Month: December 2020

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Article: U.S. Treasury labels Switzerland, Vietnam as currency manipulators

Article - Media, Publications

U.S. Treasury labels Switzerland, Vietnam as currency manipulators

Reuters Staff, 16 December 2020

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury labeled Switzerland and Vietnam as currency manipulators on Wednesday and added three new names to a watch list of countries it suspects of taking measures to devalue their currencies against the dollar.

In what may be one of the final broadsides to international trading partners delivered by the departing administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, the Treasury said that through June 2020 both Switzerland and Vietnam had intervened in currency markets to prevent effective balance of payments adjustments.

Furthermore, in its semi-annual currency manipulation report, the Treasury said Vietnam had acted to gain “unfair competitive advantage in international trade as well.” Continue reading “Article: U.S. Treasury labels Switzerland, Vietnam as currency manipulators”

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Article: Is First Trust Multi Cap Growth AlphaDEX ETF (FAD) a Strong ETF Right Now?

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Is First Trust Multi Cap Growth AlphaDEX ETF (FAD) a Strong ETF Right Now?

Zacks Equity Research, 14 December 2020

The First Trust Multi Cap Growth AlphaDEX ETF (FAD) made its debut on 05/08/2007, and is a smart beta exchange traded fund that provides broad exposure to the Style Box – All Cap Growth category of the market.

What Are Smart Beta ETFs?

The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.

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Article: 3 Reasons to Avoid the DoorDash IPO and Other Food Delivery Stocks

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3 Reasons to Avoid the DoorDash IPO and Other Food Delivery Stocks

Jeremy Bowman, 11 December 2020

It’s a great time to be a DoorDash (NYSE: DASH) insider. Shares of the hot food delivery start-up jumped 86% on its IPO day, rising off of an already elevated listing price. The eye-popping surge comes as restaurant delivery apps have been among the big winners during the pandemic and amid speculation of a broader bubble in tech stocks.

Still, at a valuation around $72 billion now, double that of well-established restaurant chains like Chipotle, for example, it seems too hard to justify DoorDash’s market cap. The company is still unprofitable, even as it’s experienced significant tailwinds from the pandemic. Beyond valuation concerns, there are a number of other reasons to avoid DoorDash and its food delivery peers.
Continue reading “Article: 3 Reasons to Avoid the DoorDash IPO and Other Food Delivery Stocks”

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Article: Vinco Ventures, Inc. Updates on Subsidiary Honey Badger Media, LLC and their Acclaimed Celebrity Influencers.

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Vinco Ventures, Inc. Updates on Subsidiary Honey Badger Media, LLC and their Acclaimed Celebrity Influencers.

GLOBE NEWSWIRE, 10 December 2020

Vinco Ventures, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBIG), today updates on the first 30 days of their subsidiary Honey Badger Media, LLC and the advancement of its esteemed influencer list.

Honey Badger Media is a digital commerce company and one of Vinco’s key tools in the Be B.I.G. business model. The Company designs digital campaigns from scratch to monetization and leverages a 300 million plus follower network to grow advertiser-based revenue as well as Vinco’s brands and holdings. Additionally, within the first month, Honey Badger was able to sign an impressive catalog of celebrity influencers, including skateboarder and TV personality Bam Margera, Reality Television and Motivational Speaker Adalia Rose, and respected mom blogger Joy of Mom.

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Article: If you bought DoorDash at $180…

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If you bought DoorDash at $180…

SirGasleak, 10 December 2020

No moat at all. Sure they have 50% market share but there are competitors. They’re a delivery service – anyone can do what they do. Not only does this pose a risk to market share, but it poses a huge risk to the already thin profit margins. At some point (because of 2-4 below) they will have to lower their fees and take rate, which will hurt margins even more.

No brand value or brand loyalty. People couldn’t care less who delivers their food, as long as it shows up on time and hot. Early in COVID I was using Skipthedishes until I got frustrated with poor service so I left. There is nothing to keep customers loyal to DoorDash if someone else offers better service, or the same service at a better price.
Continue reading “Article: If you bought DoorDash at $180…”

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Article: BBIG -Vinco Ventures, Inc. Updates On Subsidiary Honey Badger Media, LLC And Their Acclaimed Celebrity Influencers.

Article - Media, Publications

BBIG -Vinco Ventures, Inc. Updates On Subsidiary Honey Badger Media, LLC And Their Acclaimed Celebrity Influencers.

