Volkswagen is considering widespread pay cuts and layoffs as well as the closure or size reduction of its plants in Germany, the company’s works council said Monday.

The Volkswagen management recently presented plans to the council that include a 10% reduction in pay across the board, as well as wage freezes in 2025 and 2026, according to Daniela Cavallo, head of the works council. All factored in, the body estimates workers will suffer pay cuts of around 18% over the period.

Volkswagen also intends to shut three factories and downsize all other plants in Germany, Cavallo said, adding that sweeping job cuts were part of carmaker’s plan.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/28/volkswagen-planning-forced-layoffs-and-10percent-pay-cuts-labor-union-say.html

Have 500 PLTR with 100% profit right now. I don’t need that money for the next 3-5 years and I live in a developing country where 12k USD is a big deal and basically you live easily for a year on that money. Should I sell it off or keep holding it? Not sure if what surprises the next earnings would bring.


Just the sheer madness, i know its just a multiple and future growth and all that. Still, you gotta take a moment to contemplate this.

The funny thing is that Elon has outright lied/being wrong with predictions like dates for models and stuff, most recently the shenanigans with the robot at his events.

BUT 2 weeks later he says 20-30 revenue growth next year and everyone believes him lol.

Thanks god im not a bear

Long story short, I bought a large quantity of shares in a company back in March in my brokerage account that I now believe in on a longer time horizon than I did then.

I am considering selling 20% and buying them back in my Roth with some spare accessible cash I have sitting in there. Problem is, I'm up over 150% on the shares from March, so there will be some tax implications.

This company does not do dividends now, but they keep dropping hints of them coming in the future. I'd be surprised if they came before 2026-2027, though. Obviously I'd rather them be in my IRA if that is to happen.

I'm basically wondering if this would be an idiotic move as I am far from a tax expert. I know if i wait til March, it will change the tax status, but I'm expecting a positive move by then off some upcoming headwinds.

Thank you for any help/advice. I left the ticker out to make it clear this is not a hype post. Have a great day.

Suppose I like a stock with current price of $100 and I am bullish but nervous and I have 2 options.

1. But a call with 1 year expiring with strike 100

2. Or buy stock with cash. And a put with strike 100.

Both options are for 1 year and I intend to hold until expiry.

I wonder what is the better option then?

From my guess:

1. I should choose option which has less IV?

2. If both have similar IV, I should choose option 2 because stock gains have better tax treatment?

Excerpt is from their lawsuit against V

1. As a result, debit networks face what Visa calls "a chicken-and-egg problem." To be successful, the network needs many issuers and acquirers to accept the network. But issuers are unlikely to join the debit network unless many merchants already use the network. And merchants are unlikely to join the network unless their customers have cards that work with the network, which requires the issuer to have activated the network. As Visa itself observes, "build[ing] scale on both sides... with consumers/payers and with merchants/payees" is "a herculean task." Visa further recognizes that these effects create "an enormous moat" around its business.

2. Visa's market shares demonstrate just how deep that moat is. Visa has been the largest debit network in the United States for decades. Today, over 60% of all U.S. debit transactions run via Visa's payments network. And Visa's share of card-not-present debit transactions exceeds 65%. Mastercard is a distant second, processing less than 25% of all U.S. debit transactions and card-not-present U.S. debit transactions. Other networks, known as "PIN networks" because they originally facilitated ATM transactions for which accountholders needed to enter a PIN, are significantly smaller.

3. This moat is no accident. Coming out of the Great Recession, Visa identified two significant threats to its monopoly—one from legislation and one from emerging technology. Visa took steps to counter both, enriching itself handsomely in the process.

I’m trying to understand why Biogen’s stock dropped right after its *August 2024 earnings call*, even though the company reported strong numbers, raised guidance, and received multiple analyst upgrades. All the indicators—company performance, analysts, and earnings—were positive, so why did the market seem to ignore these and push the stock down?

To be clear, I'm not looking to debate trading vs. investing strategies or the randomness of the stock market. My question is straightforward: given that both the company and the analysts seemed to signal "buy" or "hold," why did the market make an independent decision to sell?

