In trading on Tuesday, construction materials & machinery shares were relative laggards, down on the day by about 1.2%. Helping drag down the group were shares of Patrick Industries (PATK), off about 9.2% and shares of CRH (CRH) off about 1.2% on the day.
Visa (V) announced that it is dropping Global Payments (GPN) from its provider registry to allow time reassess the firm’s data security standards following a security breach. Global Payments announced on March 30 that approximately 1.5 million credit card numbers belonging to users of Visa, MasterCard (MA) and Discover Financial Services (DFS) were compromised.
Shares of AVI Biopharma (NASDAQ:AVII) fell 24% early Monday after the company announced mixed results from a Phase II study for its drug candidate eteplirsen in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in boys.AVI BioPharma (NASDAQ:AVII) has potential upside of 184.5% based on a current price of $1.16 and an average consensus analyst price target of $3.3.AVI BioPharma is currently above its 50-day moving average (MA) of $1.14 and above its 200-day of $1.09.In the last five trading sessions, the 50-day MA has climbed 5.93% while the 200-day MA has risen 0.36%.
Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. (NYSE:CVX) announced Monday its plan to build a plant capable of generating up to 250,000 metric tons of a compound used to make everything from detergent bottles and food and beverage containers, to film and pipes.The construction of the company is expected to begin in the first half of the year and production should begin in first quarter of 2014.Chevron (NYSE:CVX) has potential upside of 15.4% based on a current price of $108.4 and an average consensus analyst price target of $125.13.Chevron should find initial support at its 50-day moving average (MA) of $107.50 and further support at its 200-day MA of $102.77.In the last five trading sessions, the 50-day MA has remained constant while the 200-day MA has risen 0.18%.
Hungarian President Pal Schmitt resigned earlier today in response to the plagiarism accusation he faced. The writing in question is his Ph.D. thesis written 20 years ago at Semmelweis University on the topic of modern Olympic Games. The university committee found the paper contains pages of translation from the works of two other authors. The resignation came in just one day after Schmitt publicly announced that he would not resign. During the press conference today, Schmitt said he does not want his personal issue to divide the country and felt it’s his duty to end his service. Schmitt is the first Hungarian president to resign since the country ended its communist ruling in 1990. He was elected to the office in 2010 for a five-year term. Hungary joined the EU in 2004 and received €20B in bailout money from the International Monetary Fund and other creditors in 2009. It had also asked for the EU and the IMF for financial assistance when the Hungarian forint (HUF) fell to all time low against the Euro at the end of 2011. The talk is still ongoing because the country has yet to meet some of EU’s requests on legal structure changes. For more news and updates, keep it right here at the Financial News Network. I’m Julia Sun.
Avon shares jumped 17% today after Coty made a $10B offer to buy the company. On per share basis, the offer stands at $23.25, which is a 27% premium over the 3-month average price. Coty is no stranger to this line of business. Its current celebrity partnerships include Calvin Klein, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga. It was founded in 1904 by perfume maker Francois Coty, who focused on selling perfume to large group of people. British owned Coty wants to tap the door-to-door sales network Avon built and is only pursuing a friendly bid at the moment. Avon now 125 years of history behind its back. The celebrated CEO Andrea Jung will step down once a replacement is found and will remain as the Chairwoman. For more news and updates, keep it right here at the Financial News Network. I’m Julia Sun.
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) was upgraded today by JP Morgan (JPM) from neutral to overweight, as the firm believes that the stock has been oversold during the last several weeks. Shares are higher by about 4.4 percent.
Groupon (GRPN) was downgraded today by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch from buy to neutral with a price target of $20, following a restatement of Q4 earnings. Shares are lower by about 14.6 percent.
National Penn Bancshares Incorporated (NPBC) announced its quarterly dividend of 7 cents per share, an increase of about 40% over its prior dividend in February of 5 cents. The dividend is payable to shareholders of record as of May 5, 2012 and will be paid May 17, 2012.
Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned cash to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.
