
Insider report: The stocks with the biggest recent sales by executives include QuantumScape, BlackRock and Goldman

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Miami Herald
28 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Ozempic firm plummets after surprise leadership change
Novo Nordisk (NVO) is sitting on a miracle drug in Wegovy, but despite its first-mover advantage, it doesn't seem to have a prescription for growth in the increasingly crowded weight loss drug market. You wouldn't think that's a problem, seeing how Wegovy, its similarly-situated diabetes drug Ozempic and other diabetes/obesity drugs saw sales grow 26% last year to DKK 271.8 billion ($42 billion.) But when you promise investors double-digit sales and profit growth, it is. On Tuesday, Novo took an axe to its financial outlook in a surprise corporate update call where it replaced its CEO with an insider who seeks to tame worries about the company's declining market share in the diabetes and obesity marketplace. Weaker U.S. sales of its weight loss and diabetes wunderkind were being kneecapped by cheaper, compounded GLP-1 ripoffs sold by telehealth pharmacies. In addition, the company is facing competition from Zepbound, sold by competitor Eli Lilly (LLY) . As a result, it has reduced its outlook for: Full-year sales growth: 8% to 14% (down from 13% to 21%)Annual operating profit growth: 10% to 16% (down from 16% to 24%) The revelation sent Novo stock falling nearly 22% intraday. In recent months, Novo had attempted to take its branded medication directly to consumers by partnering with Hims & Hers Health (HIMS) to sell the drug on its marketplace. Despite that, Hims continued selling compounded GLP-1 meds. A month later, Novo ended its "collaboration" with the company, complaining about "deceptive promotion and selling of illegitimate, knockoff versions of Wegovy that put patient safety at risk." Novo Nordisk will report earnings on Aug. 6, 2025. On the news, Novo's 21% slide set off a cascade of similar declines. The iShares U.S. Pharmaceuticals ETF (IHE) was down 1.4% intraday. The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.

Business Insider
43 minutes ago
- Business Insider
How investors went from stagflation panic to bull market euphoria
The market has gone through a stark transformation in the last few months. A crescendo of panic about the economic impacts of tariffs has slowly but surely given way to a chorus of euphoric voices on Wall Street calling for a new bull market. What happened? How did markets go from fearing the dreaded S-word to shrugging off the most dramatic upheaval of trade policy in a century? A few months ago, recession calls were springing up on Wall Street, and investors were fretting over stagflation, a situation where inflation remains stubbornly high while economic growth slows, and which economists warn is even worse than a normal recession. Those fears have seemingly been wiped off the table, even more so now that second-quarter GDP data released on Wednesday showed the US economy returned to growth mode this spring. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and other forecasters have lifted their economic outlooks in recent weeks, and most investors now expect the economy to avoid a recession, with 65% of global fund managers saying they expected a soft landing, according to a July BofA survey. Meanwhile, meme stocks have come roaring back, another sign that animal spirits have returned to markets. And yet, Donald Trump's tariffs are still on. The US tariff rate is about 18.2%, according to the latest update from the Yale Budget Lab. That's the highest the overall tariff rate has been since 1934, the researchers said. "If you'd had told me a year ago or six months ago that we were going to have 15% across-the-board tariffs, I would have thought the S&P 500 would be considerably lower than where it is now. I certainly wouldn't think it would be making new highs," Doug Peta, the chief US investment strategist at BCA Research, told Business Insider. Market pros who spoke to BI say two things led the market to stage a dramatic turnaround. Tariffs aren't as bad as feared The fact that tariffs are still on hardly matters to the market. It's more so that they aren't as bad as initially feared, Peta said. Stocks have climbed as Trump has announced more trade deals with key partners, generally setting tariff rates below what he had initially proposed. "Perhaps it is a tribute to the administration's salesmanship, that if you tell people things are going to be really horrible — it's going to be 50%, it's going to be 125%, which is what we got to during the tit-for-tat with China — and then you say, 'Oh, you know what? It's just going to be 15%.' I think markets have really relaxed on