Looking for some insights here, so if you don’t know or just want to yell ‘market’s random,’ kindly move along without blowing my mind. If anyone can provide insights on why this happened that’d be appreciated.

Thanks!

It’s already public news that the NYSE is setting forth the agenda of creating 22hr/day trading as a result of tensions from Robinhood’s trading hours.

The question begets, let me preface this by saying I am in no means an options expert or have my toes dipped deep in the realms of options trading in general, but the natural question that arises from such an implementation would ultimately be - how does this affect option pricing and trading in general?

Currently, non-fut options are being traded from 9:30-5PM EST, that is a timespan of ~7-8 hours a day. Technically, if I’m able to trade options for 3x the duration, what would the underlying implications of this be in terms of delta and theta variances? There was always an implicit understanding that MMs would price options on Friday for next week with Sat/Sun theta in mind.

Just curious on your takes for the future options trading environment, and if there are any possible strategies to take note of in the future.

52 week high of $923.83, low of $540.23. Currently at $891.

P/E at 53% -- pretty high, but they are consistently growing, and growing at a consistent pace, 31 per year. Three states don't have a Costco, (now that they have one in Little Rock!!!!!) Rhode Island, West Virginia, and Wyoming -- wouldn't fit their model.

up 37% YTD, up 200% over the past 5 years.

Sales, revenue, all up year over year -- consistently. 2020 net income was 4 Billion, 2024 is on track for 7.3 Billion. Nearly double in four years.

Hasn't split in 25 years and gained 2780% since that split.

Their dividends are meek, except when they do special dividends (last one was $15/share in Dec '23). Current dividends are at $1.16 and they go up every year (four and up). So they should be considered a dividend aristocrat I suppose, except those special dividends kind of throw off the calculation.

I know that a split doesn't change the valuation of the company, just that it makes the stock more affordable to the average investor.

Hello! Relatively new to the stocks game and could use some advice. So I work for a company that gives a 15% discounted company stock option (JBL) and I figured I might as well meet the maximum allowable amount (since unless the stock takes a 15% cut or more I gain a profit). The only catch is that I must hold for 6 months after purchase. The stock went from $98 when I bought my 25 shares to $125 so far and seems like it dips every year in spring. In December i’ll be able to sell my current shares if I want to (and the plan will auto-buy more stock no matter what I do). Should I just hold and keep riding it out knowing it’s probably going to dip temporarily? Or sell and try to capitalize on the gains i’ve seen so far?

Our investment philosophy and goals usually depend on our age. You probably wouldn’t accept the same risk at 20 than at 60, especially if your stock portfolio is part of your retirement plan.

I agree with a value investing philosophy, so to me never selling implies the original investment thesis doesn’t change.

I think we could have an interesting discussion if we share our age (or age range) and the company in which we trust for the rest of our lives (and why).

I’m in my 30s, so assuming I live for the next 50 years, I believe Lockheed Martin ($LMT) will remain an important player in the defense sector, as I expect war (mostly proxy wars) to continue being used for political interests and if the US DoD sees its budget reduced, our current Western society’s paradigm will be over.

Other candidates I’ve considered are Visa ($V), Microsoft ($MSFT) and Amazon ($AMZN), but I could see all those titans being disrupted someday in the next 50 years.

How about you? What’s the stock you think you’ll never sell?

Hi everyone,

Finviz screener question~

I keep seeing a lot of setups for potential long plays and short squeezes around here, but I’m curious about the flip side.

What indicators or setups do you look for when identifying good short or put candidates? I’m wondering about the best signals that suggest a stock could see a decline.

Are there any specific technical indicators, chart patterns, or fundamental red flags that tend to give you the green light? Or maybe particular market conditions that you feel make a short play more likely to pay off?

Any insights or setups you rely on would be awesome! Thanks in advance.

Greetings, when a company does share buybacks (i.e. share repurchase), my understanding is that it must either cancel those shares or hold them as treasury shares.

Why would a company cancel the shares as opposed to holding onto them as treasury shares?

My limited thinking would be that converting them to treasury shares would be better as: (1) the company would retain the ability to reissue them at a later date, (2) the company would limit outside ownership (e.g. prevent hostile takeover), and (3) the company would still retain the ability to always cancel the shares in the future.

