Gapping down
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
- None
M&A news:
- MLHR -12.3% (and Knoll (KNL) to combine)
Other news:
- RIDE -8.9% (Endurance electric pickup truck did not complete Baja race)
- PTON -6.9% (consumer product safety commission claims)
- TSLA -2.7% (Crash kills two people was result of driverless car)
- LLY -1.3% (FDA revokes EUA for bamlanivimab, when administered alone, as treatment for mild-to-moderate COVID-19),
Analyst comments:
- CHD -2.2% (downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley)
- SKX -1.4% (downgraded to Neutral at Monness Crespi & Hardt)
- OMF -0.8% (downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO),
Gapping up
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
- HOG +8.5%, STL +1.8%, GEL +1.8% (sees Q1 net loss of $33-35 mln; sees Q1 adjusted EBITDA of $143-145 mln) KO +1.2%,
M&A news:
- KNL +30.8% (merging with Herman Miller (MLHR)), .
Other news:
- CLNE +15.6% (signed an agreement with Amazon (AMZN) to provide low and negative carbon renewable natural gas)
- GME +9.3% (George Sherman will be stepping down as Chief Executive Officer on July 31, 2021, or earlier upon the appointment of a successor), MILE +7.9% (CEO Mad Money appreance)
- MANU +7.5% (announcing participation in new Super League)
- PETQ +6.9% (Positive view on Barron's)
- AVDL +6.7% (presents new data from its pivotal REST-ON phase 3 trial of FT218, once-nightly sodium oxybate, at the 2021 American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting)
- XBIT +5.9% (FDA has granted permission to commence clinical trials with its novel drug candidate for treating patients with pancreatic cancer)
- MNKD +4.1% (and United Therapeutics (UTHR) reach a milestone in the development of Tyvaso DPI with New Drug Application submitted to the FDA)
- TBIO +4% (appoints Brendan Smith as CFO and announces publication of preclinical results of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidate MRT5500 in npj vaccines)
- KZIA +3.7% (licenses global rights to EVT801, a novel, first-in-class, clinic-ready, VEGFR3 inhibitor, from Evotec)
- CYAD +3.7% (announced the appointment of Dr. Charles Morris to the position of Chief Medical Officer)
- LIZI +3.5% (enters into in-car audio collaboration with WM Motor)
- GILT +3% (received orders of over $20 mln for support of gateways of Low Earth Orbit constellations)
- CTSO +2.8% (FDA granted conditional approval of its investigational device exemption application for the U.S. Safe and Timely Antithrombotic Removal - Ticagrelor (STAR-T) randomized, controlled trial)
- SWBI +2.4% (Protesters in Oakland, California set fires to a car dealership and smashed windows)
- DADA +1.3% (achieved doubling sales during 4.15 Anniversary Shopping Festival)
- AZN +1.3% (Ontario Canada to expand use of its COVID vaccine)
- SNY +1% (European Commission approves second indication of Sarclisa for relapsed multiple myeloma ) AACQ +0.9% (Origin Materials provides the following business update ahead of its Analyst Day), .
Analyst comments:
- ZNGA +4.5% (initiated with an Outperform at BMO)
- FSLR +3.3% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup)
- LTHM +3% (upgraded to Outperform from In-line at Evercore ISI)
- ALB +2.3% (upgraded to Outperform from In-line at Evercore ISI)
- GLW +1.2% (upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan)
- TXT +1.2% (upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse)
- VVV +1.1% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies)
- BKR +1% (upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO),
Goldman invests £50m in UK digital bank Starling
Start-up lender aims to boost growth ahead of targeted initial public offering
Goldman Sachs has invested £50m in UK digital bank Starling, as the start-up looks to ramp up growth and bring in significant investors ahead of an eventual initial public offering.
Starling said on Monday that the cash injection would be treated as an “extension” of the £272m funding round it announced last month, which valued the company at about £1.1bn.
