Author Archives: Scalper1

Symantec CEO Stepping Down As Trimmed Q4 Guidance Disappoints

Symantec ( SYMC ) CEO Michael Brown will step down, the No. 3 cybersecurity firm announced Thursday after trimming fiscal Q4 guidance on dwindling licensing sales. Symantec stock crashed to its lowest point in more than a month. Shares closed down 6.7% at 16.89, recovering minimally from an 8% plunge earlier in the day. Shares hit a year-high 18.85 on March 21, but have since declined 11.6%. For its fiscal Q4 ended April 1, Symantec trimmed its sales view to $873 million, representing a 6% drop, from earlier expectations for $885 million to $915 million, and now sees 22 cents earnings per share, down 24%, vs. prior guidance for 24-27 cents. The consensus of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had called for $893.1 million and 24 cents. Symantec will officially announce its fiscal Q4 results after the close May 12. Brown will serve until a new CEO is hired. Through the transition, the board tapped Silver Lake Partners exec Ajei Gopal, Symantec Chief Financial Officer Thomas Seifert and Symantec Executive Vice President Scott Taylor to collectively carry out the role of “office of the president.” The office will remain in place until a new CEO joins the company, Symantec said in a release. Together, the trio will focus on cost-cutting measures to reduce costs by $400 million over the next two years. Symantec’s May 26 financial day has been postponed.

Fitbit Bolsters China Prospects With E-Commerce Deal

Wearable fitness device maker Fitbit ( FIT ) saw its shares rise on Thursday after it announced a distribution deal with Chinese e-commerce website Tmall.com, but its stock soon tuckered out. Fitbit stock was up as much as 5.4% to 18.85 in morning trading on the stock market today . But it ended the day up 1.2% to 18.10. Fitbit said its deal with Tmall.com, owned by Alibaba Group ( BABA ), will “significantly expand Fitbit’s reach in China.” Tmall.com is China’s largest third-party platform for brands and retailers. Fitbit will get a major retail presence on Alibaba’s Tmall.com online shopping site for products like the Fitbit Blaze smart fitness watch and the Fitbit Alta fitness band. “Alibaba is the gateway to China for international brands seeking to access one of the world’s largest consumer markets,” Hao Li, general manager of Alibaba’s 3Cs Business Unit, said in a statement . “Across China there is a growing interest in personal health, fitness and overall well-being, and we see very strong demand from our customers in these categories – specifically for Fitbit devices. We look forward to leveraging Fitbit’s leadership in the emerging field of connected health and fitness to connect our consumers with the budding national fitness craze.” San Francisco-based Fitbit is scheduled to report first-quarter financial results after the market close on Wednesday. RELATED: Fitbit Device Demand Solid; GoPro Weak; Garmin Mixed Teens Still Crave iPhones, But Not So Much Into iPads, Apple Watch

