Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019

tags:ABTX,FARM,BKHU,SAN,NCT,MDWD,LPT,GLYC,CADC,HIFS,

September 17, 2018: The S&P 500 closed down 0.6% at 2,888.95. The DJIA also closed down 0.4% at 26,062.02. Separately, the Nasdaq was down 1.4% at 7,895.79.

Monday was a down day for the broad U.S. markets with the Nasdaq especially taking it on the chin. Crude oil pulled back in the session as well. The S&P 500 sectors were more or less split down the middle. The most positive sectors were real estate and utilities up 0.5% and 0.4%. The worst performing sectors were consumer discretionary and technology down 1.2% each.

Crude oil was last seen trading down 0.5% at $68.68.

Gold was last seen trading up 0.4% at $1,205.30.

The S&P 500 stock posting the largest daily percentage loss in the S&P 500 ahead of the close was ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABMD) which fell nearly 7% to $369.08. The stock's 52-week range is $155.57 to $450.93. Volume was just less than 1 million compared to the daily average volume of 0.6 million.

Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019: Allegiance Bancshares, Inc.(ABTX)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Allegiance Bancshares (NASDAQ:ABTX)’s share price hit a new 52-week high and low during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $42.80 and last traded at $41.40, with a volume of 51295 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.75.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Allegiance Bancshares (ABTX)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019: Farmer Brothers Company(FARM)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Max Byerly]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Farmer Bros (FARM)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Motley Fool Transcribing]

  Farmer Brothers (NASDAQ:FARM) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallSep. 11, 2018 5:00 p.m. ET

  Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

  Operator

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Shares of Farmer Brothers (NASDAQ:FARM) reached a new 52-week high and low during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $23.60 and last traded at $24.15, with a volume of 728 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $23.70.

• [By Motley Fool Transcribers]

  Farmer Brothers Co  (NASDAQ:FARM)Q2 2019 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 11, 2019, 5:00 p.m. ET

  Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

  Operator

• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers Carver Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: CARV) shares jumped 92.1 percent to $7.01. iPic Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: IPIC) gained 21.6 percent to $9.73. Baozun Inc. (NASDAQ: BZUN) shares jumped 18.7 percent to $53.49 after reporting Q1 results. World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: WWE) shares jumped 15.9 percent to $50.50. The company's "Smackdown Live" may not be renewed at NBCUniversal network and the company's "Monday Night Raw" program could be worth three times its current value elsewhere, according to a report for The Hollywood Reporter. Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPPI) gained 14.7 percent to $ 20.46 after the company issued further details on Phase 3 ADVANCE study of ROLONTIS. Motus GI Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MOTS) climbed 13.4 percent to $5.5009. Endocyte, Inc. (NASDAQ: ECYT) rose 13.3 percent to $ 14.23 after the company announced presentation of Phase 2 data from prostate cancer trial of 177Lu-PSMA-617 at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting. Diana Containerships Inc. (NASDAQ: DCIX) gained 12.9 percent to $1.7499 after the company announced the sale of Post-Panamax Container Vessel for $21 million. Essendant Inc. (NASDAQ: ESND) gained 12.7 percent to $12.43. Essendant confirmed receipt of unsolicited proposal from Staples of $11.50 per share in cash. Blink Charging Co (NASDAQ: BLNK) rose 11.8 percent to $8.04 after surging 31.68 percent on Wednesday. OptimumBank Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPHC) gained 11.5 percent to $5.15. Flotek Industries, Inc. (NYSE: FTK) shares climbed 10.7 percent to $3.74. Farmer Bros. Co. (NASDAQ: FARM) rose 7.9 percent to $25.95 after climbing 7.90 percent on Wednesday. Minerva Neurosciences Inc (NASDAQ: NERV) rose 6.5 percent to $6.93 after Journal of Clinical Psychiatry published positive results of cognitive performance from Phase 2B trial of roluperidone in schizophrenia patients. Williams Partners L.P. (NYSE: WPZ) rose 5.6 percent to $40

Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019: Black Hills Corporation(BKHU)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Media headlines about BLACK HILLS Cor/EQUITY Ut (NYSE:BKHU) have trended positive recently, Accern reports. The research firm identifies positive and negative news coverage by analyzing more than 20 million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. BLACK HILLS Cor/EQUITY Ut earned a daily sentiment score of 0.30 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media stories about the company an impact score of 44.7211950698084 out of 100, indicating that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the next few days.

Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019: Banco Santander, S.A.(SAN)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Bank of America set a €95.00 ($110.47) price objective on Sanofi (EPA:SAN) in a report released on Monday. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the stock.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Shares of Sanofi SA (EPA:SAN) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the nineteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is €79.21 ($92.11).

• [By Asit Sharma]

  Shares of Spanish banking giant Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) dipped 11% in the month of August, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Hudson Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) by 45.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 150,489 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 46,921 shares during the quarter. Hudson Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Banco Santander were worth $752,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  COPYRIGHT VIOLATION WARNING: “Jefferies Group Analysts Give Sanofi (SAN) a €72.00 Price Target” was originally reported by Ticker Report and is the property of of Ticker Report. If you are reading this piece of content on another website, it was copied illegally and republished in violation of U.S. & international copyright and trademark law. The original version of this piece of content can be viewed at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/3353529/jefferies-group-analysts-give-sanofi-san-a-72-00-price-target.html.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  HRT Financial LLC bought a new position in Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 36,815 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $196,000.

Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019: Newcastle Investment Corporation(NCT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  PolySwarm (CURRENCY:NCT) traded 8.5% lower against the dollar during the 24-hour period ending at 13:00 PM ET on August 28th. PolySwarm has a market capitalization of $5.86 million and $7,097.00 worth of PolySwarm was traded on exchanges in the last day. One PolySwarm token can currently be purchased for approximately $0.0038 or 0.00000054 BTC on popular cryptocurrency exchanges including DDEX, TOPBTC, IDEX and HitBTC. In the last week, PolySwarm has traded 9.3% lower against the dollar.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  PolySwarm (CURRENCY:NCT) traded 3.5% lower against the dollar during the 1 day period ending at 0:00 AM Eastern on June 2nd. PolySwarm has a market cap of $9.94 million and $67,420.00 worth of PolySwarm was traded on exchanges in the last 24 hours. One PolySwarm token can currently be purchased for $0.0068 or 0.00000089 BTC on major exchanges including HitBTC, DDEX and IDEX. In the last week, PolySwarm has traded 8.2% lower against the dollar.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  PolySwarm (CURRENCY:NCT) traded 5.6% lower against the U.S. dollar during the 1-day period ending at 22:00 PM E.T. on July 4th. One PolySwarm token can now be purchased for $0.0039 or 0.00000059 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges including HitBTC, IDEX and DDEX. During the last seven days, PolySwarm has traded 8.4% higher against the U.S. dollar. PolySwarm has a total market cap of $5.94 million and $28,632.00 worth of PolySwarm was traded on exchanges in the last day.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  PolySwarm (CURRENCY:NCT) traded 0.8% higher against the US dollar during the 24 hour period ending at 10:00 AM E.T. on September 16th. PolySwarm has a market capitalization of $5.74 million and $6,140.00 worth of PolySwarm was traded on exchanges in the last day. In the last week, PolySwarm has traded 4.2% higher against the US dollar. One PolySwarm token can currently be purchased for $0.0037 or 0.00000057 BTC on major cryptocurrency exchanges including HitBTC, IDEX, DDEX and TOPBTC.

Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019: MediWound Ltd.(MDWD)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Mediwound (MDWD)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Media coverage about Mediwound (NASDAQ:MDWD) has been trending somewhat positive on Saturday, Accern Sentiment reports. Accern identifies negative and positive press coverage by analyzing more than 20 million news and blog sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Mediwound earned a news impact score of 0.17 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news articles about the biopharmaceutical company an impact score of 47.1925876006011 out of 100, meaning that recent press coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the next several days.

