Shares of big employers in the Boulevard Stock Portfolio, ranked by weekly performance at Friday’s closing price, with the S&P 500 index for comparison.
Philanthropy
Boulevard reviews the latest media coverage of the Oscar-winning Louisville native in our exclusive Jennifer Lawrence Diary™. Today’s news, rated on a scale of 1-5 stars:
“Hunger Games” distributor Lionsgate is having another garage sale.
With auction company Profiles in Courage, Lionsgate plans to sell to the highest bidders more than 200 props, set pieces, and costumes worn by the movie franchise’s stars, including Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Elizabeth Banks.
Entertainment Weekly says the items up for bid are from all four Hunger Games films, including full Peacekeeper uniforms, the contestant wetsuits from “Catching Fire,” and combat ensembles worn by Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth. Here’s one costume worn by Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen character, a disguise robe from “Mockingbird– Part 2,” with a pre-sale estimate of $2,000 to $3,000:
Next month’s auction follows a similar sale last spring of 449 costumes and props from the film series.
A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 8:27 a.m.
GE APPLIANCES and federal consumer products safety regulators have recalled 222,000 GE Profile high-efficiency top-loading clothes washers in three different models after the Louisville-based manufacturer received 71 reports of internal components burning or catching fire. In three incidents, fires resulted n about $129,000 in property damage. No injuries have been reported, however, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The machines made in South Korea and sold in the U.S. by Best Buy, Lowe’s, Sears, Home Depot and other stores nationwide from June 2003 through October 2011 for between $900 and $1,400 (press release). GE employs about 6,000 workers at Appliance Park in the south end.
YUM filled out the 10-member board of directors for the planned Yum China spinoff, identifying another eight of the members, including two former Yum executives. The Louisville-based fast-food giant had previously said the board would be led by non-executive chairman Fred Hu, chairman and founder of Primavera Capital Group, a China-based investment firm that’s agreed to buy a $464 million stake in the China business in advance of its planned spinoff next month (press release).
A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:34 p.m.
PAPA JOHN’S stock traded at a new 52-week high, $78.49, today before easing back to close at $78.26, up 49 cents. The stock’s all-time trading high was $79.40, on July 13, 2015 (Google Finance). Papa John’s founder and CEO John Schnatter is the pizza chain’s single-biggest stockholder, with about 10.5 million shares, including options — a stake worth $822 million at today’s closing price.
UPS plans to hire about 2,500 seasonal workers in Louisville to handle extra business during the holiday shipping period that begins in November and extends through January. The full- and part-time seasonal positions — primarily package handlers, drivers and driver-helpers — are among 95,000 seasonal workers overall the shipper plans to take on. Seasonal jobs have long been an entry for permanent ones at the company; from the 2012 through 2014 holiday seasons, more than 37% of those hired for seasonal package handler jobs were later hired in a permanent position when the holidays were over, the company says. UPS is the single-biggest private employer in Louisville, with about 22,000 workers at its hub at Louisville International Airport. Around the world, the company has 440,000 employees (press release and Courier-Journal). More about UPS.
FORD will move all the company’s small-car production to lower-cost Mexico over the next two to three years, CEO Mark Fields told an investor conference yesterday. The automaker produces its Fiesta subcompact in Mexico, but its Focus and C-Max small cars are made in suburban Detroit. The company is building a $1.6-billion assembly plant in Mexico’s San Luis Potosi, and plans to make small cars there starting in 2018 (Los Angeles Times). In Louisville, Ford employs nearly 10,000 workers at truck and auto assembly factories.
In other news, 21c Museum Hotel has sold a minority interest to a real estate investment unit of J.P. Morgan Private Bank. Under the deal, Junius Real Estate Partners will invest up to $250 million in the Louisville-based boutique chain toward building or acquiring new hotel properties.
Their first joint venture will be a 21c Museum Hotel Nashville in the historic downtown Gray & Dudley Building; it’s expected to open in the first half of next year with 124 hotel rooms, more than 10,500 square feet of museum and event space and five rooftop-level rooms, including two suites, with private terraces. 21c will manage the property and have joint ownership.
Launched in 2006 by Continue reading “Papa John’s shares at new 52-week high; UPS forecasts 2,500 seasonal workers for 2016 holiday shipping; and 21c Museum Hotel in $250M deal with JP Morgan unit”
A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 8:46 a.m.
HUMANA: Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini says that “marketplace reality” is pushing the company to exit nearly 70% of the counties with public health exchanges next year, and dismissed criticism of the insurer by a group of U.S. senators as “unfounded accusations.” Bertolini was responding to a letter from Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bill Nelson of Florida and Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent. The lawmakers said Aetna’s decision to quit numerous health exchanges “appears to be an effort to pressure the Justice Department into approving” its proposed $37 billion purchase of Humana (Hartford Courant).
TACO BELL: Designer and artist Olivia Mears has used Taco Bell wrappers, painted card stock, tissue paper, and felt to make her own spin on Belle’s dress from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.” She tells Thrillist: “I had already sewn the yellow ballgown without tacos several years earlier for children’s parties and it was during this time that someone snapped a photo of me while at Taco Bell and it ended up going viral. Fast-forward about three years and I landed a role in a Taco Bell commercial wearing another dress I made from wrappers, so I decided to bring the Belle dress out from storage and continue the legacy.” The dress, unfortunately for fans, isn’t available for sale. But Mears is selling signed photos of it on her AvantGeek Etsy page (Thrillist).
In other news: Facing growing scrutiny from donors and its own university, the University of Louisville Foundation is paying $11,500 a month in retainers for external public relations advice from two Louisville PR shops: RunSwitch Public Relations, led by political strategist Scott Jennings, and Tandem Public Relations, led by Sandra Frazier, according to WFPL; both contracts were extended as of Sept. 1. Frazier, a recently retired Brown-Forman director, was one of Gov. Matt Bevin‘s appointees to a newly reorganized UofL board of trustees (WFPL).
A news summary focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:42 p.m.
Nearly all the local companies tracked by Boulevard bounced back from steep losses last week, when markets swooned amid growing concerns about the direction of interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which lost nearly 400 points Friday, closed up 240 points this afternoon, or 1.3%, to 18,325. The broader S&P 500 index ended the day at 2,159, up 1.5%.
Here’s a list of the 10 companies in Boulevard’s Stock Portfolio, with today’s closing prices:
- Amazon: $771.49, up 1.5%.
- Brown-Forman class B: $46.44, up 1.9%.
- Ford: $12.70, up 2.6%.
- GE: $30.49, up 1.3%. (Owner Qingdao Haier: $10.22, down 0.5%.)
- Humana: $176.78, up 0.2%.
- Kindred: $10.69, up 1.5%.
- Papa John’s: $76.17, up 2.9%
- Texas Roadhouse: $43.41, up 2.3%
- UPS: $108.55, up 0.8%.
- Yum: $88.66, up 1.9%.
In other news, Papa John’s apologized after a Cleveland franchise used an “extremely insensitive” promotion yesterday tied to the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The promotion was called “9/11 Remembrance” and underneath a picture of pizzas it read: “Never Forget, In Memory of Those We Have Lost, United We Shall Always Stand! Enjoy ANY LARGE PIZZA for $9.11.” The corresponding promo code was listed as “911RMBR” (Cleveland 19).
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