NASDQplayer97, 10 December 2010

Vinco Ventures, Inc. (NASDAQ:BBIG), today updates on the first 30 days of their subsidiary Honey Badger Media, LLC and the advancement of its esteemed influencer list.

Honey Badger Media is a digital commerce company and one of Vinco’s key tools in the Be B.I.G. business model. The Company designs digital campaigns from scratch to monetization and leverages a 300 million plus follower network to grow advertiser-based revenue as well as Vinco’s brands and holdings. Additionally, within the first month, Honey Badger was able to sign an impressive catalog of celebrity influencers, including skateboarder and TV personality Bam Margera, Reality Television and Motivational Speaker Adalia Rose, and respected mom blogger Joy of Mom.

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Article: DoorDash Soars in First Day of Trading

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DoorDash Soars in First Day of Trading

Erin Griffith, 09 December 2020

Shares of DoorDash soared in their first day of trading on Wednesday, capping a year of outsize growth for the country’s largest food delivery company. DoorDash stock rose 86 percent above its initial public offering price of $102 to close the day at $189.51.

That valued the company at $72 billion, including employee-owned shares — more than the market capitalization of Domino’s Pizza and Chipotle Mexican Grill combined. DoorDash raised $3.4 billion, making it the one of the largest I.P.O.s of the year.
Continue reading “Article: DoorDash Soars in First Day of Trading”

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Article: DoorDash valued at $71 billion in blockbuster market debut

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DoorDash valued at $71 billion in blockbuster market debut

Noor Zainab Hussain, Joshua Franklin, 09 December 2020

(Reuters) -DoorDash Inc shares popped more than 80% in their debut on Wednesday, valuing the food delivery company at $71.3 billion or more than four times its worth at a private fundraising round six months ago, underscoring investor appetite for technology companies boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shares opened at $182 on the New York Stock Exchange, significantly above the initial public offering (IPO) price of $102 apiece and closed at $189.51. The company had raised $3.37 billion in its IPO on Tuesday.

Such a large first-day trading gain is likely to fuel criticism from some venture capital investors, including Benchmark’s Bill Gurley, who argue investment banks underprice IPOs so their investor clients can score large gains when the stock starts trading.
Continue reading “Article: DoorDash valued at $71 billion in blockbuster market debut”

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Article: DoorDash Soars in IPO to $60 Billion Market Cap

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DoorDash Soars in IPO to $60 Billion Market Cap

Christiana Sciaudone, 09 December 2020

Investing.com — Doordash Inc (NYSE:DASH) is a smash hit. The food-delivery company opened trading at $182, a whopping 78% jump over the $102 at which it priced on Tuesday.

The company sold 33 million shares — originally marketed between $90 and $95 — on Tuesday to raise $3.37 billion in its initial public offering and now has a market value of about $60 billion.

DoorDash’s IPO is the third-largest in the U.S. this year, topped only by Bill Ackman’s $4 billion blank-check company and Snowflake Inc’s (NYSE:SNOW) $3.86 billion offering.
Continue reading “Article: DoorDash Soars in IPO to $60 Billion Market Cap”

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Article: DoorDash IPO delivers billions to its Stanford founders

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DoorDash IPO delivers billions to its Stanford founders

Tom Maloney, 09 December 2020

Stanford University students Tony Xu, Andy Fang and Stanley Tang had a revelation seven years ago in a Palo Alto macaroon store.

The shop’s owner showed them pages and pages of delivery orders she hadn’t been able to fulfill. Demand wasn’t high enough to hire a full-time delivery person, but there was no way she could drop off all the orders herself. It was a story the three heard again and again as they worked to understand how they could leverage technology to help small businesses.

They decided to build a basic web page with menus from local restaurants to see if there was demand for a delivery business. “It was super simple, ugly, and honestly we weren’t really expecting anything,” Tang said at a Stanford lecture years later. “All of a sudden we got a phone call – someone called! They wanted to order Thai food.”
Continue reading “Article: DoorDash IPO delivers billions to its Stanford founders”

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Article: HAGENS BERMAN, NATIONAL TRIAL ATTORNEYS, Encourages MultiPlan (MPLN) Investors with Losses to Contact Its Attorneys, Firm Investigating Possible Securities Fraud

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HAGENS BERMAN, NATIONAL TRIAL ATTORNEYS, Encourages MultiPlan (MPLN) Investors with Losses to Contact Its Attorneys, Firm Investigating Possible Securities Fraud

Globe Newswire, 08 December 2020

The investigation centers on MultiPlan’s financial disclosures leading up to- and through- its merger and going public transaction with special purpose acquisition (“SPAC”) company Churchill Capital Corp. III. More specifically, Hagens Berman is investigating the company’s and its sponsor’s statements about MultiPlan’s client base and revenues. On Nov. 11, 2020, Muddy Waters Capital published a scathing report, “MultiPlan: Private Equity Necrophilia Meets The Great 2020 Money Grab,” based in part on its interviews of former MultiPlan executives.

