SWAV - Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: Polar Power Soars

2023-05-11 07:06:33 ET

Listen on the go! Subscribe to Wall Street Breakfast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Disney ( DIS ) dips amid in-line earnings , improved streaming losses despite sub decline. Polar Power ( POLA ) now taking pre-orders for a new line of mobile EV chargers, stock jumps 52% . Shockwave Medical ( SWAV ) ticks higher amid takeover speculation . Learn more about these stocks with Seeking Alpha Premium .

This is an abridged transcript of the podcast.

• Disney shares are under pressure after the company reported revenue roughly in-line with expectations and a subscriber decline

• Today is crypto Thursday. *audio from Mike Fay* Mike Fay is the investing group leader of BlockChain Reaction on Seeking Alpha. He first mentioned the probability of higher fees back in February.

• The Polar Power stock is trading higher after the company started taking preorders for its mobile EV charger.

You can find links to all the stories we talk about on the show in show notes and our daily Seeking Alpha Wall Street Breakfast articles.

OUR TOP STORY

Walt Disney stock (NYSE: DIS ) is down nearly 5% premarket following a fiscal second-quarter earnings report where revenues came roughly in line with expectations and net income just short, while the company also reported improvement in its streaming losses despite another subscriber decline.

Disney+ subscribers fell for the second straight quarter -- this time to 157.8M from 161.8M, a 2% drop quarter-over-quarter. ESPN+ and Hulu subscribers ticked up, and average revenue per user gained across Disney+ and ESPN+.

Disney revenues overall grew 13% to $21.82B, roughly in line with expectations, and paced by another double-digit gain in the Parks unit.

CEO Bob Iger said the company is “pleased with our accomplishments this quarter, including the improved financial performance of our streaming business.”

When you look at Disney’s dedicated stock page on Seeking Alpha there’s no shortage of articles.

The most recent is by Jonathan Weber . He’s the investing group leader of Cash Flow Club on Seeking Alpha.

In the article he rates the stock a hold. He says Disney neither looks especially expensive, nor especially cheap. While The Walt Disney Company undoubtedly was too expensive at the peak of the streaming euphoria, it is way more reasonably valued right now - but not overly attractive.

NOW OUR HEADLINE STORY

Polar Power (NASDAQ: POLA ) is up more than 60% premarket after the company said it is now taking pre-orders for its new line of mobile CCS electric vehicle chargers.

The company is taking preorders due to supply chain shortages and long delivery of engines and electronics.

Shipments are expected to start in Q1 2024.

Polar ( POLA ) is upgrading its current mobile EV chargers to the universal CCS standard to meet the larger market opportunity.

The first sizes to ship will be 15 kW and 30 kW.

NOW MORE ON THE MARKET

Wall Street's major averages ended mixed on Wednesday, though they closed significantly higher than their session lows.

Markets experienced volatile trading through the day as investors digested the latest report on consumer prices which showed inflation remained in-line with expectations, spurring bets that the Federal Reserve would cut rates this year.

The Nasdaq ( COMP.IND ) rose 1%. The S&P 500 ( SP500 ) closed 0.45% higher. The Dow ( DJI ) slipped 0.1%.

Of the 11 S&P sectors, seven ended in the green, led by more than 1% gains in Communication Services and Tech. Energy was the top loser.

All three indices had initially jumped at the open after the closely-watched consumer price index ( CPI ) report for April showed a 0.4% rise in CPI, matching expectations and coming in higher than March. Core CPI also rose 0.4%. On a Y/Y basis, CPI rose 4.9%, easing from March's reading of +5%.

Turning to the fixed income markets, Treasury yields slipped after the inflation data. The longer-end 10-year yield ( US10Y ) was down 8 basis points to 3.44% while the more rate-sensitive 2-year yield ( US2Y ) was down 11 basis points to 3.91%.

Looking at active stocks, Carl Icahn-led Icahn Enterprises ( IEP ) slumped 15% after the company disclosed that it had been contacted by regulatory authorities seeking information.

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MORE OF OUR TOP STORIES

Today is crypto Thursday.

We’re joined by our weekly contributor Mike Fay , the investing group leader of BlockChain Reaction on Seeking Alpha .

He’s talking about high transaction fees affecting bitcoin and ethereum.

*audio from Mike Fay*

You’ll find a link to the article Mike referenced in show notes.

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Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL ) Tap to Pay feature is coming under an extra round of antitrust scrutiny by the European Union.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing a European Commission spokesperson and two people familiar with the matter, that last year the EU received a formal antitrust complaint claiming competition in the market for mobile wallets on iOS devices became restricted.

On May 2, the European Commission said it made Apple ( AAPL ) aware of its preliminary view that it "abused its dominant position in markets for mobile wallets on iOS devices.”

Now the EU is assessing the availability of payments solutions across mobile devices as alternatives to Apple.

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Shockwave Medical (NASDAQ: SWAV ) is up more than 2% premarket amid speculation that the company is seeing additional takeover interest.

According to a StreetInsider report , which cited an unidentified source, the cardiovascular device maker is said to be seeing takeover interest from Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) and Medtronic ( MDT ).

It's not clear if either companies' interest will lead to a transaction.

The latest update comes after StreetInsider reported Monday that talks between Boston Scientific ( BSX ) and Shockwave Medical had fallen apart.

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Private equity firm Motive Partners is still working on a possible takeover of payments-software provider ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW ), though talks have slowed amid market pressure.

According to a Dealreporter item, recent volatility in the banking sector as well as the cost of financing deals has impacted Motive's talks with ACI ( ACIW ).

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If you want more information about a topic we mentioned on today’s show. You can find links in show notes and our daily Seeking Alpha Wall Street Breakfast articles.

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Now let’s take a look at the markets as of 6:20 am. Ahead of the opening bell today, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. The Dow is up a small fraction. The S&P 500 is up 0.3% and the Nasdaq is up 0.3%. Crude oil is up 0.5% at less than $73 a barrel. Bitcoin is down 0.5% at less than $27,500.

In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is up 0.1% The DAX is up 0.1%.

On today’s economic calendar, at 830am PPI which is expected to show a 0.3% M/M gain and at 1030 am the EIA natural gas report.

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