Pre-Market : Affirm gains; Hawaiian Electric falls: Stocks in news August 25

Pre-Market active stocks

Gainers

• Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) stock surged more than 7% after the purchase now, pay later fintech topped sales projections and improved its guidance, helped by an increase in transactions on its platforms.  
• Gap (NYSE:GPS) stock gained 0.1% as the casual clothes retailer beat quarterly profit expectations but fell short on revenue, with comparable store sales down 6% across its brands. 
• AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) ADRs increased 0.6% as the drugmaker filed a legal challenge to key sections of a program that gives the Medicare health insurance plan the authority to negotiate lower prescription pricing.  
• Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock jumped 0.6% after Loop Capital upgraded the streaming giant to ‘buy’ from ‘hold,’ predicting that the stock could rise by more than 20%. 

Losers

• Hawaiian Electric (NYSE:HE) stock fell more than 16% after the utility halted its dividend, while S&P Global lowered its credit rating to “junk” due to its role in the Maui wildfires. 
• Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) stock slumped 3.6% after the premium department store company warned of increased credit losses as more customers defaulted on payments in the second half of the year.  
• The stock of Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) plummeted 3% after the chipmaker reported a drop in second-quarter revenue due to a sluggish enterprise market. 

MARKET MOVERS 

Midday-Market movers

GAINERS

• Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) stock soared more than 29% after the purchase now, pay later fintech topped sales projections and improved its guidance, helped by an increase in transactions on its platforms.  
• Gap (NYSE:GPS) stock climbed 4.5% as the casual clothes retailer exceeded quarterly profit expectations but fell short on revenue, with comparable store sales down 6% across its brands. 
• Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) stock jumped 1.7% after Loop Capital upgraded the streaming giant to ‘buy’ from ‘hold,’ predicting that the price could rise by more than 20%. 
• AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) ADRs increased 0.3% as the drugmaker filed a legal challenge to key sections of a program that gives the Medicare health insurance plan the authority to negotiate lower prescription pricing. 

LOSERS

• Hawaiian Electric (NYSE:HE) stock fell more than 16% after the utility halted its dividend, while S&P Global lowered its credit rating to “junk” due to its role in the Maui wildfires. 
• Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) stock slumped 9.1% after the luxury department store company warned of increased credit losses as more customers defaulted on payments in the second half of the year. 
• The stock of Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) slumped 7.3% after the chipmaker reported a drop in second-quarter revenue due to a sluggish enterprise market. 

