Tetra Tech, Inc. (TTEK) Expected to Announce Quarterly Sales of $541.79 Million

Analysts predict that Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK) will post $541.79 million in sales for the current quarter, Zacks reports. Five analysts have issued estimates for Tetra Tech’s earnings. The lowest sales estimate is $538.54 million and the highest is $545.00 million. Tetra Tech reported sales of $498.48 million during the same quarter last year, which would indicate a positive year-over-year growth rate of 8.7%. The business is scheduled to issue its next earnings report on Wednesday, August 1st.

According to Zacks, analysts expect that Tetra Tech will report full-year sales of $2.20 billion for the current fiscal year, with estimates ranging from $2.17 billion to $2.21 billion. For the next fiscal year, analysts expect that the company will report sales of $2.30 billion per share, with estimates ranging from $2.28 billion to $2.31 billion. Zacks’ sales calculations are an average based on a survey of analysts that follow Tetra Tech.

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Tetra Tech (NASDAQ:TTEK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 2nd. The industrial products company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $532.79 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $509.14 million. Tetra Tech had a net margin of 4.83% and a return on equity of 14.38%. Tetra Tech’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.48 EPS.

Several research firms recently issued reports on TTEK. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Tetra Tech from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. BidaskClub raised shares of Tetra Tech from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 8th. ValuEngine raised shares of Tetra Tech from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 8th. Finally, Boenning Scattergood reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 price target on shares of Tetra Tech in a report on Thursday, March 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. The company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.83.

Shares of Tetra Tech traded down $0.15, hitting $57.90, during trading hours on Tuesday, according to MarketBeat. 326,914 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 252,490. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market cap of $3.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.02. Tetra Tech has a one year low of $39.95 and a one year high of $58.70.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 16th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. This is a boost from Tetra Tech’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.10. Tetra Tech’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.54%.

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TTEK. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Tetra Tech by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. now owns 417,445 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $20,100,000 after purchasing an additional 19,615 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in shares of Tetra Tech by 50.1% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 3,054 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $147,000 after purchasing an additional 1,019 shares in the last quarter. Aperio Group LLC increased its position in Tetra Tech by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Aperio Group LLC now owns 28,017 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,349,000 after acquiring an additional 2,039 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in Tetra Tech by 314.5% in the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 19,507 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $939,000 after acquiring an additional 14,801 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in Tetra Tech by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 252,607 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,163,000 after acquiring an additional 56,364 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.01% of the company’s stock.

Tetra Tech Company Profile

Tetra Tech, Inc provides consulting and engineering services worldwide. It operates through two segments, Water, Environment and Infrastructure (WEI); and Resource Management and Energy (RME). The WEI segment offers early data collection and monitoring, data analysis and information technology, science and engineering applied research, engineering design, construction management, and operations and maintenance services; and climate change and energy management consulting, as well as greenhouse gas inventory assessment, certification, reduction, and management services.

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Russell Investments Group Ltd. Reduces Holdings in The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. (ULTI)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. reduced its position in The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTI) by 26.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 42,196 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 15,223 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.13% of The Ultimate Software Group worth $10,276,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its position in The Ultimate Software Group by 15.2% in the 1st quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 4,766 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,161,000 after purchasing an additional 630 shares during the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can increased its position in The Ultimate Software Group by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 16,869 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,111,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its position in The Ultimate Software Group by 11.1% in the 1st quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 96,135 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $23,428,000 after purchasing an additional 9,568 shares during the last quarter. Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan increased its position in The Ultimate Software Group by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan now owns 9,020 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,198,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in The Ultimate Software Group by 23.5% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 62,871 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,322,000 after purchasing an additional 11,983 shares during the last quarter.