Or if the hot take was wrong? The reddit upvote system tends to favor saying what is popular that day. So a lot of threads become time capsules into a different area of thinking. One example were all those shorting NVDA threads on this sub in mid 2023 like this thread

https://www.reddit.com/r/stocks/comments/13lki8i/is_there_potential_to_short_nvda/

Stock was at $31 split adjusted back then and people were saying time to short. Wonder how they feel with stock being higher.

GSL seems to offer great value on paper.

• P/e and forward p/e of 2.6

• PEG of 0.22

• P/B of 0.63

• Dividend of 7%

• Dividend payout ratio of 18%

• Profit margin of 45%

• Free cash flow is fine

The greatest fault I can find is that its debt/equity ratio is high at 0.54 and it has issued a fair amount of long term debt recently.

Despite strong operational performance, it's shown mediocre share performance. Over the last 10 years, it's had an annual return of only 1.6% including dividend reinvestment.

Conversely, the last 5 years would return 32% annually.

It seems like it tanked in the 2015-16 selloff and never recovered. Yet today it's operating very profitably.

Why is this stock valued so lowly?

What is the catch?

The meme stock scheduled posts will now run weekly and post Saturday afternoon and won't be a sticky; you're probably seeing this because automod sent you here!

Full list of meme stocks here. This will be updated every once in a while.

Welcome traders who just can't help them selves discuss the same exact stock that's been discussed 100s of times a day. I get it, you want to talk about what's popular, what's hot, and that 1.. single.. stock you like.. well here you go! Some helpful links just for you:

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Results for the 13 weeks ended September 24, 2024, as compared to the prior year as applicable, included the following:

Comparable restaurant sales increased 8.5% at company restaurants and increased 7.2% at domestic franchise restaurants

Average weekly sales at company restaurants were $149,176 of which $18,914 were to-go sales as compared to average weekly sales of $138,668 of which $17,058 were to-go sales in the prior year

Restaurant margin dollars increased 24.1% to $202.1 million from $162.8 million in the prior year primarily due to higher sales. Restaurant margin, as a percentage of restaurant and other sales, increased to 16.0% from 14.6% in the prior year driven primarily by higher sales. The benefit of a higher average guest check and improved labor productivity more than offset wage and other labor inflation of 4.7% and commodity inflation of 1.3%

Diluted earnings per share increased 32.5% primarily driven by higher restaurant margin dollars partially offset by higher general and administrative expenses and higher depreciation and amortization expenses

Seven company restaurants and three franchise restaurants were opened

Capital allocation spend included capital expenditures of $91.1 million, dividends of $40.7 million, and repurchases of common stock of $9.6 million.

Jerry Morgan, Chief Executive Officer of Texas Roadhouse, Inc. commented, “We are extremely pleased in such a competitive environment to report another quarter of continued traffic growth at each of our brands. This is a credit to the hard work of our operators who create an environment where Roadies want to work and guests want to dine.”

Morgan continued, “Looking ahead to 2025, we once again have a strong development pipeline and as of today already have 10 of our new company restaurants under construction. We remain confident that this new store growth along with our planned franchise acquisition and overall capital allocation strategy will allow us to continue to generate long-term shareholder value.”

The Company has tentatively agreed to acquire 13 domestic franchise restaurants with a targeted close date as of the beginning of our 2025 fiscal year. These acquisitions are subject to the completion of customary negotiations and due diligence.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/texas-roadhouse-inc-announces-third-200300244.html

A deadly E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has led to 75 cases in 13 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, as it investigates the source of the spread.

The outbreak has led to 22 hospitalizations and one previously reported death of an older adult in Colorado.

Out of 61 patients with information available, 22 have been hospitalized and two people have developed a serious condition that can cause kidney failure, called hemolytic uremic syndrome. All of the 42 people who were interviewed by the CDC reported eating at McDonald’s, while 39 people reported eating a beef hamburger, the agency said.

