul Chung -- JP Morgan -- Analyst

Thank you very much.

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, you're welcome.

Operator

Thank you. It appears we have no further questions at this time. So I'd like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Berry for any additional concluding comments.

Adam Berry -- Vice President, Investor Relations

Thank you for joining us today. This now concludes our event. Thank you for your interest in Jabil.

Operator

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. Again, we thank you for your participation and you may disconnect your lines at this time.

Duration: 43 minutes

Call participants:

Adam Berry -- Vice President, Investor Relations

Mark T. Mondello -- Chief Executive Officer

Michael Dastoor -- Chief Financial Officer

Steven Fox -- Cross Research -- Analyst

Ruplu Bhattacharya -- Bank of America -- Analyst

Adam Tindle -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Jim Suva -- Citi -- Analyst

Matt Sheerin -- Stifel Nicolaus & Company, Inc. -- Analyst

Ryan Krieger -- Wolfe Research -- Analyst

Paul Chung -- JP Morgan -- Analyst

More JBL analysis

Transcript powered by AlphaStreet

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

Here are the biggest analyst calls of the day: Amazon, Netflix, AT&T, Oracle, Zillow & more

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Friday:

KeyBanc upgrading Amazon to 'overweight' from 'neutral'

"AMZN is taking a number of operational moves to improve profitability in core retail, which could drive mid-term earnings above the current consensus view. AMZN is pivoting to a company with accelerating profitability... In addition to $5B in incremental retail profitability, growth and margins remain very strong in the combined AWS and advertising businesses (modeling 30% revenue CAGR to $100B by 2022)... We upgrade AMZN to Overweight and establish a $2,100 price target..."

Read more about it here.

Raymond James upgrading AT&T to 'outperform' from 'market perform'

"We believe the adjustment to the metric expectations has been absorbed into the market, and the outlook for positive earnings growth combined with a strong de-levering story are likely to drive the shares to outperform... AT&T trades at a discount to Verizon of ~3.5x turns of EPS and FCF, with 250 bp higher dividend yield... We believe that the combination of positive earnings growth and delevering over the course of the year will being investors back to AT&T... As such, for longer term oriented investors, locking in the 6.7% yield and waiting for mean reversion in valuation is likely to be rewarded..."

Read more about it here.

Barclays downgrading Zillow to 'underweight' from 'equal weight'

"We are downgrading shares of ZG to Underweight based on the following three reasons: a) Material Erosion In Homes Unit Economics: Contribution margin at ZG's Homes has been admittedly decent so far in the early days... However, our analysis of transaction velocity and inventory build implies CM is likely to erode significantly over the next several quarters as non-profitable (and significantly loss-making) transactions involving aging and mis-priced inventory from older cohorts hit the P&L at an increasing rate; this is likely to make the investment community re-evaluate ZG's margin profile. b) Operational Challenges: The process of buying, fixing up, and selling homes at scale involves various complexities at each stage and currently seems under-appreciated by the street and is not fully evident from the company's guidance... We expect ZG to face several roadblocks along the way while rapidly scaling the frequency of buying/selling several-fold, driving meaningful increases in opex and/or impairing unit economics. c) Core Premier Agent Business Likely To Be Muted Near Term: As challenges mount in the Homes business, we think ZG's efforts to slowly transition its core PA business closer to transaction is likely to keep revenue growth muted near-term... The opportunity from new revenue streams such as seller leads is compelling, but our calculations indicate that incremental contribution could disappoint in the near-medium term..."

BMO naming Netflix as a 'top pick'

"We continue to seek out how the legal path might progress for these types of actions, but in the
short term, we think it's appropriate to move NFLX to Top Pick and Amazon to number two in our Large Cap pecking order... We last addressed regulatory risk in the September edition of Convergence Catch-up and our most notable change in view since then is that we have less confidence in the subject being a wall of worry to climb and instead increasingly clouding the fundamental thesis for Amazon, which we continue to view as a long-term structural Outperform due to the positive revenue mix shift of adding higher-margin businesses like AWS and advertising to lower-margin retail... Netflix, on the other hand, faces little to no regulatory risk, in our view; thus, we are more comfortable with it in the Top Pick slot at the moment, and Amazon moves down slightly to number two..."

Read more about it here.

BMO downgrading Oracle to 'market perform' from 'outperform'

"We are modestly lowering our FY20 estimates, and maintaining our target price of $53, which continues to be based on 15x EV/FY20E FCF... We believe that Oracle can sustain ~2% CC revenue growth, but we are dubious that Oracle can improve revenue growth rates... Therefore, we do not think Autonomous database or gradual unfolding of the cloud ERP market will help Oracle's growth in FY20... We are therefore moving to the sidelines... Given the current valuation, we see risk/reward as being more balanced at present..."

