Superior Group of Companies reported drops in sales and profit for the third quarter of 2019. Superior (Nasdaq: SGC), a Seminole-based firm with brand apparel, promotions and remote staffing operations, reported $3.9 million in net income, or 26 cents a share, on revenue of $89.5 million for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared to net income of $6.1 million, or 39 cents a share, on revenue of $95.9 million in the year-ago quarter. "We are not satisfied with the third quarter net sales decline, breaking our streak of 27 consecutive quarters of growth," Michael Benstock, CEO, told analysts, adding that the company made progress on long-term goals. The uniform segment lagged, while the remote staffing business delivered solid results and the promotional products operation had record sales growth, he said.
Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg and Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida have entered into an agreement to expand care for children across Florida’s west coast. The new agreement gives providers at both locations access to medical privileges to admit and treat patients. Golisano will also be able to take part in pediatric research studies and protocols through All Children’s, and the two hospitals agreed to promote best practices at both locations with the goal of tracking and improving patient outcomes, lowering costs and promoting patient care closer to home. Golisano, based in Fort Meyers, is the is the only recognized children’s hospital between Tampa and Miami.
Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik has decided to close Vinik Asset Management, a hedge fund he launched earlier this year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Vinik, who was a star fund manager at Fidelity previously, expected to raise $3 billion for Vinik Asset Management, but a March regulatory filing, the most recent available, showed he raised $465 million. The Journal said that was up to $550 million currently. “It has been much harder to raise money over the last several months than I anticipated," Vinik wrote in a letter to investors quoted by the Journal. “What I learned after probably 75 meetings is, the hedge-fund industry of 2019 is very different than the hedge-fund industry when I started in 1996, and it’s even very different from the hedge-fund industry when I closed in 2013.”
The Tampa Bay Water board of directors approved a contract for the administration of a regional demand management, or water conservation, program with Electric & Gas Industries Association. This program aims to save up to 11 million gallons per day of water by 2030 and delay the need to build new supplies, a news release said. The program includes incentives for single-family homes, multi-family homes, commercial and industrial properties and new housing developments, according to Tampa Bay Water, the wholesale water supplier for St. Petersburg, Tampa and New Port Richey as well as Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties.
Three local mayors were among 231 mayors nationwide who signed a letter to Congress, urging passage of legislation to extend the solar investment tax credit for five years. Dunedin Mayor Julie Ward Bujalski, Largo Mayor Louis L. "Woody" Brown and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman signed the Oct. 22 letter, saying since it was first approved in 2006, the tax credit has created more than 200,000 jobs and $140 billion in private investment in the United States. The tax credit is scheduled to begin ramping down at the end of this year.
Turner Pest Control has bought Bingham's Professional Pest Management, a family-owned company headquartered in St. Petersburg that serves customers throughout the Tampa area. Financial terms were not disclosed. With the deal, Bingham's customers and employees will have access to the best and most advanced products, methods and services on the market, Brian Hawkins, Bingham's president, said in a news release. Turner is a Jacksonville-based company that was acquired by Anticimex in 2018. Rand Hollon of Preferred Business Brokers was the exclusive advisor to Bingham's in the transaction.
ImmunSYS, a Fort Lauderdale company developing a cancer therapy for patients with prostate cancer and other solid tumors, was the top winner at BioPitch. The pitch competition was part of BioFlorida's annual conference held Sunday through Tuesday in Tampa. Sixteen life science companies took part in BioPitch, with four semi-finalists announced Tuesday morning: AireHealth in Orlando, DermaSensor in Miami and Regener-Eyes in Palm Harbor, in addition to ImmunSYS, which won $10,000.
Some independent advisors in Raymond James' Investment Advisors Division will now have fee-free trades on stocks, exchange-traded funds and options, according to a report by CNBC. The move, announced at a conference in Bonita Springs, is aimed exclusively at professional advisors, where there are no direct trades by individual clients, the report said. The change will help advisors compete as firms like Charles Schwab, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade move to zero commission trades, CNBC said. Raymond James (NYSE: RJF), a financial services firm headquartered in St. Petersburg, declined comment, citing a quiet period before it reports earnings tomorrow.
The New York Department of Financial Services and Department of Health each have approved Centene Corp.'s pending indirect acquisition of WellCare Health Plans insurance subsidiaries that are domiciled in New York. That makes New York the 25th state to give regulatory approval for the acquisition of Tampa-based WellCare (NYSE: WCG) by Centene (NYSE: CNC). The $17.3 billion transaction is on track to close in the first half of 2020, a news release said.
Stonehill, a strategy and transformation consultancy in Tampa, was named the 2019 Emerging Business of the Year by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The award recognizes a start-up company that has attained outstanding business achievement with fewer than 25 employees and less than three years of full-time operation, a news release said. Stonehill's selection was announced at the Chamber's Dream Big Awards Celebration last week in Washington, D.C. Stonehill was founded by Doug Pace, who was recently recognized by the American Business Awards as Entrepreneur of the Year.
First Citrus Bancorporation (OTC: FCIT) reported net earnings of $781,000, or 37 cents a share, for the third quarter of 2019, compared to net earnings of $920,000, or 46 cents a share, for the same quarter in 2018. The company said in a news release that the 15 percent dip in earnings was due to increased personnel costs and expansion activities in the Pinellas County market. First Citrus Bank expects to open its first branch in more than a decade in downtown St. Petersburg in 2020. For the first nine months of 2019, the Tampa-based bank, with $416 million in total assets, reported net earnings of nearly $2.8 million, or $1.34 a share, up 6 percent from the first nine months of 2018.
Raymond James has raised its target stock price for Apple Inc. from $250 a share to $280 a share. Analysts at the St. Petersburg-based financial services firm cited more favorable data on sales of the iPhone 11, according to CNBC. Raymond James also is optimistic about the 5G iPhone expected next year, SeekingAlpha said. Raymond James maintained an outperform rating on Apple. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is a major customer of both Tech Data (Nasdaq: TECD) and Jabil (NYSE: JBL), the No. 1 and No. 2 largest companies, respectively, in the Tampa-St. Pete area. Apple shares closed Friday, before the Raymond James report came out, at $236.41 and were trading higher before the market opened Monday.
