With this weekend’s meeting in Doha being a failure and crude futures down by more than 4%, the S&P 500 and tech indexes are lower today as the correlation between the broader market and crude continues. Among the stocks trending this morning on their own news items are Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP), Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Let’s take a closer look at what those news bites are and see how the world’s greatest investors are positioned in each stock.
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Another Bank Posts Strong Quarterly Results
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) shares are 1.8% in the green after the investment bank reported better-than-expected first quarter earnings. For the period, the investment bank earned a profit of $0.55 per share versus expectations of $0.46 per share. Morgan Stanley’s sales were pretty much on target, missing by just $80 million with revenue of $7.79 billion. The earnings beat was due to better-than-expected investment management and fixed income results. Book value ended the quarter at $35.34 per share and tangible book value came in at $30.44 per share. CEO James P. Gorman had this to say about the bank’s results:
“The first quarter was characterized by challenging market conditions and muted client activity. Against that backdrop, our businesses delivered stable results. While we see some signs of market recovery, global uncertainties continue to weigh on investor activity. We remain focused on executing against our priorities, helping clients navigate difficult markets while controlling our expenses and managing risk prudently.”
The number of elite funds in our database with holdings in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) fell to 50 as of the end of December from 57 at the end of September.
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Follow Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)
Strong Organic Revenue Growth Pushes Pepsi to Earnings Beat
Strong beverage demand boosted PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP)‘s business during the first quarter, as the maker of popular soft drinks reported earnings of $0.89 per share on revenue of $11.86 billion, beating earnings estimates by $0.08 per share but missing revenue expectations by $20 million. The prophesied demise of cola demand continues to be proven inaccurate, as PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP) reported strong organic revenue growth of 3.5%, and the company’s core operating margin inched up by 165 basis points to 16.66%. Annual guidance released by the company was also solid, with management expecting organic revenue growth of 4% and core EPS of $4.66 for fiscal year 2016. The number of elite funds with holdings in PepsiCo rose by one to 58 during the fourth quarter. Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management owned 5.36 million shares at the end of March. Shares of Pepsi are up by 0.74% this morning.
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Follow Pepsico Inc (NASDAQ:PEP)
On the next page, we examine why Hasbro Inc, Netflix Inc, and Amazon.com, Inc are making the news pages this morning.
