Cannae Holdings Inc. has always been a difficult company to evaluate since it was spun off from Jacksonville-based Fidelity National Financial Inc. in 2017.
Title insurer Fidelity invested in a wide range of non-real estate businesses and Cannae was formed as a holding company for those investments.
Wall Street prices Cannae’s stock on the estimated value of the companies it invests in, rather than a revenue and earnings stream.
Cannae is hoping a narrowing of its focus to investments in sports and entertainment businesses, most notably European soccer teams, will clarify its value for investors and increase interest in the stock.
“Cannae Holdings is transitioning from a broad investment vehicle to a more focused platform centered on proprietary sports and entertainment assets,” Stephens analyst Oscar Nieves said in an April 22 report as he resumed coverage of Cannae with an “overweight” rating.
“We believe this shift, supported by monetization of non-core assets, disciplined capital allocation, improved disclosure, and governance enhancements, can narrow its share price discount to net asset value,” he said.
Cannae’s investments have been largely tied to Fidelity Chairman Bill Foley, who remains vice chairman of Cannae.
The company is headquartered in Las Vegas because Foley relocated there after being awarded a National Hockey League expansion franchise in the city.
Cannae had stakes in public companies tied to Foley, including a 13.5% interest in Jacksonville-based Dun & Bradstreet Holdings Inc.
Cannae sold off its shares in Dun & Bradstreet when Clearlake Capital Group L.P. completed its acquisition of the business data firm in August.
The company also owned shares in Paysafe Ltd., a London-based payments processing company that has its North American headquarters in Jacksonville.
Cannae sold its shares in Paysafe last year and is now focused more on private companies.
Its largest current investment is in a partnership led by Foley called the Black Knight Football Club, which owns interests in several soccer teams including AFC Bournemouth in the British Premier League.
A sum-of-the parts analysis released by Cannae in February pegged the company’s net asset value at $24.31 a share. Its 42% stake in Black Knight Football was worth $5.60 per Cannae share, it said.
While Cannae is focusing on sports and entertainment, its portfolio includes a less than 1% stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is expected to go public soon. The estimated value of that investment is $1.21 per Cannae share.
Cannae has been trading at about $13 recently, a little more than half of the company’s net asset value.
“Shares trade at a meaningful discount to NAV, reflecting portfolio complexity, limited disclosure, and skepticism around private marks. As transparency improves and non-core assets are monetized, we see potential for the discount to narrow,” said Nieves, who set a $17 price target for the stock.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Kenneth Lee also set a $17 target for Cannae in an April 20 report on asset manager stocks.
“While management has made strides in disclosing more metrics around Cannae’s private investments, we would look for additional details to better value the investments,” said Lee, who has an “outperform” rating on the company.
“Key focus for investors, in our view, is how active Cannae could be in terms of capital returns to shareholders,” he said.
The PGA Tour confirmed reports by several sports news outlets that it reduced its existing headcount by 56 people, representing about 4% of its total work force.
The golf organization did not provide further details about the positions affected.
The PGA Tour said during The Players Championship in March at TPC Sawgrass that it employed 739 people at its Ponte Vedra Beach headquarters and an additional 232 at its PGA Tour Studio media building adjacent to the headquarters off of Palm Valley Road west of Florida A1A.
It also said there were 371 employees working remotely or in other facilities, bringing its total employment to 1,342.
In addition to the layoffs, the PGA Tour said it will not fill 73 open positions but it is posting at least 30 open roles for hire.
The 30 openings include senior leadership roles in technology, investor relations, marketing and procurement, it said.
Sports Business Journal, which first reported the layoffs April 20, said the moves are part of a rightsizing plan as the PGA Tour becomes more of a for-profit organization. A group of high-profile sports owners invested $1.5 billion in the organization in 2024.
Sports Business Journal, citing unidentified tour sources, said the PGA Tour was profitable in 2025.
The PGA Tour is the largest employer in St. Johns County, excluding government and healthcare organizations.
The second largest, Northrop Grumman Corp., reported higher first-quarter earnings April 21 but its stock dropped sharply amid a slump in defense stocks.
The Virginia-based aerospace and defense company’s operations include an aeronautics facility in St. Augustine which employs about 1,000 people.
Northrop Grumman reported first-quarter sales rose 4% to $9.9 billion and earnings nearly doubled to $875 million, or $6.14 a share.
“Our results and our confidence in our outlook are supported by a robust demand environment driven by rising global defense budgets,” CEO Kathy Warden said in an April 21 conference call, according to a company transcript.
The company reiterated its full-year forecast of adjusted earnings of $27.40 to $27.90 a share, up from $26.34 in 2025.
However, the company’s stock fell from $656.98 before the earnings report to $575.11 at the end of the week April 24, a 12.5% drop which was one of the week’s worst performers among S&P 500 stocks.
Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine Liwag said in a research note the company’s announcement of increased production of B-21 bomber aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, which will increase costs for Northrop Grumman, was a factor in the sell-off.
Liwag reduced her price target from $765 to $745 but maintained an “overweight” rating.
“While this investment could pressure free cash flow in the nearer-term, we view this capex as a smart investment behind an in-demand program with decades-long visibility that should unlock higher returns over the production lifecycle,” she said.
Northrop Grumman’s website says the company’s St. Augustine facility includes a production line for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye military aircraft.
“On the production line, more than 30,000 parts come into one end of the building, and a completed aircraft rolls out the other,” it said.
The company said it has been working on the E-2 in St. Augustine since 1994, making it the longest-running production line in naval aviation history.
CSX Corp.’s stock jumped to a record high April 23 after reporting first-quarter earnings above analysts’ expectations and increasing its revenue growth forecast for the rest of the year.
The Jacksonville-based railroad company’s earnings of 43 cents a share were 4 cents higher than the average forecast, according to Yahoo Finance, and it now projects revenue growth by a mid-single-digit percentage, up from its previous forecast of low single digits.
The stock rose as much as $3.37 to $46.55 after the report.
“Overall, a very solid quarter for CSX, and a nice inflection from the challenging results in Q4,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Walter Spracklin said in a research note.
Spracklin maintained his “outperform” rating on the stock but increased his price target from $43 to $47, one of several analysts to increase their targets.
Raymond James analyst Patrick Tyler Brown also maintained an “outperform” rating and raised his target from $45 to $49.
“CSX continues to execute its internal initiatives, which we expect will continue to drive operational and cultural improvements that should translate to stronger revenues, margin, EPS, and free cash flow in out years,” Brown said.
“Newly minted CEO Steve Angel’s focus on combining improved service with a unique internal (industrial development) strategy, while having a disciplined focus around return on invested capital, could open growth conduits and market share opportunities over time that could ultimately drive earnings and free cash flow longer term — possibly stronger than currently anticipated, in our view,” he said.
Angel joined CSX as chief executive in September.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Fadi Chamoun was more cautious, maintaining a “market perform” rating.
“In our view, the valuation appears to reflect the stronger performance, with upside if the industrial economy regains momentum,” Chamoun said in his note.
But at least two analysts downgraded CSX after the report.
Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker lowered his rating from “equal weight” to “underweight” while keeping his price target at $30.
“We appreciate that the management team is doing a commendable job of extracting productivity savings and improving operational efficiency after a challenging, investment-heavy 2025,” Shanker said in his note.
“However, this appears to be more than reflected in numbers and the stock price in our view,” he said.
Vertical Partners analyst Jeffrey Kauffman downgraded his rating from “buy” to “hold” with a $44 price target, according to investment website MarketBeat.
However, the firm doesn’t provide its reports to the media.