• [By Money Morning Staff Reports]

  After looking at this week's penny stock gainers, we'll give you that leg up with one of our top-rated penny stocks from our proprietary stock ranking system…

  Penny Stock Current Share Price (March 26) Last Week's Gain Cartesian Inc. (OTCMKTS: CRTN) $0.39 170.69% Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. (Nasdaq: OMEX) $8.76 135.90% iFresh Inc. (Nasdaq: IFMK) $8.25 64.64% China Auto Logistics Inc. (Nasdaq: CALI) $4.68 47.43% National American University Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: NAUH) $1.20 39.29% Document Security Systems Inc. (NYSE: DSS) $1.58 33.91% Blonder Tongue Labs Inc. (NYSE: BDR) $0.77 33.90% CareDx Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNA) $7.49 29.88% Mediwound Ltd. (Nasdaq: MDWD) $5.10 26.51% New York & Co. Inc. (NYSE: NWY) $3.37 26.35%

  Don't Miss This Shot at a $78,000 Windfall: This tiny firm is about to make the entire world wire-free. As its game-changing technology revolutionizes the global power structure, its stock could hand investors a massive return. Learn more…

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Mediwound (NASDAQ: MDWD) and True Drinks (OTCMKTS:TRUU) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019: Liberty Property Trust(LPT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  These are some of the media headlines that may have impacted Accern’s analysis:

  Get Liberty Property Trust alerts: Liberty Property Trust Announces Third Quarter 2018 Dividend (feeds.benzinga.com) Zacks: Brokerages Expect Liberty Property Trust (LPT) Will Announce Quarterly Sales of $160.48 Million (americanbankingnews.com) Liberty Property's The Navy Yard Portfolio Now 99% Leased (finance.yahoo.com) Zacks: Analysts Expect Liberty Property Trust (LPT) Will Announce Earnings of $0.65 Per Share (americanbankingnews.com) High Demand Keeps Liberty's Richmond, Norfolk Assets Occupied (finance.yahoo.com)

  Shares of LPT opened at $43.00 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $6.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.60, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 1.76 and a quick ratio of 1.76. Liberty Property Trust has a twelve month low of $37.77 and a twelve month high of $45.40.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lowered its position in shares of Liberty Property Trust (NYSE:LPT) by 11.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,176 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock after selling 1,608 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Liberty Property Trust were worth $515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  These are some of the media headlines that may have impacted Accern’s scoring:

  Get Liberty Property Trust alerts: Liberty Property Trust (LPT) Receives “Buy” Rating from SunTrust Banks (americanbankingnews.com) FY2019 Earnings Estimate for Liberty Property Trust (LPT) Issued By KeyCorp (americanbankingnews.com) $163.17 Million in Sales Expected for Liberty Property Trust (LPT) This Quarter (americanbankingnews.com) Liberty Property Trust (LPT) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages (americanbankingnews.com)

  Several research firms have recently issued reports on LPT. Sandler O’Neill set a $44.00 target price on shares of Liberty Property Trust and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 25th. ValuEngine lowered shares of Liberty Property Trust from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 17th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Liberty Property Trust from $44.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Liberty Property Trust from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 25th. Finally, Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Liberty Property Trust from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 8th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.83.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Liberty Property Trust (LPT)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Max Byerly]

  DiamondRock Hospitality (NYSE:DRH) and Liberty Property Trust (NYSE:LPT) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019: GlycoMimetics, Inc.(GLYC)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Allianz Asset Management GmbH purchased a new stake in GlycoMimetics Inc (NASDAQ:GLYC) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 73,433 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,192,000.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  GlycoMimetics (NASDAQ:GLYC)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus in a research report issued to clients and investors on Sunday. They presently have a $24.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price would suggest a potential upside of 64.16% from the company’s previous close.

• [By Motley Fool Transcribing]

  GlycoMimetics (NASDAQ:GLYC) Q2 2018 Earnings Conference CallAug. 10, 2018 8:30 a.m. ET

  Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

  Operator

• [By Max Byerly]

  BidaskClub downgraded shares of GlycoMimetics (NASDAQ:GLYC) from a sell rating to a strong sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019: China Advanced Construction Materials Group, Inc.(CADC)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers Euro Tech Holdings Company Limited (NASDAQ: CLWT) shares jumped 155.56 percent to close at $5.75 on Thursday. Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. (NYSE: INSP) shares gained 56.12 percent to close at $24.98. Inspire Medical went public Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. The company issued 6.75 million shares priced at $16 each. Presbia PLC (NASDAQ: LENS) shares rose 53.02 percent to close at $3.55. Integrated Media Technology Limited (NASDAQ: IMTE) shares rose 46.29 percent to close at $32.11. The nano-cap low-float stock skyrocketed over 1,300 percent on Wednesday on no company specific news which would support the surge. The move higher is consistent with what was seen in other low-float stocks over the past few months. Technical Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: TCCO) climbed 27.78 percent to close at $5.75. STAAR Surgical Company (NASDAQ: STAA) shares gained 26.27 percent to close at $21.15 after reporting upbeat Q1 results. Sharing Economy International Inc. (NASDAQ: SEII) shares jumped 22.16 percent to close at $4.30 on Thursday after gaining 9.32 percent on Wednesday. China Advanced Construction Materials Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CADC) rose 20.45 percent to close at $2.65 on Thursday. YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) surged 18.36 percent to close at $9.99 following upbeat quarterly earnings. MYR Group Inc. (NASDAQ: MYRG) jumped 17.68 percent to close at $35.74 after the company posted strong Q1 earnings. Xspand Products Lab Inc (NASDAQ: XSPL) jumped 17.4 percent to close at $5.87. Xspand Products priced its IPO at $5 per share. Coherus BioSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHRS) shares rose 17.32 percent to close at $14.90. Coherus BioSciences reported resubmission of BLA for CHS-1701. Rudolph Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: RTEC) shares gained 17.17 percent to close at $31.05 following upbeat quarterly earnings. The Meet Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MEET) gained 16.02 percent to close at $2.68 following Q1 earnings. Ca
• [By Lisa Levin] Gainers Axovant Sciences Ltd. (NASDAQ: AXON) shares rose 23.7 percent to $1.49. Axovant announced strengthening of management team and completion of organization restructuring which "enhanced capabilities in research and business development" and reduced internal headcount by 43 percent. Mammoth Energy Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: TUSK) shares jumped 19.8 percent to $37.3148. Mammoth Energy’s subsidiary Cobra signed a new $900 million contract to finish the restoration of critical electrical services and support the initial phase of reconstruction of the electrical utility system in Puerto Rico. Acorn International, Inc. (NYSE: ATV) shares gained 19 percent to $34.0201. Acorn shares rose Friday after the company declared a special one-time cash dividend of $14.97 per ADS. DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) shares surged 19 percent to $2.20. My Size, Inc. (NASDAQ: MYSZ) climbed 16.8 percent to $1.18 after the company received a Notice of Allowance from the USPTO for measurement technology patent. Global Eagle Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: ENT) gained 16.6 percent to $2.32. Leju Holdings Limited (NYSE: LEJU) gained 16.5 percent to $1.34 following Q1 beat. Evolus, Inc. (NASDAQ: EOLS) shares surged 16.5 percent to $26.1499. Evolus named Lauren Silvernail as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Corporate Development. Jupai Holdings Limited (NYSE: JP) shares gained 15 percent to $26.29 after reporting Q1 results. Momo Inc. (NASDAQ: MOMO) shares gained 15 percent to $44.7702 after the company reported better-than-expected results for its first quarter and issued strong sales forecast for the second quarter. Windstream Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: WIN) rose 15 percent to $7.075. China Advanced Construction Materials Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CADC) gained 14.4 percent to $2.746. American Woodmark Corporation (NASDAQ: AMWD) climbed 14.2 percent to $101.10 after the company reported upbeat Q4 results. Savara Inc. (NAS

Top 10 Performing Stocks To Buy For 2019: Hingham Institution for Savings(HIFS)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Hingham Institution for Savings (NASDAQ:HIFS) and SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SIVB) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and dividends.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Port Capital LLC lifted its stake in Hingham Institution for Savings (NASDAQ:HIFS) by 14.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 48,159 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,943 shares during the quarter. Hingham Institution for Savings accounts for approximately 1.4% of Port Capital LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Port Capital LLC owned approximately 2.28% of Hingham Institution for Savings worth $9,921,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its stake in Hingham Institution for Savings (NASDAQ:HIFS) by 71.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 92,261 shares of the savings and loans company’s stock after purchasing an additional 38,440 shares during the quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. owned approximately 4.37% of Hingham Institution for Savings worth $19,006,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

The Right Way to Call Out Sick

Sometimes, despite our best efforts to stay healthy, we end up falling victim to unwanted germs and the illnesses they produce. It's not uncommon for workers to call out sick (or, in most cases these days, email out sick) around this time of the year, when winter is in full force and coughs and sneezes abound. But there's a right way and a wrong way to call out sick, and striking that balance will help you maintain your credibility in a world in which it's easy enough to fake an illness -- and have your manager suspect you of doing so.

