From Briefing.com: 5:52 pm Cypress Semi founder/former CEO and largest individual stockholder nominates two candidates (J. Daniel McCranie and Camillo Martino) for Board of Directors (CY) :
T.J. Rodgers says "Cypress Semiconductor faces serious conflicts of interest and ethical deficiencies. Rather than address these, the Cypress Board has chosen to announce what they purport to be changes to strengthen corporate governance but which are in fact simply an attempt to prevent even extraordinarily qualified new directors from joining the Board. I deliberately chose to nominate for the Board two highly qualified industry veterans, because this isn't about T.J. Rodgers but about focusing the attention of all Cypress stockholders on these serious issues. The nominees I've proposed, Dan McCranie and Camillo Martino, both of whom are semiconductor experts, will better serve the Board than conflicted Executive Chairman Ray Bingham and Lead Director Eric Benhamou, who I believe has repeatedly failed to acknowledge or correct the conflicts of interest situation."
In light of his concerns about the conflicts and role of the Executive Chairman, Rodgers delivered a demand pursuant to Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law for copies of Cypress's books and records relating to transactions that appear, on their face, to be breaches of the Board's fiduciary duties. In response to Cypress's refusal to supply the books and records, Rodgers has filed a lawsuit to compel production of these materials.
4:13 pm First Solar beats by $0.26, beats on revs; guides FY17 EPS in-line, revs in-line (FSLR) :
Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $1.24 per share, $0.26 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.98; revenues fell 49.0% year/year to $480.43 mln vs the $394.65 mln Capital IQ Consensus.
Co issues in-line guidance for FY17, sees EPS of $0.00-0.50 (Unchanged) vs. $0.38 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY17 revs of $2.8-2.9 bln vs. $2.53 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
Net Sales in the range of $2.8-2.9 bln (Prior $2.5-2.6 bln), Capital IQ consensus $2.53 bln;
Gross Margins between 11-13% (Prior 12.4-14.5%);
Operating Expense Non-GAAP $280-300 mln (Unchanged);
Operating Income Non-GAAP $40-80 mln (Unchanged);
Net Cash Balance $1.4-1.6 bln (Unchanged)
Operating Cash Flow $250-350 mln (Prior $550-650 mln);
CapEx $525-625 mln (Unchanged)
Shipments 2.4-2.6 GW (Unchanged)
4:07 pm first solar secures syndicated financing arranged by Mizuho Bank for utility-scale solar project in Ishikawa, Japan (FSLR) :
Co announced that it has obtained non-recourse project debt financing of approximately 27 billion yen (US$240 million) in a syndicated loan arranged by Mizuho Bank Ltd. for a utility-scale solar project in Ishikawa prefecture, Japan. The Ishikawa Sogo Solar Power Plant, with a generation capacity of 59.5 megawatt (:MW)AC, will be one of the largest mega solar projects in the Hokuriku region. The Ishikawa Sogo Solar Power Plant is scheduled to commence operation in late 2018.
4:06 pm Tessera Tech provides OmniVision with a license under its subsidiary Ziptronix's patents; dismisses outstanding litigation among the cos (TSRA) : In addition, the outstanding litigation among Ziptronix, OmniVision, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) and TSMC North America Corporation has been dismissed.
4:06 pm Luminex initiates quarterly dividend of $0.06/share (LMNX) :
4:05 pm Flex enters into a definitive agreement to acquire AGM Automotive; financial details not disclosed (FLEX) :
AGM is a leading global supplier of automotive interior components and systems, including overhead console systems, interior lighting, electronic components and textile flooring solutions. Providing high quality and innovative automotive interior solutions, AGM is a trusted design partner of major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) around the globe. AGM is headquartered in Troy, Michigan, with additional facilities in the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, Austria and China. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of calendar year 2017.
