Latest Chargers Injury Updates Are Very Good News For Justin HerbertAngela Merkel's Memoir: A Tale of Leadership and Reflections
If you're a value investor, there's a good chance Signet Jewelers ( SIG 5.59% ) has popped up on your radar. The company is the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry, and it owns banners like Kay, Zales, and Jared. It operates in a mature industry, but its size gives it scale advantages. It has also been focused on leveraging loyalty programs, digital marketing, e-commerce, and services, which are harder for independent retailers to do. Signet is reliably profitable, and the stock trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of less than 10, which is clearly value range in a market where the S&P 500 trades at a P/E of around 30. However, investors didn't like what they saw in Signet's latest report, as the stock was down 12% after the company reported third-quarter earnings on Thursday. Comparable sales improved for the sixth quarter in a row as it emerged from a post-pandemic lull, but they were still down 0.7%. As a result, overall revenue was down 3.1% to $1.35 billion, which was just shy of the consensus at $1.37 billion. Management noted headwinds from challenges from the digital integration of the Blue Nile and James Allen banners as well as leadership transition costs after CEO Gina Drosos retired during the quarter and was replaced by J.K. Symancyk. On the bottom line, adjusted earnings per share was flat at $0.24, which also missed estimates at $0.33. Adjusted operating income in the quarter fell from $23.8 million to $16.2 million, though the company's earnings per share from a lower tax expense and fewer shares outstanding. Reflecting the challenges at its digital banners, Signet also cut its full-year guidance. It now sees revenue of $6.74 billion to $6.81 billion, compared to a previous range of $6.66 billion to $7.02 billion. On the bottom line, it cut its adjusted EPS range from $9.90 to $11.52 to $9.62 to $10.08, lowering the midpoint of that range by roughly a dollar and below estimates at $10.49. The silver lining It's not surprising that the stock fell on the news. After all, missing estimates and cutting guidance will tend to do that, but the headwinds facing Signet seem to be short-term. The primary challenge facing the company is integrating the James Allen and Blue Nile digital banners. In an interview with The Motley Fool, CFO Joan Hilson explained that as the company integrated the API from those banners, it negatively impacted traffic to the site and search functionality. However, she expected that to normalize within the next year, saying, "We're confident we'll be able to put that business back on track to our long-term expectations." With those challenges expected to be short-term, a 12% decline in the stock on one earnings report seems excessive. Signet also continues to expect a ramp-up in engagements, which declined following the pandemic as dating patterns were altered by the global health crisis. However, engagements are expected to return to their historical levels in the next couple of years, which will benefit Signet as bridal jewelry makes up roughly half of its business. Engagement trends were weaker than expected in the quarter, which also contributed to subpar performance. Meanwhile, the company continues to deliver solid performance in fashion, the non-bridal portion of the business, thanks in part to lab-created diamonds, which allow for a higher average transaction volume. Is Signet a buy? Despite the disappointing performance, the pieces for the growth of the business are still there, including a recovery in engagements, growth in fashion, share buybacks, increasing operating efficiencies, and growth in the service business. At a price-to-earnings ratio of under 10 now, the stock looks more likely than not to outperform over the coming years.SAGT wins sustainability award from Ceylon Chamber of Commerce
LA SALLE 83, TEMPLE 75
Gold-based cancer drug outperforms chemotherapy – researchersNASHVILLE, Tenn. — Married couples across the U.S. have had access to no-fault divorce for more than 50 years, an option many call crucial to supporting domestic abuse victims and key to preventing already crowded family courts from drowning in complicated divorce proceedings. But some advocates for women worried as old comments from now Vice President-elect JD Vance circulated during the presidential campaign opposing no-fault divorce. After President-elect Donald Trump and Vance won the election, warnings began popping up on social media urging women who might be considering divorce to "pull the trigger" while they still could. Some attorneys posted saying they saw a spike in calls from women seeking divorce consultations. Donald and Ivana Trump pose in May 1988 outside the Federal Courthouse in New York after she was sworn in as a United States citizen. Trump — who is twice-divorced — hasn't championed overhauling the country's divorce laws, but in 2021 Vance lamented that divorce is too easily accessible, as have conservative podcasters and others. "We've run this experiment in real time and what we have is a lot of very, very real family dysfunction that's making our kids unhappy," Vance said during a speech at a Christian high school in California, where he criticized people being able to "shift spouses like they change their underwear." Marriage rates held steady but divorce rates of women age 15 and older declined from 2012 to 2022, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released in October. Despite concerns, even those who want to make divorces harder to get say they don't expect big, swift changes. There is not a national coordinated effort underway. States determine their own divorce laws, so national leaders can't directly change policy. "Even in some of the so-called red states, it hasn't gotten anywhere," said Beverly Willett, co-chair of the Coalition for Divorce Reform, whose group unsuccessfully attempted to convince states to