BlackBerry, Freeport-McMoRan, Kimberly-Clark: Top Stocks
BlackBerry (BB) announced a proposal for $160 million worth of convertible notes to help alleviate near-term financing concerns for the company.
Shares of Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) close 4% on Wednesday as the company released better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, with an adjusted EPS of $0.27.
Kimberly-Clark (KMB) reported fourth-quarter earnings, missing out on Wall Street expectations, causing shares of the stock to drop over 5% on Wednesday. For the 2024 fiscal year, the company only expects organic sales to grow in the low to mid-single digits year-over-year.
Yahoo Finance Anchors Josh Lipton and Julie Hyman break down the latest developments for these companies and what it means for them moving forward.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino
Video Transcript
JOSH LIPTON: Trending names here, BlackBerry shares in the red as the company proposes private offering $160 million of convertible notes. So of course, BlackBerry, Julie, now company focused on security software. And the news is just that. They're offering $160 million in convertible senior notes due 2029, private offering. I do see one analyst here from RBC telling their clients the offering will alleviate, in their opinion, near-term financing concerns for the company.
JULIE HYMAN: Right, and BlackBerry-- well, people have been whipsawed by BlackBerry in recent months, right? Because the company was going to be IPO'ing its internet of things business, and then in December, said, no, we're not doing that. In fact, we're appointing a new CEO here. So the company has tried to embark on this sort of new strategy.
Part of that is trying to raise money here, which is what this convertible note offering has to do. The problem with the convertible note offering is, it's convertible into shares at some point. And that, then, dilutes the value for existing shareholders. So even though it might mean that the company is raising cash, because of that eventual effect, the share's under pressure.
JOSH LIPTON: Stocks now down nearly 20% this year, down more than 30% over the past 12 months. Is all the bad news priced in? Time to step in, Julie, and buy it? Not, according to the analysts paid to cover it. Exactly one buy--
JULIE HYMAN: Wow.
JOSH LIPTON: --is left on the street.
JULIE HYMAN: All right. Let's take a look at another story here. Freeport-McMoRan shares climbing after it reported an earnings beat and provide investors a better than expected forecast for 2024, up 4% on the day. This has to do with metal prices, and in particular, copper prices--
JOSH LIPTON: [INAUDIBLE]
JULIE HYMAN: --which we saw-- yeah. Is it red? I guess it is red, or copper-colored, orangish-- I don't know. In any case, it's up. And so Freeport doing well because of that. Its unit net cash costs per pound for 2024, that forecast is above what analysts had been predicting.
JOSH LIPTON: Yeah, the CEO is kind of sounding an optimistic tone here, just talking about how they're entering the year here. Talks about execution, talks about optimism, he says, on market fundamentals. Stock is popping today, though, still here, it looks like we're down year to date and down over the past year.
JULIE HYMAN: You know, I mentioned copper. It occurs to me we call gold the yellow metal. It's not really yellow either, but in any case, it was also up, and Freeport also mines gold, so that was helpful.
JOSH LIPTON: Red and yellow, it just makes it easy.
JULIE HYMAN: Sure.
JOSH LIPTON: Sure. All right, finally, Kimberly-Clark under pressure. It's after reporting underwhelming fourth quarter results. Company slightly missing estimates on the top and bottom line. So Kimberly-Clark, of course, you think of brands like Huggies, Julie Hyman. You think of Kleenex, well-known brands. They report they drop. It looks like Q4 organic sales growth, that came in a touch below consensus, volume unchanged. The outlook, I think, disappointed some, specifically 2024 earnings in the organic sales outlook.
Interesting commentary, I thought, from the execs, though, on the American consumer. That kind of struck me, how they talked about the consumer remains pretty healthy, in their words, and kind of echoing, actually, what we heard from Procter & Gamble, by the way, too, this week.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, there's a lot of talk about effects headwinds at this company. I think I see a lot of emphasis on that, which you mentioned here. So that's part of the issue. There was also some talk ahead of the report about a declining birth rate, and that that for a company that makes diapers is not fantastic news.
When you look at what's happening in China, maybe there's a little bit of a pickup there. But that has been something that has perhaps weighed on the company. And if you look at their various sectors, their various units here, personal care was up, but consumer tissue sales were down, and professional sales were down for the company.
JOSH LIPTON: All right, one to watch.
