Las Vegas Sands Raises $2.1 B; Hartford Plunges

123jump.com Staff
17 Nov, 2008
New York City

Financial stocks led the decliners in the U.S. trading. Hartford Financial plunged after negative views from Barclays. Prudential and MetLife declined as well. Las Vegas Sands completed $2.1 billion in public offering. Walt Disney declined on broker commments. Net earnings at Target and Lowes fell.

[R]7:25PM New York – Financial stocks led the decliners in the U.S. trading. Hartford, MetLife, Prudential and CIT led the losers. Las Vegas Sands completed its public offering and raised $2.1 billion.[/R]

Agilent Technologies, Inc ((A)) lost 8% or $1.63 to $19.12 after the company reported a solid fiscal fourth quarter earnings and guided nearly unchanged revenues in the fiscal 2009. Several brokers lowered rating on the concern that company’s revenue guidance may be too optimistic.

Alcoa Inc ((AA)) declined 10.8% or $1.17 to $9.67 after UBS AG lowered the rating on the U.S. aluminum giant to ""neutral"" from ""buy,"" citing the U.S and global economic weakness and financial markets uncertainties.

Bank of America Corporation ((BAC)) lost 8.5% or $1.39 to $15.03 after it said it plans to exercise the remainder of its option to purchase shares of China Construction Bank Corp. Bank of America will own about 19.1% of issued shares of the Chinese bank.

Citigroup Inc ((C)) decreased 6.6% or 63 cents to $8.89 after it plans to cut about 52,000 additional jobs in an effort to cut costs and stem huge losses from bad investments in mortgage securities and leveraged loans. The latest job cuts will equal a 20% reduction in the workforce and the bank has cut 20,000 in October. The lender also reduced its asset by 20%.

Dell Inc ((DELL)) lost 3.4% or 37 cents to $10.52 after the technology stocks traded lower as analysts cut their ratings on the company and hard disk-drive maker Western Digital Corp. Analysts issued negative comments about the outlook for the computer market next year. Several brokers last week lowered outlook for the chipmaker Intel.

Hartford Financial Services ((HIG)) plunged 27% or $3.39 to $9.26 after Barclays made negative comments on the company and indicated that more negative news may be in store for the company. The Connecticut based insurance company agreed to spend $10 million in Florida based savings and loan institution Federal Trust Corp. The company hopes that with the acquisition of the bank it can tap between $1.1 and $3.3 billion from the U.S. Treasury bailout fund of $250 billion.

Other leading insurance companies topped the list of stocks that declined the most in S&P 500 index. MetLife ((MET)) dropped 21% or $5.91 to $22.23 and Prudential Financial ((PRU)) plunged 17% or $4.35 to $20.89.

Genworth Financial, Inc ((GNW)) dropped 8.8% or 13 cents to $1.34 after it had filed for a savings and loan holding company status with the Office of Thrift Supervision. The North Carolina based global financial security company operates a mortgage insurance unit in Richmond, Virginia and was spun off from General Electric few years ago.

General Motors Corporation ((GM)) surged 5.7% or 17 cents to $3.18 after the company said that it will sell its stake in the Japanese automaker Suzuki for 22.37 billion yen or $230 million. The small car company is holds leading market share in India and several other emerging markets.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. ((ISRG)) dropped 17% or $25.07 to $123.34 after William Blair lowered its current year sales and earnings expectations on weaker hospital spending outlook. The expensive robotic surgical equipment maker derives more than 25% of its revenue from overseas. The company stock has fallen 66% from its recent high of $354 on April 4.

Lowe’s Companies, Inc ((LOW)) gained 4.2% or 76 cents to $18.99 after the world's second largest home improvement retailer it reported third quarter profit fell 24% as consumers delayed home-improvement projects and big-ticket purchases.

Las Vegas Sands Corp ((LVS)) climbed 6.9% or 42 cents to $6.53 after the company completed public offering of preferred and common stock. The underwriting managed by Goldman Sachs raised $2.1 billion of which $525 million was injected by the family of the founder and chief executive Sheldon G. Adelson. The common stock was priced at $5.50 a share and unit consisting of one share of 10% cumulative preferred share and one warrant to purchase 16.7 shares of common was priced at $100. In all 5.2 million units were sold.

The Series A preferred stock and warrants are separable and the company may redeem them on or after November 15, 2011 at $110 per share and unpaid dividends.

In addition, the Sheldon family exchanged $475 million of 6.5% convertible senior notes due 2013 into 86.36 million common shares at a price equal to the public offering price of $5.50 per share.

The public offering of 200 million common stocks included 18.18 million over allotment option, 5.2 million of units that included series A 10% preferred stock that includes warrants to purchase 86.6 million common shares at $6 per share price.

Target Corporation ((TGT)) fell 4.1% or $1.35 to $31.68 after the sales grew 1.7% in the third quarter to $14.6 billion and same stores sales declined 3.3%. Net income fell 24% in the period as consumers limited their purchase to necessities.

The Walt Disney Company ((DIS)) plunged 6% or $1.34 to $19.74 after the family entertainment company rating was lowered by Soleil Securities Group Inc and price target was cut to $23 from $40.