3 Stocks to Watch on Thursday: Box Inc (BOX), Kite Pharma Inc (KITE) and Shake Shack Inc (SHAK)

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Wednesday was a strong was a strong hump day for U.S. equities, lead by financial stocks, which roared ahead by 2.8% after President Donald Trump’s address to Congress. The S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.4% apiece, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1.5%.

3 Stocks to Watch on Thursday: Box Inc (BOX), Kite Pharma Inc (KITE) and Shake Shack Inc (SHAK)The biggest news on Thursday is, of course, the Snapchat IPO, but earnings are still coming fast and furiously, including Box Inc (NYSE:BOX) and Shake Shack Inc (NYSE:SHAK). Meanwhile, Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE) is starting to shed some of its recent red-hot gains.

Here’s what you should know heading into Thursday’s trade:

Kite Pharma Inc (KITE)

KITE shares have exploded by 40% in the past two days on monster trading volume following positive clinical trial results for its blood cancer immunotherapy treatment, KTE-C19, as well as its fourth-quarter earnings report.

KTE-C19 is a new class of drug referred to as a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy. In short, these drugs attempt to make T-cells kill blood cancers.

In its most recent study, KTE-C19 reached its primary endpoint of hitting an objective response rate of 82%. And 31% of patients had a complete response rate six months into treatment, meaning cancer signs had disappeared.

And in its Q4 report, KITE topped expectations by posting a loss of $1.31 per share — 44 cents better than estimates.

KITE stock is down 5% on Thursday on news that the company will execute a secondary offering, diluting its current shareholders. Kite Pharma will offer 4.75 million shares, with a 30-day option for the underwriter, Jefferies LLC, to buy as many as 712,500 additional shares.

Box Inc (BOX)

BOX shares are down on Thursday after it posted its most recent quarterly earnings the previous night.

The cloud company posted a loss of $36.9 million, or 28 cents per share, for its fiscal fourth quarter. Wall Street was looking for 13 cents of red ink. Meanwhile, Box revenues came in at $109.9 million, with billings at $159.3 million. Both measures topped FactSet-polled analysts’ estimates for sales of $108.8 million and billings of $153.2 million.

Where Box fell short was fiscal first-quarter estimates. BOX expects to bring in between $114 million and $115 million in revenue, trickling down to a loss of 14 to 15 cents per share. Analysts were looking for a 12-cent loss on $115.1 million of sales.

For the full fiscal year, the company projected a loss of 45 to 49 cents on revenues of $500 million to $504 million. This also disappointed Wall Street, which was looking for a loss of 41 cents on sales of $500.6 million.

BOX shares were off 3% in Thursday’s early morning trade.

Shake Shack Inc (SHAK)

SHAK shares were smacked down after the burger joint’s fourth-quarter earnings.

Shake Shack’s Q4 earnings came to 15 cents per share. Adjusted for one-time items, earnings of 9 cents per share merely came in line with Wall Street expectations. Revenue did beat estimates, with $73.3 million in sales topping the consensus outlook of $70.68 million.

What disappointed investors were “same-Shack sales” of just 1.6% for the quarter, which were just more than half of analysts’ forecasts, and significantly weaker than the year-ago period’s 11% growth in comps.

Cold weather in the northeast — where most of its business lies — caused a difficult holiday period.

For the full fiscal year 2016, the restaurant posted full-year earnings of $12.4 million, or 53 cents per share. In the year-ago period, the company lost $8.8 million, or 53 cents a share. Revenues of $268.5 million were up 43.5% year-over-year.

Again, though, comps are a problem, with 2016 growth of 4.2% significantly slower than 2015’s 13.3% annual same-store sales growth.

SHAK shares were off roughly 5% in Thursday’s trade.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/03/3-stocks-to-watch-on-thursday-box-inc-box-kite-pharma-inc-kite-and-shake-shack-inc-shak/.

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