Allen L. Dittrich Sells 4,000 Shares of Duluth Holdings Inc (DLTH) Stock

Duluth Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:DLTH) SVP Allen L. Dittrich sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.96, for a total value of $91,840.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 196,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,504,430.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Shares of NASDAQ DLTH opened at $23.31 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $667.66 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of -0.22. Duluth Holdings Inc has a 52-week low of $15.13 and a 52-week high of $25.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.58 and a quick ratio of 0.17.

Get Duluth alerts:

Duluth (NASDAQ:DLTH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 5th. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of ($0.05) by $0.03. The company had revenue of $100.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $100.23 million. Duluth had a return on equity of 15.77% and a net margin of 4.57%. The business’s revenue was up 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.01 earnings per share. sell-side analysts predict that Duluth Holdings Inc will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on DLTH shares. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Duluth from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 22nd. ValuEngine upgraded shares of Duluth from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 21st. BidaskClub downgraded shares of Duluth from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 28th. William Blair raised Duluth from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, June 29th. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Duluth in a research report on Friday, June 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Duluth currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.17.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Perkins Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Duluth during the second quarter valued at $321,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Duluth by 39.7% during the second quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 12,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $309,000 after acquiring an additional 3,692 shares during the period. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Duluth by 17.1% during the second quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 23,809 shares of the company’s stock valued at $566,000 after acquiring an additional 3,474 shares during the period. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd bought a new position in shares of Duluth during the first quarter valued at $453,000. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Duluth by 1,452.0% during the first quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 24,971 shares of the company’s stock valued at $467,000 after acquiring an additional 23,362 shares during the period. 44.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Duluth Company Profile

Duluth Holdings Inc sells casual wear, workwear, and accessories for men and women under the Duluth Trading brand in the United States. It provides shirts, pants, underwear, tanks, outerwear, footwear, accessories, and hard goods. The company offers its products under various trademarks, trade names, and service marks, including Alaskan Hardgear, Armachillo, Ballroom, Bucket Master, Cab Commander, Crouch Gusset, Dry on the Fly, Duluth Trading Co, Duluthflex, Fire Hose, Longtail T, No-Yank, No Polo Shirt, Wild Boar Mocs, and Buck Naked.

Further Reading: Book Value Per Share �� BVPS

Taco Bell Drops the Drive-Thru for Its Urban Evolution

In recent years, Taco Bell has been an innovation leader in the fast-food world. You may not consider all of the chain's edible experiments to have been positives, but items like the Naked Chicken Chalupa, Nacho fries, and (most important) Doritos Locos Taco have been major sales drivers for the Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM) unit.

Wacky food, however, is not the only area where the company has been experimenting -- it has been reinventing its restaurant designs, too. In the past year, the company has opened a total of 16 "urban inline" stores -- smaller locations that lack drive-thru windows -- and Cantinas -- eateries that serve an entirely different, more upscale, menu, and in some cases, alcohol.

Now, adding detail to plans first revealed in fall 2017,�Taco Bell says it will undertake a major expansion using those new store models. The blueprint includes adding 125 locations in metro New York -- a market that Yum! described as underserved by Taco Bell -- over the next five years. It's part of a broader goal of opening 1,000 new U.S, restaurants -- including 300 of those two new concepts -- by 2022.

Taco Bell has been a menu innovator. Image source: Getty Images.

A growing brand

Taco Bell has already opened 90 new U.S. locations so far in 2018, and it has plans to add 100 more by the end of the year. The chain also has 500 international locations, and intends to grow that number to 1,000 by the end of 2022.

The company seems most excited by its new concepts, as they allow it to expand into highly walkable locales where its older store designs would have been a poor match. "Whether it's in the heart of New York City, or steps from the boardwalk in Newport Beach, these restaurants are designed to fit their local community, with open-kitchen concepts, local artwork, shareable tapas-style menus, free WiFi for customers, outlets for charging devices and modern restaurant designs that invite customers to stay and socialize over their meal," the company said in a press release.�

These smaller-format stores vary in size, with the most compact coming in at 1,200 square feet. The chain also plans to install self-ordering kiosks in all of its stores by the end of 2019, and expand its delivery partnership with GrubHub to about 4,500 locations by the end of this year.

Thinking outside the bun -- and the car

For many years, Taco Bell management was married to the idea that all of its locations should have drive-thru windows. That makes sense, given that 55% and 70% of its sales traditionally have been made to drive-thru customers, according to Food & Wine magazine.

But people in big cities aren't in their cars as often suburban customers. They are more likely to order food for delivery, or to arrive at a restaurant on foot. For a chain like�Taco Bell, which has already saturated many of its traditional markets, adapting with formats that let it reach new audiences can only be seen as smart path to growth.

Apple Hits $1 Trillion Market Cap -- Now What?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock made headlines today by becoming the first public company in history to achieve a market cap of $1 trillion, beating out would-be contenders like Amazon.com, Alphabet, and Microsoft. In order to reach this level, Apple has gained nearly 20% so far in 2018 after a 46% gain last year.

While it may be exciting to see Apple hit this milestone, it's important to remember that this particular watermark is completely arbitrary, and while watching the "race to $1 trillion" made for a bit of fun, it has nothing to do with the ongoing potential of the business. Let's look at the catalysts that precipitated Apple's recent rise and see what that means for its future prospects.

Apple's worth $1 trillion. Now what? Image source: Getty Images.

How did we get here?

Several factors contributed to the company's historic feat. Apple's second-quarter financial report topped analysts' consensus estimates to start the trend. The company said it was "our best March quarter ever."