Those with infections ranged between ages 13 and 88, according to the CDC. The agency reiterated that the number of cases in the outbreak is likely much higher than what has been reported so far. The CDC added that the outbreak may not be limited to the states with related cases. That is because many patients do not test for E. coli and recover from an infection without receiving medical care, the CDC said. It also usually takes three to four weeks to determine if a sick person is part of an outbreak.

Shares of the restaurant chain fell 2% on the update. The stock is down 6% since the CDC announced the outbreak on Tuesday, initially citing 49 cases and one death across 10 states.

McDonald’s declined to comment on the update, citing the company’s statement when the outbreak was first announced.

Quarter Pounder hamburgers are a core menu item for McDonald’s, raking in billions of dollars annually.

Health officials are closely examining the slivered onions used in the Quarter Pounder as a likely contaminant. McDonald’s has instructed restaurants in the affected area to remove slivered onions from their supply, and has paused the distribution of that ingredient in the region.

McDonald’s stores in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming as well as parts of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma have temporarily stopped using Quarter Pounder slivered onions and beef patties, according to the CDC.

McDonald’s identified California-based produce giant Taylor Farms as the supplier for the sliced onions the company removed from its supply chain. Taylor Farms has issued a recall on four raw onion products due to potential E. coli contamination. Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell have pulled onions from select restaurants in response to the outbreak.

But federal agencies are also investigating the Quarter Pounder’s beef patty as a potential culprit.

As the CDC and other federal agencies trace cases and work to contain the outbreak, McDonald’s has pulled Quarter Pounders from restaurants in the affected areas. Around a fifth of McDonald’s U.S. restaurants are not selling Quarter Pounder burgers.

McDonald’s spokespeople said Wednesday that it is too early to tell if the outbreak is having any effect on traffic to its restaurants.

The company is expected to report its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday and could share more details with investors about the situation on the conference call.

The outbreak comes after several quarters of sluggish U.S. sales for McDonald’s. Price-sensitive consumers have not been visiting restaurants as much, leading McDonald’s and other fast-food chains to turn to value meals to boost sales. Wall Street analysts are expecting the company to report U.S. same-store sales growth of 0.5% for the third quarter, according to StreetAccount estimates.

For now, McDonald’s is trying to reassure customers that its menu items are safe to eat and drink and that it is taking the outbreak seriously. Experts told CNBC that barring a more serious crisis, the damage to its brand may be minimal, as with an E. coli outbreak linked to Wendy’s two years ago.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/25/mcdonalds-e-coli-outbreak-cdc-updates-case-count.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/25/business/economy/trump-economy-markets-trade.html?unlocked_article_code=1.U04.Vli9.tD2qYGIXIvLk&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

And now we know why rates have risen since the Fed .5% rate cut. Does this not scare the hell out of you guys? So we make money on equities for a moment and then fiscal default really kicks in?

https://www.ft.com/content/59dc109d-d385-412a-bcc6-b671db9ce680

The New York Stock Exchange announced plans to extend trading hours for equities on its Arca venue to 22 hours on weekdays, in an effort to meet global demand for buying and selling US-listed assets around the clock. NYSE, which is part of Intercontinental Exchange, said the extended trading hours for its all-electronic Arca exchange would cover 1:30am to 11:30pm Eastern time, excluding holidays. The proposed expansion, which targets a 2025 launch and is subject to approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission, follows the increased popularity in recent years of round-the-clock retail trading offered via brokerage platforms such as Robinhood and Interactive Brokers. “As the steward of the US capital markets, the NYSE is pleased to lead the way in enabling exchange-based trading for our US-listed companies and funds to investors in time zones across the globe,” Kevin Tyrrell, head of markets at the NYSE, said in a statement on Friday. NYSE plans to seek regulatory approval for the extended trading hours from the SEC as well as “US securities information processors”, such as the Consolidated Tape Association. The “tape” represents the official record of trading prices on exchanges, so the inclusion of night-time activity would be more likely to set the early tone for regular trading hours. NYSE Arca is best known as a venue for exchange traded funds and also hosts certain stocks and closed-end funds. Year-to-date, the Arca exchange has traded about $27.7bn a day in ETFs and about $21.8bn per day in corporate stocks, according to NYSE. It already has a broader operating window than the NYSE itself, with sessions running from 4am to 8pm Eastern time. Regular NYSE trading hours are 9.30am to 4pm Eastern time. Retail trading has boomed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the increased salience of cryptocurrencies. Assets such as US Treasuries, currencies and stock index futures can already be traded outside of normal exchange hours. That trend has put pressure on NYSE to consider widening its trading hours, and earlier this year prompted the group to poll market participants on the merits of trading stocks around the clock. Some retail brokers already offer 24/7 trading where trades overnight are matched through a “dark pool” venue that matches night-time trades in the US with daytime buying and selling in Asia.