Citi downgrading Live Nation to 'neutral' from 'buy'

"We continue to like Live Nation's business model and long-term growth prospects... But, valuation appears full, M&A may be less likely and macroeconomic forces may conspire against the firm... As such, we are downgrading the stock from Buy to Neutral... Our target price increases from $59 to $63. Fundamentals Remain Robust — 2018 was a robust year for Live Nation... The firm delivered another year of double-digit EBITDA growth... And, Live Nation continues to have key attributes that appeal to investors: consistent growth, exposure to live events and insulation from disruptive FAANG forces (cord cutting, digital ad migration, ratings erosion)..."

David Stockman warning: Rally 'just day traders, chart monkeys, robo machines'

Not even a 20 percent rebound off the December low is changing David Stockman's bearish prognosis for the stock market.

Stockman, who served as President Ronald Reagan's director of Office of Management and Budget, suggests fundamentals are not driving the 2019 rally.

"This is just day traders, chart monkeys, robo machines. This has nothing to do with rationality or investment analysis on any reasonable time basis," Stockman said Tuesday on CNBC's "Futures Now." "There's no Trump boom. We're near the end of this cycle. Recessions haven't been outlawed. It will happen in the next year or two."

It's a subject that's in his new book, "Peak Trump: The Undrainable Swamp and The Fantasy of MAGA."

"We hit peak Trump and peak market at 2,940 on the S&P back in September. I think that's the peak for a long time to come, and I think Trump foolishly embraced the stock market," Stockman added.

He sees the S&P 500 plunging to 1,600 or lower — a more than 40 percent drop from current levels.

For years, Stockman has been warning investors a sell-off of that magnitude is inevitable. Two years ago, he predicted a "horrendous storm" would hit stocks. It never happened. Last year, he called it a "daredevil market."

Yet, he's unwavering in his bearish case.

"We've got headwinds coming from all over the world, and you can see it in the export data, in the European economy, in the big troubles going on in China, [and] you can see it in our own data, which has been really weak," said Stockman.

He also emphasizes the record budget deficit as an unnerving headwind.

"It is a huge risk. I mean it's actually crazy time that this market and Washington, both ends of the Acela corridor, are totally ignoring," Stockman said. "We're going to go into a fiscal crisis in the 2020s when the entire baby boomers are retiring and Social Security and Medicare are soaring that we won't come out of. That's the big elephant in the room."

According to Stockman, President Donald Trump's budget released this week reinforces and underscores how bad the deficit has gotten.

"We should be having almost no deficit at the top of a business cycle," Stockman said. "We have a serious problem of unhinged central banking, and we have a Washington that has totally been euthanized by cheap yields on the debt. And, they pretend you can borrow $4 trillion at the top of a business cycle and live to tell about it."

He contends a resolution to the U.S.-China trade war wouldn't alter his negative view.

"The idea that somehow there is going to be a China deal and that will make everything better, I think, is laughable," Stockman said.

Asked about Stockman's comments, White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said via email: "Due to the President's pro growth policies the economy is booming. More people are employed today than previously were and more jobs are remaining on our shores. The President's budget calls for economic policies that drive down the deficit and continue to bring prosperity to all Americans."

Disclaimer

Fidelity National Information Servcs Inc (FIS) Position Lessened by Shellback Capital LP

Shellback Capital LP lessened its holdings in shares of Fidelity National Information Servcs Inc (NYSE:FIS) by 10.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 340,841 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 41,000 shares during the period. Fidelity National Information Servcs makes up 6.3% of Shellback Capital LP’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd biggest position. Shellback Capital LP owned approximately 0.10% of Fidelity National Information Servcs worth $34,953,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FIS. Essex Savings Bank purchased a new position in shares of Fidelity National Information Servcs during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fidelity National Information Servcs by 376.9% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 248 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. We Are One Seven LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fidelity National Information Servcs during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Doyle Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Fidelity National Information Servcs during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Cornerstone Advisors Inc. grew its position in Fidelity National Information Servcs by 64.4% during the third quarter. Cornerstone Advisors Inc. now owns 319 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the period. 87.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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FIS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Fidelity National Information Servcs from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 23rd. ValuEngine lowered shares of Fidelity National Information Servcs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 29th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Fidelity National Information Servcs in a research report on Wednesday, November 14th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $129.00 target price on the stock. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Fidelity National Information Servcs in a research report on Tuesday, February 12th. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Fidelity National Information Servcs from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $108.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Fidelity National Information Servcs currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $120.70.

In other Fidelity National Information Servcs news, Director Brian T. Shea purchased 290 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Saturday, October 12th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $101.43 per share, for a total transaction of $29,414.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,210 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $325,590.30. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Marc M. Mayo sold 34,826 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $105.00, for a total transaction of $3,656,730.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 24,594 shares in the company, valued at $2,582,370. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 282,842 shares of company stock worth $30,621,347 over the last 90 days. 2.08% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

FIS traded up $0.01 on Wednesday, reaching $107.38. 5,002 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,954,146. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.67 billion, a PE ratio of 20.53, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.77. Fidelity National Information Servcs Inc has a twelve month low of $93.71 and a twelve month high of $110.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85.