Apple investors had been downbeat following reports of weak demand for the company's flagship iPhone and weak financial results from Apple's suppliers. The company's surprisingly strong performance went a long way toward soothing shareholder doubts about its future.�

Additionally, Apple revealed a 16% boost to its dividend, the sixth such increase in as many years and the largest to date. This brings the company's payout to $0.73 quarterly per share, currently yielding about 1.57%. Its recent strong earnings mean that Apple still is using less than 25% of its profits to support the payout, so these annual increases will likely continue for the foreseeable future.

Investors in the iPhone maker were given another reason to celebrate, as the company announced a new $100 billion repurchase program, saying that its stock is "undervalued." Apple has a strong record of buying back stock, and has reduced its share count by nearly 22% over the past five years. At Apple's current price, the new buyback plan could reduce the share count by another 10%, giving each shareholder an even larger slice of the Apple pie.

�

AAPL Shares Outstanding data by YCharts.

Apple wasn't alone in thinking that its stock was a bargain. Legendary investor and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) CEO Warren Buffett revealed in May that the company had purchased an additional 75 million Apple shares, bringing its total holdings to 240 million shares, owning about 5% of the company.

Investors tend to watch Buffett's purchases due to his laudable track record. Since 1965, the Oracle of Omaha has generated compound annual gains of 20.9% for Berkshire, more than double that of the broader market and producing overall stock-price gains of 2,404,748%.�Those results show why investors do well to follow his example.

Still going strong

Apple's compelling results continued into the third quarter, with top and bottom line numbers coming in at the high end of Apple's forecast, beating analysts' consensus estimates in the process. More importantly, customers continued to opt for the higher-end products -- like the iPhone 8 and iPhone X -- increasing the average selling price for the devices to $724, up from $606 in the prior-year quarter. This drove revenue up 17% year over year, while earnings per share jumped 40% compared to the prior-year quarter.

Meanwhile, Apple has been growing its other businesses to reduce its reliance on the iPhone. The company's�services segment is becoming an increasingly important part of the company's strategy. Sales from the services business grew 31% year over year and accounted for 18% of Apple's revenue in the third quarter. The company's other products segment -- which includes Apple Watch, HomePod, Beats, and AirPods -- is also booming, growing 37% year over year, and it now represents 7% of Apple's revenue.

What this means for the future

It turns out that the same things that propelled Apple's shares to these historic heights are the very things that continue to make the stock a compelling investment. Apple has continued to produce strong financial results, a noteworthy feat for an entity of its size.

The company has demonstrated its ability to generate strong revenue, income, and free cash flow. This will continue to support the company's strong capital-return policy, which has been accelerating, and that likely will continue for years to come.

OP Coin Market Cap Hits $686,748.00 (OPC)

OP Coin (CURRENCY:OPC) traded 1.6% higher against the US dollar during the 24-hour period ending at 20:00 PM Eastern on July 22nd. One OP Coin coin can currently be bought for $0.0004 or 0.00000005 BTC on major exchanges including CryptoBridge and Cryptopia. OP Coin has a total market cap of $686,748.00 and $1,916.00 worth of OP Coin was traded on exchanges in the last day. During the last seven days, OP Coin has traded up 1.9% against the US dollar.

Here is how related cryptocurrencies have performed during the last day:

Get OP Coin alerts: TokenPay (TPAY) traded down 1.4% against the dollar and now trades at $3.69 or 0.00049863 BTC. GoNetwork (GOT) traded up 3.2% against the dollar and now trades at $0.55 or 0.00007390 BTC. Nectar (NEC) traded up 1.7% against the dollar and now trades at $0.33 or 0.00004439 BTC. SaluS (SLS) traded down 3% against the dollar and now trades at $25.19 or 0.00340417 BTC. HempCoin (THC) traded down 6.6% against the dollar and now trades at $0.0731 or 0.00000988 BTC. ECC (ECC) traded 11.3% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.0006 or 0.00000008 BTC. Linda (LINDA) traded 5.6% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.0016 or 0.00000021 BTC. VeriCoin (VRC) traded down 1.7% against the dollar and now trades at $0.31 or 0.00004196 BTC. ToaCoin (TOA) traded 3% lower against the dollar and now trades at $0.0031 or 0.00000041 BTC. Gambit (GAM) traded 11.8% higher against the dollar and now trades at $6.24 or 0.00084540 BTC.

OP Coin Profile

OP Coin (OPC) is a PoW/PoS coin that uses the Scrypt hashing algorithm. It was first traded on November 12th, 2017. OP Coin’s total supply is 2,473,656,069 coins and its circulating supply is 1,858,984,784 coins. The official website for OP Coin is opcoin.info. The Reddit community for OP Coin is /r/OPCoin_official and the currency’s Github account can be viewed here. OP Coin’s official Twitter account is @OPCoin.official and its Facebook page is accessible here.

OP Coin Coin Trading

OP Coin can be purchased on the following cryptocurrency exchanges: Cryptopia and CryptoBridge. It is usually not possible to buy alternative cryptocurrencies such as OP Coin directly using US dollars. Investors seeking to acquire OP Coin should first buy Ethereum or Bitcoin using an exchange that deals in US dollars such as GDAX, Changelly or Coinbase. Investors can then use their newly-acquired Ethereum or Bitcoin to buy OP Coin using one of the aforementioned exchanges.

new TradingView.widget({ “height”: 400, “width”: 650, “symbol”: “OPCUSD”, “interval”: “D”, “timezone”: “Etc/UTC”, “theme”: “White”, “style”: “1”, “locale”: “en”, “toolbar_bg”: “#f1f3f6”, “enable_publishing”: false, “hideideas”: true, “referral_id”: “2588”});