3 Stocks to Watch on Monday: Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Procter & Gamble Co (PG), Kite Pharma Inc (KITE)

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AMZN - 3 Stocks to Watch on Monday: Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Procter & Gamble Co (PG), Kite Pharma Inc (KITE)

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Oil and gasoline prices are heading higher Monday morning as Hurricane (now Tropical Storm) Harvey floods much of Texas in what’s considered to be one of the state’s worst natural disasters ever. Refining centers across the state’s coast have been shut as a result, killing 10% of America’s capacity, and oil prices have reached $48 per barrel as a result.

3 Stocks to Watch on Monday: Apple Inc. (AAPL), General Motors Company (GM) and Twitter Inc (TWTR)As we head into Monday’s trade, M&A and board shakeups are hogging the spotlight. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is closing on its deal to buy Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM), Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE:PG) is trying to fend off an activist investor and Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE) is popping on a massive buyout bid.

Here’s what you should know:

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN)

AMZN shares are off this morning despite today marking the start of an encouraging future with Whole Foods — namely, the company’s $13.7 billion acquisition is closing, and with that, Amazon is ushering in a major change to “Whole Paycheck.”

Specifically, the company is lowering prices across numerous popular products starting Monday, with the company trying to make “organic food more affordable for everyone.” That means prices of things such as organic bananas and fresh salmon are heading lower, much to the delight of many critics who bemoaned Whole Foods’ higher prices.

AMZN also will be installing Amazon Prime as a customer rewards program, installing Amazon lockers at Whole Foods locations and make products under private labels such as 365 Everyday Value available for delivery across its different e-commerce portals.

Longer-term, Wall Street expects Amazon to use Whole Foods’ physical locations to bolster its broader grocery delivery operations — a move that has shaken the shares of grocers such as Kroger Co (NYSE:KR), as well as larger retailers with grocery operations such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT).

AMZN stock is off fractionally today, but up 26% year-to-date.

Procter & Gamble Co. (PG)

Procter & Gamble’s fight against activist investor Nelson Peltz continued on Monday, with the consumer staples giant telling its shareholders to vote against Peltz at its upcoming annual meeting, and to vote in its own board of director nominees.

Said P&G in a letter Monday:

“While we have engaged with Mr. Peltz with an open mind, we have also done our research. We have spoken with investors, analysts, members of Boards and senior executives at companies that have been impacted by Trian. The overwhelming feedback we received was clear. We concluded that Mr. Peltz would not be helpful to P&G’s Board and management team that are successfully executing a plan that has the Company on the right track. Adding an activist investor like Mr. Peltz risks derailing the progress we are making to deliver for all P&G shareholders.”

Nelson Peltz, which runs $12.7 billion hedge fund Trian Partners, is attempting to shake up the company’s board by running for election to its board of directors, which he announced last month. In a July 17 interview, he told CNBC, “P&G because of its suffocating bureaucracy, because of its matrix organization … it is structured improperly.”

The maker of Tide laundry detergent and Crest toothpaste currently trades just under all-time highs reached at the end of 2014, but only after a couple years of recovery following a precipitous decline in 2015.

PG shares are flat in Monday’s premarket trade.

Kite Pharma Inc (KITE)

KITE shares are shooting higher this morning following the announcement that Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) will buy out the cancer immunotherapy biotech firm in an all-cash deal.

Gilead is going to pay roughly $11 billion, or $180 per share, which translates into a 29% premium over Kite Pharma’s Friday close.

Kite Pharma is one of several companies working on a new form of treatment that involves engineering human T-cells to attack cancer cells. The company currently is testing its lead candidate, axi-cel, for several ailments including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Experts believe that, all told, axi-cel could bring in $1.7 billion in revenues by 2022.

Gilead’s buyout is one of its largest ever, and comes amid a roughly 40% decline in shares since peaking in 2015.

GILD stock itself is up nearly 2% in response to Monday’s news.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/08/3-stocks-to-watch-on-monday-amazon-com-inc-amzn-procter-gamble-co-pg-kite-pharma-inc-kite/.

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