A strong-ish finish to the week as the three major indexes closed in the black for the first time all week. The Nasdaq squeaked out a last-minute gain, and oil spiked in the 11th hour, inexplicably.
Adobe Systems (ADBE) was the apple of investors’ eyes Friday. The stock closed up more than 3% to $255.55 and hit a new all-time high in Friday’s session following its earnings and revenue beat on Thursdayafter the close. “This is the hottest stock in Silicon Valley,” contended Jim Cramer, TheStreet’s co-founder. Adobe now sports a market cap of nearly $110 billion. That makes some of the company’s recent results even more incredible, with Cramer pointing out that operating income grew 50% year-over-year while net income jumped 46% year over year, both in GAAP results. Though the company posted cloud revenues up more than 40% and looks poised to continue to gain market share in e-commerce and other areas of expertise, not everyone is convinced the stock is a buy and hold candidate. Stephen Guilfoyle writes that today’s pop actually makes the company more of a trade candidate given the technical signals. Check his column on Real Money this morning to learn more.
Kraft Heinz (KHC) isn’t shying away from big deals, but one former target may be firmly off the table.TheStreet sat down with Kraft CEO and 3G Capital partner Bernardo Hees, who isn’t shy about what he wants to do next on the deal front. “Look, we dream big and that’s not going to go away,” Hees says. “We like solid brands, we like businesses that could travel internationally and be global and we like businesses with synergies that you can capture and then reinvest.” But for those investors looking for the company to renew its $143 billion bid for consumer products giant Unilever UL , cool your jets. Unilever said Friday it had opted to make the Netherlands its sole headquarters, doing away with its Anglo-Dutch status. The move will not only see the maker of Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream keep a European base when the U.K. exits the unit, it will also see the company fall under the jurisdiction of much tougher takeover laws, whether Unilever be the bidder or target.
Amazon’s (AMZN) got nothing on Netflix (NFLX) , for now. The e-commerce giant’s content investments have helped create a massive domestic user base for Prime Video, but the service still has a ways to go before it can measure up to Netflix — either in terms of total users or viewership for high-profile originals. That’s one key takeaway from a Reuters report that (citing company documents) provides a slew of stats about Prime Video, a service for which Amazon has been pretty reluctant to share viewing data for. Reuters states the data indicates that as of early 2017, Amazon had about 26 million users for Prime Video, which is bundled with all Amazon Prime subscriptions and is also available on a standalone basis for $8.99 per month. However, TheStreet’s Eric Jhonsa points out that along the same lines, comScore’s tracking data previously indicated that Prime Video was only used in 33% of Wi-Fi-connected American homes in Dec. 2016. That’s better than the 17% and 5%, respectively, reported for Hulu and HBO Go, but well below the 75% reported for Netflix. comScore also reported the average U.S. Netflix viewer in a Wi-Fi-connected home watched the service on 12 different days in December; Hulu was watched on 9 days, Prime Video on 6 days and HBO GO on 4 days.
This is an excerpt from “In Case You Missed It,” a daily newsletter brought to you by TheStreet. Sign up here.
Photo of the day: Remembering Bear Stearns
Happy anniversary Bear Stearns… Just kidding, not much to celebrate here, as Friday marked the 10th anniversary of one of the biggest collapses of the financial crisis. On March 16, 2008, Bear Stearns, the 85-year-old investment bank, narrowly avoided bankruptcy with a sale to JPMorgan (JPM) for $2 per share, Though the buyout would increase to $10 per share it was a far cry from $150 per share the stock had traded at just 12 months prior. The sale and subsequent collapse of the financial system would lead to numerous U.S. Senate and Supreme Court hearings. Above U.S. Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN), left, and Charles Schumer (D-NY), now Senate Minority Leader, listen to a witness during the Senate Banking Committee hearing on the government bailout of Bear Stearns in April 2008. With regulators recently agreeing to lower capital requirements for banks — yes, those same banks that cost the American taxpayer billions — you can only imagine what Schumer’s expression must look like today. Read More
Read more from “In Case You Missed It.” Sign up here.
Let’s block ads! (Why?)
