Diamonds and Dogs

5/15/23

Shake Shack (SHAK) jumps 9% as activist investor looks to shake up the company with three new board members. Engaged Capital is a hedge fund with a 6.6% stake in Shake Shack looking to add board members to bolster the share price which has been nearly cut in half since the end of 2021. Shake Shack can now be found on the NY State highway rest stops.

H&R Block (HRB) is down 3% as the government prepares a recommendation on allowing people to file taxes electronically for free directly with the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS's current arrangements allow free online filing for federal returns with the help of a third-party tax preparation service, though Americans often have to pay to have state taxes prepared. The FreeFile program with the IRS for federal taxes also isn't widely used—it served just 3% of 100 million taxpayers last year.