Medical M&A Rules The Day As Abbott, AbbVie Make Buys, Sanofi Bids

Big money was moving in the medical field Thursday as three giant companies announced — or attempted — multibillion-dollar buyouts. Abbott Laboratories ( ABT ) announced an agreement to acquire fellow cardiac-device maker  St. Jude Medical ( STJ ) in a deal worth $25 billion. Meanwhile,  AbbVie ( ABBV ), which used to be Abbott’s biopharma division before it was spun out, agreed to buy biotech Stemcentrx, for $5.8 billion upfront and up to $4 billion in milestone payments. Another cancer-focused biotech,  Medivation ( MDVN ) confirmed that it had received an unsolicited $9.3 billion bid from big pharma Sanofi ( SNY ) after weeks of rumors. Abbott agreed to pay $46.75 plus 0.8708 Abbott share for every St. Jude share. Based on Abbott’s five-day average share price, the deal valued St. Jude stock at $85 apiece. Abbott said the deal will add 21 cents to its EPS next year and 28 cents the following year. It expects to save $500 million in costs from the combination by 2020. Abbott will also assume or refinance St. Jude’s $5.7 billion in debt. The move will greatly enlarge Abbott’s cardiovascular device business, which now represents 19% of its revenue. “St. Jude Medical’s strong positions in heart failure devices, atrial fibrillation and cardiac rhythm management complement Abbott’s leading positions in coronary intervention and transcatheter mitral repair,” Abbott said in a press release. “Together, the company will compete in nearly every area of the cardiovascular market and hold the No. 1 or No. 2 positions across large and high-growth cardiovascular device markets.” Leerink analyst Danielle Antalffy agreed. St. Jude’s flat-to-negative sales growth over the last few years picked up to 8% in Q1, and she wrote in a research note that it’s set up to continue, while Abbott looked to be growing only in the low single digits. Nonetheless, Abbott’s share fell 7.8% to close at 40.42, while St. Jude’s rose 25.6% to 77.79. IBD’s Take: How healthy is Abbott  Labs’ stock? Find out at IBD Stock Checkup AbbVie, Sanofi Look To Expand Their Drug Pipelines AbbVie and Sanofi, meanwhile, are both big pharmas looking to fill out their pipelines with innovative drugs as their lead products face slowdowns. AbbVie’s immunology drug Humira is one of the best-selling drugs in the world, but it patents could start expiring inside of five years. Sanofi has had to scale back expectations for its diabetes franchise as the increasingly competitive space has pushed down prices. Stemcentrx’s lead late-stage asset is called rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T), and it’s already in registrational trials for small-cell lung cancer. AbbVie says that it will pay $2 billion of the $5.8 billion purchase price in cash and the rest in stock. Stemcentrx will also receive up to $4 billion in cash milestone payments if the drug successfully clears its regulatory and development hurdles. In the meantime, however, it will be a financial drain. “AbbVie expects this transaction to be approximately (20 cents) dilutive to our ongoing earnings per share in 2016, with accretion beginning in 2020,” the company said in its announcement, lowering its 2016 EPS guidance to $4.62 from $4.82. Meanwhile, AbbVie early Thursday reported Q1 earnings that beat Wall Street estimates while falling a tad short on revenue. AbbVie said that it earned $1.15 per share minus items in Q1, up 22% and two cents better than analysts expected, on $5.958 billion in sales, up 18%. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected $5.966 billion. Global Humira sales rose 19% excluding foreign-exchange impacts, AbbVie said. In a Thursday research note to investors, Evercore ISI analyst Mark Schoenebaum cited an approximately 7%, $151 million beat on U.S. Humira sales as “largely offset” by a $111 million miss on global Viekira revenue, “primarily driven by a U.S. miss, possibly due to competition from Merck ( MRK ) as well.” AbbVie put total Humira sales at $3.577 billion for Q1, with U.S. sales up 32% to $2.195 billion. Viekira, which treats hepatitis C, is AbbVie’s No. 2 drug, generating $414 million globally, or about 6.9% of total sales, AbbVie said. AbbVie stock ended 0.8% higher on the stock market today , above 61.20. Medivation Had Been Subject Of Takeover Rumors Sanofi’s unsolicited offer was for $52.50 a share cash for Medivation, making the deal worth $9.3 billion. Medivation has been the subject of takeover rumors in recent weeks, with AstraZeneca ( AZN ) and Sanofi among the rumored suitors. Medivation’s sole commercial product is prostate-cancer drug Xtandi, marketed by Japan’s Astellas. Xtandi’s success since its 2012 launch has helped drive Medivation’s stock to an excellent Composite Rating of 98. The proposed purchase price represents a premium of over 50% to Medivation’s two-month volume weighted average price before the buyout talk began, Sanofi said. Medivation stock rose 7.9% Thursday to 56.18, suggesting that investors think that bids will go higher. Sanofi stock finished down 1.8%. Image provided by Shutterstock .