Share a bit but not too much

Figuring out how much to say when calling out sick can be tough. After all, you don't necessarily want to send your boss an email with a simple, "Sorry, I'm not feeling well today and need to stay home." Doing so almost seems too generic, and that could lead your manager to think that you might be gaming the system.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

But going to the opposite extreme isn't necessarily appropriate, either. You might very well be trapped in the bathroom with a merciless stomach bug, but your boss doesn't need to know how many times you've vomited or dry heaved. In fact, if you share too much information, you might lead your manager to suspect that you're concocting a story in an effort to sound believable.

The solution, therefore, might be middle ground in nature: Offer a few light details about your illness, but don't get too specific. For example, you might email your boss and say, "I have a stomach virus and won't make it in to the office today," or "Sorry, I'm stuck in bed with a migraine." This way, you're offering up some explanation without oversharing.

Of course, sometimes, you wind up in a scenario in which the timing of your illness looks suspicious. For example, calling out sick the day after a holiday weekend might lead your manager to think that you're perfectly fine but wanted to extend your vacation. If that's the case, apologize for the poor timing, but leave things at that. You might say, "I'm so sorry to have to do this following a long weekend, but I woke up today with a fever, and I can't make it in." If you have a good reputation at the office, your boss will most likely chalk it up to an unfortunate coincidence rather than an attempt on your part to take advantage of your company's sick-day policy.

Keep those germs to yourself

As uncomfortable as it can be to call out sick, don't let your concerns about how you do it prompt you to come to work when you're under the weather. Much of the time, all you'll end up doing is infecting your colleagues, prolonging your own illness, and setting yourself up to make mistakes. Rather than go that route, take your sick time as needed. If you're well enough to answer some emails during the day or hop on a conference call from the comfort of your bed, then go for it. But don't avoid taking sick time because you're not sure how to convey that message to your boss.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) to Post Q2 2019 Earnings of $1.77 Per Share, National Bank Financial Forec

Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) (NYSE:BNS) – Equities researchers at National Bank Financial raised their Q2 2019 earnings per share estimates for Bank of Nova Scotia in a report issued on Monday, February 18th. National Bank Financial analyst G. Dechaine now anticipates that the bank will post earnings of $1.77 per share for the quarter, up from their prior estimate of $1.76. National Bank Financial currently has a “Sector Perform” rating and a $80.00 target price on the stock.

Get Bank of Nova Scotia alerts:

Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) (NYSE:BNS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 27th. The bank reported C$1.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of C$1.78 by C($0.01). The firm had revenue of C$7.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$7.65 billion.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on BNS. Barclays decreased their target price on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$90.00 to C$85.00 in a research report on Friday, November 16th. Canaccord Genuity decreased their target price on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$82.50 to C$77.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 22nd. TD Securities decreased their target price on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$88.00 to C$87.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 28th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a C$85.00 target price on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia in a research report on Wednesday, November 28th. Finally, CIBC reduced their price target on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$88.00 to C$86.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of C$85.67.

Shares of TSE BNS opened at C$75.50 on Thursday. Bank of Nova Scotia has a 1-year low of C$66.36 and a 1-year high of C$82.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $91.35 billion and a PE ratio of 11.08.

In other Bank of Nova Scotia news, Director Benita Marie Warmbold purchased 1,000 shares of Bank of Nova Scotia stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 10th. The stock was purchased at an average price of C$71.57 per share, with a total value of C$71,570.00.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 2nd were issued a $0.85 dividend. This represents a $3.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 31st. Bank of Nova Scotia’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.12%.

Bank of Nova Scotia Company Profile

The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and the Asia-Pacific. The company offers financial advice and solutions, and day-to-day banking products, including debit and credit cards, chequing and saving accounts, investments, mortgages, loans, and related creditor insurance to individuals and small businesses; and commercial banking solutions comprising lending, deposit, cash management, and trade finance solutions to medium and large businesses, including automotive dealers and their customers.

See Also: Understanding the different types of bonds

Hardee's, Carl's Jr. bring back colorful treat

Hardee's and Carl's Jr. are bringing back their popular Froot Loops Mini Donuts.

The miniature doughnuts, inspired by the Kellogg's cereal, will be available for a limited time starting Feb. 25 at participating Hardee's and Feb. 27 at Carl's Jr. restaurants, parent company CKE Restaurants announced Tuesday.

They come in five colors – red, yellow, purple, green and blue – and taste like their smaller cereal counterparts. A five-pack starts at $1.99 and they will be available all day, not just for breakfast.

"Froot Loops Mini Donuts are the perfect anytime snack and will bring any consumer back to their childhood," Owen Klein, CKE Restaurants vice president global culinary innovation, said in a statement. "We know our fans craved these nostalgic treats, and we're thrilled to bring this fun innovation back to our menu this spring."

February freebies: Your monthly guide to food specials, meal deals and more

Coming soon: McDonald's brings Donuts Sticks to breakfast starting Feb. 20

The snack debuted last August and sold out within weeks. It also got some celebrity endorsements.

"Yo! #FrootLoopsMiniDonuts for the win! @CarlsJr and #FrootLoops #sponsored bringing my childhood dreams to life. No milk required. Run, don't walk to #CarlsJr or #Hardees for a limited time #NotMilk," Extra anchor Mario Lopez tweeted. 

Yo! #FrootLoopsMiniDonuts for the win! @CarlsJr and #FrootLoops#sponsored bringing my childhood dreams to life. No milk required. Run, don't walk to #CarlsJr or #Hardees for a limited time #NotMilkpic.twitter.com/T6uxt3Cuft

— Mario Lopez (@MarioLopezExtra) August 29, 2018

Like with Froot Loops cereal, the mini doughnuts are all the same flavor.

"It's natural for Kellogg's to build upon our lineup of iconic brands with new products that reflect our understanding of consumers' evolving tastes and lifestyles," said Kristin Kroepfl, Kellogg's vice president commercial marketing, in the statement.

McDonald's also is getting into the doughnut game.

On Wednesday, Feb. 20, the fast-food giant is launching McCafé Donuts Sticks nationally for a limited time.

Cookies for breakfast?: No, but maple bacon doughnut and chicken and waffles cereals, yes?

Go green: McDonald's is ready for St. Patrick's Day with the limited return of Shamrock Shakes

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko

DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc (XRAY) Stake Lessened by Tower Bridge Advisors

Tower Bridge Advisors trimmed its holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc (NASDAQ:XRAY) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 66,849 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 987 shares during the period. Tower Bridge Advisors’ holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA were worth $2,487,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. IFM Investors Pty Ltd lifted its position in shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 13,533 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $504,000 after buying an additional 245 shares during the last quarter. Private Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 105.3% during the 4th quarter. Private Capital Group LLC now owns 700 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co lifted its holdings in DENTSPLY SIRONA by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 6,867 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $256,000 after purchasing an additional 672 shares during the last quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. acquired a new stake in DENTSPLY SIRONA during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Enlightenment Research LLC acquired a new stake in DENTSPLY SIRONA during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. 97.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Get DENTSPLY SIRONA alerts:

In other DENTSPLY SIRONA news, insider Markus Boehringer sold 7,373 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.86, for a total transaction of $279,141.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.93% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

DENTSPLY SIRONA stock traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $43.61. 25,164 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,870,130. DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc has a 12 month low of $33.93 and a 12 month high of $59.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.76 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market cap of $9.70 billion, a PE ratio of 16.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.06.

XRAY has been the subject of several research reports. BidaskClub raised DENTSPLY SIRONA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 25th. Zacks Investment Research reissued a “hold” rating on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a report on Saturday, November 17th. Barrington Research reissued a “hold” rating on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a report on Friday, November 9th. Barclays reissued a “hold” rating and set a $39.00 price target on shares of DENTSPLY SIRONA in a report on Sunday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on DENTSPLY SIRONA in a report on Thursday, January 17th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $42.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.62.