Fidelity National Information Servcs (NYSE:FIS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 12th. The information technology services provider reported $1.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.22 billion. Fidelity National Information Servcs had a net margin of 10.06% and a return on equity of 16.71%. Fidelity National Information Servcs’s quarterly revenue was down 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.36 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Fidelity National Information Servcs Inc will post 7.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Fidelity National Information Servcs’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. Fidelity National Information Servcs’s payout ratio is presently 24.47%.

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About Fidelity National Information Servcs

Fidelity National Information Services, Inc operates as a financial services technology company in the United States and internationally. It operates through Integrated Financial Solutions and Global Financial Solutions segments. The Integrated Financial Solutions segment offers core processing and ancillary applications; digital solutions, including Internet, mobile, and e-banking; fraud, risk management, and compliance solutions; electronic funds transfer and network services; card and retail solutions; corporate liquidity and wealth management services; item processing and output services; government payments solutions; and e-payment solutions.

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Yext Inc Forecasted to Post FY2024 Earnings of ($0.17) Per Share (YEXT)

Yext Inc (NYSE:YEXT) – Equities research analysts at SunTrust Banks issued their FY2024 earnings estimates for Yext in a note issued to investors on Thursday, March 7th. SunTrust Banks analyst N. Khan anticipates that the company will post earnings of ($0.17) per share for the year. SunTrust Banks has a “Buy” rating and a $28.00 price target on the stock.

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Yext (NYSE:YEXT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 6th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.09) by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $63.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $62.77 million. Yext had a negative return on equity of 104.78% and a negative net margin of 38.03%. Yext’s revenue was up 32.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.10) earnings per share.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Yext from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Oppenheimer began coverage on Yext in a report on Thursday, January 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $23.00 target price on the stock. DA Davidson lowered their target price on Yext to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 3rd. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Berenberg Bank assumed coverage on Yext in a research note on Friday, November 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $25.00 price target on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Yext in a research note on Thursday, November 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $22.71.

NYSE:YEXT opened at $23.06 on Monday. Yext has a 52-week low of $11.70 and a 52-week high of $27.19.

In other Yext news, Director Phillip M. Fernandez sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.66, for a total transaction of $31,320.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Brian Distelburger sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.09, for a total value of $200,900.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 517,067 shares of company stock valued at $8,320,132 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 20.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Yext by 11.3% during the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,810,456 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,285,000 after buying an additional 588,161 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Yext by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,018,401 shares of the company’s stock valued at $118,936,000 after buying an additional 48,661 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Yext by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc now owns 5,018,401 shares of the company’s stock valued at $118,936,000 after buying an additional 48,661 shares during the last quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Yext by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 2,134,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,700,000 after buying an additional 34,882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Yext by 159.7% during the 3rd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,078,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,265,000 after buying an additional 1,278,386 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 51.93% of the company’s stock.

Yext Company Profile

Yext, Inc provides a knowledge engine platform that lets businesses manage their digital knowledge in the cloud in North America and Europe. The company offers Yext Knowledge Engine, a cloud-based global platform that enables businesses to control and manage their digital knowledge and make it available through its PowerListings Network of approximately 150 third-party maps, apps, search engines, intelligent GPS systems, digital assistants, vertical directories, and social networks.

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$0.96 Earnings Per Share Expected for Regency Centers Corp (REG) This Quarter

Wall Street brokerages forecast that Regency Centers Corp (NYSE:REG) will report earnings per share (EPS) of $0.96 for the current fiscal quarter, according to Zacks. Two analysts have made estimates for Regency Centers’ earnings, with the lowest EPS estimate coming in at $0.95 and the highest estimate coming in at $0.98. Regency Centers also reported earnings of $0.96 per share during the same quarter last year. The firm is scheduled to issue its next earnings report on Monday, April 29th.

According to Zacks, analysts expect that Regency Centers will report full year earnings of $3.89 per share for the current financial year, with EPS estimates ranging from $3.85 to $3.93. For the next financial year, analysts expect that the business will report earnings of $4.04 per share, with EPS estimates ranging from $3.95 to $4.08. Zacks Investment Research’s earnings per share averages are an average based on a survey of sell-side research analysts that that provide coverage for Regency Centers.

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Regency Centers (NYSE:REG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 13th. The real estate investment trust reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.94 by ($0.48). The business had revenue of $277.07 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $269.96 million. Regency Centers had a return on equity of 3.86% and a net margin of 23.19%. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.92 earnings per share.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on REG shares. SunTrust Banks reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $69.00 target price on shares of Regency Centers in a research report on Monday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Regency Centers from a “top pick” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $62.30 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, December 14th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $66.00 target price on shares of Regency Centers in a research report on Monday, December 17th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Regency Centers from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $71.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Regency Centers from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $63.00 to $69.00 in a research report on Monday, February 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. The company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $69.12.

