Jacksonville's Morning News Tuesday, April 22 - Jax Beach weighs smoking, parking restrictions
Three Big Things to Know:
Jacksonville Beach is trying to address complaints residents have about semi-trucks. The city council met yesterday to discuss a parking restriction on A1A. It would ban semi-trucks from parking for more than four hours between 25th Ave South and the county line. Neighbors say the trucks are taking up too many parking spots and making too much noise. The ordinance passed its first reading last night. Another ordinance would prohibit almost every way a person could smoke tobacco on beach property. However, state law doesn't allow a local ban on unfiltered cigars.
Four people are hurt after an apparent gas explosion in Clay County. A house on Sycamore Way was damaged in last night's explosion. Clay County Fire Rescue says two adults and two children were taken to the hospital, but there's no word on their conditions. The State Fire Marshal is investigating.
Walgreens will pay hundreds of millions of dollars in what's described as a landmark civil settlement. The pharmacy chain agreed to pay 300 million dollars to resolve allegations it illegally filled millions of invalid prescriptions for opioids. Walgreens is also accused of trying to get Medicare and other federal health care programs to pay for the invalid prescriptions.
LISTEN: First Alert Meteorologist Corey Simma tracks warm, dry days into the weekend.
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UnitedHealth shares soar after Warren Buffett's new stake provides a vote of confidence
UnitedHealth shares soared Friday after legendary investor Warren Buffett revealed a significant stake in the troubled insurer. The health care stock popped 12% in morning trading, on track for its best day in five years. UnitedHealth, often viewed as the industry's bellwether, is set to add about 209 points to the Dow Jones Industrial Average at Friday's open. The advance came after Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway revealed a stake of 5 million shares, worth about $1.6 billion. The "Big Short" investor Michael Burry and Appaloosa Management's David Tepper also disclosed sizable stakes in the company. Shares of UnitedHealth were down nearly 50% for 2025 through Thursday's close before Buffett's filing. The largest private health insurer has become the face of public blowback in this country against the rising costs of health care. UnitedHealth is currently facing a Justice Department investigation into its Medicare billing practices. In May, the company pulled its annual earnings outlook and CEO Andrew Witty stepped down. Last month, UnitedHealth gave a new 2025 outlook that was well short of Wall Street estimates, hitting the stock further. "The move by Berkshire represents a big vote of confidence in UNH and likely could provide a near-term trading floor for most of the MCO space and, given Berkshire's investment track record, could serve as a near-term bottom and rallying point for other investors that the space is safe to invest in again," George Hill, a health care analyst at Deutsche Bank, said in a note to clients.
CNBC
2 hours ago
- CNBC
Why Warren Buffett and other top investors may find troubled UnitedHealth appealing right now
UnitedHealth shares are getting a much needed boost after high-profile investors including Warren Buffett and David Tepper unveiled new stakes in the scandal-plagued insurer. The health care stock popped 10% on Friday, on track for its best day in five years. The advance came after Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway revealed a stake of five million shares , worth about $1.6 billion. The "Big Short" investor Michael Burry and Appaloosa Management's Tepper also disclosed sizable stakes in the company. It may come as a surprising move as UnitedHealthcare has become the poster child for problems with the nation's sprawling health-care system. The company recently suffered a string of setbacks , including a suspension of 2025 guidance , the abrupt departure of former CEO Andrew Witty and a Justice Department investigation into its Medicare billing practices. So, why are these top investors buying now? 50% off One unquestionable factor is just how cheap the stock has become. At its peak just nine months ago, shares closed at $615, topping a market capitalization of $500 billion. The stock has now been cut more than half, a rare occurrence for a blue-chip, household name that has been a member of the coveted Dow Jones industrial Average since 2012. "It is available now at a 50% discount. It will probably pay major fines and some executives may be forced to leave the company. But the company will survive and likely regain its prominence in the industry," said David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland who has studied Buffett's methods for a long time. "Its finances are solid. It has above average profitability and a below average price to earnings ratio." UNH 1Y bar UnitedHealth in the past 1-year period Shares of the insurer traded at a price-earnings ratio of just under 12 Thursday, near its lowest in more than a decade. That compared to a 10-year average multiple of 23, according to FactSet data. The healthcare sector is the worst performer among the 11 S & P 500 groupings this year, down nearly 3% as of Thursday's close. "The sector has been under-loved and undervalued for a while," Robert Teeter, chief investment strategist at Silvercrest Asset Management, said on CNBC's "Worldwide Exchange" Friday. "You get some investors that are willing to step in and that creates a sense of momentum. It's an area that has a lot of potential for margin recovery." 