The investment by the Wall Street bank — which has been working on its own digital retail offering — follows speculation last year that Starling could be a takeover target and had attracted interest from rivals such as JPMorgan.
However, Starling’s chief executive Anne Boden has repeatedly said that she intended to take the bank public. Two people briefed on Monday’s deal stressed it was a financial investment through Goldman’s asset management arm, rather than a strategic investment.
One of the people added that Starling was targeting an initial public offering in late 2022 or early 2023.
Starling has been profitable on a monthly basis since late last year, but may need to raise further capital before its IPO depending on the pace at which it expands its loan book.
The company had only carried out a small amount of lending before the coronavirus pandemic hit last year, but has since lent out more than £2bn to small businesses through government-backed rescue loan schemes.
Boden said on Monday: “Securing the support of another global financial heavyweight demonstrates the strength of demand from investors and represents yet another vote of confidence in Starling. Goldman Sachs will bring valuable insight as we continue with the expansion of lending in the UK, as well as our European expansion and anticipated M&A.”
Goldman opened its consumer-focused brand Marcus in the UK in 2018. The UK business has so far only offered savings accounts, meaning it does not directly compete with Starling. However, Goldman has made building out its consumer arm a key part of its long-term strategy.
James Hayward, Goldman Sachs’ managing director, said: “Starling is one of the leading and most innovative digital banks in the UK, with an ambitious technology-first leadership team and addressing a deep market opportunity. We are delighted to be supporting their growth with this investment and believe the company has sustainable long-term earnings potential.”
Leonardo da Vinci definitely did not sculpt the Flora bust
CNRS
IMAGE: THE FLORA WAX BUST INVENTORY N° 5951, SKULPTURENSAMMLUNG (SBM), MUSEUM FÜR BYZANTINISCHE KUNST (SBM), STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN (SMB) - STIFTUNG PREUSSISCHER KULTURBESITZ (SPK) view more
CREDIT: © SMB-SPK
"It is machination, it is deception," said the Director General of the Berlin Royal Museums in his defence when criticized for buying a fake. Wilhelm Bode did not budge an inch: the sculpture he acquired in 1909 was an as yet unknown production of the great Renaissance master, Leonardo da Vinci. After one hundred years and numerous controversies, a group of scientists led by a CNRS researcher* has just proven him wrong once and for all. The Flora wax bust, conserved at the Bode Museum in Berlin, recently underwent radiocarbon (14C) dating, which provided both a precise date and an incontrovertible result: it was made in the nineteenth century, nearly 300 years after da Vinci's death. As the sculpture was made primarily from spermaceti, a kind of wax extracted from whales, the researchers had to develop a new calibration method to accurately date the work of art. Their results, which were published on 15 April 2021 in Scientific Reports, show how 14C dating can be applied to unusual materials.
*- The researchers involved work at the Chemistry Research Institute of Paris (CNRS/Chimie ParisTech), the Centre for Research and Restoration of Museums of France (Ministry of Culture), and the Carbon-14 Measurement Laboratory (CEA/CNRS/IRD/IRSN/Ministry of Culture), a national platform managed by the Laboratory for Sciences of Climate and Environment (CNRS/CEA/Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines).
Early premarket gappers
- Gapping up:
- CLNE +11.2%, KZIA +11%, PETQ +8.1%, XBIT +7.1%, HOG +6.6%, MANU +6.2%, GME +6.2%, MILE +4.8%, DADA +1.8%, SNY +1%
- Gapping down:
- PTON -6%, ADN -2.6%, TSLA -1.8%, LLY -1.3%, EBS -0.9%, CNHI -0.9%, AMRN -0.8%
NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Successfully Makes Historic First Flight on Mars
Intrepid drone becomes the first powered craft to fly on another world
NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter unlocked its rotor blades, allowing them to spin freely, on April 7, one of several steps that needed to be taken before the helicopter could fly on another planet.
PHOTO: HANDOUT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter made history early Monday when the small but intrepid drone became the first powered craft to fly on another world, space agency officials announced.