TRADEMARK VIOLATION NOTICE: “DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc (XRAY) Stake Lessened by Tower Bridge Advisors” was published by Ticker Report and is the property of of Ticker Report. If you are reading this piece on another domain, it was copied illegally and republished in violation of US and international trademark and copyright legislation. The legal version of this piece can be read at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/4163886/dentsply-sirona-inc-xray-stake-lessened-by-tower-bridge-advisors.html.

About DENTSPLY SIRONA

DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and markets various dental and oral health products, and other consumable healthcare products primarily for the professional dental market worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Technologies & Equipment; and Consumables. Its dental supplies include endodontic instruments and materials, dental anesthetics, prophylaxis pastes, dental sealants, impression materials, restorative materials, tooth whiteners, and topical fluoride products; and small equipment products comprise dental hand pieces, intraoral curing light systems, dental diagnostic systems, and ultrasonic scalers and polishers.

See Also: 12b-1 Fees

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding XRAY? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc (NASDAQ:XRAY).

'Before elections, go for bottom fishing with capital protection approach'

Sumit Bilgaiyan

Amid volatile crude oil, election environment and the backdrop of FII as net sellers, Indian equity market is seeing the most nervous time. The fierce sell off that continues in midcap and smallcap looks frightening at this stage. Around 80-85 percent stocks fell 30 to 75 percent from their recent highs and portfolio of investors are also 50 percent down while Nifty is trading at the same range with help of few stocks.

We strongly believe that this is the time when we think about our capital protection but history tells us differently. Historical data suggest that those who bought quality shares in 6 months period before election results were announced got huge profit in next one year. So this is the time when you should apply bottom fishing strategy with capital protection approach. One should invest in 4-5 parts till election results' are announced.

Nifty has strong support at 10,620-10,535 levels and resistance at 10,815-10,940 levels.

Top 5 Stocks To Invest In Right Now

tags:GNRT,JWN,GDEN,ALE,UFAB,

Ever since the death of Fitbit (NYSE:FIT), investors have been weary of wearables stocks. And with good reason.

Fitbit served as lesson for the entire wearables space. Expectations were high that everyone and their best friend was going buy and own a Fitbit. But, that never happened. Instead, the wearables market transitioned from basic activity trackers to advanced smartwatches, and Fitbit got left in the dust.

The takeaway? The wearables market is still young and rapidly evolving to dynamic consumer demands. Thus, finding wearables stocks that are guaranteed long-term winners is a difficult exercise.

That being said, there are a few wearables stocks out there that, given their pedigree, track record, product portfolio, and consumer brand awareness, are on track to be long-term winners in this market.

Here’s a look at four such wearable stocks which could be long-term winners:

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Wearables Stocks To Watch: Fossil (FOSL) Source: Shutterstock

Top 5 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Gener8 Maritime, Inc.(GNRT)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Navios Maritime Acquisition (NYSE: GNRT) and Gener8 Maritime (NYSE:GNRT) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  ILLEGAL ACTIVITY NOTICE: “General Maritime Co. (GNRT) Receives $8.50 Consensus Price Target from Analysts” was first published by Ticker Report and is owned by of Ticker Report. If you are accessing this piece on another site, it was illegally copied and republished in violation of international copyright and trademark laws. The correct version of this piece can be read at https://www.tickerreport.com/banking-finance/3361904/general-maritime-co-gnrt-receives-8-50-consensus-price-target-from-analysts.html.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Star Bulk Carriers (NASDAQ: SBLK) and Gener8 Maritime (NYSE:GNRT) are both small-cap transportation companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Top 5 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Nordstrom Inc.(JWN)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By ]

  Cramer and the AAP team say today's weakness is the opportunity they have been patiently waiting for. Their target? Nordstrom (JWN) . Find out what they're telling their investment club members and get in on the conversation with a free trial subscription to Action Alerts PLUS.

• [By Lisa Levin]

  Check out these big penny stock gainers and losers

  Losers ReTo Eco-Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: RETO) fell 9.3 percent to $4.50 in pre-market trading. ProPhase Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRPH) shares fell 8.5 percent to $4.50 in pre-market trading after dropping 3.53 percent on Thursday. Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) fell 7.5 percent to $47.10 in pre-market trading. Nordstrom reported upbeat results for its first quarter. Comparable-store sales rose 0.6 percent. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) shares fell 6 percent to $263.00 in pre-market trading. Baidu disclosed that its COO Qi Lu will step down in July 2018. Riot Blockchain, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT) shares fell 5.6 percent to $8.98 in pre-market trading after climbing 11.88 percent on Thursday. Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) fell 5 percent to $51.30 in pre-market trading. Applied Materials reported stronger-than-expected results for its second quarter, but issued weak sales outlook for the third quarter. Blink Charging Co. (NASDAQ: BLNK) fell 5 percent to $7.61 in pre-market trading after rising 11.40 percent on Thursday. Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) shares fell 4.7 percent to $255.77 in pre-market trading. Vascular Biogenics Ltd (NASDAQ: VBLT) fell 4.6 percent to $2.10 in pre-market trading after reporting a first-quarter earnings miss. Campbell Soup Company (NYSE: CPB) fell 3.3 percent to $37.60 in pre-market trading. Campbell Soup reported upbeat Q3 earnings, but sales missed estimates. The company also lowered its FY18 outlook. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACAD) shares fell 2.7 percent to $17.65 in pre-market trading after reporting a 7.2 million common stock offering
• [By ]

  Some reasons for my bearishness on retail stocks:

  Higher Energy Prices. Oil prices have rallied dramatically and back to 2014 levels, rising from about $35 a barrel in early 2016 to around $67 Thursday. That's bad news for U.S. retailers, as rising oil prices historically squeeze consumer disposable incomes. That's one reason why I've been consistently raising my short exposure to retail and plan to continue doing so. Shaky Same-Store Sales Growth. Recent improvements to same-store sales at Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) , Urban Outfitters (URBN) , Dillard's (DDS) , Gap Inc. (GPS) and Macy's (M) come against downgraded expectations, and might not be sustainable anyway. No Deal for Nordstrom (JWN) . The Nordstrom family has apparently abandoned plans to take its namesake company private. I had expressed concerns that this would happen. Higher Interest Rates. A rise in the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) has recently accelerated. That's bad news for retailers, as many variable-rate consumer debts (particularly mortgages) key off of the LIBOR. This will likely put a damper on mortgage refinancings -- something that many see as an important ingredient for personal-consumption expenditures.

• [By Jeremy Bowman]

  Still, plenty of investors are likely wondering if Stitch Fix (NASDAQ:SFIX) is a good buy before its fourth-quarter earnings report, due out on Oct. 1 after market close. The company is unique on the stock market as an online personalized styling service: It ships clothes to customers based on fit and style preferences rather than allowing customers to choose the items directly. Though it has competitors in that sector, including Nordstrom's (NYSE:JWN) Trunk Club, Stitch Fix is far and away the leader in the segment; sales are projected to be $1.23 billion this fiscal year.

• [By Chris Lange]

  The S&P 500 stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close was Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) which traded up about 13% at $59.13. The stock's 52-week range is $37.79 to $59.21. Volume was about 17 million compared to the daily average volume of 2.5 million.

• [By Chris Lange]

  Nordstrom Inc.’s (NYSE: JWN) fiscal second-quarter report is scheduled for Thursday after the markets close. The consensus forecast is $0.84 in EPS on $3.96 billion in revenue. Shares ended the week trading at $52.58 apiece. The consensus price target is $52.88, and the 52-week range is $37.79 to $54.61.

Top 5 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Golden Entertainment, Inc.(GDEN)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  News coverage about Golden Entertainment (NASDAQ:GDEN) has been trending somewhat positive on Thursday, Accern Sentiment Analysis reports. Accern identifies positive and negative news coverage by monitoring more than twenty million blog and news sources in real-time. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of negative one to positive one, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Golden Entertainment earned a news sentiment score of 0.23 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned headlines about the company an impact score of 45.5212527362401 out of 100, meaning that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the company’s share price in the next several days.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Shares of Golden Entertainment Inc (NASDAQ:GDEN) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $36.67.

• [By Max Byerly]

  Press coverage about Golden Entertainment (NASDAQ:GDEN) has trended somewhat positive on Tuesday, according to Accern Sentiment Analysis. The research firm scores the sentiment of news coverage by monitoring more than twenty million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Golden Entertainment earned a media sentiment score of 0.22 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media coverage about the company an impact score of 47.4533629478547 out of 100, meaning that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near future.

