A participant wears an Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality (VR) headset from Meta Platforms Inc. at the Telefonica SA stand on the second day of the Mobile World Congress at the Fira de Barcelona venue in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, February 28, 2023 .
Angel Garcia | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Find out which companies are making headlines in the midday business.
Meta — Shares of the tech giant rose more than 5% after the tech giant announced a dramatic price drop for its high-end virtual reality headset, the Quest Pro. Wall Street has also been optimistic about Meta’s artificial intelligence potential. Barclays named Meta as one of the AI beneficiaries, while Morgan Stanley included the company among the top picks in the space, saying the technology is at an inflection point.
Apple — The tech giant rose 2.6% after Morgan Stanley reiterated its top-pick rating, noting that the stock has a “catalyst-rich event path” over the next year. The firm predicts that the stock could rebound more than 20% over the next 12 months.
Wholesale Costco — Shares of the retailer fell 3.4% after the company’s fiscal second quarter results beat analysts’ expectations. The wholesale retailer reported revenue of $55.27 billion, lower than the consensus estimate of $55.54 billion, according to Refinitiv.
Hormel Foods — Shares of the food processing company fell 2.7% after JPMorgan posted a downgrade to underweight to neutral. The company said the spam maker’s actions are not “fully de-risked” yet.
Marvell Technology – The chip stock fell 7.3% after Marvell Technology reported mixed quarterly results and provided weak guidance. The company said it expects first-quarter profit of 29 cents, below the 41 cents expected, according to StreetAccount. Inventory corrections and resulting charges are to blame, but management expects headwinds to subside later in the year.
First Solar — The solar stock gained 5% after UBS said it would be one of the biggest beneficiaries among stocks covered by the Cut Inflation Act.
Asana – Asana shares jumped 9% after DA Davidson upgraded the software stock to buy from neutral. “Data from the Sensor Tower app 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 common shares at $22.80 per share. The sellers include certain shareholders affiliated with Blackstone and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd.
Broadcom – Shares of the chipmaker jumped 5% following a stronger-than-expected quarterly report. Broadcom earned $10.33 per share on revenue of $8.92 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of $10.10 per share on revenue of $8.92 billion. The company also released second-quarter budget guidance that beat expectations.
Integral Ad Science – Shares jumped 10% after the digital ad company reported higher profits and revenue in the fourth quarter. Revenue reached $117.4 million, beating StreetAccount’s consensus estimate of $111.3 million. Fourth-quarter profit of $40 million also beat estimates of $36.9 million. Integral Ad Science also released higher Q1 guidance than FactSet analysts had expected.
Z-scale — Shares of the cybersecurity company fell nearly 10% despite Zscaler reporting a stronger-than-expected first quarter. The company earned an adjusted 37 cents per share, above the 29 cents analysts expected, according to Refinitiv. However, the billing guidelines were a concern on Wall Street, with Stifel analyst Adam Borg saying in a note to clients that the guidelines were “muted”.
C3.ai – Shares of the corporate artificial intelligence company jumped 30% after its fiscal third-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations. The company posted a loss of 6 cents per share, compared to Refinitiv analysts’ estimate 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%, continuing to rebound from a post-earnings decline. Norwegian fell more than 10% on Tuesday after reporting a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss, but the stock has now recovered most of that decline.
Properties JBG Smith — Shares of the real estate investment trust and builder fell 6.2% after Amazon announced it would suspend construction of its headquarters in Virginia.
Samsara – Shares of the Internet of Things company rose more than 18.8% on stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results. The stock was also boosted by management comments 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