As flight data streamed from Ingenuity to Earth on Monday, mission engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California cheered and clapped.
Research Calls I
-
Upgrades:
- Albemarle (ALB) upgraded to Outperform from In-line at Evercore ISI; tgt raised to $200
- AvalonBay (AVB) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at SMBC Nikko
- Baker Hughes (BKR) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets; tgt lowered to $26
- Corning (GLW) upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan; tgt $55
- Evergy (EVRG) upgraded to Outperform from Peer Perform at Wolfe Research; tgt $69
- First Solar (FSLR) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup; tgt raised to $100
- Livent (LTHM) upgraded to Outperform from In-line at Evercore ISI; tgt raised to $22
- Sempra Energy (SRE) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Mizuho; tgt raised to $148
- Sensata Tech (ST) upgraded to Outperform from In-line at Evercore ISI; tgt raised to $67
- Textron (TXT) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse; tgt raised to $72
- Valvoline (VVV) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Jefferies; tgt raised to $40
- Western Alliance Bancorp (WAL) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Wells Fargo; tgt $120
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Downgrades:
- Cabot Oil & Gas (COG) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets; tgt lowered to $19
- Church & Dwight (CHD) downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley; tgt $80
- Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Exane BNP Paribas; tgt $19.20
- Discover Financial Services (DFS) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets; tgt $105
- Federated Hermes (FHI) downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan; tgt $27
- Kansas City Southern (KSU) downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James; tgt raised to $286
- OneMain Holdings (OMF) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets; tgt $60
- TE Connectivity (TEL) downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Cowen; tgt lowered to $135
- Weingarten Realty (WRI) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BTIG Research
-
Others:
- ACV Auctions Inc. (ACVA) initiated with a Neutral at Piper Sandler; tgt $36
- ACV Auctions Inc. (ACVA) initiated with a Mkt Outperform at JMP Securities; tgt $45
- ACV Auctions Inc. (ACVA) initiated with a Buy at Guggenheim; tgt $43
- ACV Auctions Inc. (ACVA) initiated with a Buy at Canaccord Genuity; tgt $43
- ACV Auctions Inc. (ACVA) initiated with a Neutral at JP Morgan; tgt $30
- ACV Auctions Inc. (ACVA) initiated with a Buy at Jefferies; tgt $45
- ACV Auctions Inc. (ACVA) initiated with a Neutral at Citigroup; tgt $40
- Cricut (CRCT) initiated with an Overweight at Barclays; tgt $26
- Cricut (CRCT) initiated with a Buy at Goldman; tgt $35
- Cricut (CRCT) initiated with an Outperform at Robert W. Baird; tgt $26
- Cricut (CRCT) initiated with a Buy at Citigroup; tgt $25
- Cricut (CRCT) initiated with an Overweight at Morgan Stanley; tgt $23
- DigitalOcean (DOCN) initiated with a Buy at BofA Securities; tgt $50
- DigitalOcean (DOCN) initiated with an Overweight at Barclays; tgt $57
- DigitalOcean (DOCN) initiated with a Buy at Goldman; tgt $101
- DigitalOcean (DOCN) initiated with a Buy at Canaccord Genuity; tgt $55
- DigitalOcean (DOCN) initiated with an Overweight at JP Morgan; tgt $50
- DigitalOcean (DOCN) initiated with a Hold at Stifel; tgt $50
- DigitalOcean (DOCN) initiated with an Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets; tgt $56
- DigitalOcean (DOCN) initiated with an Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley; tgt $50
- DigitalOcean (DOCN) initiated with a Mkt Outperform at JMP Securities; tgt $58
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with an Outperform at RBC Capital Mkts; tgt $18
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with a Buy at BofA Securities; tgt $17
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with an Equal Weight at Barclays; tgt $16
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with a Buy at Goldman; tgt $23
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with a Neutral at Credit Suisse; tgt $18
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with an Overweight at JP Morgan; tgt $17
