RPM International Reaffirms FY20 Outlook – Quick Facts

While reporting financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2020 on Wednesday, RPM International Inc. (RPM) reaffirmed its adjusted earnings and sales growth outlook for the full-year 2020 and provided financial guidance for the second quarter.

For fiscal 2020, the company continues to project adjusted earnings in a range of $3.30 to $3.42 per share. However, revenue growth is anticipated to be on the low end of the previously disclosed range of 2.5 to 4 percent.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $3.38 per share on sales growth of 3.4 percent to $5.76 billion for the year. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.

For the second quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings in the low- to mid-70-cent range on sales growth of 2 to 3 percent. The Street is currently looking for earnings of $0.76 per share on sales of $1.42 billion for the quarter.

Looking ahead, the company said its third quarter provides the most modest results each year because it falls during the winter months of December through February, when painting and construction activity slow due to cold and snowy weather.

However, the fourth-quarter results are generally stronger as work begins to accelerate on painting and construction projects.

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Kroger Donates Closed Facility In Orange Mound To Local Grocery Store

Grocery chain Kroger is donating a closed store building in Orange Mound, South Memphis to a local rival to make sure that the residents have access to a grocery store.

The facility, reportedly worth $500,000, will be handed over to SuperLo Foods, which hopes to open a new grocery store by December 1. The news was announced by Kroger Delta Division’s Victor Smith in a function attended by both companies’ representatives.

Kroger had shuttered its Orange Mound store in Memphis, Tennessee in February last year. Following this, local residents were forced to travel to the next nearby Kroger store in Union. Due to the tedious travel that would take around 30 minutes in bus, local leaders have been asking for another fully serviced grocery store near them and threatened to boycott the chain.

As per reports, Kroger representatives had tried to sell the property immediately after its closing to family-owned grocery store chain Superlo. But, Superlo could not afford to buy it for want of funds as it had just opened another branch in the city. Superlo does not operate any store in Orange Mound, but has eight stores in the Memphis area.

In these months, Kroger was also in talks with other community groups as well to find a buyer or a new tenant, before deciding the donation. Kroger’s Orange Mound store was closed after making losses.

Pompeo says he was on Trump’s call with Ukraine president

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that he was on President Donald Trump’s controversial phone call with Ukraine’s new president on July 25, days after evading questions about what he knew of the call that has sparked a congressional investigation and an impeachment inquiry.

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“I was on the phone call,” he said during a press conference in Rome on Wednesday, adding it was “in the context of” the Trump administration’s “remarkably consistent” Ukraine policy — to counter the Russian threat to Ukraine, help “the Ukrainians to get graft out, and corruption outside of their government, and to help now this new government in Ukraine build a successful, thriving economy.”

Pompeo said the administration “will continue to do [that] even while all this noise is going on.”

Pompeo is engaged in an escalating standoff with the Democratic chairs of three House committees over the call and Trump’s larger effort with Rudy Giuliani to discuss investigating his politics opponents with Ukraine. The House has subpoenaed Pompeo and the department for documents and scheduled depositions with five State Department officials, but Pompeo rebuffed those efforts Tuesday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Progenics’s stock drops after all-stock buyout deal, as acquirer Lantheus’s shares plunge

Shares of Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. PGNX, -2.08% dropped 5.5% in premarket trading Wednesday, even though the cancer treatment developer agreed to be acquired by Lantheus Holdings Inc. LNTH, -4.13% in an all-stock deal, given the sharp selloff in Lantheus shares. Under terms of the agreement, Progenics shareholders will receive 0.2502 Lantheus shares for each Progenics share they own. Based on Tuesday’s stock closing price of $24.03 for Lantheus and $4.95 for Progenics, the deal would value Progenics shares at $6.01, or a 21.5% premium, and suggest a market capitalization for Progenics of about $519.6 million. But with Lantheus shares plunging 18% toward an 8-month low ahead of the open, the deal would value Progenics’ stock at about $4.93. The companies said the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020, subject to shareholder approval. Progenics shares have gained 17.9% year to date and Lantheus’s stock has climbed 53.6%, while the S&P 500 SPX, -1.23% has advanced 17.3%.