Good morning and welcome to this week’s edition of Bulls and Bears. This is a weekly thread where i look at happenings on the NGX and global stock market space. If you have any questions, please feel free to share.

This thread goes up at 10am WAT on my substack and 11 am WAT here

Starting with US equities for a change.

It was a red week as the three key indexes closed down.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite shed and the Dow both fell 0.5%.

Earnings

Last week was the busiest week in terms of earnings. Popped into a few calls.

$DIS (Disney) earnings came in better than expected. So much so analysts asked. Would you consider raising your forecast for the rest of the year.

Revenue: $24.69 billion vs. $24.62 billion
Earnings per share: $1.76 adjusted vs. $1.45 expected.

$AMZN numbers came in well.

Revenue: $187.79 billion vs. $187.30 billion expected
Earnings per share: $1.86 vs. $1.49 expected

They actually have a good problem. Capacity constraints for the cloud unit.

The stock dipped after the numbers dropped due to lower guidance.

Amazon expects sales this quarter to be between $151 billion and $155.5 billion, the company said. Analysts were expecting $158.5 billion, Lower guidance is due to a strengthening dollar.

Palantir $PLTR shares touched a new high this week following earnings better expected.

Revenue: $828 million vs. $776 million expected
Earnings per share: 14 cents adjusted vs. 11 cents expected

A PE ratio of over 500 times earnings is crazy but oh well, We live in crazy times.

The cybersecurity firms also had better numbers than expected.

Cloudflare $NET Q4 2024 earnings outperformed analyst expectations f

Revenue: $362.5 million, vs. $353.1 million expected

Earnings per share: 15 cents, adjusted, vs. 12 cents expected


Fortinet $FTNT Q4 2024 numbers beat expectations

Revenue: $1.66 billion vs $1.595 billion expected.
Earnings per share: to 68 cents on an adjusted basis vs 61 cents expected

What’s happening this week in US stocks?

A few big hitters have earnings. They include McDonald’s $MCD, Coca-Cola $KO and Coinbase $COIN

Touched a bit on them and other stocks im watching in my watchlist piece for the week.

So how did last week fare on the NGX?

The All Share Index gained 1.38%. The index measures the average performance of stocks on the exchange.

UPDC was the best performing stock last week. It gained 38.5% opening at N1.87 and closing at N2.59, up N0.72.

Other notable gainers were Fidson and Presco. Both closed at 52 week highs.

On the flip side, Sunu Assurances led the losers for last week. The stock declined by 12.87%, opening at N5.75 and closing at N5.01.

Fidelity Bank combined issue results

Fidelity Bank Plc released allotment details for its public offer and rights issue.

A total of 108,046 applications for 23,791,687,463 shares totaling ₦231,968,952,764.25 were received on the Public Offer. Out of these, 107,588 applications for 23,768,724,000 shares totaling ₦231,745,059,000.00 were found to be valid.

458 invalid applications for 22,765,143 shares totaling ₦221,960,144.25 were rejected, while 548 applications which included odd lots amounting to 198,320 shares (i.e. ₦1,933,620.00) were also rejected. The Public Offer was 237% subscribed and 150% allotted.

For the rights Issue, 7,559 applications for 4,430,290,237 shares totaling ₦40,980,184,692.25 were received. 656 applications for 23,037,442 shares totaling ₦213,096,338.50 were invalid based on the terms of the Rights Issue. The rights issue was 137.73% subscribed and 100% allotted.

VFD Group Plc ‘s board on Tuesday, 4th February 2025, approved the company’s full divestment of 343,546,646 ordinary shares of its holdings in Atiat Limited in a deal valued at over ₦7 billion. VFD had a 57.26% stake in Atiat.

Thomas Wyatt will be opening a new product line: toilet paper production

Oando special bonus

Oando shared details of its special bonus in a notice released last week

4,279,042,282 shares will be distributed to shareholders. 

In the first phase, 1,283,712,601 shares will be distributed to shareholders in two tranches. 

•  Tranche 1: 641,856,301 shares
•  Tranche 2: 641,856,300 shares

The qualification date for the first tranche is  February 14, 2025 

The  qualification date for the second tranche is June 30, 2025 

For tranche 1, the shares shall be distributed on the basis of 1 share each for every 12 existing shares held as of the qualification date 

Board and management changes

Khalifa Adebayo Biobaku has been appointed chairman of UAC’s board effective 5 February 2025.Prior to his appointment as Chairman, he served as Vice Chairman, a position to which he was elected by the Board on June 21, 2023. He joined the board on March 29, 2022.

Africa Prudential’s board has appointed Oluwaseyi Abe as an Independent Non – Executive Director and Chidi Okpala as a Non – Executive Director respectively, with effect from January 28, 2025, subject to the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

What’s happening this week?

We could have a few more firms drop their unaudited results. Some of the FUGAZ banks could drop their earnings anytime from now.

On the macro end, we should have inflation numbers for January drop as well.