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In related news, VP Robert Manne sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $247.12, for a total transaction of $1,235,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 68,692 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,975,167.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Felicia Alvaro sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.84, for a total value of $501,680.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 11,375 shares of company stock valued at $2,819,786. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

ULTI has been the topic of several research reports. ValuEngine raised The Ultimate Software Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 2nd. BidaskClub lowered The Ultimate Software Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 27th. SunTrust Banks upped their target price on The Ultimate Software Group from $250.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 2nd. TheStreet raised The Ultimate Software Group from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 1st. Finally, Wedbush upped their target price on The Ultimate Software Group from $255.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $253.29.

ULTI opened at $277.96 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $8.57 billion, a PE ratio of 343.16, a P/E/G ratio of 5.72 and a beta of 0.97. The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. has a 52-week low of $181.59 and a 52-week high of $281.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

The Ultimate Software Group (NASDAQ:ULTI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 1st. The technology company reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.17. The Ultimate Software Group had a return on equity of 6.24% and a net margin of 2.90%. The firm had revenue of $277.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $270.80 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.2% compared to the same quarter last year. equities research analysts forecast that The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. will post 2.25 earnings per share for the current year.

The Ultimate Software Group Profile

The Ultimate Software Group, Inc provides cloud-based human capital management solutions primarily to enterprise companies in the United States and Canada. The company's UltiPro software solution delivers the functionality businesses to manage the employee life cycle from recruitment to retirement.

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WHO classifies video game addiction as 'gaming…

Can someone truly be addicted to video games? The World Health Organization thinks so �� but a major professional organization for psychiatrists strongly disagrees.

The World Health Organization on Monday classified "gaming disorder" as a diagnosable�condition, giving mental health professionals a basis for setting up treatment and identifying risks�for the addictive behavior. But it was almost immediately contested by the American Psychiatric�Association, which�said Monday it has not found "sufficient evidence" to consider gaming addiction as a "unique mental disorder."

The disagreement a cast veil of confusion over how to approach a behavior associated with some deaths over the last two decades and as parents grapple with the increased popularity of online gaming.�

The Geneva-based WHO said it will include "gaming disorder" in the 11th edition of its International Classification�of Diseases, which is due out this month and is used by professionals across the globe to diagnose and classify conditions. It will describe the�disorder as�"impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences."

But some mental health professionals have been fighting this classification, worried that it's more grounded in moral concerns than science.��

Earlier this year, The Society for Media Psychology and Technology, a division of the American Psychological Association, released a policy statement stating concern about the WHO's proposal.�

"There was a fairly widespread concern that this is a diagnosis that doesn��t really have a very solid research foundation," said Christopher Ferguson, a psychologist and media researcher at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla.

The symptoms are not clear-cut and there's not designated treatment for the WHO diagnosis, he said.

The WHO's "gaming disorder" diagnosis would apply togamers with fractured connections to friends and family and who exhibit impaired academics and indifference toward areas of life outside gaming for at least 12 months.

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Only a small percentage of people across the world deal with this disorder, according to the WHO. But the number suffering from this mental health condition is enough to study the behavioral pattern and create a treatment program, the organization says.

From 0.3 percent to 1 percent of the general population might qualify for a potential acute diagnosis of ��internet gaming disorder," according to a study published in the November 2016 American Journal of Psychiatry�and referenced�on the�American Psychiatric Association blog in May 2017.

The APA included the disorder in the appendix of the 2014 edition of the�Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders along with caffeine use disorder and other conditions to stimulate research into those disorders.�

Not all experts were critical of WHO's stance. "I can��t imagine they came to this decision lightly," said Iowa State University psychology professor�Douglas Gentile. "(It) undermines the ability of�public health professions to do their jobs if we��re second-guessing them and their work."

For parents concerned about their child, teen or young adult, some more practical advice involves assessing their kids' lifestyle and health. Are they giving up their friends or other hobbies for games?�"But if they keep their grades up (and their) friends and�hobbies, then it��s not an addiction," Gentile said.

����Other signs of concern: Kids not sleeping or having health problems.