Top 5 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Allete, Inc.(ALE)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of ALLETE Inc (NYSE:ALE) by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 107,300 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 1,200 shares during the period. Waddell & Reed Financial Inc.’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $8,306,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

• [By Shane Hupp]

  SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ALLETE Inc (NYSE:ALE) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 16,011 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,157,000.

• [By Logan Wallace]

  Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of ALLETE Inc (NYSE:ALE) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 14,236 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,000.

• [By Benzinga News Desk]

  Not long after U.S. authorities filed sealed charges against Volkswagen’s (OTC: VLKAY) old chief executive officer, they granted the new CEO a rare safe-passage deal: Link

  ECONOMIC DATA The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET. The TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index for April is schedule for release at 12:30 p.m. ET. Tom Barkin is set to speak at 2:00 p.m. ET. Data on consumer credit for March will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET. Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan will speak at 3:30 p.m. ET. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans is set to speak at 3:30 p.m. ET. ANALYST RATINGS Barclays upgraded Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) from Equal-Weight to Overweight KeyBanc upgraded Silgan (NASDAQ: SLGN) from Underweight to Sector Weight Mizuho downgraded ALLETE (NYSE: ALE) from Buy to Neutral Barclays downgraded Eaton (NYSE: ETN) from Equal-Weight to Underweight

  This is a tool used by the Benzinga News Desk each trading day — it's a look at everything happening in the market, in five minutes. To get the full version of this note every morning, click here.

• [By Joseph Griffin]

  OppenheimerFunds Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of ALLETE Inc (NYSE:ALE) by 44.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,907 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,918 shares during the quarter. OppenheimerFunds Inc.’s holdings in ALLETE were worth $715,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Top 5 Stocks To Invest In Right Now: Unique Fabricating, Inc.(UFAB)

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Shane Hupp]

  Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Unique Fabricating (UFAB)

  For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Media coverage about Unique Fabricating (NASDAQ:UFAB) has trended somewhat positive this week, Accern Sentiment reports. The research firm scores the sentiment of news coverage by monitoring more than twenty million news and blog sources. Accern ranks coverage of public companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores nearest to one being the most favorable. Unique Fabricating earned a media sentiment score of 0.18 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned media stories about the company an impact score of 47.3756147302874 out of 100, meaning that recent news coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the near future.

• [By Stephan Byrd]

  Shares of Unique Fabricating Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:UFAB) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the six research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $12.00.

• [By Ethan Ryder]

  Unique Fabricating (NYSEAMERICAN:UFAB)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at Roth Capital in a report released on Wednesday.

Tempur Sealy International Inc (TPX) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Tempur Sealy International Inc  (NYSE:TPX)Q4 2018 Earnings Conference CallFeb. 14, 2019, 8:00 a.m. ET

Contents: Prepared Remarks Questions and Answers Call Participants Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Tempur Sealy Fourth Quarter 2018 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. (Operator Instructions) And as a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded.

I'd now like to turn the conference over to Aubrey Moore, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Aubrey Moore -- Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's call. Joining me in Lexington headquarters are Scott Thompson, Chairman, President and CEO; and Bhaskar Rao, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After prepared remarks, we will open the call for Q&A.

Forward-looking statements that we make during this call are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements, including the Company's expectations regarding sales, earnings, net income and adjusted EBITDA and anticipated performance for 2019 and subsequent periods involve uncertainties. Actual results may differ due to a variety of factors that could adversely affect the Company's business.

The factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those identified, include economic, regulatory, competitive, operating and other factors discussed in the press release issued today. These factors are also discussed in the Company's SEC filings, including but not limited to, annual reports on Form 10-K and the Company's quarterly reports on Form 10-Q under the heading Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and/or Risk Factors. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

This morning's commentary will include non-GAAP financial information. The press release contains reconciliations of this non-GAAP financial information to the most directly comparable GAAP information, except as otherwise discussed in the press release, as well as information regarding the methodology used in our constant currency presentations. We have posted the press release on the Company's investor website at investor.tempursealy.com and have also filed it with the SEC. Our comments will supplement the detailed information provided in the press release.

And now with that introduction, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Scott.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Aubrey. Good morning and thank you for joining us on our 2018 fourth quarter and full-year earnings call. I will start with some comments regarding our progress in resetting the foundation of our Company and positioning it for long-term earnings growth, then Bhaskar will review our quarterly and full-year financial performance with you in detail. Finally, I will wrap up with a review of our long-term corporate initiatives.

As we reflect on 2018, we see it as a transitional year that showcases the progress we have made toward our long-term goals, but the year also presented many challenges for the Company along the way. The primary challenges we faced in 2018 were as follows: First, we initiated the largest US Tempur-Pedic roll-out in the Company's history, which was so large that we needed to stagger the launch over a multi-quarter period. Our entry-level products that were launched in May of 2018 were wildly popular with both retailers and customers. However, we were the victims of our own success as we experienced higher-than-expected cannibalization of our products priced above $3,000. The above $3,000 products will be refreshed in the first half of 2019.

Second, the US bedding distribution footprint underwent enormous change, including store closing, retail bankruptcies, the expansion of alternative channels, while also dealing with weaknesses in brick-and-mortar retail traffic. Third, Mattress Firm, the largest bedding retailer in the US, in early 2018, employed what we consider to be uneconomic strategy of low ASP, aggressive discounting, promotional activities which drove down industrywide profits.

Fourth, an influx of low-priced Chinese mattress imports were a headwind for our entry-level Sealy products. Finally, every one of our commodity-linked inputs experienced price inflation that was above our expectations, which continued to escalate during the course of the year. Although we took price, the time lag between these cost increases and price increases was significant.

Now that 2018 is behind us, we have many reasons to be optimistic about 2019. First, we look forward to completing the launch of our fully refreshed Tempur-Pedic and Stearns & Foster lineups. We recently showcased these products in Vegas market and they met -- we're met with rave reviews. The Stearns & Foster products are hitting the floor as we speak and we are confident that retailers will see the new lineup as a tool they need to elevate average selling price among innerspring customers. The Tempur-Pedic Luxe models are fully rolled out and we expect the Tempur-Pedic Breeze products to hit retail floors by Memorial Day. Once all the new Tempur products are floored at retailers, we anticipate mitigating the negative merchandising mix we faced in 2018.

Second, we've improved our distribution network. We enhanced our relationship with a number of key retail partners, and we hope to further bolster them in 2019 with our Retail Edge program. This program is designed to help North American retailers leverage our consumer insights to stay cutting-edge in both their brick-and-mortar and online marketing strategies. Retail Edge will enable them to improve their in-store performance and take their fair share of web business.

Additionally, to serve consumers, we want to buy directly from the manufacturer. We opened an additional 27 Tempur-Pedic stores in 2018, and we currently have plans to open another 20-plus stores in 2019.

Third, with the material number of bedding stores recently closed, including department stores and mattress specialty stores, we believe the foundation is being set for a much healthier US bedding industry.

Fourth, the mattress industry's anti-dumping petition is currently under review by the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission. While we initially hope to receive feedback in February, the government shutdown delayed this date and we now anticipate a preliminary ruling in the second quarter of 2019.

Finally, commodity headwinds have abated. After two years of material commodity cost headwinds, we do not currently expect commodity cost inflation in 2019. We believe that 2019 will put the Company back on a trajectory of earnings growth and that earnings growth will accelerate even further in 2020.

Before I turn the call over to Bhaskar to do a detailed dive into our financial results, I'd like to highlight a few recent trends that we think are further reasons for optimism moving forward. First, worldwide sales in the fourth quarter increased 7%, underpinned by 9% growth in North America. In North America, we saw wholesale growth of 8%, which gives significant improvement from the flat-to-declining wholesale growth that we've experienced over the past few quarters. Our worldwide direct business grew 23% and now represents 10% of total sales. Clearly, our efforts to fill in our distribution gaps and enhance our third-party retail relationships are showing progress.

Next, our North America Tempur and Sealy sales trends improved sequentially in the fourth quarter, with Tempur-Pedic up 24% and Sealy is up slightly, excluding Stearns & Foster, which is in product transition. We've seen these trends slightly increase during the current quarter.

Finally, we generated strong cash flow in the fourth quarter, which allowed us to repay debt and return to our target leverage range of between 3 times to 4 times net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Bhaskar to review the financials.