In other Regency Centers news, Chairman Martin E. Stein, Jr. sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.92, for a total transaction of $3,246,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director John C. Schweitzer sold 14,399 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.85, for a total transaction of $933,775.15. Following the transaction, the director now owns 36,510 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,367,673.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 86,283 shares of company stock worth $5,597,966. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Regency Centers during the 4th quarter valued at about $88,314,000. Kentucky Retirement Systems bought a new position in Regency Centers during the 4th quarter valued at about $432,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Regency Centers by 61.2% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 266,009 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $15,610,000 after acquiring an additional 100,948 shares during the period. Macquarie Group Ltd. lifted its stake in Regency Centers by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 316,211 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $18,556,000 after acquiring an additional 12,645 shares during the period. Finally, Phocas Financial Corp. lifted its stake in shares of Regency Centers by 28.5% in the 4th quarter. Phocas Financial Corp. now owns 16,495 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $968,000 after purchasing an additional 3,660 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.87% of the company’s stock.

Shares of NYSE:REG traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $63.77. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 781,845 shares, compared to its average volume of 893,055. The company has a market capitalization of $10.96 billion, a PE ratio of 17.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87. Regency Centers has a 12-month low of $55.38 and a 12-month high of $67.10.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Investors of record on Monday, February 25th were paid a $0.585 dividend. This is a boost from Regency Centers’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 22nd. This represents a $2.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.67%. Regency Centers’s payout ratio is presently 60.16%.

Regency Centers Company Profile

Regency Centers is the preeminent national owner, operator, and developer of shopping centers located in affluent and densely populated trade areas. Our portfolio includes thriving properties merchandised with highly productive grocers, restaurants, service providers, and best-in-class retailers that connect to their neighborhoods, communities, and customers.

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Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Has $3.56 Million Holdings in NVIDIA Co. (NVDA)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lowered its position in shares of NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 26,633 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock after selling 748 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in NVIDIA were worth $3,556,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. TD Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NVIDIA during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Trust Department MB Financial Bank N A purchased a new position in shares of NVIDIA during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. IMS Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of NVIDIA during the third quarter worth about $77,000. Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of NVIDIA by 37.6% during the third quarter. Strategic Wealth Partners Ltd. now owns 289 shares of the computer hardware maker’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Intercontinental Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NVIDIA during the fourth quarter worth about $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.83% of the company’s stock.

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In other news, CFO Colette Kress sold 889 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.91, for a total transaction of $131,491.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 259,912 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,443,583.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Debora Shoquist sold 6,345 shares of NVIDIA stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.33, for a total transaction of $858,668.85. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 177,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,076,695.63. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 7,348 shares of company stock valued at $1,007,805. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Shares of NVDA opened at $150.64 on Friday. NVIDIA Co. has a twelve month low of $124.46 and a twelve month high of $292.76. The company has a market capitalization of $91.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 6.76 and a current ratio of 7.94.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 14th. The computer hardware maker reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.53 by $0.27. NVIDIA had a net margin of 35.35% and a return on equity of 41.78%. The company had revenue of $2.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.22 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that NVIDIA Co. will post 4.49 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 28th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. NVIDIA’s payout ratio is 10.54%.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. BidaskClub lowered NVIDIA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. ValuEngine raised NVIDIA from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Atlantic Securities assumed coverage on NVIDIA in a report on Friday, February 22nd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $195.00 price target on the stock. MKM Partners raised their price target on NVIDIA to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 15th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their price target on NVIDIA to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and twenty-five have given a buy rating to the stock. The stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.09.

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About NVIDIA

NVIDIA Corporation operates as a visual computing company worldwide. It operates through two segments, GPU and Tegra Processor. The GPU segment offers processors, which include GeForce for PC gaming and mainstream PCs; GeForce NOW for cloud-based game-streaming service; Quadro for design professionals working in computer-aided design, video editing, special effects, and other creative applications; Tesla for AI utilizing deep learning, accelerated computing, and general purpose computing; GRID provides power of NVIDIA graphics through the cloud and datacenters; DGX for AI scientists, researchers, and developers; and cryptocurrency-specific graphics processing units.

Further Reading: Call Option

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding NVDA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for NVIDIA Co. (NASDAQ:NVDA).

