Money Talk: Bank Of The Ozarks To Kick Off 3Q Earnings Period
by October 12, 2015 7:38 am 105 views
BANK OF THE OZARKS TO KICK OFF 3Q EARNINGS PERIOD: Fast-growing Bank of the Ozarks of the Little Rock will kick off the third quarter earnings period Monday, Oct. 12 for Arkansas’ publicly-traded companies after the close of the week-opening session.
With many U.S. companies facing slowing sales growth and other economic headwinds, several Wall Street analysts have cut projections for the quarter. According to Thomson Reuters, forecasts for third-quarter S&P 500 earnings now call for a 3.9% decline from a year ago with half of the sectors estimated to post lower profits thanks to falling oil prices, a strong U.S. dollar and weak global demand.
PwC SURVEY: U.S. STOCK MARKET IPO ACTIVITY SLIDES IN 3Q: U.S. IPO activity decreased in the third quarter of 2015 as market volatility increased and investors paused to evaluate the impact of slowing growth in China and other markets, among other global macro-economic and geopolitical concerns. There were a total of 45 IPOs that raised $7.3 billion in the third quarter of 2015, according to IPO Watch, a quarterly survey by PwC US. Total third quarter IPO volume and proceeds were 40% down from second quarter levels, but were on-par with the activity of 1Q 2015.
Year-over-year, third quarter 2015 IPO volume was down 34%, and proceeds were down 81%, due in no small part to the third quarter of 2014’s near record $38.1 billion raise, which included the Alibaba mega IPO. Beyond the 161 IPOs this year, overall broader equity and debt market activities in the U.S. also slowed dramatically in the third quarter as investors remained cautious in the face of global macro-economic uncertainty combined with the traditional summer slowdown.
RETAIL TRADE GROUP EXPECTS HOLIDAY SALES TO SURPASS $630 BILLION: The National Retail Federation (NFR) said it expects sales in November and December (excluding auto, gas and restaurant sales) to increase a solid 3.7% to $630.5 billion — significantly higher than the 10-year average of 2.5%. Holiday sales in 2015 are expected to represent approximately 19% of the retail industry’s annual sales of $3.2 trillion. Last year, holiday sales rose 4.1% over the previous year.
Additionally, NRF is forecasting online sales to increase between 6% and 8% to as much as $105 billion. Holiday sales in 2014 increased 4.1% over the previous year. To meet the increased sales demand, retailers are expected to hire between 700,000 and 750,000 seasonal workers this holiday season, in line with last year’s 714,000 temporary workers hired during the holiday season. For more retail sales info, visit NRF’s Holiday Headquarters portal here.
ELECTRONIC CORPORATE TAX FILINGS ON THE RISE, IRS SAYS: The number of tax returns e-filed by businesses rose nearly 9% this year, continuing the growth in the number of corporate and partnership returns filed electronically. This year, an additional 625,000 corporations and partnerships chose to e-file their tax returns, the IRS reported recently.
As of Sept. 20, almost 8 million corporations and partnerships e-filed their income tax returns. The IRS estimates that e-file accounts for 77% of all corporate and partnership returns filed during 2015. This year, a record 100,000 large corporations e-filed their returns. The greatest rate of growth in e-filing among these businesses is by large partnerships, with 142,237 large partnerships filing their tax returns electronically this year, up nearly 16% from a year ago.