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with a Buy at Jefferies; tgt $19
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with an Overweight at Morgan Stanley; tgt $22
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with a Buy at UBS; tgt $20
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with a Buy at Citigroup; tgt $18
- Diversey Holdings (DSEY) initiated with an Outperform at Robert W. Baird; tgt $18
- First Citizen Bancshr. NC (FCNCA) initiated with an Outperform at Keefe Bruyette; tgt $1000
- Innoviz Technologies (INVZ) initiated with a Neutral at Goldman; tgt $11
- Olink Holding (OLK) initiated with a Buy at BTIG Research; tgt $44
- Olink Holding (OLK) initiated with an Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
- Outset Medical (OM) initiated with an Overweight at Wells Fargo; tgt $63
- SEMRush (SEMR) initiated with a Neutral at Goldman; tgt $18.50
- SEMRush (SEMR) initiated with a Hold at Jefferies; tgt $18
- SEMRush (SEMR) initiated with an Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets; tgt $22
- SEMRush (SEMR) initiated with a Hold at Stifel; tgt $18
- SEMRush (SEMR) initiated with an Overweight at JP Morgan; tgt $20
- SEMRush (SEMR) initiated with an Overweight at Piper Sandler; tgt $22
- Velodyne Lidar (VLDR) initiated with a Neutral at Goldman; tgt $13
- VIZIO (VZIO) initiated with a Buy at BofA Securities; tgt $33
- VIZIO (VZIO) initiated with an Overweight at Piper Sandler; tgt $29
- VIZIO (VZIO) initiated with a Buy at Guggenheim; tgt $28
- VIZIO (VZIO) initiated with a Buy at Needham; tgt $30
- VIZIO (VZIO) initiated with an Overweight at Wells Fargo; tgt $31
- VIZIO (VZIO) initiated with an Overweight at JP Morgan; tgt $30
- Zynga (ZNGA) initiated with an Outperform at BMO Capital Markets; tgt $15
Gett inks deal with Curb Mobility to bring yellow cabs to its enterprise-focused on-demand ride-hailing app
Gett, the ride-hailing startup that has been carving out a niche for itself in a crowded and competitive market for on-demand transportation by focusing on enterprise accounts and connecting people with rides in some 1,500 cities leveraging a number of third-party fleets, is adding another partner today as it continues to double down on its business model in the wake of corporate travel slowly coming back online.
Gett has inked a deal to integrate Curb Mobility to integrate yellow taxis into Gett’s app, which will now cover some 65 cities across the US. The news is coming at a time when Gett is looking to expand its service to meet more demand: it notes that rides currently at around 80% of the levels they were in Q1 2020, just ahead of Covid-19 really descending on the western world.
From what we understand, the deal does not involve any investment between Gett — which has raised around $865 million to date (including most recently closing a $115 million round) and was last valued at $1.5 billion in 2019 — and Curb — which is a part of Verifone, after the payments hardware company acquired it in 2015.
(If you think it sounds odd for a payments hardware company to own a taxi fleet app, this is only part of Curb’s business and is in fact also a hardware player: in addition to Curb providing a way to hail yellow taxis — it app covers some 50,000 cabs and 100,000 drivers — the company also builds hardware for cabs and fleet operations, including metering apps, payment terminals, and those interactive screens for passengers that let them pay for rides, watch news and advertisements and more.)
To differentiate its service from the very highly capitalized Ubers and Lyfts of the world, Gett has been building out a two-pronged strategy that covers both how it scales, and the services that it provides to its users.
On the scaling front, Gett has been moving away from managing fleets of contractor drivers in the US for some years now: back in 2019, after slogging it out for years against Lyft and Uber in its primary New York metro market, Gett effectively shut down its main fleet operation in the region and instead inked a deal with Lyft. That has become a template of sorts that the company has been repeating in other cities outside of the U.S. where it doesn’t have substantial market share. (For example, Ola is another Gett partner.) In some cities where it has a larger footprint, like London and Tel Aviv, Gett works with drivers directly.
