Pre-market : Lusid Rise: Murcury Falls/ Stocks June 26

Pre-market active stocks

Gainers

• Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID) stock rose 11%; After Aston Martin inked a contract with the electric vehicle maker, making cash payments totaling $232 million in exchange for battery-electric powertrain components, the stock price of Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID) increased by 11%.
• PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW) stock rose 6.9%; The stock of regional lender PacWest Bancorp (NASDAQ:PACW) increased 6.9% after it reached a $2 billion deal with private equity company Ares Management (NYSE:ARES) to sell its portfolio of specialty finance loans. The sale was made “to improve liquidity.”
• The shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) increased 2.4%; after UBS upgraded the pharmaceutical company from ‘neutral’ to ‘buy’ and said that the potential of its novel vaccines is undervalued.
• Stock of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) dropped 1.4% as a result of Goldman Sachs downgrading the company.Four major analyst cuts Goldman Sachs no longer recommend buying Tesla stock.

Losers

• Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) stock fell 14.5%; The price of Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) stock dropped 14.5% after JPMorgan downgraded the aerospace firm from ‘overweight’ to ‘neutral’.
• Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock fell 1.4%; After UBS downgraded Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) from “buy” to “neutral,” the stock of the parent company of Google declined 1.4%. UBS cited the notion of superior risk-reward potential in other firms, namely Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
• IBM (NYSE:IBM) stock fell 0.2%; After the Wall Street Journal reported that IBM (NYSE:IBM) is close to a deal to buy software developer Apptio for around $5 billion, the stock of the computer giant dropped 0.2%.

MARKET MOVERS 

MIDDAY MOVERS

GAINERS

• Shares of Lucid Group Inc. (NASDAQ:LCID) increased 8% following the electric vehicle manufacturer’s deal to provide EV technology to British luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin.
• Shares of International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) increased by 0.9% following the $4.6 billion acquisition of software developer Apptio by the technology giant from private equity firm Vista Equity Partners.

LOSERS

• Shares of cruise operator Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) fell 9.5% after it reported solid revenue growth and a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss, but investors were little let down by its third-quarter projection. Shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. declined 5%.
• Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) dropped 4% after the pharmaceutical behemoth announced it would stop developing one of its obesity medications after tests on certain patients revealed symptoms of raised liver enzymes.
• Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) shares fell 0.3% ; As an investor day got underway, shares of Delta Air Lines Inc (NYSE:DAL) decreased by 0.3%. The next July 4 weekend in the United States is expected to see record-breaking travel, according to the AAA.

Upgrades by Experts

Moderna benefits from a UBS upgrade

After UBS raised Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) to Buy from Neutral with a price objective of $191.00 (from $221.00), the company’s shares increased by almost 3% pre-market today.

Benefits of the bankruptcy of Bed Bath & Beyond were improved for Wayfair.

Wayfair (NYSE:W) was upgraded by MoffettNathanson from Underperform to Market Perform, and the firm increased its price objective from $33.00 to $44.00.

The company made the decision to withdraw from the market after examining recent online traffic data that showed Wayfair is reaping a major benefit from Bed Bath & Beyond’s recent bankruptcy.

Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) received an upgrade from Market Perform to Outperform, and BMO Capital increased its price objective from $269.00 to $275.00. Pre-market share prices increased by about 1%.Sotera Health (NASDAQ:SHC) was raised by KeyBanc from Sector Weight to Overweight with a $24.00 price objective. Pre-market today, shares increased by more than 1%.

Downgrades by Experts

Goldman Sachs downgrades Tesla

Following a significant surge (up 108% YTD) in the EV manufacturer’s stock, Goldman Sachs downgraded Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) to Neutral from Buy with a price objective of $248.00 (from $185.00). Premarket share prices dropped by almost 2%.

Alphabet was downgraded by UBS, which prefers the risk-reward of Meta and Amazon.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was downgraded by UBS from Buy to Neutral, with a price objective of $132.00 (from $123.00).

After BMO Capital downgraded its price target for Celanese (NYSE:CE) to $119.00 from $133.00 and downgraded the firm to Market Perform from Outperform due to the likelihood that end market weakness will persist, shares of Celanese (NYSE:CE) tumbled more than 2% premarket today.

After Barclays reduced Viatris (NASDAQ:VTRS) from Equalweight to Underweight with a $11.00 price target on Friday, the stock dropped by about 3%.

INSIDER DEALS

Elliott, an activist investor, wants the CEO of NRG Energy fired.

A story in the Wall Street Journal claims that activist investor Elliott is increasing pressure on NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG) to replace CEO Mauricio Gutierrez and other top executives. Elliott Investment Management is an activist investment firm. The Journal quoted insiders with knowledge of the situation.

An NRG representative told Reuters that the board of the electricity firm continues to support Gutierrez and his management group wholeheartedly.

CEO of Asana Dustin Moskovitz buys additional shares

According to InvestingPro’s real-time coverage, Asana (NYSE:ASAN) CEO Dustin Moskovitz declared multiple transactions this week. Moskovitz purchased 240,000 shares at $24.09-$24.97 and 80,000 shares at $24.37-$26.10 for a total purchase of around $8.5 million.

Following the most recent transactions, Moskovitz now directly and indirectly owns 4,147,046 shares out of 39,592,803 total.

Alexander Denner, a 10% owner of Innoviva (NASDAQ:INVA), purchased 62,000 shares at $13.1322, totaling more over $800,000.

Jon Bortz, the chairman and chief executive officer of Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (NYSE:PEB), bought 39,368 ordinary shares at a price between $12.59 and $12.839.

Thomas Malley, a director of Kura Oncology (NASDAQ:KURA), paid $11.50 per share for 50,000 of the company’s common shares, or $575,000 total.

Earnings Calendar

MONDAY JUNE 26

Carnival Corp (CCL)

TUESDAY JUNE 27

Walgreens Boots (WBA) Collins Foods (CKF)