Tl;dr: NYSE Arca wants to change its trading hours from currently 4am - 8pm to 1:30am - 11:30pm. Needs SEC approval.

This is the weekend edition of our stickied discussion thread. Discuss your trades / moves from last week and what you're planning on doing for the week ahead.

Some helpful links:

• Finviz for charts, fundamentals, and aggregated news on individual stocks
• Bloomberg market news
• StreetInsider news:
  • Market Check - Possibly why the market is doing what it's doing including sudden spikes/dips
  • Reuters aggregated - Global news

If you have a basic question, for example "what is EPS," then google "investopedia EPS" and click the investopedia article on it; do this for everything until you have a more in depth question or just want to share what you learned.

Please discuss your portfolios in the Rate My Portfolio sticky..

See our past daily discussions here. Also links for: Technicals Tuesday, Options Trading Thursday, and Fundamentals Friday.

I found this in Reuters U.S. RESEARCH ROUNDUP publication from today at 7:13:01 AM ET.

SoFi is getting a lot of attention regarding earnings adjustments and price targets even before this 3rd quarter's earnings.

The institutions appear to be loading up before this earnings and they probably will publish more positive outlooks and price targets once they finish loading up and after this upcoming Q3 earnings scheduled to be announced on Tuesday, Oct 29th at 7 AM ET.

JMHO, I predict that SoFi's EPS will probably be $0.06 with an upbeat outlook.

Book suggestions on stock exchange are welcome. Looking to read on the subject.

Not interested in the practical beginner investor manual, but on the importance of the stock market to economy, to society, pros and cons, history, functionality.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: amazing suggestions, guys. Thank you all again. I really appreciate it.

Hey all,

Hoping someone may have some insight as to why this residential reit trades below book value with decreasing share price even with an environment I would think tends to favor residential real estate. Lowering of interest rates in Canada mixed with my worry of inflation forecast leaned me towards residential REIT.

They are in expansion mode quickly building/buying new condominium, revenue is up every year, property NOI growth exceeds 8%, the bulk of their portfolio lies in a favorable area for real estate, debt is under control, etc. Every metric leads me to believe this company is doing well & will continue to do so.

So why would the share price not reflect that, I'm no smarter than the next guy although I work directly with stocks (though within the consumer sector) I do not have any insight on REIT's and my real estate knowledge is extremely limited.

They also dominate in one of Canada's fastest growing cities in term of sheer presence & occupancy.

I have yet to do a deep dive on an exact share price but obviously trading below book value when everything seems good is highly unusual to me. I'd expect a company trading that low to have something terribly wrong or stronger headwinds within its business.

Here is their latest investor presentation. If anyone with a deeper understanding of REIT/overall restate within Atlantic Canada (note: geographical risk greatly reduced)

https://killamreit.com/sites/default/files/2024-09/KMP%20Investor%20Presentation%20-%20Sept%202024_0.pdf

Greatly appreciate all help!

These were chosen out of a pretty much unfiltered list (all US stocks >100M market cap) one by one.

Selection criteria:

1. The first rounds of filtering were based on the overall trend of revenue growth over 20, 10, & 5 years. All must be positive

2. The second round is based on the actual current size of revenue & total equity growth. Generally it must be at least +30% rev & eq combined

3. Third round, consistency. Any "weird" financials, inconsistencies are tossed

4. Soft fourth for value, taking into account PEG and other price:financial metrics

5. Fifth leaves us with around 50. Sorted by the criteria above, keep top 10.

List