Alambic Investment Management L.P. Has $362,000 Holdings in Akorn, Inc. (AKRX)

Alambic Investment Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX) by 330.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 106,874 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 82,074 shares during the period. Alambic Investment Management L.P.’s holdings in Akorn were worth $362,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AKRX. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Akorn by 43.7% during the fourth quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,707,461 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,248,000 after buying an additional 4,776,900 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in Akorn during the fourth quarter worth $3,522,000. Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in shares of Akorn by 44.9% in the third quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,998,492 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,920,000 after purchasing an additional 929,107 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of Akorn by 59.2% in the third quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,486,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,300,000 after purchasing an additional 553,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlueMountain Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Akorn by 46.2% in the third quarter. BlueMountain Capital Management LLC now owns 1,502,480 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,502,000 after purchasing an additional 474,546 shares during the last quarter. 71.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Get Akorn alerts:

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AKRX shares. BidaskClub downgraded Akorn from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 7th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Akorn from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 27th. Craig Hallum set a $11.00 price target on Akorn and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, December 9th. Piper Jaffray Companies set a $9.00 target price on shares of Akorn and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada set a $4.00 target price on shares of Akorn and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. The stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $9.00.

Shares of AKRX opened at $3.65 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 3.47 and a quick ratio of 2.46. Akorn, Inc. has a 12 month low of $3.14 and a 12 month high of $19.81.

Akorn (NASDAQ:AKRX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 28th. The company reported ($0.29) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.28). The business had revenue of $153.39 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $164.75 million. Akorn had a negative return on equity of 14.97% and a negative net margin of 34.69%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.14 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Akorn, Inc. will post -0.47 EPS for the current year.

In other Akorn news, EVP Joseph Bonaccorsi purchased 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $4.48 per share, for a total transaction of $112,000.00. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

COPYRIGHT VIOLATION WARNING: “Alambic Investment Management L.P. Has $362,000 Holdings in Akorn, Inc. (AKRX)” was reported by Ticker Report and is the property of of Ticker Report. If you are reading this news story on another domain, it was illegally copied and republished in violation of United States and international trademark & copyright law. The correct version of this news story can be read at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4205305/alambic-investment-management-l-p-has-362000-holdings-in-akorn-inc-akrx.html.

About Akorn

Akorn, Inc, a specialty generic pharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, and markets generic and branded prescription pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter (OTC) consumer health products, and animal health pharmaceuticals in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Prescription Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Health.

See Also: What is a Lock-Up Period?

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AKRX? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Akorn, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKRX).

Coming soon: a world without cash

The U.S. is finally embracing contactless payments, which will likely accelerate the move away from cash in favor of credit, debit and mobile wallets. And it's largely thanks to hurried commuters.

As soon as this spring, New York City subways and buses will enable riders to tap a contactless bank card or their mobile wallet at turnstiles, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, which runs America's largest urban transportation network.

"The ability to tap through the turnstile is going to be great," said Chris Reid, an executive vice president of cyber, intelligence and data services at Mastercard. "It drives a huge amount of efficiencies for the transit system."

"This could further the transition from cash to plastic," said Ted Rossman, an industry analyst at Creditcards.com.

In fact, fewer and fewer adults are using printed or minted U.S. currency at all any more. About 3 in 10 Americans said they make no purchases with cash in a typical week, up from a quarter in 2015, according to the Pew Research Center.

For now, paper currency still remains the most frequent method of payment in the country overall, representing roughly 31 percent of all consumer transactions, more than electronic, credit, debit or checks.

Still, contactless cards are considered much more secure. They are embedded with a near-field communication (NFC) antenna that can be used for proximity payments via radio waves. To make a payment, consumers just tap the card to a point-of-sale terminal.

The card creates a dynamic cryptogram, or code, which is unique for each individual transaction.

This is similar to chip cards' smart technology, also known as EMV, which can process card transactions with embedded smart chips — except it is much faster.

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Abroad, consumers are adopting contactless payments in ever-increasing numbers. In Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and South Korea, for example, contactless cards account for more than 20 percent of all retail transactions. In the U.S., that number is less than 1 percent, according to a research report by A.T. Kearney.

"We're basically starting from zero," Rossman said. "The U.S. is way behind the rest of the world when it comes to contactless cards, similarly to how we lagged on chip cards."

However, "we are now going beyond the tipping point for contactless to take off," added Reid.

Just as contactless payments in the U.K. got a boost when the London Underground transportation system began using "pay as you go," the implementation of the same technology by transit authorities in several major U.S. cities — including Boston, Chicago and San Diego, as well as New York — "should be a catalyst for broader contactless usage" nationwide, according to the authors of the A.T. Kearney report.

show chapters Cashless Payments    11:13 AM ET Tue, 20 Feb 2018 | 04:10

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Top 5 Energy Stocks For 2019

tags:CLR,TGA,BLDP,RCON,NOG, &l;p&g;Last week I had the opportunity to sit down with Marco Streng, the wunderkind bitcoin visionary behind Genesis Mining. Genesis, as many of you reading this might know, is the world&a;rsquo;s largest cloud bitcoin mining company, with over 2 million customers worldwide. It calls Iceland home, whose cool climate and affordable green energy are ideal for mining newly minted virgin cryptocurrencies. Last year, Genesis helped connect the blockchain sector and traditional capital markets by partnering with HIVE Blockchain Technologies, the first publicly traded digital currency mining firm.