Bhaskar Rao -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Scott. Before going into the details, I would like to start with a few highlights from the fourth quarter. Global net sales were $676 million, an increase of 7%. Adjusted gross margin was 42%. Adjusted operating margin improved 20 basis points to 13.4% of net sales. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $118 million and adjusted earnings per share for the quarter was $0.90.

On a segment basis, sales in North America increased 9%. The wholesale channel increased a solid 8%, a significant acceleration from our prior quarters and the direct channel increased 17%. Direct sales, although strong were hurt by a decline in call center sales and one soft month of web sales.

At a brand level, as Scott previously mentioned, Tempur sales grew 24% in the quarter and Sealy sales were slightly up, excluding Stearns & Foster. As expected, Stearns & Foster sales were a headwind as those products are in the third year and in the process of being launched -- relaunched in 2019.

During the quarter, our GAAP gross profit and operating income in North America were primarily impacted by a $21 million charge associated with iMS, a third-party retailer that recently filed bankruptcy. The following results have been adjusted for this charge and other one-time items.

North America adjusted gross profit margin was 39.8% remaining flat to prior year. Tailwinds to gross margin included favorable pricing and brand mix. I would like to highlight that US Tempur gross margin and mattress ASP improved sequentially due to pricing actions taken in the quarter and because the new LuxeAdapt hit retail floors. Headwinds to gross margin included continued commodity pressure, unfavorable merchandising mix within the Tempur brand and launch-related expenses. As expected, the unfavorable mix impact within Tempur lessened in the fourth quarter, and we expect this headwind to further mitigate in the back half of 2019 with the launch of the Breeze products and additional retailer training.

As a reminder, we did not have a fourth quarter product introduction in 2017, so this year our launch costs were entirely incremental. North America adjusted operating margin improved 40 basis points to 14.2% as compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. This was primarily driven by improved operating expense leverage from reduced incentive compensation as we did not hit our internal targets.

Turning to international. Net sales increased 2% on a reported basis. On a constant currency basis, international increased 5%. The wholesale channel was flat and the direct channel increased a robust 37%. International performance was in line with our expectations with Europe stabilizing and Asia continuing to perform well. If you consolidate the sales from our Asian joint venture, international net sales for the quarter increased 7% on a constant currency basis.

The Asian JV has performed well for many years led by our JV partner and their high-quality management team. Net sales and EBITDA have grown at a CAGR of about 20% for the last five years. We are thrilled to report that we have extended the relationship for an additional 20 years continuing the solid foundation for growth of our Sealy brand in Asia. As a reminder, the existing agreement was scheduled to expire in 2020.

During the fourth quarter, we streamlined our international operations, primarily with headcount reductions in Europe. We believe that keeping our organization lean and nimble is necessary to remain competitive in the global bedding market. The following results have been adjusted for $5 million of restructuring charges related to these activities, which we expect to see a pay back within 18 months.

Our international adjusted gross margin improved 60 basis points to 51.7% as compared to the prior year. This improvement was primarily driven by the new revenue recognition standard, as well as operational improvements.

International adjusted operating margin declined 20 basis points to 24.8%. This decrease was principally driven by royalty income, which was partially offset by favorable operating expense leverage, improved gross margin, and improved Asia joint venture performance.

Lastly, regarding our simplification initiatives in Latin America, we are pleased with the progress that we have made with de-risking our business in these markets. We announced in December that we completed the sale of our largest subsidiary in Latin America. This completes the initiative to align resources where the risk and returns make sense. Going forward, we will receive royalty payments and not have assets exposed in the region. This is a simpler structure to manage and we expected to result in higher returns.

Now, turning back to the Company's global performance. Adjusted operating income was $91 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $118 million, up $6 million from last year. The increase in EBITDA was primarily driven by higher volume, pricing benefits, and reductions to incentive compensation. This was partially offset by commodities, launch expenses, and unfavorable Tempur merchandising mix.

Foreign exchange rates were slightly unfavorable to EBITDA in 2018. Going forward, we anticipate the US dollar getting stronger relative to all major international currencies, which will result in sales and EBITDA headwind, primarily in the first half of 2019. We estimate this headwind to be approximately $30 million, primarily to international sales and $5 million to consolidated EBITDA.

The adjusted tax rate was 26%, and interest expense was $23 million, and adjusted EPS for the quarter was $0.90.

Now, moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow items. We generated operating cash flow from continuing operations of $77 million in the fourth quarter. Cash cycle was unfavorable by four days to the fourth quarter of 2017. This was principally driven by higher inventory levels required to support the launch of our new Tempur-Pedic products in North America, as well as an increase in adjustable base inventory, which we purchased ahead of the tariff impacts.

As of the end of the fourth quarter, net debt was $1.6 billion, which decreased $107 million from the fourth quarter of 2017.

Our leverage ratio was 3.9 times ending the year just within our target range of 3 times to 4 times.

Now, turning to our financial guidance. The Company currently expects adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $425 million to $475 million for 2019, which includes the benefit from: strong sales growth of Tempur-Pedic in North America; tailwinds from the pricing actions of approximately $30 million; improved merchandising mix resulting from the launch of new products; and continued expansion of our direct channel around the world; offset by a single-digit decline in North America Sealy sales; normalized incentive compensation of $20 million as it was unearned in 2018 for about 4,000 individuals; and incremental investments of $15 million to develop and test new product opportunities.

For the full-year 2019, we currently expect depreciation and amortization to be between $115 million and $120 million; total CapEx to be between $70 million and $75 million, which includes maintenance CapEx of $60 million; interest expense of $90 million to $95 million; and a tax rate of 26% to 28%; and the diluted share count to be 55.5 million.

With that, I'll turn the call back over to Scott.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Bhaskar. Great job. Turning to our long-term corporate initiatives. First, developing the most innovative bedding products in all the markets we serve. A key pillar of our product plan was commencing our largest ever Tempur-Pedic product roll-out in North America. Our goal was to create a simplified and easy-to-understand product portfolio to enhance the shopping experience for our customers and to improve SKU productivity on our retailers' floors. We feel that these actions would result in market share gains.

The first phase of our Tempur launch in 2018 was focused on innovative new products to gain market share in the $2,000 to $3,000 price band. This is a significant profit pool in US bedding market, and it's where we were underrepresented. The second phase of North American Tempur-Pedic roll-out is positioned to drive improved product mix as it focuses on higher price points. As I mentioned earlier, the LuxeAdapt began rolling out in the fourth quarter of 2018. And the TEMPUR-Breeze models will be launching at the end of the first quarter 2019. Not to be forgotten, also this quarter we started the roll-out of our new Stearns & Foster lineup, replacing a line that has been in the market for three years.

Our retail partners are looking forward to having these strong brands with new cutting-edge innovation. These products are designed to wow the customer with their feel and aesthetic while driving higher ASP. I'm pleased to share with you these roll-outs are on-time and on-budget, and all are showcasing spectacular quality, which we are known for. We're excited to have the entire new product portfolio floored in time for the important summer selling season. We anticipate these products to stay on the floor for the next three years serving as the new North American flagship line for Tempur-Pedic and Stearns & Foster products. Going forward, we will continue to build out our innovative pipeline, and explore new opportunities to address consumer preferences. But these current products will be our volume drivers for Tempur-Pedic and Stearns & Foster for a number of years.

The second long-term initiative is to invest significant marketing dollars to promote our worldwide brands. In fact, in 2019, we anticipate having increased advertising investments both in dollars and as a percentage of sales to support the new products. Consumers have never had more access to information at their fingertips and they are engaging with more products and brands online than they have in the past. We are responding to this changing behavior and speaking to customers where they want to be engaged. We are in the process of driving our marketing efforts to keep our brands top-of-mind with consumers, whether they're casually watching television, browsing social media, or actively researching bedding online. We believe we can drive customers to brick-and-mortar and online stores so they can engage with our world-class products firsthand.

The third long-term initiative is to optimize worldwide distribution to make sure our products are properly represented in all channels. Even though consumers are more digitally savvy than ever, our research shows the vast majority of customers still want to visit brick-and-mortar stores to touch and feel bedding products before they purchase them. While it's always our preference to work with third-party retail partners, we have established 41 high-end Company-owned stores in the US in order to serve customers looking for a low-pressure sales experience. These high-end, low-pressure showrooms with knowledgeable non-commissioned sleep consultants educate consumers on our product to provide further brand awareness and generate future sales opportunities for third-party retailers in the local market. These stores continue to perform well and we anticipate having at least 60 Tempur retail stores open in North America by the end of 2019.

