The Dow Jones Industrials spiked by 303 points, or 1.46 percent, today with U.S. President Donald Trump's speech before Congress being discussed in business circles. Yahoo Finance surmised that the president appears to hold a belief that "older Americans ought to stay on the job until they die." Gold last traded at $1,250, down $3.90, or 0.31 percent. Oil was trading at $53.75, down $0.26, or 0.48 percent. The U.S. dollar was lower against the euro, by 0.27 percent. Several well-known retail companies reported quarterly financial results this afternoon and yesterday, including Blue Buffalo Pet Products, Inc.
(Nasdaq: BUFF) and Monster Beverage Corporation (Nasdaq: MNST).
Blue Buffalo had a relatively recent IPO, with BUFF shares' all-time high of $28.80 being printed on August 4, 2015, shortly after it first began trading. BUFF stock is down about 9 percent since coming public. Blue Buffalo is not the only retail-exposed firm facing headwinds in the current equity market. Stock in Monster Beverage, which reported results this evening, was down close to 15 percent, over the same period. MNST, and its predecessors', stock is up over 48,000 percent, on a split-adjusted basis, since the nineties. The broad market, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI), has gained about 630 percent over the same period.
MNST stock 8 percent higher on revenue beat
MNST shares were sharply higher in the after-hours market after the beverage maker, and employer of 1,500, reported its fourth-quarter 2016 financial results. Monster earnings, on a per share basis were reported at $0.30, meeting the Wall Street analyst consensus estimate. Year over year, EPS was up $0.07, or 30.43 percent.
Revenue of $753.80 million was reported, beating the street view of $721.17 million, by $32.63 million, or 4.52 percent. Sales were up $108.37 million, or 16.79 percent, year over year.
Rodney Cyril Sacks, Monster Beverage chief executive officer, and his management team have scheduled a conference call for 5 p.m. ET that may be accessed from the investor relations section of the company's website.
In a release by the company, the CEO stated that management was happy with the "strategic alignment of our distribution system with Coca-Cola bottlers," and made note that the strength of the U.S. dollar had impacted fourth-quarter 2016 numbers.
BUFF stock higher on in-line results
Stock in Blue Buffalo was higher, by 1.15 percent, today, after the levered Nasdaq-listed consumer name reported its fourth-quarter 2016 financial results last night. BUFF earnings per share were $0.18, meeting the analyst view. EPS was up $0.02, from $0.16, by 12.50 percent, year over year. Fourth-quarter revenue was $295 million, beating the consensus of $293.16 million, reported by Yahoo Finance, by $1.84 million, or 0.62 percent.
On a year-over-year basis, Blue Buffalo revenue was up $29.76 million, or 11.22 percent, from $265.24 million in 2016.
Blue Buffalo CEO William Bishop stated that the company "delivered" in the fourth quarter of 2016, as well as through the year. He expressed that the company's goal of increasing "share" and "margins" has prevailed, and that "investments" and the strength of the company's brand "generate demand," observed "across all channels."
