NEW YORK (The Deal) -- Carl Icahn on Thursday backed away from his proxy battle with eBay (EBAY), dropping his proposal that the company split off its PayPal unit and withdrawing two nominees from the company's board.
The two sides in a statement said that eBay has agreed to Icahn's suggestion to appoint one-time AT&T (T) CEO David Dorman to its board. Dorman, a founding partner of Centerview Capital Technology and chairman of CVS Caremark Corp (CVS), worked with Icahn as lead independent director at Motorola Solutions (MSI).
EBay CEO John Donahoe, a target of stinging criticisms from Icahn in recent months, in a statement said, "we are very pleased to have reached this agreement" and return focus to running the company.
"As a result of our conversations, it became clear that Carl and I strongly agree on the potential of PayPal and our company," Donahoe said. "I respect Carl's willingness to work together to drive sustainable shareholder value today and into the future. His record shows that he has done this with many other companies in the past." Icahn, owner of about 2% of the company's shares, in January called for eBay to split off PayPal, and in a series of letters accused eBay directors Marc L. Andreessen and Scott Cook of conflicts. The activist said that corporate governance at eBay was among the worst he had seen and that Donahoe was not up to the task of being CEO of the company. EBay and its directors responded by pointing out examples of potential Icahn conflicts, and arguing that eBay is better served by keeping PayPal in-house. Icahn seemingly has had a difficult time gaining traction with shareholders, in March calling on eBay to sell 20% of PayPal to the public instead of doing a full spinoff. The activist, who as part of the deal announced Thursday signed a confidentiality agreement covering any nonpublic information eBay officials share with him, said he has been engaged in conversations with Donahoe in recent weeks and plans to continue talks about eBay's future. "We both strongly believe in the great potential of eBay and PayPal, and I have found a number of his ideas to be extremely compelling," Icahn said. "However, I continue to believe that eBay would benefit from the separation of PayPal at some point in the near future and intend to continue to press my case through confidential discussions with the company."
Top 10 Penny Companies To Buy For 2015: Alcobra Ltd (ADHD)
Alcobra Ltd is an Israel-based Biopharmaceutical company. It focuses on the development and commercialization of a proprietary drug, MG01CI, to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a common and morbid neuropsychiatric condition in children and adults. Adult ADHD is associated with increased health risks and healthcare costs, higher divorce rates, lower levels of socioeconomic attainment, lower academic achievement, unemployment and work place deficits, increased risks for motor vehicle accidents, greater likelihood of additional psychiatric disorders, increased criminal activity and incarceration, and higher rates of substance use and abuse. MG01CI product has completed phase two studies. Advisors' Opinion:- [By MONEYMORNING.COM]
For example, a phase 3 clinical trial on metadoxine extended release as a treatment for adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will be finishing up at the end of this year. Positive data could give the stock a huge boost.
Top 5 Industrial Disributor Stocks To Own Right Now: Spdr S&P Retail Etf (XRT)
SPDR S&P Retail Exchange Traded Fund (The Fund) seeks to replicate as closely as possible, before expenses, the performance of an index derived from the retail segment of the United States total market composite index. The Fund uses a passive management strategy designed to track the total return performance of the S&P Retail Select Industry Index (the Retail Index).
The Retail Index represents the retail sub industry portion of the S&P TMI. The S&P TMI tracks all the United States common stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), American Stock Exchange (AMEX), National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (NASDAQ) National Market and NASDAQ Small Cap exchanges.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By John Udovich]
Given that retailers had a mixed holiday season while retail ETFs like the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSEARCA: XRT), Market Vectors Retail ETF (NYSEARCA: RTH) and Direxion Daily Retail Bull 3X Shares (NYSEARCA: RETL) have been making declines on their technical charts, should you be buying, holding or folding (as in shorting) retail stocks or ETFs? To begin with, I should mention that we recently started shorting SPDR S&P Retail ETF in�our SmallCap Network Elite Opportunity (SCN EO) portfolio mainly for technical (as you will see later in the charts) rather than fundamental reasons as we think retail stocks (and hence retail ETFs) have gotten a little ahead of themselves.