that," Peta said. And even when Trump has dialed up his tariff threats, like when he posted letters to 23 countries on Truth Social, markets have been confident in the TACO Trade, Peta added. He was referring to the idea that investors have been buying stocks despite the president's unfriendly policies, due to the assumption that Trump Always Chickens Out. Paul Hickey, the co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, told BI that the apocalyptic mood that accompanied Liberation Day was due to the "shock value" of Trump's tariffs. "Market doesn't just rally 20% in a short period of time for nothing," he said. "Usually there was either a major event to cause that, or else there was a major sell-off beforehand where there was an overreaction." The improbably strong US economy And then there's the economy, which has bucked calls for a dire slowdown alongside higher tariffs fueled by inflation. While fears of stagflation were running rampant several months ago, GDP is expanding again after contracting in the first quarter. Bank of America recently dialed down its stagflation calls, saying it sees a number of reasons the economy could thrive in the coming quarters, including Trump's pro-growth agenda and big capex plans among US companies. Meanwhile, inflation has drifted slightly higher but overall price growth is relatively close to the Fed's 2% inflation target. The final and most important leg of any stock market rally— corporate earnings —has also been holding up well. Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported results so far this quarter, 80% have beaten earnings estimates, according to the latest update from FactSet. "People were expecting just terrible commentary from companies reporting and a weakness in the economy and that didn't materialize," Hickey said. Is there a shoe to drop? It is still possible that the full impact of tariffs has yet to be felt in markets and the economy. "I think most right now are just sort of waiting for the effect of the tariffs to become more clear," Parag Thatte, director of global asset allocation and US equity strategy at Deutsche Bank, told BI. That also means there's a chance investors could be getting ahead of themselves, BCA's Peta said. "I do think some of the optimism is unwarranted," he told BI, adding that he was skeptical some of the US's recent trade deals would counterbalance the negative growth impact of tariffs. Talk of a pullback has been swirling on Wall Street since major indexes climbed back to record highs. Evercore ISI, Stifel, Pimco, and HSBC are among the firms that have recently flagged the risk of a stock correction, even as major indexes power past record after record in the last several weeks. In the short term, Hickey also believes optimism could soon start to fade, especially considering that the market is entering historically weak seasonal stretch from late July through September. "The pendulum has really shifted," Hickey said of the market's seasonal backdrop. "It wouldn't surprise us to see the market rally pause in the short term."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Wells Fargo joins Wall Street chorus in lifting S&P 500's annual target
(Reuters) -Wells Fargo Investment Institute on Wednesday became the latest Wall Street research house to lift its year-end target for the S&P 500 index, citing tariff delays and strong corporate earnings. The Wells Fargo bank subsidiary sees the benchmark index ending 2025 between 6,300 and 6,500, up from a prior range of 5,900 to 6,100. The target raise follows U.S. President Donald Trump delaying his reciprocal tariffs and signing deals with trade partners including EU and Japan. Earlier this month, Trump also signed into law tax and spending cuts that would benefit corporate earnings. "The dilution of tariff implementations and the new business tax provisions should improve earnings growth and investor sentiment," Wells Fargo said in a note. Earlier this month, research firms Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Oppenheimer and RBC Capital Markets also raised their S&P 500 targets. For the year, Wells Fargo increased its U.S. GDP growth forecast to 1.3% from 1.0% earlier. The U.S. economy expanded at a brisk 3% annualized pace in the second quarter, buoyed primarily by a sharp retreat in imports and a tempered rise in consumer outlays. Wells Fargo also lifted its earnings-per-share forecast for the S&P 500 index to $265 from $260. It raised its index target for 2026 to a range of 6900-7100 from 6400-6600. The institute maintained its preference for U.S. large- and mid-cap equities over small caps and emerging markets, and reiterated its view that the U.S. dollar will remain resilient amid diverging global growth trajectories. Sign in to access your portfolio