Death from taxes!
“In this world nothing is certain, but death and taxes” — the God of Value Investing Benjamin Franklin had famously said this way back in 1789 when referencing the US constitution that was getting drafted!
Even Einstein, who’s considered one of the greatest minds to grace planet Earth had said “the hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax”.
The only time when more Americans become liars is April 15th, and it is also the day that is dreaded by Wall Streeters as they see large chunks of their bonuses being gobbled up by IRSd
And in this constant pursuit of trying to dodge taxes was born the tax preparation behemoth H & R Block! And just like how we all wait till the last possible day to file taxes, H & R Block is almost always the last of the S&P 500 companies to report its earnings. The earnings season officially comes to an end after they report.
Though H & R Block ended its fiscal year with flat revenue growth, it was able to increase earnings by 10% thanks to cost-cutting efforts — firing 250 employees. Wall St was pleased and the stock gained about 10%+ in after-hours trading last night.
Catch up on the last of the earnings calls over here
Peak Day Blues!
Earnings season is that crazy four-week period when the newly minted intern/associate at those big shiny Wall St firms gets swamped with work — one is assigned to cover innumerable quarterly earnings announcements & literally scrubs through multiple spreadsheets and comps and never leaves the office! And just when everyone thinks they’ve become a sociopath, the earnings season magically comes to an end.
W e at AlphaStreet would like to give out a high five to all those associates and welcome them back to the normal world!
I n your honor, we are sharing two of the most discussed companies over at AlphaStreet in this just concluded peak season — GoPro and Take Two Interactive
Uber Cool Uncool
Head-hunters — take note! Young managers — brush up your resumes! — for one of the most valuable tech companies will need to fill the seats of CMO, COO, CFO, Head of Engineering, SVP of Business and now the CEO role as well!
Wall St. is keenly watching this development as it is really worried if this would impact Uber’s valuation and possibly hit their “future fortunes” since they’ve sunk billions of dollars into Uber already!
