Tag Archives: Jewel Osco

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

How Hewlett-Packard Sent the Dow Flying

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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The tug of war between global economic stress and investor confidence continued today, and bulls can chalk today up in the win column as the markets overcame their usual impulse to sell into what could be an interesting weekend in Europe. Instead, by the close, the Dow Jones Industrials finished up 91 points, almost getting back to break-even for the week. Even as the Cypriot banking system teeters on the verge of collapse, investors seem not to have the fear they once would have had, even with minor European financial issues.

Hewlett-Packard led all Dow stocks higher, rising more than 3%. The company didn’t have any major announcements today, but it’s entirely possible that the shares continued to run higher in a relief rally after HP‘s board survived an unusually contentious annual meeting. It included director elections, for which a couple of major proxy advisory firms recommended voting against incumbent candidates as a protest against the bungled Autonomy acquisition. A 10% dividend increase rewarded investors, but HP investors should be concerned that the company seems not to trust itself to invest its cash more profitably in an attempt to boost its growth going forward.

Grocery-store operator SUPERVALU climbed almost 6% in the aftermath of its having completed the sale of Albertsons, Star Market, Shaw’s, Acme, and Jewel-Osco grocery chains earlier this week. This morning, the slimmed-down company named several new executives to take roles within SUPERVALU‘s various divisions and departments. How SUPERVALU will move forward from here is still uncertain, but the company remains a major grocery retailer even after the sales.

Finally, Nordic American Tankers rose almost 5%. Even given the glut in ships throughout both the dry-bulk and the tanker-shipping industries, Nordic American acquired its 21st vessel earlier this week. The company also filed a mixed shelf offering with the SEC yesterday, which will give Nordic American a lot more flexibility going forward to take advantage of potential bargain opportunities as the industry consolidates.

In evaluating HP, it’s essentially to look closely at the company’s rapid shift in its strategy under the new leadership of CEO Meg Whitman. But does this make HP one of the least-appreciated turnaround stories on the market, or is this a minor blip on its road to irrelevance? The Motley Fool’s technology analyst details exactly what investors need to know about HP in our new premium research report. Just click here now to get your copy today.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Whoa! What Just Happened to My Stock?

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By Rich Duprey, The Motley Fool

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The EU’s decision to seize the bank accounts of ordinary Cypriot depositors was front and center again as concerns that the financial sector could come under tremendous pressure should the crisis ripple out from the island caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to fall by 90 points yesterday. With Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase wobbling, the index pulled back from its recent high.

The three stocks below, however, were far removed from the scene of international intrigue rising on their own merits. Yet resist the urge to high-five everyone in the cubicles next to you. Smart investors won’t celebrate until they know why their stock surged, because without a fundamental basis for the bounce, these stocks could just as quickly make the return trip down.

Company

% Gain

Acadia Pharmaceuticals

23.9%

SUPERVALU 

11.7%

Denison Mines

9.5%

Psychoanalyzing growth
Psych! Drug developer Acadia Pharmaceuticals said its drug pimavanserin met a series of secondary end points in a phase 3 clinical trial following previously reported results that it met its primary end point. The potential for FDA approval of what could become a first-in-class treatment has markedly improved and investors responded accordingly.

Pimavanserin is designed to treat psychosis in patients with Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating disorder that develops in up to 60% of Parkinson’s patients but for which there are no drugs currently approved in the U.S. to specifically treat it. Because there’s also the very real possibility it could be used to treat a similar disorder in patients suffering from schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease — and for which Acadia has the drug in phase 2 trials — this could be a huge winner for the pharmaceutical.

Of course, should it make it through the FDA‘s regulatory gauntlet it will have to compete with various anti-psychotic drugs like AstraZeneca‘s Seroquel, Eli Lilly‘s Zyprexa, Risperdal from Johnson & Johnson, and generic clozapine — all of which doctors prescribe off-label — but a drug specifically approved to treat the disorder just might gain a lot of traction .

Clean up in aisle 3!
Because it already owned 655 Albertsons stores from when SUPERVALU acquired the chain in 2006, Cerberus Capital Management was always the lead bidder to acquire the chain when it was put up for sale, but it was also out front because it was willing to accept the all the brands that the supermarket operator was selling as opposed to cherry-picking the ones it wanted.

In January, SUPERVALU said it would sell Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, and a number of other names to AB Acquisition, a Cerberus subsidiary, in a deal worth $3.3 billion. SUPERVALU would get $100 million in cash and have $3.2 billion in debt assumed and will also keep the Save-A-Lot banner that has 1,300 stores nationwide. Cerberus will also become a major shareholder owning more than 21% of SUPERVALU‘s stock and will get two seats on its board of directors.

Shares of SUPERVALU are up …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why SUPERVALU Shares Surged

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By Jeremy Bowman, The Motley Fool

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Although we don’t believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes — just in case they’re material to our investing thesis.

What: SUPERVALU shares shot up as much as 14% today after the struggling supermarket chain completed its deal to sell $3.3 billion worth of assets to Cerebrus Capital Management.

So what: Supervalu will sell off five of its supermarket chains to the Cerebrus investing group, including Albertson’s, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, and Star Market, as well as in-store pharmacies Osco and Sav-on. Cerebrus will pay Supervalu $100 million in cash, and assume $3.2 billion in debt. Supervalu had nearly $6.2 billion in debt as of its last earnings report, so the Supervalu sale would seem to alleviate some of its interest burden and allow it to focus on its Sav-A-Lot stores and smaller local chains.

