Catch up on the weekend’s top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the third vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus disease. The EUA allows Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) Janssen COVID-19 vaccine to be distributed in the U.S for use in individuals 18 years of age and older. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson also announced that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine. The ACIP recommendation will be forwarded to the Director of the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for review and adoption. Johnson & Johnson has begun shipping its COVID-19 vaccine and expects to deliver enough single-shot vaccines by the end of March to enable the full vaccination of more than 20M people in the U.S. The company plans to deliver 100M single-shot vaccines to the U.S. during the first half of 2021. The U.S. government will manage allocation and distribution of the vaccine in the U.S. 2. Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.A, BRK.B) fourth quarter profits rose, with its net earnings rising to $38.5B, or $23,015 a Class A share equivalent, up almost 23% from the previous year’s profit of $29.2B, or $17,909 a share. Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, rose to $5 billion from $4.4 billion the year before. Buffett also said in his annual shareholder letter to “never bet against America.” “In its brief 232 years of existence… there has been no incubator for unleashing human potential like America,” he added. “Despite some severe interruptions, our country’s economic progress has been breathtaking. Our unwavering conclusion: Never bet against America.” Buffett said the conglomerate owns the biggest amount of U.S. assets by value than any other company in the country. Berkshire Hathaway also bought back a record amount of company stock last year. During the fourth quarter, the company bought back about $9B shares for a total 2020 repurchase of $24.7B. Buffett said in his annual shareholder letter that repurchases have continued since year-end and “is likely to further reduce its share count in the future.” 3. Ross Stores (ROST) offers shoppers a chance to find overlooked “treasures” among a heap of discards and its stock could offer investors the same opportunity, Teresa Rivas wrote in this week’s edition of Barron’s. The company has had a tough time during the pandemic and its stock has took a bigger beating, the author noted. But the underperformance means that Ross also has the most to gain as more vaccines are given and reopening accelerates, Rivas added. 4. Twilio (TWLO) is in talks to invest as much as $750M in Carlyle Group’s (CG) Syniverse Technologies in a precursor to a public listing, Cara Lombardo and Dana Cimilluca of Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The investment will be announced Monday and could be followed in the coming months by a merger between Syniverse and a special-purpose acquisition company, sources told the Journal. Such a deal could value Syniverse around $2B to $3B including debt, they added. The Twilio deal involves a commercial arrangement that would send a significant amount of business to Syniverse, which provides roaming, messaging and other telecommunications services, the sources said. 5. American Electric Power (AEP), Dominion Energy (D), Entergy (ETR), Exelon (EXC), NextEra Energy (NEE), Citigroup (C), Dow (DOW) and Asos (ASOMY) saw positive mentions in this week’s edition of Barron’s.
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