What we’re reading (2/8)
“Investors Gobble Up Dividend Stocks During Market Turbulence” (Wall Street Journal). “Boring companies have been hot during the stock market’s winter swoon. An early-year tumble in major U.S. stock indexes has some investors searching for safety by dumping shares of high-growth technology stocks for stodgier businesses that pay shareholders cash, including banks, oil companies and telecoms.”
“VC Valuations Climb Higher Still As Hedge Funds And Other Nontraditional Investors Pile In” (Institutional Investor). “Early-stage valuations, which includes series A and series B, have gotten so high that they are beginning to resemble the late-stage valuations of previous years. In 2021, the median early-stage pre-money valuation reached $45 million, a 50 percent increase from 2020, PitchBook said in its annual U.S. VC valuations report.”
“Peloton Is Replacing Its CEO And Cutting 2,800 Jobs” (CNN Business). “‘This restructuring program is the result of diligent planning to address key areas of the business and realign our operations so that we can execute against our growth opportunity with efficiency and discipline,’ the company said in a press release. Layoffs also begin Tuesday.”
“Tyson Foods Loves Inflation” (Financial Times). “$32bn Tyson Foods — America’s largest producer of chicken, pork and beef — announced its first-quarter results before the bell Monday morning. And they were blow out. Revenues grew 24 per cent year on year, coming in at a shade under $13bn, versus analyst’s expectations of $12bn. While earnings per share tripled to $3.70, comfortably exceeding the $1.94 Wall Street’s finest had pencilled in. In early trading, the shares are up 12 per cent at $98.64.”
“Netflix Economics And The Future Of Netflix” (Marginal Revolution). “Of course the company is still worth quite a bit, so my own view is no more or no less optimistic than what the market indicates. Still, it is worth asking what the equilibrium here looks like. There is also AppleTV, Disney, Showtime, HBOMax, Hulu, AmazonPrime, and more. I don’t think it quite works to argue that we all end up subscribing to all of them, so where are matters headed?”