repeal their no-fault divorce laws. A couple exchanges wedding bands Oct. 11, 2018, at City Hall in Philadelphia. Mark A. Smith, a political science professor at the University of Washington, said while many Americans became accustomed to no-fault divorce being an option, Vance's previous comments on making it more difficult to separate from a spouse could help jump-start that effort. "Even though he's not directly proposing a policy, it's a topic that hasn't gotten a ton of discussion in the last 15 years," Smith said. "And so to have a national profile politician talk that way is noteworthy." Meanwhile, Republican Party platforms in Texas and Nebraska were amended in 2022 to call for the removal of no-fault divorce. Louisiana's Republican Party considered something similar this year but declined to do so. A handful of proposals were introduced in conservative-led statehouses over the years, but all immediately stalled after they were filed. In January, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Dusty Deevers introduced legislation that would have removed married couples from filing for divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. Deevers backed the bill after writing a piece declaring no-fault divorce was an "abolition of marital obligation." Sen. JD Vance smiles as his wife Usha Vance applauds Nov. 6 at an election-night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. Similarly, in South Carolina, two Republican lawmakers in 2023 filed a bill that would have required both spouses to file for a no-fault divorce application rather than just one. In South Dakota, a Republican lawmaker attempted to remove irreconcilable difference as grounds for divorce since 2020. None of the sponsors of these bills responded to interview requests from The Associated Press. All are members of their state's conservative Freedom Caucus. Nevertheless, some Democratic lawmakers say they remain worried about the future of no-fault divorce. They point to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to abortion in 2022 as an example of a long-accepted option that was revoked through a decades-long effort. "When you choose to be silent, you allow for this to creep in," said Democratic South Dakota Rep. Linda Duba. "These are the bills that gain a foothold because you choose to be silent." Before California became the first state to adopt a no-fault divorce option in 1969, married couples had to prove their spouse violated one of the approved "faults" outlined in their state's divorce law or risk a judge denying their divorce, said Joanna Grossman, a law professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Qualified reasons varied from state to state, but largely included infidelity, incarceration or abandonment. Donald and Marla Trump wave to photographers Dec. 20, 1993, as they enter their wedding reception in New York's Plaza Hotel. The system was a particular burden on domestic violence victims, who are often women who could be stuck in dangerous marriages while they try to prove their partner's abuse in court through expensive and lengthy legal proceedings. "If there was any evidence that the couple both wanted to get divorced that was supposed to be denied because divorce was not something you got because you wanted it, it was something you got because you've been wronged in a way that the state thought was significant," Grossman said. To date, every state in the U.S. adopted a no-fault divorce option. However, 33 states still have a list of approved "faults" to file as grounds for divorce — ranging from adultery to felony conviction. In 17 states, married people only have the option of choosing no-fault divorce to end their marriages. The link between rates of divorce and age at first marriage has been borne out over time, but it also explains geographic differences in rates of divorce. Today, most of the states with the lowest rates of divorce are also those with a higher median age for marriage. States like New Jersey, New York, California, and Massachusetts all stand out for having fewer than 10% of adults divorced and an age at first marriage above 30. One exception to this is Utah, which has the lowest overall median age for first marriage at 25.5 but also the third-lowest share of divorced adults at 9%, likely due in part to the state’s strong religious ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . In contrast, Maine and Nevada lead all states in the share of the population currently divorced at 13.9% and 13.8%, respectively. And at the local level, many of the cities with the highest levels of divorce are found in Florida, Appalachia, and the Southwest. The data used in this analysis is from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 American Community Survey . To determine the most divorced locations, researchers at ChamberOfCommerce.org calculated the percentage of adults currently divorced. In the event of a tie, the location with the higher percentage of adults currently separated was ranked higher. To improve relevance, only cities with at least 100,000 residents were included. Additionally, cities were grouped into cohorts based on population size: small (100,000–149,999), midsize (150,000–349,999), and large (350,000 or more). Here are the most divorced cities in the U.S. Photo Credit: Jacob Boomsma / Shutterstock Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Shutterstock Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Shutterstock Photo Credit: photo.ua / Shutterstock Photo Credit: Jonny Trego / Shutterstock Photo Credit: Tupungato / Shutterstock Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Shutterstock Photo Credit: Kevin J King / Shutterstock Photo Credit: Sean Pavone / Shutterstock Photo Credit: Galina Savina / Shutterstock Photo Credit: f11photo / Shutterstock Photo Credit: CHARLES MORRA / Shutterstock Photo Credit: LHBLLC / Shutterstock Photo Credit: Valiik30 / Shutterstock Photo Credit: turtix / Shutterstock Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.