This week, Marco will be one of the panelists at the Consensus 2018 blockchain technology summit in New York, which I will also be attending. Below are highlights from our conversation.

&l;strong&g;Tell us how you got started in this industry.&l;/strong&g;

I&a;rsquo;ve always had a passion for mathematics, science, physics. I wanted to understand how nature works. I used to spend days and nights in the library, and I was actually on my way to becoming a math professor.

Top 5 Energy Stocks For 2019: Continental Resources, Inc.(CLR)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Piper Jaffray Companies reiterated their buy rating on shares of Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR) in a research report released on Thursday morning. Piper Jaffray Companies currently has a $77.00 target price on the oil and natural gas company’s stock. Piper Jaffray Companies also issued estimates for Continental Resources’ Q3 2018 earnings at $0.81 EPS, Q4 2018 earnings at $0.87 EPS, FY2018 earnings at $3.09 EPS, Q1 2019 earnings at $0.85 EPS, Q2 2019 earnings at $0.87 EPS, Q3 2019 earnings at $0.95 EPS, Q4 2019 earnings at $1.04 EPS, FY2019 earnings at $3.71 EPS, Q1 2020 earnings at $1.09 EPS, Q2 2020 earnings at $1.04 EPS and FY2020 earnings at $4.29 EPS.

• [By Matthew DiLallo]

  Another important leader of America's oil resurgence has been Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR), which was an early mover in developing the Bakken. Since 2010, the company has grown its production at a 27% CAGR, boosting it from less than 50,000 BOE/D up to a projected 315,000 to 325,000 BOE/D by the end of this year. Continental Resources expects to grow its output another 15% to 20% next year as it continues drilling not only in the Bakken but the STACK/SCOOP plays of Oklahoma, which also hold a bounty of oil and gas resources. Those growth engines position Continental Resources to expand its output rapidly in the coming years while generating a gusher of excess cash flow in the process.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  These are some of the media stories that may have effected Accern’s analysis:

  Get Continental Resources alerts: Iran's Oil Production and Exports Could Help Crude Oil Bulls (finance.yahoo.com) The Cash Flow King (investingdaily.com) Continental Resources Can Soar Without Bottlenecks (seekingalpha.com) Are Options Traders Betting on a Big Move in Continental Resources (CLR) Stock? (zacks.com) Why Aren’t Permian Oil Producers Profitable? (oilprice.com)

  Shares of NYSE CLR traded down $0.40 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $64.21. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,923,330 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,421,609. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.63 billion, a PE ratio of 125.90 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.93, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Continental Resources has a one year low of $29.08 and a one year high of $69.91.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  KLR Group reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Continental Resources (NYSE:CLR) in a report published on Monday morning. The brokerage currently has a $78.00 target price on the oil and natural gas company’s stock.

Top 5 Energy Stocks For 2019: Transglobe Energy Corp(TGA)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers SenesTech, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNES) shares jumped 113.5 percent to $0.6737 after the California Department of Pesticide Regulation proposed to register the company's ContraPest for sale and use in California. AgEagle Aerial Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: UAVS) shares rose 35.34 percent to close at $3.32. Art's-Way Manufacturing Co., Inc. (NASDAQ: ARTW) shares gained 30.36 percent to $3.65. Xtant Medical Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: XTNT) shares jumped 25.6 percent to $7.4701 after the company disclosed that it has received the FDA clearance for InTice™-C Porous Titanium Cervical Interbody System. VAALCO Energy, Inc. (NYSE: EGY) shares surged 20 percent to $2.495. TransGlobe Energy Corporation (NASDAQ: TGA) surged 17.04 percent to $2.61. Boxlight Corporation (NASDAQ: BOXL) gained 15 percent to $8.32 after the company announced an exclusive partnership with Multi Touch Interactives to strengthen the development of next generation interactive educational activities. Arcimoto, Inc. (NASDAQ: FUV) gained 15 percent to $3.39. MB Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBFI) rose 13.7 percent to $49.64. Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) agreed to acquire MB Financial for $54.70 per share in cash and stock. FRONTEO, Inc. (NASDAQ: FTEO) shares rose 11.8 percent to $20.956. TransEnterix, Inc. (NYSE: TRXC) shares jumped 11.1 percent to $3.38. 21Vianet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: VNET) rose 10.6 percent to $7.41. NII Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: NIHD) shares gained 9 percent to $2.32. Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: KELYA) rose 7.6 percent to $24.19. Northcoast Research upgraded Kelly Services from Neutral to Buy. LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE: LHO) shares climbed 5.6 percent to $33.70. Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) will buy LaSalle Hotel Properties in a $4.8 billion deal, Bloomberg reported. Alteryx, Inc. (NYSE: AYX) gained 5.5 percent to $32.56. KeyBanc upgraded Alteryx from Sector Weight to Overweight. Energizer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:
• [By Shane Hupp]

  ValuEngine upgraded shares of TransGlobe Energy (NASDAQ:TGA) (TSE:TGL) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Tuesday.