Big Earnings Hit this week

• Nvidia’s hot quarter 
• Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) smashed Wall Street projections for Q2 and full-year revenue guidance as chip demand soars amid the drive to deploy generative AI. 
• After the post-close Wednesday print, Nvidia shares rose 6.6% to $502.66 in Thursday’s regular session, an all-time high. By the end of the day, the stock had gained only $471.63. 
• The chipmaker beat consensus by $0.67 with $2.70 per share earnings and $13.51 billion in revenue, compared to $11.13B expected. High-margin data center sales rose 171% as firms switch to accelerated computing and generative AI from general-purpose computing.  
• The chipmaker has announced a $25B stock buyback.  
• As AI demand rises, Nvidia’s AI offerings dominate AI-focused startups and businesses. The chipmaker predicts Q3 sales of $16B, give or take 2%, considerably above the $12B average, as supply rises each quarter into next year. 
• Wedbush said to clients that its optimistic projection “will be fuel in the engine to ignite a tech rally we see continuing into the rest of the year despite the recent pullback and Fed jitters.” 
• On the “exceptional” quarter, Stifel upgraded Nvidia to Buy from Hold with a $600 price target, noting, “we underestimated the opportunity related to the potential shift of $1 trillion of installed data center infrastructure from general purpose compute to accelerated compute architectures.” 
• Morgan Stanley called Q2 “another exceptional quarter” while Goldman Sachs wrote, “We expect Nvidia to maintain its status as the accelerated computing industry standard for the foreseeable future.” Both maintained their buy ratings. 
• A Rosenblatt Nvidia bull said, “Nvidia’s epic print and guide two quarters in a row is simply unprecedented and just getting started.” The price target was raised to $1,100 per share. 
• Marvell Technology’s lackluster print 
• Meanwhile, Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) disappointed investors with in-line expectations and a marginally stronger fiscal Q2. 
• The post-bell Thursday print sent shares down 5% in Friday’s premarket, extending a roughly 7% drop from the previous regular session. 
• Q2 earnings were $0.33 per share, a penny more than average, and sales was $1.34B, down 12% from a year earlier, a hair over the $1.33B Street estimate. Marvell expects $0.40 per share on $1.4B in revenue in Q3. 
• CEO Matt Murphy said that forecasts describe growth “is being driven primarily by AI and cloud infrastructure.” 
• Snowflake falls  
• Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) posted earnings of $0.22 per share, exceeding the average Street estimate, and revenues of $674 million, up 36% year-over-year.  
• The company maintained full-year guidance.  
• After Snowflake’s good earnings and “long-term story is compelling on multiple levels,” BTIG maintained its Neutral rating, stating the stock has “a balanced risk/reward” at present prices. 
• Thursday, shares fell 5.2% to $147.67.  
• Zoom on earnings; shares fall. 
• Zoom (NASDAQ:ZM) reported $1.34 per share in fiscal Q2, beating the $1.06 average forecast, on $1.14 sales. 
• Fiscal Q3 EPS projection of $1.07 to $1.09 was above the $1.03 expectation, while sales are expected to be in line at $1.115B to $1.12B. 
• The stock was rated Hold by Needham & Company because “we are cautious on meaningful re-acceleration until product diversification improves.”  
• Zoom shares fell over 2% Tuesday. 
• Ulta, Gap, and Nordstrom beat expectations financially. 
• After the bell Thursday, Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) topped Q2 and full-year guidance: Comparable-store sales rose 8%, down from 14.4% the year before, while EPS was $6.02 on $2.53B in revenues, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.83. The full-year profit expectation is $25.10 to $25.60 per share on $11.05B to $11.15B, with comps rising 4.5% to 5.5%. 
• Ulta shares rose 1.3% to $428.08 premarket Friday. 
• Gap (NYSE:GPS) shares rose 1.4% to $9.66 in Friday’s premarket after the casual-clothing retailer reported Q2 adjusted earnings of $0.34 per share, $0.25 better than anticipated, on a little lower-than-expected top line of $3.55B. Comparable store sales were down 6% for Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Athleta, and Q3 sales are in the low double-digits. 
• Finally, Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $0.81, beating the $0.45 average Street expectation, on $3.77B in revenue and full-year guidance Thursday. Still, sales fell 12.9% online due to the loss of store fulfillment for Nordstrom Rack digital orders in the prior year and Trunk Club’s closure, while Canadian operations took 275 basis points.

UPGRADES BY EXPERTS 

At Wedbush, AMC Entertainment receives an upgrade. 

Following the reverse stock split and conversion of preferred share units into common stock, Wedbush upgraded AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC) to Neutral from Underperform and boosted its price target to $19.00 from $2.00.  

Prudential Financial benefits from a Raymond James improvement. 

Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU) shares jumped more than 2% yesterday after Raymond James upgraded the company from Market Perform to Strong Buy with a price objective of $125.00.  

Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) was raised to Outperform from Peerperform by Wolfe Research, with a price objective of $104.00.  

Morgan Stanley boosted its price target on Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) to $51.00 from $18.00, citing a better operating model, updated DCF assumptions, and a change in methodology to the midpoint of its bull and base scenarios. 

DOWNGRADES BY EXPERTS

• Following the second quarter, Deutsche Bank downgraded Frontline (NYSE:FRO) to Hold from Buy, with a price target of $17.00.  
• Digital Realty Trust was downgraded to Hold. 
• Shares of Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) declined more than 1% in premarket trading today after Deutsche Bank downgraded the business to Hold from Buy, with a price objective of $131.00 (down from $112.00).  
• FactSet Research Systems (NYSE:FDS) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform by RBC Capital, and its price objective was reduced to $464.00 from $500.00.  
• b, with a price objective of $30.00. 

Earnings Calendar

Friday, August 23 

No Earnings

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