Plus, Amazon is expanding its telehealth service and is also now the biggest apparel retailer in the U.S., and Morgan Stanley became the first major U.S. bank to offer bitcoin funds to its wealth management clients.
Stocks were lower at the open on Wednesday with the Dow opening just below the flatline. The S&P 500 slid 0.3%, while the Nasdaq fell 1%.
Plug Power shares are down 16% at the time of writing after the company said it will restate financial results following accounting errors. The company said in a filing with the SEC that it found accounting errors in results for 2018, 2019, and the first three quarters of 2020, and added that the errors were primarily related to areas including the impairment of certain long-lived assets, as well as loss accruals for certain service contracts. Truist Securities analyst Tristan Richardson said in a note, “following these disclosures, we expect limited opportunity for outperformance in the near term. While the company reiterated long-term targets and the accounting issues appear transitory in nature, we see limited upside until resolution.” But Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne countered, “We view the weakness as a unique buying opportunity. While restating results is never a positive, the root cause of the restatement has nothing to do with future growth markets, and we note that there was no cash impact.”
Amazon said that it is expanding its telehealth service—Amazon Care—for its employees in all 50 states starting this summer following a two year pilot program, and with plans to expand it to other employers later this year. “Amazon Benefits has been the enterprise customer that we’ve been serving to date. Now, looking at other enterprises, understanding their needs, we think a lot of the needs are similar,” said Amazon Care director Kristen Helton. “We have developed the ability to treat chronic conditions… you can see the same provider, have a care team, so that that group of clinicians really gets to know you and I would say, we’re also learning on the clinical side, we really need to give clinicians the tools to provide excellent care.” Teladoc Health, a provider of virtual doctor visits, shares sank more than 7% on the Amazon Care news.
In other Amazon taking over the world news, UBS said in a research note out today that the company has surpassed Walmart as the top apparel retailer in the U.S. thanks in large part to the e-commerce booms seen amid the pandemic. UBS estimates Amazon’s U.S. sales of apparel and footwear grew by around 15% in 2020 to more than $41 billion, representing somewhere between 20% and 25% above rival Walmart. “This represents highly impressive 11%-12% share of all apparel sold in the U.S. and 34%-35% share of all apparel sold online,” UBS said. “We now estimate Amazon will surpass $45 billion in apparel/footwear sales in 2021.” UBS also said Amazon now claims a 30% to 35% share of the entire online apparel and footwear market. “To put this in perspective, Amazon sold almost 7x as much apparel/footwear as the second larges player online (Macy’s),” UBS said in the note.
Morgan Stanley became the first big U.S. bank to offer its wealth management clients access to bitcoin funds. The investment bank reportedly said in an internal memo on Wednesday that it is launching acmes to three funds that will enable ownership of bitcoin, marking a significant step forward in the acceptance of bitcoin as an asset class. Only wealthy clients with “an aggressive risk tolerance” and at least $2 million held by the firm will have access to the funds, and will limit bitcoin investments to as much as 2.5% of clients’ total net worth. Two of the funds on offer are from Galaxy Digital, while the third is a joint effort from asset manager FS Investments and bitcoin company NYDIG.
And Sun Country Airlines priced its initial public offering above range at $24 per share to raise around $218 million. The Apollo Management Group-backed low-cost airline is the first U.S. carrier to go public since regional carrier Mesa Air Group had its IPO in 2018, and is going public at a time when air travel is just starting to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. Sun Country specializes in ferrying Midwesterners to vacation destinations in places including Florida, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and also has an agreement with Amazon to fly cargo on older narrow-body Boeing 737 planes. Sun Country shares will begin trading today under the ticker “SNCY” on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Stocks We’re Watching
Zedge Inc (OTC: ZDGE): Zedge shares are up more than 27% over the last two days following the company’s announcement of its record results for its fiscal second quarter ended January 31, 2021. “Our team executed superbly, and their dedication and commitment fueled an amazing second quarter and first half of the year,” said Zedge CEO Jonathan Reich in a statement. “Our existing initiatives, coupled with seasonal strength in year-end ad spend, drove record revenue, operating margins, EPS, EBITDA and cash flow from operations, among other metrics. From a product perspective, our team completed the rollout of our new content management system, setting the foundation for the next phase of our growth strategy by enabling us to introduce new features and enhancements, including overhauling user accounts, and introducing social and community features as well as search and discovery. We expect these will improve customer engagement and retention, especially in well-developed markets, and accelerate adoption of Zedge Premium, our marketplace for artists.”