Toronto, Ontario — In this week’s Tuesday Ticker, market analysts place their bets for Driven Brands Q3 financials; Magna partners with the federal government and the University of Waterloo in the areas of autonomous driving; and Swedish automaker Polestar makes plans to go public.
Place your Driven Brands bets
Wall Street brokerages are anticipating Driven Brands Holdings to announce sales of US$345.34 million for the current quarter (Q3), according to Zacks.
Four analysts have made estimates for Driven Brands’ earnings; the highest sales estimate is US$364.60 million, while the lowest is US$348.70 million.
For Q2, Driven Brands reported US$0.25 earnings per share, topping the Reuters consensus estimate. Revenues were US$374.83 million for the quarter, compared with analyst expectations of US$322.54 million.
Driven Brands is expected to announce its Q3 earnings on Wednesday, Oct. 27.
Magna makes a difference
University of Waterloo engineering researchers have teamed up with the Canadian federal government and Magna International to develop theories, methods and tools to produce automotive software for connected and autonomous vehicles.
Announced Monday, the $1.6 million project will be headed by Sebastian Fischmeister, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. Magna and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) are each contributing $600,000 over the next five years, while the University will provide $400,000.
Magna will also supply a test vehicle for the project, the Aurora, Ont.-based company said.
The results of research are expected to enable engineers at Magna to develop new features and products that improve automotive safety and security, as well as enabling the re-use of developed software to shorten development of more complex products.
Polestar to provide
Swedish electric vehicle maker Polestar has reached an agreement to go public via a special purpose acquisition with Gores Guggenheim Inc. The SPAC deal would give Polestar a valuation of US$20 billion.
The Wall Street Journal reported the alleged SPAC Sunday, citing individuals familiar with the deal. Once the merger closes, the combined company will be held by new publicly-traded company Polestar Automotive Holding UK Limited.
The company is expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ‘PSNY’.