- [By John Udovich]
Its worth taking a much�closer look at small Cap specialty retail stock Tuesday Morning Corporation (NASDAQ: TUES) verses the performance of potential retail ETF peers like the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSEARCA: XRT), Market Vectors Retail ETF (NYSEARCA: RTH) and Direxion Daily Retail Bull 3X Shares (NYSEARCA: RETL). In case you are not familiar with the stock, an activist shareholder (who became the Chairman of the Board) complained about the company�� performance (or rather�a wider net loss that�TUES had reported) back in 2012 and this�lead to the firing of CEO Kathleen Mason who then turned around and filed a discrimination claim claiming she was fired after 12 years in the role after she disclosed that she was being treated for breast cancer. Late in 2012, Tuesday Morning Corporation also fired�its chief merchandise officer after only five months on the job and then hired a new CEO.
Top 5 Industrial Disributor Stocks To Own Right Now: CVR Refining LP (CVRR)
CVR Refining, LP, incorporated on September 17, 2012, is an energy limited partnership with refining and related logistics assets that operates in the mid-continent region. As of January 8, 2013, the Company owned two of only seven refineries in the underserved Group 3 of the PADD II region of the United States. It owns and operates a 115,000 barrels per day (bpd) coking medium-sour crude oil refinery in Coffeyville, Kansas and a 70,000 bpd medium complexity crude oil refinery in Wynnewood, Oklahoma capable of processing 20,000 bpd of light sour crude oils (within its 70,000 bpd capacity). In addition, it also controls and operates supporting logistics assets, including approximately 350 miles of owned pipelines, over 125 owned crude oil transports, a network of strategically located crude oil gathering tank farms, and over six million barrels of owned and leased crude oil storage capacity. On December 15, 2011, the Company�� subsidiary Coffeyville Resources, LLC (Coffeyville Resources) acquired Wynnewood Energy Company, LLC, formerly Gary-Williams Energy Corporation.
The Company�� Coffeyville and Wynnewood refineries are located approximately 100 miles and 130 miles from the crude oil hub at Cushing, Oklahoma. As of January 8, 2013, the Company gathered approximately 50,000 bpd of price-advantaged crudes from its gathering area, which includes Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas. The Company also has 35,000 bpd of contracted capacity on the Keystone and Spearhead pipelines that allows it to supply price-advantaged Canadian and Bakken crudes to its refineries. As of January 8, 2013, the Company had 145,000 bpd pipeline system that transports crude oil from its Broome Station tank farm to its Coffeyville refinery, as well as a total of 6 million barrels of owned and leased crude oil storage capacity, including approximately 6% of the total crude oil storage capacity at Cushing.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Robert Rapier] There were a half a dozen initial public offerings (IPOs) by master limited partnerships in the first half of the year, and all but one are now in the green while one has nearly doubled in value.
The first MLP IPO of 2013 debuted on Jan. 15. USA Compression Partners (NYSE: USAC), which I mentioned in last week’s issue, provides compression services for the oil and gas industry. Units have advanced 36 percent since the IPO, and at the current price yield 7.3 percent.
The day after the USA Compression Partners IPO, CVR Refining (NYSE: CVRR) made its debut. CVRR was spun off from CVR Energy (NYSE: CVI), and both companies remain majority-owned by Carl Icahn. CVR Refining’s primary assets are two refineries located in Kansas and Oklahoma with a combined processing capacity of approximately 185,000 barrels per day (bpd). These refineries are strategically located near the major Cushing, Oklahoma shipment and storage hub, with easy access to discounted feedstock from the nearby Permian basin, as well as the Bakken shale and Canadian oil sands.
But refiners have struggled with diminished margins in 2013 because of a much lower Brent-WTI differential. After the recently concluded second quarter, CVRR declared a distribution of $1.35 per unit, bringing its per-unit distributions for the first half of the year to $2.93. At the same time, CVR Refining lowered its annual distribution target to a range of $4.10 to $4.80 per unit. This was lower than the outlook issued in March, when it foresaw annual distributions of $5.50 to $6.50. CVRR units slid on the news, and are presently trading slightly below the $25 IPO price. The lower end of the revised forecast implies distributions of $1.17 per unit in the second half of the year, for a forward annualized yield of 10 percent based on the recent $23.50 unit price.
