Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) shares edged lower in Friday's morning session, after BMO Capital Markets cut its investment rating on the big-box retailer's stock to underperform from market perform and reduced its earnings estimates for the company's current and next fiscal years. The firm also said it lowered its price target on the stock to $78, implying expectations for the stock to decline 6% from its Thursday closing price of $82.94. The firm said it now expects earnings per share of $5.00 and $5.20 for fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2015, respectively, down from its prior forecasts of $5.05 and $5.35, respectively. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) stock reached a fresh all-time high of $83.06 in Thursday's session following its report of higher-than-expected Q3 earnings, but it also cut its guidance for Q4 and fiscal 2014.BMO highlighted a number of other downsides to WMT's Thursday report as it explained its downgrade: Better-than-expected growth of 0.5% in U.S. Q3 same-store sales "came at the expense of EBIT margin," which slippd to 7.04% vs 7.37% a year earlier; customer traffic remained weak (-0.7%), declining for the eighth consecutive quarter, and "operating cost and investment headwinds look to persist into 2015."Among other negative factors BMO noted, entertainment sales "continue to see deflation and lack significant new production introduction, making profitable growth challenging," while "growth in emerging international markets is slowing and there is little growth in developed markets, making meaningful growth from the International Segment challenging," and "improving global inventory productivity remains challenging."Pinnacle Foods Inc (NYSE:PF) said it has agreed to buy Canada-based Garden Protein International, the maker of the plant-passed protein brand gardein, for C$175 million ($155 million) from founder Yves Potvin and private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners. The maker of branded food products said Garden Protein is behind frozen products that serve as alternatives to traditional animal-based protein products such as chicken strips and ground beef."The acquisition of Gardein is a key enabler to continue building Birds Eye into the leading health and wellness brand focused on helping Americans eat more vegetable," CEO Bob Gamgort said in a statement. "We believe that plant-based protein is at the tipping point of becoming mainstream, making Gardein an exciting new growth platform for the Birds Eye business." Pinnacle Foods Inc (NYSE:PF) said Gardein is expected to generate net sales of approximately C$65 million 2014.The deal is expected to close later Thursday. It said the deal is expected to have a minimal, if any, positive impact on its 2015 earnings.GigOptix Inc (NYSEMKT:GIG), a fabless supplier of high-speed semiconductor components, said Friday it withdrew its previous offer to acquire GSI Technology (GSIT), a fabless semiconductor firm that develops high-end memory products, for $6.50 per share. GigOptix Inc (NYSEMKT:GIG) CEO Avi Katz said his firm withdrew the acquisition proposal as GSIT's board was unwilling to hold possible merger talks and dismissed the offer.
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