Summary: Alphabet authorized its first ever dividend of 20 cents per share and a new $70 billion share repurchase, which led to a 15% surge in its shares. The company's move follows other large-cap tech companies like Meta in initiating dividends. Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page stand to receive significant dividend payouts.
Full articleSummary: Amgen (AMGN) is expected to report a year-over-year decline in earnings on higher revenues for the quarter ended March 2024. While an earnings beat may positively impact the stock price, recent estimates indicate a bearish outlook for the company.
Full articleSummary: Gilead Sciences has awarded $4 million in funding via its ALL4LIVER grant program to organizations worldwide to help the WHO's goal of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030 through community-based projects. The grant program expanded globally to accelerate actions to meet WHO's goal, with a focus on reducing stigma and improving access to testing and care for HBV, HCV, and HDV.
Full articleSummary: Comcast lost broadband subscribers in the first quarter and reported a slight increase in revenue. The company focused on broadband ARPU growth and network upgrades to combat subscriber losses. Its wireless business added customers and the fixed wireless market posed new competition challenges. Comcast is addressing the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program by offering new prepaid options for lower-income customers.
Full articleSummary: Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) will announce first-quarter earnings with analysts expecting profit and revenue declines from both companies due to lower oil and gas prices. The two U.S. supermajors are also entangled in a dispute over Chevron's attempt to move into oil-rich Guyana. Hess (HES) earnings report surprised Wall Street with better-than-expected results.
Full articleSummary: Pfizer Inc (PFE) has entered oversold territory with a 29.3 RSI reading, suggesting a possible buying opportunity for investors interested in dividend stocks. The recent stock price decline has increased the annual yield to 6.40%.
Full articleSummary: IBM has been acquiring companies in the cloud infrastructure space over the years, including the recent $6.4 billion acquisition of HashiCorp. This move aligns with IBM's hybrid strategy and aims to provide comprehensive hybrid cloud platforms designed for the AI era.
Full articleSummary: Wizz Air Holdings Plc narrows its net income guidance for the year due to aircraft groundings from engine issues on some Airbus SE jets. Despite challenges, the airline returned to profitability and expects total revenue to be between €5 billion to €5.1 billion.
Full articleSummary: Costco is opening a new 219,000-square foot warehouse in California with plans for a 32-pump gas station, car wash, and dedicated delivery service, in addition to several new features. Walmart is also expanding by opening or converting 150 stores across the nation.
Full articleSummary: Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Los Angeles experienced a rough landing at LAX, managed to land safely after the second attempt, no injuries reported. Boeing 747-8 had 326 passengers and 19 crew members onboard.
Full articleSummary: Wells Fargo upgraded Neurocrine Biosciences outlook from Equal-Weight to Overweight, with an analyst price forecast suggesting 11.53% upside in the stock. The projected annual revenue and non-GAAP EPS for Neurocrine Biosciences are also positive. Institutional ownership and portfolio allocations by funds like VTSMX, IJH, NAESX, Bellevue Group, and Renaissance Technologies have shown positive trends.
Full articleSummary: Oracle introduced new artificial intelligence capabilities within Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience to automate tasks and improve buyer targeting and engagement.
Full articleSummary: Tesla Cybertruck owners are being quoted high prices for Powershare installation, with one owner quoted over $30,000 for the service and another over $64,000 including Powerwalls. There are concerns over the high cost, with the need for a $24,000 upgrade raising questions about the necessity of such an expense.
Full articleSummary: McDonald's may actually sell birthday cakes in some locations, which was tested by a customer in a viral video. The cake received was a chocolate sheet cake with white icing that said 'It's Time to Party' on it.
Full articleSummary: Southwest Airlines (LUV) stock falls in pre-market trading after slashing expectations for number of Boeing 737 Max jets. Boeing experiencing backlog in deliveries due to safety concerns and federal probes.
Full articleSummary: Spotify submitted an app update with pricing info to subscribe outside of the App Store but Apple blocked it, citing the need for EEA Music Streaming Services Entitlement to include 'calls to action'. Spotify believes Apple is trying to impose new fees and is defying the European Commission's decision. Both companies are in conflict over the implementation of the DMA in the EU.
Full articleSummary: Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the company's long-term commitment to artificial intelligence during an earnings call, announcing a significant investment of $35 billion to $40 billion in AI and Metaverse development by 2024. The company reported strong Q1 growth with total revenue of $36.46 billion and a 27% increase year-over-year.
Full articleSummary: WEX has partnered with Booking.com to provide virtual card services, enhancing travel payment activities globally.
Full articleSummary: CISA confirms the release of security updates by Cisco for its firewall platforms, addressing zero-day vulnerabilities. The exploitation of CVE-2024-20353 and CVE-2024-20359 has been confirmed.
Full articleSummary: Nvidia, a computer chip maker, was reported on 60 Minutes as one of only five companies to ever surpass $2 trillion in stock market value, credited with ushering in the artificial intelligence revolution.
Full articleSummary: Cisco has released critical security updates to address multiple vulnerabilities in its Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) devices and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) software, including persistent remote code execution vulnerabilities and denial of service vulnerability. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added these vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, indicating active exploitation in the wild.
Full articleSummary: Meta's best-ever first-quarter earnings failed to impress investors as the company disclosed heavy costs of its bet on artificial intelligence, resulting in a 15% drop in premarket trading and erasing over $200 billion in market value.
Full articleSummary: IBM and Meta are experiencing significant drops in premarket trading due to announcements accompanying their earnings reports, despite IBM beating profit expectations and Meta beating top and bottom line expectations. Both companies are being punished for investing in the future, with IBM acquiring HashiCorp and Meta heavily investing in AI. The market's short-term reaction does not reflect the potential long-term benefits of these investments.
Full articleSummary: Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb are preparing for key drug patents to expire in the next few years, with Merck's Keytruda sales soaring and Bristol-Myers set to lose patents for three medications. Both companies reported quarterly earnings providing insights into their strategies to mitigate revenue hits.
Full articleSummary: Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) reported strong financial results in the first quarter, beating earnings expectations and growing net income despite a challenging freight market.
Full articleSummary: Tesla shared more details about their autonomous ride-hailing service and affordable EVs, invested in hardware and software ecosystems for vehicle autonomy, and planned to introduce lower-cost EV models alongside a purpose-built 'Cybercab' robotaxi.
Full articleSummary: Dow and BASF reported declines in first-quarter sales, but saw improvements compared to the previous quarter. Both companies expressed optimism for the future of the industry.
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