Among other things, Muddy Waters observes: (1) the company and its sponsors concealed the impending loss of MultiPlan’s largest client (“UnitedHealthcare”, or “UHC”) due to UHC’s formation of a competitor (“Naviguard”) that offers significantly lower prices and fewer conflicts of interest; (2) MultiPlan’s financials “have been financially engineered to obscure the decay in its business;” and, (3) “[w]e understand that in 2018, MPLN released revenue reserves, dropping them from approximately 30% to 10% of revenue, which we believe enabled MPLN to show 2018 EBITDA growth amid shrinking sales.”
Continue reading “Article: HAGENS BERMAN, NATIONAL TRIAL ATTORNEYS, Encourages MultiPlan (MPLN) Investors with Losses to Contact Its Attorneys, Firm Investigating Possible Securities Fraud”

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Article: IBIO – don’t buy the vaccine dream

Article - Media, Publications

IBIO – don’t buy the vaccine dream

mariner_admin, 08 December 2020

IBIO is a Texas-based company whose stock was up ~500% year to date through 12/7 on investor optimism about its COVID-19 vaccine efforts. We believe that IBIO is vaccine vaporware, with a history of having inserted itself into the discourse of several diseases-du-jour over the last decade including H1N1, Ebola, and now COVID. IBIO has never actually commercialized any of its vaccine or therapeutics efforts, having eliminated pipeline disclosure in FY17.

In fact, IBIO settled a shareholder suit alleging that it lied about its Ebola claims, and we believe IBIO’s COVID effort is just a replay of the 2014 Ebola episode. Despite this, the Roberts (Kay and Erwin), have reaped compensation in excess of 100% of IBIO’s revenues since 2008
Continue reading “Article: IBIO – don’t buy the vaccine dream”

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Article: DoorDash takes a hefty cut from restaurants, and risks losing them to cheaper options

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DoorDash takes a hefty cut from restaurants, and risks losing them to cheaper options

Ari Levy, 08 December 2020

Salvatore Reina owns three Francesca pizzerias in New Jersey that have been closed for indoor dining during the pandemic. While much of his industry turned to DoorDash, Reina resisted.

“Third parties take a big cut,” said Reina, who opened his first pizzeria 12 years ago, about 20 miles outside of New York City. “I’d rather spend those marketing dollars to get people directly.”

As DoorDash prepares for its public market debut, an offering that could value the delivery app service at over $30 billion, the San Francisco-based company has to show that it can make enough money on every order to turn into a profitable business. Meanwhile, investors have to consider how many restaurant owners will eventually turn away from apps like DoorDash because the costs are too high for their low-margin operations.
Continue reading “Article: DoorDash takes a hefty cut from restaurants, and risks losing them to cheaper options”

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Article: DOORDASH IPO HAS ITS SKEPTICS

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DOORDASH IPO HAS ITS SKEPTICS

Joe Guszkowski, 08 December 2020

Third-party delivery company DoorDash will set a share price for its initial public offering Tuesday, riding a wave of momentum that could bring it a valuation of more than $30 billion.

In the latest sign of demand for its stock, the company on Friday raised the price range for its shares to between $90 and $95, up from $75 to $85.

But not everyone shares that enthusiasm about the IPO. Some investors question the terms of the offering and the company’s readiness for the public market, while others believe its growth runway is shrinking.

On Monday, CtW Investment Group sent a letter to DoorDash’s board raising concerns about the IPO’s share structure and how the company characterized public reaction to a former tipping policy. CtW works with union-sponsored pension funds.
Continue reading “Article: DOORDASH IPO HAS ITS SKEPTICS”

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Article: Caught in a bear trap: How ‘short and distort’ attacks are costing Australian investors billions

Article - Media

Caught in a bear trap: How ‘short and distort’ attacks are costing Australian investors billions

Adele Ferguson

Sydney Morning Herald,

Australia has become a paradise for a new, aggressive form of short selling. And regulators’ failure to act is costing investors billions.

Dubbed the “short and distort” gang, a group of largely foreign-based research houses issue highly damaging reports, designed to cause maximum damage to the companies they target.

Read full article.

THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?