• [By Alexander Bird]

  Here are the top performers from last week…

  Penny Stock Current Share Price Last Week's Gain Staffing 360 Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq: STAF) $2.58 96.35% IZEA Inc. (Nasdaq: IZEA) $1.65 85.19% ShiftPixy Inc. (Nasdaq: PIXY) $3.35 78.38% MER Telemanagement Solutions Ltd. (Nasdaq: MTSL) $3.31 41.07% IsoRay Inc. (NYSE: ISR) $0.60 38.64% TransGlobe Energy Corp. (Nasdaq: TGA) $3.74 37.76% Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCMKTS: ATNM) $0.27 26.31% Blonder Tongue Labs Inc. (NYSE: BDR) $1.56 24.58% Bridgeline Digital Inc. (Nasdaq: BLIN) $1.51 24.51% Cel-Sci Corp. (NYSE: CVM) $0.91 24.03%

  While these penny stocks generated strong returns last week, they're unlikely to produce the same level of profit again anytime soon.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  News articles about TransGlobe Energy (NASDAQ:TGA) (TSE:TGL) have trended somewhat positive recently, according to Accern. Accern scores the sentiment of press coverage by reviewing more than twenty million news and blog sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. TransGlobe Energy earned a coverage optimism score of 0.09 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media coverage about the basic materials company an impact score of 45.8745142486822 out of 100, indicating that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near future.

• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers SenesTech, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNES) shares surged 296.07 percent to close at $1.25 on Monday after the California Department of Pesticide Regulation proposed to register the company's ContraPest for sale and use in California. AgEagle Aerial Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: UAVS) shares gained 19.59 percent to close at $2.93. TransGlobe Energy Corporation (NASDAQ: TGA) rose 18.39 percent to close at $2.64 on Monday. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHOS) shares gained 15.91 percent to close at $2.55. VAALCO Energy, Inc. (NYSE: EGY) shares jumped 14.9 percent to close at $2.39. Resonant Inc. (NASDAQ: RESN) climbed 13.96 percent to close at $4.49. Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK) shares rose 13.55 percent to close at $4.61 on Monday. Lilis Energy, Inc. (NYSE: LLEX) surged 13.09 percent to close at $5.01. MB Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBFI) gained 12.9 percent to close at $49.28. Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) agreed to acquire MB Financial for $54.70 per share in cash and stock. TransEnterix, Inc. (NYSE: TRXC) shares rose 12.83 percent to close at $3.43. World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: WWE) jumped 12.52 percent to close at $57.86 on Reports that it has reached a deal with Fox for Its 'Smackdown Live' program. Eastman Kodak Company (NASDAQ: KODK) rose 12.38 percent to close at $5.90. NuCana plc (NASDAQ: NCNA) climbed 11.94 percent to close at $26.44. NuCana appointed Dr. Cyrille Leperlier to its Board as an independent non-executive Director. Aqua Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQMS) rose 11.83 percent to close at $3.97 on Monday. Huami Corporation (NYSE: HMI) shares jumped 11.27 percent to close at $10.17 following Q1 results. 21Vianet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: VNET) gained 9.55 percent to close at $7.34. Boxlight Corporation (NASDAQ: BOXL) rose 8.56 percent to close at $7.86 after the company announced an exclusive partnership with Multi Touch Interactives to strengthen the de
• [By Ethan Ryder]

  TransGlobe Energy (NASDAQ:TGA) (TSE:TGL) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Investment Research from a buy rating to a hold rating. According to Zacks, “TransGlobe Energy Corporation (TGA) is an oil exploration and production company. It is a Calgary-based, growth-oriented oil and gas exploration and development company. TransGlobe is dedicated on improving productivity through promoting good oilfield development and exploitation practices including the implementation of industry leading secondary and tertiary recovery methods as well as improvements to production and transportation infrastructure. The Company conducts its operations through the Arab Republic of Egypt segment. It is primarily engaged in oil exploration, development, production and the acquisition of properties. TransGlobe Energy Corporation, through its subsidiaries, explores for, develops, and produces crude oil and natural gas liquids in Egypt and Canada. It holds working interests in West Gharib, West Bakr, North West Gharib, South West Gharib, South East Gharib, South Ghazalat, South Alamein, and North West Sitra production sharing contracts. “

Top 5 Energy Stocks For 2019: Ballard Power Systems, Inc.(BLDP)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lou Whiteman]

  Shares of Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ:BLDP) fell 10% on Thursday morning before recovering somewhat, after the hydrogen fuel cell maker reported a fourth-quarter loss of $0.06 per share, missing estimates by $0.04, on revenue that was down nearly 30% year over year. The results threaten to stymie what had been an impressive run for the shares, which were up more than 40% year to date after a difficult 2018.