�"Sometimes gaming overuse can be a symptom that something is going wrong for the child," said Ferguson, who also co-authored Moral Combat: Why the War on Video Games is Wrong with Patrick Markey. "The likelihood is the problem is bigger than gaming and gaming didn��t cause it."�

Medical professionals are more focused on the reason causing the behavior�than the behavior of playing video games itself, said�Heather Senior Monroe, director of program development at Newport Academy, which has treatment centers for teens struggling with mental health issues in California, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. "The main characteristics�are�very similar to substance abuse disorder and gambling," she said.

"The behavior is like any other self harming behavior �� a way to escape reality," Monroe said. "The treatment is then about why. Why does that person want to escape their reality so much?"

The answer: depression and anxiety, usually, Monroe said.

As interest in online games has risen internationally, there have been�extreme cases of death tied to marathon video game sessions. Last year, a 35-year-old Virginia Beach man died after a 24-hour marathon session of the World of Tanks video game, broadcast on video game streaming service Twitch.

In 2002, a South Korean man was believed to be the first person to die from online game binge-playing�after playing for 86 hours. Three years later, another South Korean man died in an internet cafe.

China, too, has been hit with deaths from addictive online game behavior with separate deaths in 2007 and 2011. More recently, in 2015, a man died in a Shanghai internet cafe after playing World of Warcraft for 19 consecutive hours.

Other deaths connected to marathon game sessions�in the last six years have occurred in Taiwan, Russia and the U.K.

To address the issue, South Korea in 2011 passed a law prohibiting those under 16 from playing online games between midnight and 6 a.m. However in 2014, the country amended the law, allowing parents to lift the ban on their children.�

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�

Retirement Fund Sues Redstones' Firm Over Battle to Control CBS

A CBS Corp. investor sued a company controlled by billionaire Sumner Redstone for demanding changes to the media company’s bylaws that would harm other shareholders backing a stock issuance.

The changes pushed by National Amusements Inc. President Shari Redstone and her CBS board allies would improperly grant the Redstone family a veto over a stock-dilution plan backed by a majority of the company’s directors, the Pennsylvania-based Westmoreland County Employees’ Retirement System said in a Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit.

The investor suit backs CBS directors’ moves to wrest voting control of the owner of the U.S.’s most-watched prime time network from the Redstones, who own NAI, the company’s controlling shareholder. The stock plan, known as a special dividend, would reduce the family’s control to 17 percent from 79 percent by giving more shares to minority investors.

The bylaw changes, which would require 90 percent of the board to approve the dividend, were designed “solely to further defendants’ interests,” according to Thursday’s suit.

Control Battle

“NAI exercised its legal right to amend CBS’ bylaws,” Sara Evans, an outside spokesman for NAI, said in an emailed statement about the suit. “The efforts of the CBS directors to unilaterally dilute the voting rights of its controlling shareholder are extraordinary, unjustified and unlawful. We are confident the court will uphold NAI’s action.”

The suit is the latest chapter in the CBS control battle, which pits Les Moonves, the company’s chief executive officer, against Shari Redstone, Sumner’s daughter. The issue is whether the media company’s directors have the power to wipe out the Redstones’ voting control and block an unwanted merger with Viacom Inc.

It was Shari Redstone’s effort to merge Viacom and CBS that sparked the fight. She has been advocating a merger for almost two years, a move CBS has resisted unless Moonves was granted autonomy to run the combined companies.

Besides Shari Redstone, the investment fund named CBS directors David Andelman and Robert Klieger as defendants in the case. Both backed the Redstone family’s demands for changes to the company’s bylaw and corporate charter as part of the control fight.

The changes were “invalid” under Delaware law and are an improper attempt to nullify other shareholders’ rights to receive shares under the dividend, the fund’s lawyers said in the suit.

The fund wants a judge to approve the special dividend and find Shari Redstone and her allies breached legal duties to other CBS shareholders by demanding the flawed bylaw changes.

The case is Westmoreland County Employees’ Retirement System v. National Amusements Inc., No. 2018-0392, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington).

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