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You’ll Never See The World The Same Way Again
Amazon.com (AMZN -2.5%) has instructed its employees to defer all nonessential travel, including within the United States, amid the coronavirus threat.
That’s a big step up in virus-control measures from the tech/retail giant. It had previously said it was imposing travel restrictions to China.
Amazon has one of the biggest workforces in the country, and employs 798,000 workers globally.
Apple (AAPL -0.7%) chief Tim Cook isn’t sure whether coronavirus issues will crimp the supply chain next quarter, but he does believe it’s a “temporary condition,” he tells Fox Business.
With the focus on virus spread shifting from China to Korea and Italy, he says in an interview that it’s important to see what happens in the new areas to determine what business effect comes from that. “Our supply chain is relatively more important in China,” but there are suppliers in Korea and Italy, he says.
As for potential shifts Apple would make to the supply chain, Cook says it’s important to realize “our products are built everywhere – they are truly global products … you have several parts made in the U.S. that serve the world.”
“It’s not ‘was there a problem,'” he says, since something will always come up; rather, it’s about the overall resilience of the chain.
“I don’t really focus on the short-term gyrations of the market,” Cook says. “I see no long-term difference between what was happening four weeks ago vs. what’s happening today … The market takes time to recognize that, and it’s gonna do what it’s gonna do.”
KeyBanc Capital Markets takes up coverage on the Marketplaces category with a constructive view on ridesharing and long-term confidence in Food delivery.
The firm starts off coverage on Lyft (LYFT -1.9%) and Uber (UBER +2.3%) with Overweight ratings.
“We like LYFT and UBER for different reasons. For LYFT, this is largely a pure-play ridesharing company focused on the U.S. The U.S. market has settled into a duopoly, and we think the promotional environment will continue to improve. For UBER, new management has been aggressive at exiting non-core markets and businesses, which has driven materially improved financial metrics,” advises KeyBanc Capital Markets Managing Director Edward Yruma.
In general, rideshare take rates seen as being stable to improving.
Looking further out, Yruma say GrubHub (GRUB +1.8%) likely has the most absolute upside potential in the firm’s Marketplaces coverage. Yruma and team are waiting for a more benign promotional environment before looking to adopt a more constructive stance. Shares of GRUB are initiated with a Sector Weight rating.
Digital Realty (NYSE:DLR) shareholders approve all proposals related to the pending merger with InterXion (NYSE:INXN).
The two companies also received all regulatory approvals required with the last approval coming from the French Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Digital Realty expects to accept the validly tendered InterXion shares from the tender offer as early as March 9, 2020.
The offer is conditioned upon receiving at least 80% of the outstanding InterXion shares through the tender offer. If less than 80% but more than 66 2/3% of InterXion shares are tendered in the initial offering period, Digital Realty may elect to reduce the minimum condition to 66 2/3%.
Eventbrite (NYSE:EB) has slipped 10.4% premarket after topping expectations with its Q4 earnings, but warning it was seeing “early evidence” of event cancellations related to the coronavirus.
The company guided to Q1 sales of $84M-$88M, and 2020 sales of $342M-$359M, an outlook that takes COVID-19 into account.
“We have seen early evidence of event cancellations that appear to be associated with the coronavirus, and we expect the outbreak will impact live events and attendance in the near term,” it says.
RBC cut the stock to Sector Perform from Outperform, saying it wants to see what the clear path is toward sustained 15-20% revenue growth.
It’s cut its price target to $17 from $23 – vs. yesterday’s close of $17.02.