• [By Motley Fool Transcription]

  Ballard Power Systems Inc.  (NASDAQ:BLDP) Q4 and Full Year 2018 Earnings Conference Call March. 07, 2019, 8:00 a.m. ET

  Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

  Operator

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Ballard Power Systems (BLDP)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Scott Levine]

  Shares of Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ:BLDP), a global leader in fuel cell solutions, climbed 16% in August, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. In addition to the late-August announcement of a major deal with Weichai Power, a leading automotive manufacturer located in China, shareholders celebrated the news that Zhongshan Broad-Ocean Motor Co., Ltd. is increasing its investment in the company. Between the two deals, Ballard will receive an influx of cash totaling more than $180 million.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  The stock market came out of Labor Day weekend on a sluggish note, but it recovered ground by the end of the session to finish close to where it had started. Lingering doubts about the status of trade discussions with key trading partners initially caused major benchmarks to fall around half a percent in the morning. Once again, though, stocks proved their resiliency, and investors seemed more comfortable with the idea that corporate earnings would remain strong at least through the end of the year. Moreover, some strong showings from key stocks helped lift sentiment. Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ:BLDP), and El Pollo Loco Holdings (NASDAQ:LOCO) were among the best performers on the day. Here's why they did so well.

• [By Scott Levine]

  Reversing the 20% slide that the stock had through the first eight months of 2018, shares of Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ:BLDP), a leader among providers of fuel-cell solutions, climbed 21% in September, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. What charged up investors during the month? Besides the company's decision to reduce its exposure to the defense industry, investors celebrated the company's announcement of a new fuel cell for the heavy-duty motive market.

Top 5 Energy Stocks For 2019: Recon Technology, Ltd.(RCON)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Media coverage about Recon Technology (NASDAQ:RCON) has been trending positive recently, Accern Sentiment reports. The research firm rates the sentiment of media coverage by reviewing more than twenty million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Recon Technology earned a media sentiment score of 0.27 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media headlines about the oil and gas company an impact score of 44.9374991541436 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the immediate future.

Top 5 Energy Stocks For 2019: Northern Oil and Gas, Inc.(NOG)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:NOG) shares were up 7.5% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $3.77 and last traded at $3.73. Approximately 6,029,254 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 60% from the average daily volume of 3,774,712 shares. The stock had previously closed at $3.47.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Northland Securities assumed coverage on shares of Northern Oil and Gas (NYSEAMERICAN:NOG) in a report published on Wednesday. The firm issued an outperform rating and a $4.00 price target on the energy company’s stock.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:NOG) – SunTrust Banks boosted their FY2018 earnings per share estimates for Northern Oil & Gas in a report released on Thursday, August 9th. SunTrust Banks analyst N. Dingmann now forecasts that the energy company will post earnings per share of $0.49 for the year, up from their previous estimate of $0.39. SunTrust Banks has a “Buy” rating on the stock. SunTrust Banks also issued estimates for Northern Oil & Gas’ Q4 2018 earnings at $0.14 EPS, FY2019 earnings at $0.50 EPS and FY2020 earnings at $0.51 EPS.

• [By WWW.GURUFOCUS.COM]

  For the details of Crestview Partners III GP, L.P.'s stock buys and sells, go to https://www.gurufocus.com/guru/crestview+partners+iii+gp%2C+l.p./current-portfolio/portfolio

  These are the top 5 holdings of Crestview Partners III GP, L.P.WideOpenWest Inc (WOW) - 28,768,176 shares, 50.22% of the total portfolio. Northern Oil & Gas Inc (NOG) - 48,611,632 shares, 26.90% of the total portfolio. New PositionGTT Communications Inc (GTT) - 3,948,449 shares, 22.87% of the total portfolio. New Purchase: Northern Oil &am
• [By Logan Wallace]

  Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:NOG) – Seaport Global Securities lowered their Q3 2019 earnings per share estimates for shares of Northern Oil & Gas in a research report issued on Thursday, June 28th. Seaport Global Securities analyst M. Kelly now forecasts that the energy company will earn $0.12 per share for the quarter, down from their prior estimate of $0.13. Seaport Global Securities currently has a “Buy” rating and a $4.00 target price on the stock. Seaport Global Securities also issued estimates for Northern Oil & Gas’ FY2019 earnings at $0.51 EPS.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Northern Oil & Gas, Inc. (NYSEAMERICAN:NOG) – Equities research analysts at Imperial Capital cut their FY2019 earnings estimates for Northern Oil & Gas in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, June 13th. Imperial Capital analyst J. Wangler now anticipates that the energy company will post earnings per share of $0.33 for the year, down from their previous forecast of $0.34. Imperial Capital has a “Hold” rating and a $3.00 price objective on the stock.