Now what: The sale will cut Supervalu’s annual sales essentially in half, to $17 billion, but the company, which had posted quarterly losses repeatedly and suffers under a huge debt burden, had it’s a back against the wall. In a statement, Supervalu said the move makes it a “more efficient wholesale and retail company.” While today’s sale is no guarantee of a turnaround, it does offer investors some hope, which is more than the company merited before. It’s still a long road back to financial health for Supervalu, but this seems to be a good first step.

Get more on Supervalu. Add the company to your Watchlist by clicking right here.

The article Why SUPERVALU Shares Surged originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Jeremy Bowman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Supervalu. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Why Cisco's Sinking the Dow This Morning

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By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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The stock market is stuck in a waiting game as investors wait for a resolution to the Cypriot banking crisis. In the meantime, the U.S. economy appears to be continuing its slow but steady recovery, although pressures from China and elsewhere have started to show impacts on major U.S. companies and could pose a longer-term threat to the bull market. Weighing these countervailing factors, investors chose to be cautious, and as of 10:45 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrials had fallen 75 points, roughly in line with the broader market.

Cisco Systems led the Dow lower, falling 3.5% after getting downgraded by a Wall Street analyst. Last night’s bad news from Oracle is likely having collateral damage on Cisco, as Oracle reported a generally weak environment across its various tech segments, sending its shares down 9%. Although Oracle‘s key software segment isn’t something Cisco has a lot of exposure to, both companies are trying to broaden their product offerings to compete more directly with each other. In particular, a big decline in Oracle’s hardware systems may foretell problems ahead for Cisco’s own hardware division.

Outside the Dow, SUPERVALU has climbed almost 6% on news that it completed the sale of five of its retail grocery chains to private-equity firm Cerberus. In addition, Symphony Investors said its tender offer for SUPERVALU shares had attracted tenders for roughly 5.5% of the grocery company’s outstanding shares — far less than the 30% maximum under the offer. Moving forward, SUPERVALU will have to find a way to grow without some of its most reliable brands behind it, including Albertson’s and Jewel-Osco.

Finally, Isis Pharmaceuticals has risen 5.8% after it released data from its Phase 1 study of children with spinal muscular atrophy and the effect of its drug ISIS-SMN Rx in treating the disease. Reporting a favorable safety profile and signs of significant increases in muscle function, Isis is confident about the future development prospects for the drug, for which Isis hopes to start phase 2 and 3 programs for infants later this year and for older children in the first half of 2014.

Cisco has been attractively priced for value investors for quite a while now, but is Cisco a buy given the tough competitive environment among tech giants? Our premium research report on Cisco will help answer that question and many others about the networking specialist. Click here now to get started.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

SUPERVALU Completes Sale of Five Retail Grocery Banners to Cerberus-Led Investor Group

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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SUPERVALU Completes Sale of Five Retail Grocery Banners to Cerberus-Led Investor Group

Tender Offer Completed for 5.475% of Shares With Additional Issuance of 19.9% Shares

MINNEAPOLIS–(BUSINESS WIRE)– SUPERVALU Inc. (NYS: SVU) today announced it completed the sale of its Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Star Market stores and related Osco and Sav-on in-store pharmacies to AB Acquisition LLC, an affiliate of a Cerberus Capital Management L.P.-led investor consortium, in a stock deal valued at $3.3 billion, including $100 million in cash and $3.2 billion in debt assumption. Operations for these banners will transfer overnight, and the new SUPERVALU will open for business on Friday as a more efficient wholesale and retail company with annual sales of approximately $17 billion.

As part of the transaction, SUPERVALU also announced that Symphony Investors, a Cerberus-led investor consortium, completed its tender offer resulting in the acquisition of 11,686,406 shares (approximately 5.475 percent of SUPERVALU‘s outstanding common stock) at a purchase price of $4.00 per share in cash. In addition, pursuant to the terms of the transaction, the company issued 42,477,692 million new shares of common stock (approximately 19.9 percent of the outstanding shares) to Symphony Investors at a purchase price of $4.00 per share in cash to the company, or approximately $170 million. The tender offer and primary stock issuance establish Symphony Investors as SUPERVALU‘s largest shareholder with 21.2 percent of total outstanding common shares.

“The successful completion of this transaction marks a significant milestone for SUPERVALU and our shareholders, customers and employees,” said Sam Duncan, SUPERVALU‘s president and chief executive officer. “As we move forward, SUPERVALU will continue as one of the largest wholesale grocery providers in America serving nearly 2,000 independent retailers in 43 states; we plan to continue growing our hard discount Save-A-Lot format that includes over 1,300 stores nationwide; and we will operate five, strong regional retail banners. I am pleased to be leading SUPERVALU during this time of change and strongly believe there is an exciting future ahead for us.”

Board of Directors

With the close of the SUPERVALU transaction, Robert Miller, president and chief executive officer of Albertsons LLC, becomes SUPERVALU‘s new non-executive Chairman of the Board replacing Wayne Sales, who has served as executive Chairman since August 2012. Mr. Miller has spent more than 50 …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance