An Olive Garden restaurant in Times Square in New York.
Richard Levine | Crows | Getty Images
Below are the stocks making the headlines in Thursday’s midday trade.
Novavax: Shares of the drugmaker fell 13.9% after JPMorgan downgraded Novavax to underweight. Banks also cut their price target on the stock, citing declining demand for Covid-19 vaccines.
Darden Restaurants: Shares of Olive Garden’s parent company fell more than 4% after Darden’s fiscal first-quarter results showed weaker-than-expected revenue. The company reported $1.56 in earnings per share on $2.45 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by Refinitiv had noted $1.56 per share on $2.47 billion in revenue. Same-store sales at Olive Garden were up just 2% year over year.
Eli Lilly: Pharmaceutical shares rose 4.2% after UBS upgraded Eli Lilly to buy to neutral. UBS said Eli Lily’s new weight loss product could be “the biggest drug ever”.
KB Home: Shares of homebuilder KB Home fell 4% after the company reported earnings that disappointed Wall Street’s revenue expectations. The company reported earnings of $2.86 per share on revenue of $1.85 billion, where analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected earnings of $2.67 per share on revenue of $1.87 billion.
Lennar: Shares of Lennar rose 2.5% after the company reported mixed quarterly results on Wednesday. The homebuilder reported earnings of $5.03 per share and $8.93 in revenue, where analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected $4.88 in earnings on $9 billion in revenue. KeyBanc said in a note to clients that Lennar “optimizes asset turns” better than competitors, even as housing demand slows.
FactSet: Shares of the financial data company fell more than 6% after FactSet’s fourth-quarter earnings missed expectations. The company reported $3.13 in adjusted earnings per share, below analysts’ expectations of $3.20, according to Refinitiv. Revenue beat expectations by $12 million, coming in at $499 million. FactSet’s operating margin shrank year over year.
Block: The payments platform fell 6.8% after Mizuho downgraded the stock to neutral from buy and cut its price target to $57 from $125, saying Block’s focus on bitcoin is causing the company loses focus on its core business.
Steelcase: Shares fell 11.3% after the furniture company announced it will cut 180 salaried positions in the third quarter. In a statement, Steelcase CFO Dave Sylvester cited “the recent decline in our incoming order volume and lower-than-expected back-to-office trends in the Americas.” The company also reported its second-quarter results, saying second-quarter organic order growth declined in the Asia Pacific region, even as total revenue grew.
Trip.com – Shares of the U.S.-listed Chinese travel company rose 5% even as Trip.com reported lower revenue in the second quarter. Trip.com reported a much smaller net loss than in the first quarter. Chief executive Jane Sun said bookings picked up at the end of the second quarter and into the third.
Deutsche Bank: The bank’s shares rose 2.9%. CFO James von Moltke told a conference call on Thursday that the bank will have to look at 2023 “with caution”. Dow Jones reported that the company’s management also confirmed its full-year revenue guidance.
Virtu Financial: The market maker rose 8% on a report that the Securities and Exchange Commission will not ban the Wall Street practice of “pay for order flow.”
Alcoa: Shares of the aluminum maker fell more than 3% after Wolfe Research downgraded Alcoa to outperform, citing macro pressures on commodity markets.
Li Auto: Shares rose 6.5% after the Chinese electric vehicle maker announced an “early launch” of the Li L8, a smart SUV model. Li Auto is holding a launch event on September 30 and plans to start delivery in early November.
– CNBC’s Scott Schnipper, Sarah Min, Samantha Subin, Alex Harring and Carmen Reinecke contributed to this report.
