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Investopedia

CVS Health Stock Is Today's Biggest S&P 500 Gainer. Here's Why

CVS Health (CVS) shares rose Monday on a report that major investor hedge fund Glenview Capital Management was planning to hold a meeting today with executives of the pharmacy and health care firm about making changes to its operations.

said the move could potentially be the start of an activist investor intervention against CVS, which has struggled because of higher expenses, lower reimbursements, and changing consumer habits. Shares of CVS rose nearly 3% Monday afternoon, making them the best performers in the S&P 500, but have lost about 20% of their value this year.

In August, CVS slashed its full-year earnings outlook, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Karen Lynch announced a $2 billion cost-cutting plan by "further streamlining and optimizing our operations and processes, continuing to rationalize our business portfolio and accelerating the use of artificial intelligence and automation."

The also reported that as part of that effort, CVS advised employees today that it would be implementing layoffs, representing less than 1% of the workforce.

The paper noted that Glenview, which was founded by CEO Larry Robbins, has about $700 million of its $2.5 billion fund invested in CVS, and holds approximately a 1% stake. It added that the large position is an indication that Robbins believes in the company's potential and is confident he can get the leadership to change course. 

When reached by a spokesperson for CVS neither confirmed nor denied the report, saying only that the company "maintains a regular dialogue with the investment community as part of our robust shareholder and analyst engagement program."

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Investopedia

Verizon Signs $3.3B Tower Lease Deal With Vertical Bridge

Verizon Communications (VZ) struck a $3.3 billion lease agreement with Vertical Bridge, the largest private owner and operator of broadband towers in the country.

Verizon said Vertical Bridge would obtain exclusive rights “to lease, operate and manage 6,339 wireless communications towers across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. from subsidiaries of Verizon.” It added that the transaction includes upfront proceeds of about $2.8 billion.

The deal provides for a 10-year lease back capacity on the towers, with Verizon as the anchor tenant, and that arrangement could be extended to 50 years. As part of the deal, Verizon will get access to additional space on the towers for its future use, subject to certain restrictions. 

The company said the move was part of Verizon’s efforts “to drive down tower-related costs and provide greater vendor diversity in a concentrated industry.”

The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year.

Shares of Verizon edged 0.1% higher in intraday trading Monday. They've gained about 19% since the start of the year.

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Investopedia

Bank Of America Says These 5 Stocks Could Benefit From Rising Power Demand

Bank of America is predicting a big jump in electrical demand—with some power companies better-positioned to capitalize than others.

The bank said the utilities it sees as benefiting the most from regional growth are DBA Sempra (SRE), Pinnacle West Capital (PNW), TXNM Energy (TXNM), Entergy (ETR), and Northwestern Energy Group (NWE). The analysts have buy ratings on all five stocks.

BofA analysts wrote in a note to clients that after two decades of stagnant electricity demand expansion, “there is now evidence that demand growth has returned, driven by the re-shoring of industry, the development of data and crypto mining centers and the electrification of buildings, transportation, and infrastructure.”

By 2035, they estimate, there will be a need for an incremental 100 gigawatts of effective capacity, with the high-end scenario of 300 GW.

The analysts said that they have targeted those five companies because the regions they cover—  Texas, the Southwest, the Northwest, and the 14 states in the Southwest Power Pool—are likely to have the greatest growth rates. Shares of all five are higher year-to-date.

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Adobe Stock: Is It Still Worth Buying In 2024?

The analysis of Adobe Inc., including an overview of its business, past performance (sales, profit margins, etc.), and price-related indicators (P/E, P/B ratios, intrinsic value, etc).

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Investopedia

Homes Are Changing Hands At Historically Low Rates. Here's Why

Homes in the U.S. are being bought and sold at the lowest rate in decades, according to a report from the real-estate brokerage Redfin Corp. (RDFN). 

Only 2.5% (or 25 of every 1000) of U.S. homes changed hands in the first eight months of 2024, the lowest rate in at least 30 years, the report found. By comparison, the firm noted that the "pandemic buying frenzy" in 2021 saw 40 of every 1,000 homes change hands. 

A big reason why is higher mortgage rates. Redfin noted that more than 75% of homeowners currently have a mortgage rate of 5% or less, which makes them hesitant to buy a new house at current rates. Rates went as high as 7.52% in April and, while they've come down since, they're still in the low-6% range. 

There are also fewer houses on the market than before the pandemic. In turn, home prices have reached all-time highs, the report said. That combination has many would-be buyers on the sidelines until a downward market trend. 

Phoenix and Newark, N.J., had the nation's highest-turnover metropolitan areas, Redfin found. Meanwhile, California had seven of the 10 lowest-turnover metro areas. 

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Investopedia

Coinbase Global, MicroStrategy Stocks Drop On Crypto Price Pullback

Shares of crypto-related companies Coinbase Global (COIN) and MicroStrategy (MSTR) fell Monday following a bitcoin price pullback after a surge this month.

The stocks retreated along with the prices of bitcoin, ether, and most other major cryptocurrencies on the last day of what has been historically the worst month for them. noted that even with Monday's declines, bitcoin should end the month with a 7% gain. It reported that since 2013, bitcoin has had an average loss of 3.6% in September and a 23% jump in October.

The news site also pointed to data from European alternative investment company CoinShares showing digital asset funds had $1.2 billion in inflows last week, the most since the week ending July 19. CoinShares said that the inflows were driven by expectations of further Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts after the central bank slashed them by 50 basis points (bps) two weeks ago. 

Markus Thielen, founder of digital asset management research firm 10K Research, told that bitcoin appears to be overbought in the short term, and that current signals have turned bearish.

Shares of Coinbase Global fell 5.5% in late-morning trading Monday but are up 4% this year. MicroStrategy shares slipped about 2% but have nearly tripled in 2024.

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