SunCoke Energy Partners (NYSE: SXCP) was the third IPO to debut during a very busy third week of January. SXCP is the first M - [By alicet236]
CVR Refining LP (CVRR) Reached the Five-Year Low of $22.11
The prices of CVR Refining LP (CVRR) shares have declined to close to the five-year low of $22.11, which is 42.2% off the five-year high of $35.98. CVR Refining LP is owned by two Gurus we are tracking. Among them, zero have added to their positions during the past quarter. Zero reduced their positions. CVR Refining LP is an independent downstream energy limited partnership with refining and related logistics assets that operates in the mid-continent region. CVR Refining LP has a market cap of $3.25 billion; its shares were traded at around $22.11 with a P/E ratio of 5.20 and P/S ratio of 0.52. The dividend yield of CVR Refining LP stocks is 14.65%.
- [By Tyler Crowe]
For refiners, though, that spread in price led to very lucrative refining margins. As that spread has narrowed, so too has margins for refiners.
Refining Margins Q4 2012� Q2 2013 Valero (NYSE: VLO ) $12.27 $9.26 Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX ) � $13.67 $9.88 HollyFrontier (NYSE: HFC ) $24.00 $20.28 CVR Refining (NYSE: CVRR ) $28.08 $20.30Source: Company Earnings releases
Top 5 Industrial Disributor Stocks To Own Right Now: Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO)
Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. operates as an offshore oil and gas drilling contractor worldwide. It provides offshore drilling services in both the floater market, such as ultra-deepwater, deepwater, and mid-water; and in the non-floater and jack-up markets. The company operates a fleet of 44 offshore drilling rigs, consisting of 32 semisubmersibles, 7 jack-ups, and 5 dynamically positioned drillships, of which 4 are under construction. It serves independent oil and gas companies, and government-owned oil companies. The company was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. is a subsidiary of Loews Corporation.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Ben Levisohn]
As Joan Rivers is fond of saying: Can we talk? About offshore drillers like Diamond Offshore (DO), I mean.
Associated PressSee, the offshore drillers have been reporting earnings results, and really, they haven’t been that bad. Diamond Offshore beat by 15 cents yesterday, Atwood Oceanics (ATW) beat by 12 cents this week, and in January�Noble�(NE) reported results in line with analyst forecasts.
But those earnings represent the past, and investors are concerned that the amount these drillers can charge for the use of their platforms, known as dayrates, will plunge in 2014. And so have the offshore drillers. Diamond Offshore has dropped 20% this year, while�Transocean (RIG) has fallen 14%,�Noble has declined 17%,�Seadrill�(SDRL) has dropped 10% and Atwood Oceanics has fallen 14%.
And the problem is that analysts believe the situation could get worse before it gets better. For instance, Global Hunter’s Brian Uhlmer slashed his rating on Diamond Offshore. He explains why:
Our 2014 and 2015 EPS estimates drop 26% and 34%, respectively. On top of [Diamond Offshore's] newbuilds entering into service under difficult market conditions, we see lowered demand for deepwater capability and lowered dayrates. Consequently, operators are settling for shorter contracts. We believe 2014 will see further rig deactivations and declining dayrates for less capable units. We also expect the oversupply in this class to lead to more well-to-well work, which will likely lead to contract gaps and lower earnings quality. We believe that an 8x multiple on 2015E EPS is more than fair, with a resultant price target of $38 (down from $61 previously). With that much downside potential we are downgrading [Diamond Offshore] shares to a Sell Rating (from Neutral)…
While this may be viewed as a late downgrade…we believe that the downside scenario of both rate and utilization degradation have not been factored into the share price
- [By Johanna Bennett]
Denbury Resources (DNR) fell 2.5% to $7.95, while Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO) fell 2.2% to $37.24. Schlumberger (SLB), Nabors Industries (NBR) and Newfield Exploration (NFX) each fell 1%.
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