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FedEx (FDX) rallies after topping profit expectations, updating on business split; UPS also higher. (00:22) Activist investor Biglari targets Cracker Barrel (CBRL) CEO in eighth proxy fight. (01:40) Novo Nordisk (NVO) reduces its U.S. sales team for obesity and diabetes education: Reuters. (03:03)
This is an abridged transcript.
FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) is up 5% in premarket action after topping expectations with its FQ1 earnings report.
FedEx reported revenue was up 2.8% year-over-year to $22.2 billion in FQ1. EPS came in at $3.83 vs. $3.61 consensus and $3.60 a year ago.
Operating income was $1.30 billion during the quarter on an adjusted basis, vs. $1.22 billion consensus. The parcel delivery company reported an operating margin rate of 5.8% vs. 5.6% a year ago.
Notably, FedEx (NYSE:FDX) said the planned spin-off of FedEx Freight into a new publicly traded company continues to advance. The business split is expected to be executed by June 2026. Once separated, FedEx Freight will be under the ticker symbol FDXF.
Looking ahead, FedEx sees FY26 revenue growth to be +4% to +6% and EPS of $17.20 to $19.00 (midpoint $18.10) vs. $18.36 consensus.
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (NASDAQ:CBRL) is facing more heat following its logo fiasco, this time from an activist investor.
Sardar Biglari, CEO of rival chain Steak ‘n Shake, has urged Cracker Barrel’s (NASDAQ:CBRL) shareholders to vote against the re-election of its CEO Julie Felss Masino and director Gilbert Dávila to the company’s board.
In a proxy filing, Biglari called Masino “worse than mediocre” and said the rebranding effort “ranked among this century’s worst brand blunders alongside Bud Light and Jaguar.”
Biglari said he’d warned Cracker Barrel (CBRL) in November 2024 against rebranding, saying it would not work and could damage the brand further.
The investor and his holding companies currently own 654,141 Cracker Barrel (CBRL) shares, or ~2.9% stake.
“We believe that Biglari’s unprecedented seven proxy solicitations against the company in the past 14 years have been for purely self-interested reasons, and that his own actions and poor performance at Steak ‘n Shake and Western Sizzlin’ remain cautionary tales,” a Cracker Barrel (CBRL) spokesperson told Fortune.
Biglari first launched a proxy fight to secure board seats at Cracker Barrel (CBRL) in 2011. He also owns stakes in restaurant chains Jack in the Box (JACK) and El Pollo Loco (LOCO).
Novo Nordisk (NVO) has laid off its U.S. sales team focused on obesity and diabetes education for healthcare providers.
The group is known as cardiometabolic educators and their release is part of a broader restructuring under new CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar, Reuters said in a report.
The team, consisting of several hundred employees, was notified last week that their roles would be terminated, though they will be paid until the end of the year.
These layoffs signal Novo’s effort to cut costs and regain its competitive edge against Eli Lilly (LLY) after losing dominance in the U.S. weight loss drug market and more than $400B in market value since mid-2024.
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Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is down 1% at $62/barrel. Bitcoin is up 0.1% at $116,000. Gold is up 0.4% at $3,658.
The FTSE 100 is flat and the DAX is up 0.1%.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHL) -13% – Shares tumbled after missing FQ1 expectations, with Education Solutions revenue down 28% and Entertainment down 18%.
On today’s economic calendar:
And finally the news quiz just dropped. The quiz is all about the news of the week and one of the questions covers a topic we talked about this week on Wall Street Breakfast: Which of the following stocks experienced a short-lived rally after FBI Director Kash Patel called it a “good investment” during a congressional hearing? I’ll leave a link to the quiz in the show notes section.
#Wall #Street #Breakfast #Podcast #FedEx #Delivers #Surprise