London Stock Exchange To Acquire Quantile Group For Up To £274 Mln – Quick Facts

London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSE.L) announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire Quantile Group Limited for a maximum aggregate consideration of up to 274 million pounds, subject to customary adjustments.

The acquisition is being funded from existing cash resources and credit facilities and is expected to close in 2022, subject to antitrust and other regulatory approvals.

Quantile, which was founded in 2015, provides portfolio, margin and capital optimisation and compression services for the global financial services market.

Following the acquisition, London Stock Exchange or LSEG and Quantile’s services will be available on an Open Access basis that will continue to offer customers the choice of where to clear, compress and optimise their trading activity.

Quantile will remain a standalone entity within LSEG’s Post Trade division, reporting to Daniel Maguire, LSEG’s Group Head of Post Trade.

LSEG expects the acquisition will enable it to expand its range of Post Trade risk management solutions to its customers through trade compression, capital and margin optimisation services.

In the deal, Evercore is acting as sole financial adviser and sponsor to LSEG.

United Natural Foods Stock Jumps 15% On Quarterly Results

Shares of United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) jumped over 15% on Wednesday morning after the food wholesaler’s first-quarter results trumped Street view.

UNFI is currently trading at $56.92, up $7.80 or 15.88%, on the NYSE. In the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $14.55 and $57.89.

The company reported first-quarter net income of $76 million or $1.25 per share, compared to net loss of $1 million or $0.02 per share last year. Adjusted earnings were $0.97, up from $0.51 per share last year. First-quarter net sales rose 4.7% to $7.0 billion from $6.7 billion last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.56 per share on revenues of $6.8 billion.

United Natural Foods affirmed its earnings, adjusted earnings and sales guidance for the full-year 2021.

For fiscal 2022, the company continues to project earnings of $3.60 to $3.90 per share and adjusted earnings of $3.90 to $4.20 per share on net sales between $27.8 billion and $28.3 billion.

Analysts currently estimate earnings of $4.09 per share on net sales of $28.02 billion for the year.

AutoZone Q1 Results Top Estimates – Quick Facts

Automotive replacement parts retailer AutoZone, Inc. (AZO) reported Tuesday that net income for the first quarter increased to $555.24 million or $25.69 per share from $442.43 million or $18.61 per share in the year-ago quarter.

Net sales for the quarter grew 16.3 percent to $3.67 billion from $3.15 billion in the same quarter last year.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $20.87 per share on revenues of $3.37 billion for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

Domestic same store sales, or sales for stores open at least one year, increased 13.6 percent for the quarter.

During the quarter ended November 20, 2021, AutoZone opened 15 new stores in the U.S., two stores in Mexico and one store in Brazil. At quarter end, the Company had 6,066 stores in the U.S., 666 in Mexico and 53 in Brazil for a total store count of 6,785.

Pre-market Movers: AEI, AGLE, TC, CFVI, GCP…

The following are some of the stocks making big moves in Monday’s pre-market trading (as of 07.00 A.M. ET).

In the Green

CF Acquisition Corp. VI (CFVI) is up over 19% at $14.21
GCP Applied Technologies Inc. (GCP) is up over 13% at $30.57
Broadwind, Inc. (BWEN) is up over 11% at $2.35
Aptevo Therapeutics Inc. (APVO) is up over 8% at $7.60
Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (ACH) is up over 6% at $12.57
Context Therapeutics Inc. (CNTX) is up over 6% at $5.62
Zomedica Corp. (ZOM) is up over 6% at $0.35
Universe Pharmaceuticals INC (UPC) is up over 5% at $1.74

In the Red

Alset EHome International Inc. (AEI) is down over 40% at $0.65
Aeglea BioTherapeutics, Inc. (AGLE) is down over 21% at $4.74
TuanChe Limited (TC) is down over 20% at $2.61
Bitfarms Ltd. (BITF) is down over 12% at $5.50
Hut 8 Mining Corp. (HUT) is down over 10% at $8.39
AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (ASTS) is down over 10% at $8.25
Advanced Human Imaging Limited (AHI) is down over 10% at $4.12
OceanPal Inc. (OP) is down over 10% at $3.67
Riot Blockchain, Inc. (RIOT) is down over 9% at $26
Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. (MARA) is down over 8% at $38.05
CooTek (Cayman) Inc. (CTK) is down over 7% at $0.54

Pinduoduo Stock Jumps 10% On Reports Of Eligibility To List In Hong Kong

Shares of Pinduoduo Inc. (PDD) gained over 10% on Tuesday morning on reports that the Chinese e-commerce platform is eligible to list on Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

PDD is currently trading at $61.96, up $5.95 or 10.62%, on the Nasdaq. The stock has traded between $51.91 and $212.60 in the 52 week period.

According to a report by Goldman Sachs, Pinduoduo is among the 27 US-traded Chinese companies that is eligible for a secondary listing in Hong Kong, as the city will most likely welcome companies that want to come home amid rising risks of US-listed Chinese firms being delisted.

The American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Chinese companies and tech firms listed in Hong Kong have plummeted following Didi Global’s decision to delist in the US amid a cybersecurity probe by Beijing.

Prices of Tata Safari automatic hiked

Tata has given the automatic variants of the Safari a minor price revision. Prices for the Safari automatic now range from ₹ 17.84 lakh and ₹ 23.20 lakh (ex-showroom, India) or up to ₹ 7,000 more. The prices for manual variants remain unchanged.

It is the Safari XTA+ that sees the largest jump in pricing at ₹ 7,000. The XMA, which forms the entry point to the Safari automatic range, sees prices go up by ₹ 3,000, while the XZA too is dearer by ₹ 3,000.

The fully loaded XZA+ models, including the Adventure Persona and the Gold Editions, now cost ₹ 2,000 more.

The price hike is not accompanied by any updates to the vehicle. As before, the Safari automatic is available with the 170hp, 2.0-litre diesel engine paired with a 6-speed torque converter automatic gearbox.

This is the second price adjustment to the Safari in recent months with Tata previously having revised prices of the SUV by up to ₹ 12,000 in September. Tata had also introduced additional features across multiple variants back then.