Exterior of the Walmart store August 23, 2020 in North Bergen, New Jersey
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Check out the companies that hit the headlines in the noon trade.
Walmart – Shares fell about 10.5% after a major retailer reported quarterly earnings that were well ahead of Wall Street expectations. Walmart posted adjusted first-quarter earnings of $ 1.30 per share on revenue of $ 141.57 billion. According to Refinitiv consensus estimates, analysts expected earnings of $ 1.48 per share with revenue of $ 138.94 billion. Walmart cites cost pressures due to rising fuel prices, higher inventory levels and overstaffing.
Citigroup – The bank’s shares rose about 8.2% the day after regulatory documents revealed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway added more than 55 million shares to create a stake of $ 2.95 billion in the first quarter. Citi shares have been underfunded in the financial sector for the past 12 months and are still down 15% this year.
Paramount Global – Paramount shares rose nearly 14% after Berkshire Hathaway revealed a stake in the media company worth $ 2.6 billion. At the end of the quarter, the media company was the 18th largest Berkshire holding company.
United Airlines – Airline shares jumped more than 7% after the Federal Aviation Administration allowed 52 Boeing 777s to fly again after they were suspended due to engine failure. Aircraft make up 10% of United’s power. United has said it plans to gradually return the planes starting this month.
Online software Take-Two – shares rose 12.3%, despite easy recommendations and a mistake in the booking rate of the video game company. Analysts expect a better forecast after the company closes the expected acquisition of Zynga.
JD.com – Shares of Chinese e-commerce giant rose about 2% after the company exceeded revenue estimates for the last quarter, despite a slowdown in growth as the Covid-19 block affected consumer spending. According to Refinitiv, revenue amounted to 239.7 billion Chinese yuan, up 18% from the previous year, compared with expectations of 236.6 billion yuan.
Tencent Music Entertainment – shares of the Chinese online entertainment platform in the US fell by more than 3%. Tencent Music’s quarterly revenue was 6.64 billion yuan, up 15% from the previous year.
AMD – Shares of semiconductor stocks jumped 8.7% after Piper Sandler upgraded Advanced Micro Devices from neutral to overweight and said shares could rise nearly 50% after dips this year.
Business day – shares fell 1.8% after UBS downgraded HR software to neutral from the purchase. The firm said Workday could be hit hard during the recession.
Maxar Technologies – Space stocks fell nearly 2% after Bank of America downgraded Maxar from neutral to low. The bank said it expects lower revenues and profits in the satellite imagery company.
Molson Coors – Beverage stocks fell more than 2% after downgrading Bernstein. The investment firm said the recovery trade for Molson Coors was largely complete and shifted its rating to market performance from higher performance.
– Yun Lee from CNBC, Jesse Pound, Sarah Min, Samantha Subin and Tanya Machel made a report.
