3 Stocks to Watch on Friday: Visa Inc (V), Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX) and E*Trade Financial Corp (ETFC)

Advertisement

ETFC - 3 Stocks to Watch on Friday: Visa Inc (V), Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX) and E*Trade Financial Corp (ETFC)

Source: Shutterstock

Thursday was one of the stronger days that U.S. equities have enjoyed for weeks, led by a big showing from the financial sector. The S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8% apiece, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average improved by 0.9%.

3 Stocks to Watch on Friday: Visa Inc. (V), Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (VRX) and E*Trade Financial Corp (ETFC)Heading into Visa Inc (NYSE:V) and E*Trade Financial Corp (NASDAQ:ETFC) are moving on their most recent quarterly earnings reports, while Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) traders are trying to decide just how positive a recent announcement is.

Here’s what to watch out for in the final trading day of the week:

Visa Inc (V)

Visa shares are up this morning on the back of a strong fiscal second-quarter earnings report.

For its Q2, the credit card services provider earned 86 cents per share, easily topping estimates of 79 cents per share. Revenues came in at $4.48 billion, up 23% year-over-year, to top expectations for $4.295 billion.

CEO Alfred F. Kelly Jr. noted that payments volume, cross-border volume and processed transactions all experienced robust growth in the period. The former was up 37% year-over-year on a constant-dollar basis.

“Looking ahead, we are continuing our efforts across the globe to electronify commerce and digitize economies to the benefit of consumers and societies alike,” he said.

Visa, which returned $2.1 billion to shareholders as buybacks and dividends in its Q2, authorized a new $5 billion share repurchase program.

Visa shares continued the momentum from Thursday’s up-day, sparked largely by an earnings beat from American Express Company (NYSE:AXP). V stock was up by more than 2% in Friday’s early trade.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX)

VRX shareholders are trying to digest new of the company’s list pricing on its Siliq injection for psoriasis.

Valeant announced today that it will charge $3,500 per month for Siliq (brodalumab), making it the lowest-priced injectable biologic psoriasis treatment available when it hits the market in the second half of 2017.

“SILIQ, a monoclonal antibody that targets the IL-17 receptor for patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, is indicated for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis in adult patients who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy and have failed to respond or have lost response to other systemic therapies. SILIQ is the only product that included the psoriasis area and severity index (PASI 100) during clinical trials as a primary endpoint,” Valeant said in a release.

Valeant established the drug through its Patient Access and Pricing Committee (PAPC), which the company established to help alleviate concerns over the company’s history of price gouging.

Despite the “low” pricing, VRX bulls are touting the potential upside. Between 2% to 3% of the world’s population (about 125 million) have psoriasis. Even gaining a fraction of a percent of the market, or 125,000 people, would result in $5.25 billion in revenues over the course of a year.

Still, the buzz is filtering in at a snail’s pace, with VRX shares up more than 1% in early Friday trade. The company is trying to rebound from a massive collapse that has seen shares decline more than 95% since their 2015 peaks, including a 40% drop in 2017 alone.

E*Trade Financial Corp (ETFC)

Lastly, ETFC shares are getting a nice pop out of its quarterly earnings.

The online brokerage shop posted earnings of $145 million, down from the year-ago period’s $153 million. Still, adjusted earnings of 48 cents per share were far ahead of the analyst estimate for 39 cents.

E*Trade scored a beat on the top line, too, with revenues growing 17% to $553 million, ahead of estimates for $531.9 million.

Net interest income came in at $319 million, with average interest-earning assets of $48.7 billion. Non-interest expenses came in at $342 million, compared to $312 million in the year-ago period. Daily average revenue trades (DARTs) were up 25.5% year-over-year.

ETFC stock was up more than 3% in Friday’s premarket trade.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/04/3-stocks-to-watch-on-friday-visa-inc-v-valeant-pharmaceuticals-intl-inc-vrx-and-etrade-financial-corp-etfc/.

©2024 InvestorPlace Media, LLC