Stock Alert: Inspire Medical Systems Inc. (INSP) Shares Hit 52-Week High

Shares of Inspire Medical Systems Inc. (INSP) touched a 52-week high of $95.00 on Feb. 26, after the medical technology company reported narrower-than-estimated loss on higher Q4 revenues. The stock has been trading between $46.00 and $95.00 in the past one year. Trading volume rose to 1.04 million versus an average volume of 262K shares. INSP closed Wednesday’s trading session at $84.83, up $6.30 or 8.02%.

The company’s Q4 net loss was $9.1 million or $0.38 per share compared to $4.8 million or $0.22 per share in the prior year period.

Revenue was $26.9 million for the three months ended December 31, 2019, a 62% increase from $16.6 million in the corresponding period in the previous year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of $0.40 per share and revenue of $23.84 million for the quarter. Analysts’ estimate typically exclude certain special items.

FY 2020 Outlook

Inspire expects full year 2020 revenue to be in the range of $115 million – $119 million, representing growth of about 40% – 45% over full year 2019 revenue of $82.1 million. Gross margin for the full year 2020 is projected to be in the range of 82% – 84%. Eight Wall Street analysts have a consensus revenue estimate of $116.5 million for 2020.

Arkema profit, sales fall in tough macro climate

Arkema said Thursday that adjusted net income and sales fell in 2019 due to a challenging macro environment.

The French chemicals company said adjusted net income for the full year came in at 625 million euros ($678.8 million) from EUR725 million in 2018.

Sales fell to EUR8.74 billion from EUR8.82 billion the previous year due to a less favorable macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, it said. In the fourth quarter, sales fell 7% on year to EUR2.05 billion.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization decreased 1.2% on the year to EUR1.46 billion. The Ebitda margin was stable on year at 16.7%.

"We experienced a more difficult economic climate in 2019, marked by downturns in some markets, such as the automotive and electronics sectors, as well as a general lack of visibility," said Chief Executive Thierry Le Henaff.

The company said it expects the economic environment to remain volatile in 2020 and to achieve Ebitda growth comparable to 2019 levels, excluding the impact of the coronavirus epidemic. It estimates an impact of around EUR20 million to Ebitda at the end of February due to uncertainties related to the coronavirus.

Arkema said it is scheduled to host a capital markets day on April 2, during which it will present its long-term strategy. Bloomberg recently reported that the company is considering asset disposals, as it faces pressure from activist investor Elliott Management Corp.

Write to Giulia Petroni at [email protected]

Standard Chartered underlying profit falls 25%

Standard Chartered PLC’s fourth-quarter profit fell sharply due to flat income, rising expenses and higher credit impairments, the Asia-focused bank said, while warning of slower-than-expected income growth in 2020 amid challenges including the coronavirus epidemic.

Pretax underlying profit for the quarter fell 25% to $325 million, the lender said in a stock-exchange filing Thursday.

Operating income was $3.60 billion, up $2 million from a year earlier. Net interest income dropped 6.4% to $1.90 billion due to margin compression, the bank said. Net interest margin fell 0.18 percentage point to 1.54%.

"Lower interest rates, slower global economic growth, a softer Hong Kong economy and the impact of the recent novel coronavirus outbreak will likely result in income growth in 2020 below our medium-term 5-7% target range," the lender said.

While it believes these negative factors will be transitory, Standard Chartered no longer expects to be able to achieve its previous return on tangible equity target of at least 10% by 2021.

The bank plans to soon initiate a buyback for up to $500 million worth of shares. It may also consider further shareholder returns after the completion of its earlier-disclosed disposal of Indonesia’s Bank Permata.

"If there are fewer opportunities to effectively deploy surplus capital to fuel incremental high-returning growth then we will have more to return to shareholders," said Bill Winters, chief executive of Standard Chartered.

For the full year of 2019, pretax underlying profit rose 8.0% to $4.17 billion.

Write to Yifan Wang at [email protected]

AB InBev says has lost $170 million in profit due to coronavirus

The world’s biggest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA said Thursday that it lost $170 million in profits during the first two months of 2020 because of the coronavirus epidemic as it reported a fall in net profit.

The company, which houses Budweiser BUD, -0.94% , ABI, -0.56% Stella Artois and Corona among its brands, said it estimates the loss of revenue in the period is $285 million due to the Covid-19 epidemic and that it continues to monitor developments.

The company made a net profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2019 of $114 million compared with $456 million for the comparable period last year.

Revenue for the quarter fell to $13.33 billion compared with $13.79 billion for the comparable period in 2018 and forecasts of $13.67 billion, taken from FactSet and based on 10 analysts’ estimates.

Normalized earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization–one of the company’s preferred metrics which strips out exceptional and other one-off items–was $5.34 billion, compared with $6.02 billion and a forecast of $5.69 billion, taken from FactSet and based on seven analysts’ forecasts.

The company said total beer volume rose 1.6% to 142 million hectoliters. In North America total beer volumes rose 2.8%, it said.

The board has kept the final dividend at EUR1 a share, taking the total payout for the year to EUR1.80 .