'Surmountable' woes? Buffett has a history and reputation of avoiding conflict and controversy when it comes to investing. The last and perhaps the only time Berkshire had an investment embroiled in controversies was Wells Fargo , which conducted fraudulent practices that came to light in 2016. Buffett exited the position 2022. Berkshire's UnitedHealth bet is also an unlikely one given Buffett's longtime distain towards the industry. He previously called the healthcare industry a "tapeworm" on the economy due to its high costs. In 2018, he, along with Jeff Bezos and Jamie Dimon , launched a joint venture to improve health care for their employees and potentially for all Americans, but it was eventually shut down. Still, Buffett's primary focus is always on understanding the business itself, the cost and its long-term potential. Berkshire, with a gigantic footprint in the broader insurance industry, may have special insight into the health insurer. "UNH sports an undeniably cheap valuation but it comes under the cloud of a government investigation and questions about reimbursement levels," said Bill Stone, Glenview Trust Company CIO and a longtime Berkshire shareholder. "Buffett is always interested in strong franchises that he thinks are dealing with surmountable short-term woes and that could be his view here." Long time horizon The size of Berkshire's stake — $1.5 billion — indicated to some that Buffett's two investing lieutenants, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, were more responsible for this purchase rather than the "Oracle of Omaha" himself. Though, it's probable that Buffett and incoming CEO Greg Abel blessed this move. What sets Berkshire apart from others is its buy-and-hold long-term approach, which could work to its advantage as UnitedHealth seeks to avert its crisis and regain public trust, according to George Hill, a healthcare analyst at Deutsche Bank. "Berkshire clearly has the one attribute many investors do not have, which is duration," Hill said in a note to clients. "While we believe that UNH shares appear attractively valued on a three-plus year time horizon, UNH's next two years could be very choppy from a membership, reimbursement and profitability perspective." UnitedHealth owns the nation's largest and most powerful insurer, UnitedHealthcare, and is often viewed as the industry's bellwether. Wall Street analysts have welcomed with the return of Stephen Hemsley to lead the company again. Hemsley is widely credited as the CEO who transformed the company into the conglomerate it is today. UnitedHealth's 2024 was a particularly tough one. It grappled with the murder of the UnitedHealthcare unit's CEO, Brian Thompson, the torrent of public blowback that followed and a historic cyberattack that affected millions of Americans.
CNBC
2 hours ago
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Berkshire's UnitedHealth stake, Trump meets with Putin and more in Morning Squawk
A much hotter-than-expected producer price index roiled the market on Thursday, with stocks falling before recovering most of their losses by the closing bell. Wholesale prices in July saw their biggest monthly increase since June 2022, jumping 0.9% last month — a possible warning sign that inflation is still a threat. The S&P 500 still ended the session up 0.03%, notching its third straight record close, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 11.01 points, or 0.02%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped just 0.01%. All three major averages are headed for another winning week. Follow live market updates here. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought more than 5 million shares of UnitedHealth last quarter, the conglomerate revealed Thursday. Shares of the troubled health-care stock — which before Buffett's filing were down nearly 50% so far this year — popped on the news and were up more than 10% before the bell Friday. Indeed, Berkshire's disclosure surprised many market watchers: UnitedHealth has become the face of public dissatisfaction with the country's health care system, is currently facing an investigation into its Medicare billing practices and issued disappointing guidance last month. But that's not the only move Berkshire made. The conglomerate also took stakes in Nucor, Lamar Advertising, Allegion, Lennar and DR Horton. President Donald Trump is on his way to Alaska for a highly anticipated, one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, set to kick off at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday. The summit between the two leaders, taking place at Elmendorf Richardson military base in Anchorage, comes as the war in Ukraine enters its fourth year. "The president wants to exhaust all options to try to bring this war to a peaceful resolution," the White House said Thursday. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not invited to the meeting, which will be followed by a working lunch and a joint press conference with the two leaders. Shares of Intel closed more than 7% higher on Thursday following a report that the Trump administration is considering having the U.S. government take a stake in the company. The report by Bloomberg comes days after Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan's trip to the White House, where he met with Trump after the president called for his resignation. Trump appeared to walk back his criticisms of Tan following the Monday meeting, writing in a Truth Social post that Tan's "success and rise is an amazing story." If the U.S. government were to take a stake in Intel, the report said, it would help fund the factories that the struggling chipmaker is building in Ohio. August isn't what it used to be, according to airlines. The third quarter has historically been somewhat of a sure thing for carriers, but airlines have drawn down their schedules for August as a variety of factors weigh on summer travel demand. Some travelers are flying earlier in the summer, demand for Europe-bound flights has moved to later in the fall and schools' summer breaks are happening earlier in the calendar year. Other travelers are just waiting until the last minute to book. "It really was, I would say, middle of May, when we started seeing Memorial Day bookings pick up," JetBlue Airways President Marty St. George said last month. "We had a fantastic Memorial Day, much better than forecast, and that really carried into June. But it does have the feeling of people just waited a long time to make the final decisions." —
