Stockwinners Market Radar for May 14, 2017 - Earnings, Upgrades downgrades, option trades, Best Stock Advisory Service

17:59 EDT Western Digital initiates arbitration against Toshiba over attempted chip sale - Western Digital (WDC) announced that several of its SanDisk subsidiaries have filed a request for arbitration with the ICC International Court of Arbitration related to three NAND flash-memory joint ventures operated with Toshiba (TOSBF). The arbitration demand seeks, among other things, an order requiring Toshiba to unwind the transfer of joint venture interests to Toshiba Memory, and injunctive relief preventing Toshiba from further breaching the JV agreements by transferring its JV interests without SanDisk's consent. Per the joint venture agreements, the arbitration will take place in San Francisco. "SanDisk did not consent to the transfer to Toshiba Memory, and Toshiba has now repudiated any intention to obtain SanDisk's consent before selling Toshiba Memory to the winning bidder of the auction," the company noted. Western Digital CEO Steve Milligan commented, "We continue to be actively engaged in discussions with Toshiba's stakeholders to ensure that they are fully aware of our joint venture rights and of our desire to work with Toshiba to achieve a favorable outcome for all parties... SanDisk and Toshiba agreed to protect their interests in the joint ventures by prohibiting transfers without the consent of the other party. Toshiba's attempt to spin out its joint venture interests into an affiliate and then sell that affiliate is explicitly prohibited without SanDisk's consent. Seeking relief through mandatory arbitration was not our first choice in trying to resolve this matter. However, all of our other efforts to achieve a resolution to date have been unsuccessful."

17:05 EDT Box Office Battle: 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' wins weekend as 'King Arthur' flops - Disney's (DIS) "Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2" earned $63M in the U.S. over the May 14 weekend, dipping about 57% from its opening numbers and falling slightly short of a $65M-$70M forecast. BOX OFFICE RUNNERS-UP: Fox's (FOX) "Snatched" opened at $17.5M, disappointing expectations for $20M-$21M. The Amy Schumer-led comedy was scored B in CinemaScore polls and holds a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 36%. Taking third place, Time Warner's (TWX) "King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword" debuted at $14.7M domestically versus estimates of $20M-$25M. The film, a Guy Ritchie-directed retelling of the Arthurian legend starring Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law, received a B+ in audience polls from CinemaScore, holds a 28% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was produced with a reported budget of $175M. In overseas markets, "Arthur" took $29M. Rounding out the top five, Comcast's (CMCSA) "The Fate Of The Furious" added $5.3M in its fifth weekend while Fox's "The Boss Baby" grossed $4.6M in its seventh. Also of note was the foreign launch of Fox's "Alien: Covenant," which saw the extraterrestrial horror earn $42M ahead of its May 19 debut in the U.S. Other publicly traded companies in filmmaking include Lionsgate (LGF.A), Sony (SNE) and Viacom (VIA).

14:42 EDT NetSol postpones Q3 report, says auditor requires additional review time - NetSol Technologies announced Sunday that it has postponed its Q3 earnings announcement and conference call originally scheduled for May 15. The company now plans to report on May 22. "NETSOL's delay in announcing its results is due to the additional time the company's new independent auditor needs to finalize its review of the company's fiscal Q3 and nine months ended March 31, 2017 financial results. The company does not anticipate this delay will lead to any adverse change in its financial results," the company said. NETSOL's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for its Q3 will also not be timely filed.

14:29 EDT Editas: Pre-clinical trial demonstrates first in-vivo primate retina editing - Editas Medicine (EDIT) announced results Saturday from a pre-clinical study demonstrating what the company called the first achievement of efficient editing of the CEP290 gene in the retina of non-human primates. "The results of this study further reinforce Editas Medicine's belief in the transformative potential of its candidate medicine for Leber Congenital Amaurosis type 10, an inherited retinal degenerative disease that appears in childhood and leads to blindness," the company noted. The company reported the data at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy. In the study, two guide RNAs and S. aureus Cas9 expressed under the control of a photoreceptor-specific promoter were delivered in a single, subretinally-injected adeno-associated virus at two different doses. Retinal tissue and genomic DNA were taken from within the sub-macular bleb region at six and 13 weeks and analyzed using Editas' novel sequencing method, UDiTaS, to quantify all editing events. Gene editing was demonstrated to be dose and time dependent. Editing rates were measured directly as a percentage of all alleles in total genomic DNA taken from the retinas of non-human primates, which included both photoreceptor cells and other cell types. Editing rates were also projected based on additional analyses which demonstrated that Cas9 expression was limited to photoreceptor cells, which are the target cells for LCA10 treatment. For animals treated with the higher dose, the projected productive editing rate may be as high as 50 percent in photoreceptor cells, based on directly measured editing of 15 percent in total genomic DNA and an estimate for the proportion of cells represented by photoreceptors. "Based on analyses presented today, we believe that we were successful in editing the vast majority photoreceptors using a primate-specific candidate that shares critical design and construction features with our clinical candidate," said Charles Albright, Chief Scientific Officer. In March, Editas and Allergan (AGN) entered into a research and development alliance under which Allergan received exclusive access and the option to license up to five of Editas' genome-editing candidate medicines for ocular diseases, including its product candidate for LCA10.

14:21 EDT Genomic Health reports data from two Oncotype DX GPS analyses - Genomic Health on Saturday announced results from two Oncotype DX Genomic Prostate Score test analyses based on a prospective, multi-center, 1,200-patient study. Results of one analysis, presented at the American Urological Association 2017 Annual Meeting, "prospectively validate" the GPS test as an independent predictor of adverse pathology as a measure of tumor aggressiveness in men with localized prostate cancer, the company said. A second analysis, presented at AUA and published online in Urology, reinforces that the GPS test significantly increases use and persistence on active surveillance. Regarding the interim analysis of the 1,200-patient study, results from 258 patients demonstrated that use of the GPS test changed initial treatment recommendations for 23 percent of patients, which is consistent with previously reported studies. Sixty-two percent of the GPS-tested patient population selected active surveillance compared to 40 percent of the men who did not receive the test. Of men who selected active surveillance initially, the vast majority - 89 percent - remained on active surveillance at one year based on personalized genomic information from the GPS test. Turning the prospective validation study, the company said the initial findings from 122 patients across 19 centers "demonstrated that the GPS result was a strong and independent predictor of adverse pathology across very low-, low- and intermediate-risk patients. Importantly, these prospective validation study results are consistent with previously published studies based on retrospective patient cohorts."

14:02 EDT Portland General Electric says suspends permitting processes for new sites - Portland General Electric submitted a letter Friday to the Oregon Department of Energy and another to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality asking for suspension of the utility's request for amendment of the site certificate for the Carty Generating Station near Boardman as well as a related air permit application. "The amendment and permit, if approved, would have allowed for the construction of two new generating units at Carty, if the units were selected as the least cost/lowest risk option in a future competitive bidding process for new generating resources. PGE's request for the amendment was driven by the need to insure that the company has a viable option to secure a cost-effective dispatchable generation resource to provide reliable service to customers... If the company is able to secure capacity through bilateral negotiations PGE will seek approval of the agreements from the Oregon Public Utility Commission along with a waiver to competitive bidding guidelines as necessary. The company may also propose a competitive request for proposals to acquire any additional needed capacity resources not acquired through the bilateral negotiations," the company explained. "We're currently in bilateral negotiations to acquire dispatchable resources to meet our customers' energy needs. It's appropriate for us to suspend the permitting process at Carty until we complete these negotiations," said Jim Piro, PGE's CEO.