Plus, Penn National announced it is buying Score Media and Gaming’s theScore, JPMorgan’s new healthcare unit is making its first investment, and Astra Space announced its first spaceflight since going public.
Stocks were slightly higher at the open on Wednesday with the Dow adding 23 points, or less than 0.1%. The S&P 500 gained more than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq rose just under 0.1%.
Robinhood has dropped more than 10% at the time of writing after existing shareholders announced that they will sell up to 97.9 million shares less than a week after the trading platform’s initial public offering. In a filing, the early shareholders said none of the proceeds from the sales will go to Robinhood, with the selling stockholdrers getting all of the funds from the sales. The shareholders represent more than one-third of Robinhood’s current outstanding shares, with the largest of the holders, New Enterprise Associates, planning to trim its 10% stake by around 3.9%, or 2.9 million shares. Other selling shareholders named in the filing include Amplo, Andreessen Horowitz, ICONIQ Capital, and Ribbit Capital. The news comes just a day after Robinhood rose 50% amid a flood of interest from retail investors reminiscent of the meme stock rallies earlier this year. Still, some analysts remain cautious on the stock. “We cannot in good faith recommend investors get involved in HOOD on either the long or short side,” Wolfe Research analyst Steve Chubak said in a note.
Score Media and Gaming shares are up 75% this morning after Penn National announced it would buy Score Media’s theScore, a leading digital media and sports betting and technology business, for roughly $2 billion in cash and stock. As part of the agreement, theScore shareholders will receive $17 in cash and 0.2398 shares of Penn National common stock for each theScore share. “We are thrilled to be acquiring theScore, which is the number one sports app in Canada and the third most popular sports app in all of North America. theScore’s unique media platform and modern, state-of-the art technology is a powerful complement to the reach of Barstool Sports and its popular personalities and content,” Penn National CEO Jay Snowden said in a press release. “We are now uniquely positioned to seamlessly serve our customers with the most powerful ecosystem of sports, gaming and media in North America, ultimately creating a community that doesn’t currently exist. …Importantly, the transaction provides us with a path to full control of our own tech stack. theScore has developed a state-of-the-art player account management system and is finalizing the development of an in-house managed risk and trading service platform. This should lead to significant savings in third party platform costs and allow us to broaden our product offerings – providing the missing piece for operating at what we expect to be industry leading margins.”
JPMorgan’s new healthcare unit has made its first investment. The bank will be investing $50 million in Vera Whole Health, which provides a subscription-type model for employee healthcare that JPMorgan will begin offering to its own employees during benefits enrollment season this fall. Morgan Health CEO Dan Mendelson said that while the use of Vera will be optional for JPMorgan employees, it will proved a “higher level of care” that will likely be sought out once the benefits are appreciated given the start-up’s more holistic view of employee health. “We want to know that our employees are getting screened for cancer,” Mendelson said. “We want to know that our employees are having wellness visits, that if they have high cholesterol they’re actually taking their medicine. That is all about setting up a model where you have a group that is responsible.”
In earnings news, Wayfair shares are up nearly 9% this morning after it reported second quarter results. Wayfair posted earnings per share of $1.89, beating estimates for earnings per share of $1.15, on revenue of $3.9 billion. “Wayfair delivered $3.9 billion in net revenue in Q2 — well above pre-pandemic run-rates, even as we began to lap the early heights of COVID-related lockdowns in 2020. While the current macro environment is dynamic, the home remains a high priority for our customers and longer term tailwinds to online category growth are firmly in place,” Niraj Shah, CEO, cofounder and cochairman of Wayfair, said in the earnings release. “Meaningful adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow in Q2 also reflect strong returns from many years of thoughtful investments behind each facet of our platform model. Even as we navigate any near-term volatility, we remain most focused on the long-term and further reinforcing Wayfair’s position as the category leader for home with both customers and suppliers alike.”
And Astra Space shares are up 34% at the time of writing after the company announced its first launch since going public for the United States Space Force. The launch window begins on August 27 and will run for 16 days, aiming to launch a test payload for the Space Test Program. “We’re excited to kick off a multi-launch campaign with the Space Force,” Astra CEO Chris Kemp said in a press release. “This orbital demonstration launch allows our team to verify numbers upgrades to our launch system.” The launch marks the first of two Astra has under contract with the Space Test Program, with the second flight planned for later this year.
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Tiptree Inc (NASDAQ: TIPT): Tiptree shares are up more than 8% at the time of writing after the company announced fiscal second quarter results. “Our second-quarter performance was a continuation of positive trends we have experienced over the past year,” Tiptree Executive Chairman, Michael Barnes said in the earnings release. “Fortegra had an extremely strong first half with premium and equivalents growth of 51% while maintaining best-in-class profitability. We continue to believe in the strength of the platform and its ability to produce growth and returns in excess of its peers over the long-term. Our mortgage business had another excellent quarter as the rate environment and home price appreciation continue to be tailwinds. Our shipping business also showed positive results for the quarter based on persistent favorable market conditions, particularly in the dry-bulk sector. Overall, we believe Tiptree is well positioned for the second half of 2021 and going forward.”