A participant wears an Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality (VR) headset from Meta Platforms Inc. at the Telefonica SA booth on day two of Mobile World Congress at the Fira de Barcelona venue in Barcelona, Spain, on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.
Angel Garcia | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Check out the companies making headlines during midday trading.
meta — Shares of the tech giant rose more than 5% after the tech giant announced a dramatic price drop for its more expensive virtual reality headset, the Quest Pro. Wall Street also became bullish on Meta’s artificial intelligence potential. Barclays named Meta one of the AI beneficiaries, while Morgan Stanley included the company as a top pick in the space, saying the technology is at an inflection point.
Apple — The tech giant advanced 2.6% after Morgan Stanley reiterated its top pick assessment, noting that the stock has a “catalyst-rich event path” over the coming year. The company predicts that the stock could rise more than 20% in the next 12 months.
Costco wholesale — Shares of the retailer fell 3.4% after the company’s second-quarter results beat analysts’ expectations. The wholesaler reported sales of $55.27 billion, less than the consensus estimate of $55.54 billion, according to Refinitiv.
Hormel Foods — Shares of the food processing company fell 2.7% after JPMorgan issued a downgrade to underweight for neutral. The company said the spam maker’s shares are not yet “entirely risk-free.”
Marvell Technology — The chip stock fell 7.3% after Marvell Technology reported mixed quarterly results and gave a weak outlook. The company said it expects first-quarter earnings of 29 cents, down from the expected 41 cents, according to StreetAccount. Inventory adjustments and the resulting costs are to blame for this, but management expects the headwind to ease later in the year.
First solar energy — The solar stock gained 5% after UBS said it would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Inflation Reduction Act covered stocks.
Asana – Asana shares rose 9% after DA Davidson upgraded software stock to buy from neutral. “Sensor Tower app data for Asana shows continued growth in active users and a marked acceleration in downloads,” the company said.
Bumble – Shares of the dating app provider fell 9.1%. The move comes after Bumble announced it would price a secondary offering of 13.75 million shares of its common stock at $22.80 per share. The sellers include certain shareholders associated with Blackstone and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd.
Broadcom – Shares of the chipmaker were up 5% on a better-than-expected quarterly report. Broadcom earned $10.33 per share on revenue of $8.92 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $10.10 per share on revenue of $8.92 billion. The company also issued second-quarter fiscal guidance that beat expectations.
Ad Science Integral — Shares were up 10% after the digital advertising company posted earnings and revenue increases in the fourth quarter. Revenue was $117.4 million, beating StreetAccount’s consensus estimate of $111.3 million. Fourth quarter earnings of $40 million also beat estimates of $36.9 million. Integral Ad Science also posted a higher Q1 forecast than what FactSet analysts had expected.
Zscaler — Shares of the cybersecurity firm fell nearly 10% despite Zscaler reporting a stronger-than-expected first quarter. The company earned an adjusted 37 cents per share, according to Refinitiv, more than the 29 cents expected by analysts. Billing guidelines have been a concern on Wall Street, however, with Stifel analyst Adam Borg saying in a note to clients that the guidelines were “muted.”
C3.ai — Shares of the artificial intelligence company are up 30% after fiscal third quarter results beat Wall Street expectations. The company posted a loss of 6 cents per share, compared to Refinitiv analyst estimates for a loss of 22 cents. It also posted revenue of $66.7 million, beating expectations of $64.2 million.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings — Shares of the cruise line rose more than 3% and continued to recover from a post-earnings decline. Norwegian fell more than 10% on Tuesday after reporting a larger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss, but the stock has now recovered most of that decline.
JBG Smith Properties — Shares for the real estate investment trust and builder fell 6.2% after Amazon announced it would pause construction on its Virginia headquarters.
Samsara – Shares of the internet of things company rose more than 18.8% on better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. The stock was also boosted by management commentary pointing to break-even free cash flow by the end of the year.
– CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Yun Li, Michelle Fox, Fred Imbert and Darla Mercado and Alex Harring contributed reporting
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