Our last initiative is to drive increases in EBITDA. As we look forward in 2019, we believe the combination of our innovative new premium products, our increased focus on marketing efficiency, and our internal productivity initiatives will improve profitability to help us to create long-term shareholder value.

Lastly, before opening the call for questions, let me give you a brief update on litigation with Mattress Firm. As most of you know, we have been engaged in multiple separate lawsuits with Mattress Firm relating to a separation and certain trade growth issues. Mattress Firm's new board reached out and requested we settle these expensive and unproductive suits. As described in the press release, I am pleased to report both companies have resolved all litigation. I truly appreciate Mattress Firm's new board members' handling of this situation.

Operator, will you please open the call for questions?

Questions and Answers:

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And to allow everyone the opportunity to ask a question, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question. And our first question comes from Michael Lasser of UBS. Your line is now open.

Michael Lasser -- UBS Investment Bank -- Analyst

Good morning. Thanks a lot for taking my question. Scott, on the subject of Mattress Firm, what are the chances that settling the litigation is now a segue into potentially reunifying with them?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Well, good morning and thank you for your question. I think when it comes to Mattress Firm relationship, I would say, it's trending well. The communications continue to be constructive. In fact, the communications are probably never been better. And we're normalizing the relationship between the two companies. Obviously, Tempur Sealy is the largest bedding manufacturer in the world and Mattress Firm is the largest bedding specialty retailer in the United States. And it just makes sense that the companies have a normal relationship. Today, I don't have anything to report other than the settlement of the litigation now.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Bobby Griffin of Raymond James. Your line is now open.

Robert Griffin -- Raymond James & Associates, Inc. -- Analyst

Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. Scott, I just want to dive into a little bit about the Sealy outlook for 2019 of a low single-digit decline and try to help us understand what is exactly driving that in connection with the Stearns & Foster launch, which was pretty impressive in Vegas and kind of the moving parts around that commentary?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Great question. First, let me settle a little bit of foundation. As we said in the prepared remarks, Sealy in the fourth quarter, if you exclude Stearns & Foster, was up slightly. So Sealy is a brand in North America actually had a pretty good quarter in the fourth quarter. And as I said in the prepared remarks, quarter-to-date that trend is slightly better as we said in the fourth quarter. And then, if you saw in the guidance there's a little bit of the expected headwind from Sealy in the guidance.

I think when we look forward into 2019, we got a tough comp and that we had a very successful hybrid performance last year. We continue to see weakness in the below $1,000 and we see strength above $1,000 and we've got the Stearns & Foster launch, which you're right, did get a very positive reception in Vegas. So when we blended them all up together and we're working through guidance, we've got a slight headwind in Sealy. Maybe it's conservative, maybe it's not, but that was our best guess put it in the middle of the fairway as we sit here today.

Would you say anything different, Bhaskar, in explaining that?

Bhaskar Rao -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

No. I think it was well said.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Okay.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Keith Hughes of SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Keith Hughes -- Suntrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. -- Analyst

Thank you. With the news a couple of days ago that did for the retailer, do you characterize this as a one-off? Are you looking to do more these when the right situation develops to buy other independent retailers?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thank you for your question. Yeah. Our strategy has always been worldwide, not just in the US, is that, our primary focus is third-party retailers. And where we have third-party retailers that are supportive and give us the distribution we need that is our preferred channel, by far worldwide. But we've always said that in situations if we don't have that, that we're open to different options, and around the world we execute different options. In this particular situation, that came at us fairly quickly, we looked at it, and we think that distribution is important and we executed a different option, which is to keep that distribution in the marketplace and we've made a bid for it. It is not a strategic change in the way we think about distribution. I think we will always lean third-party first, but at times we're going to own a few stores, at times we've joint ventured, at times we've got stores in the store over in Asia. When we look across the world in our distribution strategies, we've used lots of different methods. It's just probably the first time we've done something like this in the US.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Peter Keith of Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open.

Peter Keith -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst

Hi, thanks. Good morning, everyone. I was intrigued with your comments around earnings growth accelerating as you look out to 2020. And while it's always up, maybe you could just give us a little bit of insight on how you're thinking about that and some of the drivers to that acceleration?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. First off, I'm glad we were able to intrigue you, we don't get that often. Look, first off, if you look at it, we've had to redo the entire Tempur line. Those are expensive, those are disruptive, had to do all the adjustable basis. We've get all the Tempur line launched in 2019. It gets floored, people get trained. And those products, as I said in the prepared remarks, are going to be the driver of volume for Tempur. So that's certainly going to be -- we would think it would be a tailwind when you compare 2019 to 2020.

Additionally, we expect to continue to have some Tempur store growth. And you can see the growth in our direct accelerated, I think we were 23% growth in direct. We expect that to continue. And we've got some special initiatives to kind of work on the below $1,000 at Sealy that we hope will take hold. So, assuming that you get a reasonable commodity environment and you get continue to have a strong economy worldwide, it looks like to us that we have a pretty good 2020.

Now, the other thing that's getting us as far as growth rate, when you look at the 2019 compared to 2018, we're having to step over some incentive comp that we did not earn incentive comp in 2018 and we've budgeted incentive comp for 2019 and that's affected the growth rate. Our plan and our hope and our desire to hit the incentive comp in 2019 and then we hit it in 2020, so you wouldn't have that headwind between the two years.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Seth Basham of Wedbush Securities. Your line is now open.

Seth Basham -- Wedbush Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Thanks a lot and good morning. My question is around mix. You spoke to some mix headwinds in the fourth quarter in Tempur-Pedic. Was that in line or greater than your expectations, leading to the fall to the low-end or the bottom end of your guided range?

And then, secondly, as you look to 2019 how much of a headwind do you look for Tempur-Pedic mix to be? And related to that, is the $15 million in incremental R&D spend something that you contemplated in your guidance previously? Thank you.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Okay. Let me try to do all those and Bhaskar clean me up. In the fourth quarter, the first part of the question was, what was the cannibalization that we actually realized in the fourth quarter compared to what we expected? It's interesting, Luxe obviously, got launched in the fourth quarter and Luxe product is doing what we wanted to do and what we expected it to. It's raising ASP. And that side of the equation was kind of what we would expect. We did have a little more cannibalization in the fourth quarter than we expected as the Breeze product deteriorated quicker than we would have expected, which may have gotten a hit by Luxe. It may be people getting ready for the new Breeze product coming out. So, I would say, it's kind of a mixed issue when you talk about it in the fourth quarter.

When you talk about the launch, you've got Breeze coming, that's on schedule. You're not going to get totally through the cannibalization issue, what Bhaskar till the back -- till about the third quarter?

Bhaskar Rao -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

That's exactly correct. So, as I think about the merchandising mix is exactly as Scott said, in the fourth quarter little bit more than anticipated from Breeze. Also, the Stearns & Foster we mentioned as well. It's been, as he has mentioned, been received very well in Vegas. We expect that to improve in 2019. Specifically, as it relates to merchandising mixes, the Breeze will go out after Presidents' Day. And as we get into the back half of the year we'd expect the merchandising mix to turn around.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

And then I think the last part of your -- one question, which you were able to get three questions in on, which is very talented was the $15 million incremental spend on new products. That is incremental, I would say, it was not -- it was -- it's in this year's guidance.

Bhaskar Rao -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Correct.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

And we'll be able to talk about that in more detail throughout the year, so that you can see what that -- what we're doing in that area. But at this point, we don't really want to talk about too much about that particular product.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Brad Thomas of KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Bradley Thomas -- KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. -- Analyst

Hey, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Scott, I was hoping you could talk a little bit more about the competitive landscape, specifically addressing, perhaps share gains you may have picked up from Mattress Firm store closures, how the competitive landscape stands today with Mattress Firm under new ownership and the potential for anti-dumping to occur?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. I assume you're primarily -- are you talking about North America? So I'll address North America. Clearly, with Tempur sales up 24% in the fourth quarter, that makes Tempur by far the strongest major brand in North America. And I think under any computation gained significant market share. So I'll just write out on Tempur.