Partner fleets made up one-third of Gett’s business in the first quarter of this year, but as Gett brings on more to its network, it expects partner fleets to cover the majority of its rides by the end of this year, the company said.
On the service front, Gett has made a big bet on building a platform that integrates with businesses at the back end to make it easier to order rides and for them to reconcile more easily with a businesses expense management and accounting software. Gett’s big pitch to would-be customers is that this software makes it less expensive and significantly more efficient to hail a cab using Gett compared to the alternatives — for starters users can compare different prices from different providers — and it gives users significantly more choice.
“Today’s partnership cements Gett’s position as a technology platform focused on corporate Ground Transportation Management (GTM), where spend is worth $79.6 billion globally,” said Dave Waiser, CEO and co-founder of Gett, in a statement. “In recent years, we have become the GTM category leader, serving over a quarter of Fortune 500 companies.”
On the part of Curb, it gives drivers using its software another link through to an app that might bring in more business at a time when riders have more choice than ever before, covering not just other on-demand car apps, but eco-friendly, exercise-ready, and traffic-busting options like e-bikes, scooters and shared rides. As the profile of the average corporate user changes and gets younger, that too will change the expectations many of them will have for what constitutes a preferred set of ground transportation options, depending on the situation.
“As cities across the U.S. prepare for the return of international travel, our partnership with Gett will create new income opportunities for local drivers and ensure Gett’s business users have access to the same safe, reliable transportation options trusted by locals,” said Amos Tamam, CEO at Curb. “By integrating with platforms like Gett, we’re aiming to make taxis more ubiquitous online by opening up new digital avenues for today’s consumers and businesses to find and book taxis.”
Updated to correct that Gett has shifted Moscow out of direct fleet management and currently operates this model in London and Tel Aviv.
Volvo to supply Chinese ride hailing giant Didi with autonomous driving cars
As the autonomous driving race in China heats up, Didi is rushing to expand its car fleets by picking Swedish automaker Volvo, an old partner of Uber, as its ally.
Didi said on Monday it will be using the XC90 SUVs of Volvo, which has been owned by Chinese auto company Geely since 2010, for its network of robotaxis in the long term. Didi created a subsidiary dedicated to autonomous driving last year and the unit has since raised about $800 million from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund and IDG Capital. The subsidiary now has over 500 employees.
Didi started out as a ride-share app in 2012 and gobbled up Uber China in 2016. It now offers a range of mobility services including taxi hailing, ride-hailing, carpooling, shared bikes and scooters, as well as financial services for drivers. The company is seeking a valution north of $100 billion in an initial public offering, Reuters reported last month.
Didi’s autonomous driving arm has been testing robotaxis for the past two years in China and the United States, but Volvo’s XC90 model will be the first to adopt Didi’s freshly minted self-driving hardware system called Gemini, which contains sensors like short, mid and long-range lidars, radars, cameras, a thermal imager; a fallback system; and remote assistance through 5G networks.
Didi said that its Gemini platform, coupled with Volvo’s backup functions including steering, braking and electric power, will eventually allow its robotaxis to remove safety drivers. If any of the primary systems fails during a ride, Volvo’s backup systems can act to bring the vehicle to a safe stop.
Didi is competing against a clutch of well-funded robotaxi startups in China, such as Pony.ai and WeRide, which are busy tesing in major Chinese cities and California while splurging on R&D expenses to reach Level 4 driving. AutoX, another Chinese robotaxi company, announced last week that it will be using Honda’s Accord and Inspire sedans for its test drives in China. The edge of Didi, some suggest, is the mountains of driving data accumulated from its ride-hailing business spanning Asia, Latin America, Africa and Russia.
Rising electric automakers like Nio and Xpeng have also joined in the race to automate vehicles, making bold claims that they, too, will be able to remove safety drivers soon. Meanwhile, traditional car manufacturers don’t want to fall behind. BAIC, a state-owned enterprise, for instance, is adding Huawei’s advanced automation system and smart cockpit to its new electric passenger cars.