4:16 pm Closing Market Summary: Another Record Close on Tuesday (:WRAPX) :
Last week's bullish sentiment carried over into the first session of the new week as investors decidedly pushed the stock market to new record highs on Tuesday. The S&P 500 (+0.6%) and the Dow (+0.6%) led the advance with the Nasdaq (+0.5%) closing just a step behind.
Equity indices came out of the gate strong this morning, rallying on an uptick in crude oil and the highest eurozone composite PMI reading in nearly six years. But the stock market hit a speed bump in front of the 12:00 pm ET speech from Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker who is a voter on this year's FOMC. The speech turned out to be a non-event as Mr. Harker didn't provide any new information, reiterating his belief that three rate hikes are appropriate for 2017.
After trending sideways in the wake of Mr. Harker's comments, the major averages regained their momentum late in the afternoon session to hit fresh session highs going into the close.
The lightly-weighted real estate sector (+1.3%) led the afternoon advance, stealing the top spot on the day's leaderboard from the energy space (+0.7%). The energy group's performance depended upon crude oil, which stunted the sector's advance after slipping from its session high. The energy component still closed with a solid gain, up 1.1% at $54.37/bbl, as strong OPEC supply cut compliance overshadowed record high U.S. inventories.
Consumer staples (+1.0%) finished just behind the real estate sector following Wal-Mart's (WMT 71.45, +2.08) upbeat earnings report. WMT shares jumped 3.0% after the company reported better than expected earnings per share and raised its dividend.
On the consumer discretionary (+0.6%) side, Home Depot (HD 145.02, +2.02) also had a solid showing after beating top and bottom line estimates. In addition, HD increased its quarterly dividend and authorized a $15.0 billion share repurchase program.
The remaining sectors finished in the green, posting gains between 0.4% (materials) and 1.1% (utilities). Health care's (+0.5%) advance was particularly notable given the underperformance in biotech names that sent the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB 293.04, -1.27) lower by 0.4%.
The Treasury market began Tuesday with a sizable loss, but dovish comments from Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari (FOMC voter) brought Treasuries back to their flat lines. In the morning session, Mr. Kashkari stated that the U.S. labor market has "more room to run," suggesting that he believes there is no hurry for the Fed to raise rates.
The benchmark 10-yr yield finished the day one basis point higher at 2.43% after showing a four basis point gain earlier in the session.
Investors did not receive any notable economic data on Tuesday.
Wednesday will see several economic reports, including the MBA Mortgage Application Index at 7:00 am ET, January Existing Home Sales (Briefing.com consensus 5.57 million) at 10:00 am ET, and FOMC Minutes at 2:00 pm ET.
Nasdaq Composite +9.0% YTDS&P 500 +5.7% YTDDow Jones Industrial Average +5.0% YTD Russell 2000 +3.9% YTD Cree (CREE) announced that McLaren Health Care has selected Cree LED Lighting and Cree SmartCast Technology to modernize exterior and interior lighting across 11 hospitals. Cree's advanced LED solutions go beyond light with intelligence that automatically adapts to the environment to deliver greater energy savings and personalized environments that promote comfort, safety and security for McLaren patients, visitors and staff. 25,000 Cree outdoor and indoor LED fixtures, including over 12,000 Cree SmartCast intelligent lighting fixtures are installed throughout the facilities, enabling McLaren to reduce their energy costs by 66 percent and realize an estimated savings of over $1.6M annually in energy and operating expenses.
7:33 am Aehr Test Systems receives an order in excess of $4 mln from a subcontractor to its lead customer for the FOX-XP Test and Burn-in System (AEHR) :
This is the initial full production FOX-XP test cell order from this customer, which is configured with Aehr's new highly parallel singulated die/module test interface technology.
The order is an add-on to Aehr's recently announced order for FOX-XP products from this customer that fills out the customer's first full test cell. This new order includes a FOX-XP Test and Burn-in System, proprietary DiePak carriers, and a DiePak Autoloader and is expected to ship during the next calendar quarter.
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