If you go to Sealy and the innerspring beds, which as I said before, was up a little or slightly X Stearns & Foster. It is my perception that that is strong performance relative to other innerspring manufacturers in the fourth quarter.

Did we pick up some share relative to Mattress Firm store closing? Hard to tell. I think probably got some. But that's very hard to tell. I will tell you that the Sealy business has been a little stronger than we were probably thinking. And so, maybe some of that is from store closings. But like I said, it's very difficult to tell. If you go all the way across the industry, you probably have to touch on the bed-in-the-box guys. That market to me looks like they haven't been able to demonstrate profits. Although their unit growth -- they may have some unit growth, it's still coming from over-investing and customer acquisition cost. And it looks like to me they're trying to run to retail because they're having trouble with growth. So I still -- I haven't seen the bed-in-the-box industry in general as being much of a competitive threat, although I think it's a niche business. But I don't think anybody in North America is doing it any large size at a profit.

China imports, I think was maybe the other one you mentioned. We continue to work through that. It's delayed a little bit, as we said in the prepared remarks. We expect to get some help there, but we're not just sitting around waiting for help from Washington. We have some processes and task force that are being worked on here to go after the below $1,000. And we expect over the next few quarters we'll be able to report on that performance.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from William Reuter of Bank of America. Your line is now open.

William Reuter -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Hi. I just have two questions. The first is, now that you're within your targeted leverage range on capital allocation, how are you guys thinking about debt reduction compared to either share repurchases, or I don't know anything else that you guys would -- in terms of growth initiatives?

And then secondarily, with regard to the increase in your retail stores, can you talk about where you see the mix of retail and wholesale being maybe two or three or four years from now? Thanks.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. On capital allocation, what are we 3.8 turns, Bhaskar?

Bhaskar Rao -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

3.9, yes.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. We just slipped under the high-end of our target of 3 turns to 4 turns. We call the midpoint 3.5. I think you have to think we're probably going to be in the mode of paying debt down a little bit more for a little while. But as we've always said, we're going to -- this business generates a lot of cash flow. The business gets the first call on the cash flow to the extent that the business doesn't have use for the cash at a high rate of return. Then we'll look to give it back to the shareholders in some form or so. But I think we probably whirling (ph) at 3.8. I think we'd probably pay down a little more debt in the near term.

And then what's the second part of the question?

Bhaskar Rao -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Retail stores, where you can see that in the future?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Retail stores, again we're talking about North America. We are -- I guess, we have to do it worldwide. I mean, we're 10% direct to wholesale. If you're talking a few years, I could see that number inching its way up to maybe 20%. I can't see it being much over 20% from a strategy standpoint.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from John Baugh, Stifel. Your line is now open.

John Baugh -- Stifel, Nicolaus & Company -- Analyst

Thank you. Good morning. I guess, two quick ones. One, the $15 million incremental testing new product, is there a way, Scott, to put that into the context of a percentage increase over whatever you call R&D or normal testing is the first one?

And then the second is, I appreciate that iMS is not a strategic change. But what's the -- what are the chances in the next 24 months with brick-and-mortars struggling that we'll see one or two more of these types of deals? Thank you.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

The way I look at the $15 million, there's some testing and there's -- it's specifically identified on a few products. And I would consider them to be a little bit out of the norm. This wouldn't just be the normal stuff. I'm going to beg off and ask you to wait a quarter or so, so that we can talk about it in more detail. But I don't think those are special projects. I think they will have incremental EBITDA. That will probably benefit us in 2020. So I'm going to beg off a little bit on that one. But I think you will be pleased with those investments when we can talk about those in more detail.

As far as iMS, I don't -- I'm not -- I don't know of any other iMS situations. But at the same time, you can't say never. And some of the retailers have been under a little bit of stress. But I'm not anticipating any more situations like that in North America.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Curtis Nagle of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is now open.

Curtis Nagle -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Good morning. So, I wonder if you guys could maybe just contextualize low-end of the guidance a little more, which I think technically doesn't imply any, at least dollar EBIT growth. Just kind of looking at things from like a revenue perspective, the business is accelerating, you theoretically got a handful of good margin drivers like mix, as you'd mentioned, Sealy perhaps getting better sales leverage, pricing, all that kind of stuff and some of the headwinds you've called out like advertising and incentive comp should be indicative of growing profitability. So, yeah, I mean, just kind of how should we think about that? What would happen to happen for new EBIT growth?

And just slipping one quick question, since you guys did comments on October trends in the last call, what can you say about Sealy and Tempur in January?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Okay. Let me do a little bit there and I'm going to let Bhaskar talk about it. First of all, I guess, the way I think about guidance is we usually work on our best guess, what's the middle of the fairway, and put a range around it after some stress testing. So, I guess, the middle of the range is $450 million, admittedly not as much growth as we would have liked. We're certainly pushing for more. But I think the midpoint is $450 million.

You got any comments about guidance, Bhaskar?

Bhaskar Rao -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

No.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

And then as far as the January trends, as we said in the prepared remarks, is that, quarter-to-date the trends in the US we're talking about here for both Tempur and Sealy improved slightly from the reported revenues in the fourth quarter. So, in layman terms, look, it's been a pretty good start to the quarter. But we try to be also a little bit cautious. It can be volatile. But it's been a pretty good start to the quarter.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Laura Champine of Loop Capital. Your line is now open.

Laura Champine -- Loop Capital Markets LLC -- Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. As you launch the Breeze products in stores, is there a period where you see disruption on the Tempur business as retailers sell through their floor samples? And then, if you can just sort of quantify the sell-out of floor samples and then the sell-in just to set the floors and what the timing of that impact will be in the first half?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Good question. The Breeze launch is how we thought about is that it will happen right after Presidents' Day. And currently, the way we are thinking about it is the majority of that will happen all within the first quarter. So unlike what we saw last year where we had phasing between the first and second half -- sorry, first and second quarter, what I would anticipate is the impact of the Breeze sell-in be primarily in the first quarter.

As I think more broadly about floor models in total is what we've indicated is, is that, I would expect floor models to be flat on a year-over-year basis. However, one thing is about phasing since the majority of our launch this year, whether it'd be Stearns & Foster or whether it'd be the Breeze, it's all within quarter one is I would anticipate the biggest impact -- negative impact would be in Q1. We're seeing favorability for the rest of the year.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Carla Casella of JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Carla Casella -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- Analyst

Hi. I just wanted to dig in a little bit more on the Chinese import question. How much would you say the industry in 2018 was the Chinese imports?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

How much was it impacted?

Carla Casella -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- Analyst

Yeah, or how much of the -- I mean, how much of the market share did those imports get?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. I don't have a specific estimate. We'll have to get back to you offline as far as some of the stats we have. But I don't have that on the top of my head as to exact percentage. I would say, significant increase over the last three-year period of price points that would be below cost.

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) And our next question comes from Keith Hughes with SunTrust. Your line is now open.

Keith Hughes -- Suntrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. -- Analyst

Yeah. Just a follow-up. You discussed in the prepared comments, 24%, I believe is year-over-year growth at Tempur-Pedic. I assume like the third quarter, the units were up more than that, which is an outstanding unit result. Can you give us any sort of feel what units looked like in the quarter?

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. The units were up 36%.

Bhaskar Rao -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

That's correct in the fourth quarter.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. That's very robust unit growth.

Operator

Thank you. And that concludes our question-and-answer session for today. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Scott Thompson for closing remarks.

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. To the over 6,000 employees worldwide, thank you for what you do every day to make the Company successful. To our retail partners, thank you for your outstanding representation of our brands. To our shareholders and lenders, thank you for your confidence in the Tempur Sealy leadership team and its Board of Directors.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may all disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Duration: 46 minutes

Call participants:

Aubrey Moore -- Head of Investor Relations

Scott Thompson -- Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer

Bhaskar Rao -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Michael Lasser -- UBS Investment Bank -- Analyst

Robert Griffin -- Raymond James & Associates, Inc. -- Analyst

Keith Hughes -- Suntrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. -- Analyst

Peter Keith -- Piper Jaffray -- Analyst

Seth Basham -- Wedbush Securities, Inc. -- Analyst

Bradley Thomas -- KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. -- Analyst

William Reuter -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

John Baugh -- Stifel, Nicolaus & Company -- Analyst

Curtis Nagle -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst

Laura Champine -- Loop Capital Markets LLC -- Analyst

Carla Casella -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- Analyst

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