Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron Technology, appears on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street at the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 22nd, 2020.
Gerry Miller | CNBC
Check out the companies making headlines midday Thursday:
Micron Technology — Shares of the semiconductor company rose 6.8% Thursday after beating Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines for its second fiscal quarter. Bank of America upgraded the stock to buy from underperform after it reported, saying in a note that the company’s forward guidance for margins was positive and that it could see stronger than expected demand once the coronavirus crisis is over.
Boeing — Boeing jumped another 14%, bringing its gains this week to a whopping 91%. The U.S. planemaker soared 24% on Wednesday, turning in its best day ever back to its IPO in 1962. The shares got a boost from a pending $2 trillion stimulus bill that should prove to be a relief for the embattled aerospace industry.
Beyond Meat — An analyst at Goldman Sachs downgraded Beyond Meat to sell from neutral, sending the stock down 4%. “BYND represents one of the stocks that is most directly impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, with over half of its sales into the foodservice (primarily QSR) channel,” the analyst said. “We see scope for further underperformance ahead as investors recalibrate the pace of both underlying traffic trends and new distribution wins on the future growth trajectory.”
Henry Schein — Henry Schein shares climbed more than 13% after the health care company announced a new rapid coronavirus antibody test is available. The test, according to the company, delivers results in 15 minutes. Henry Schein said at least hundreds of thousands of these tests should be available by March 30.
UnitedHealth — UnitedHealth shares gained 4.8% after the health services company said it is developing a self-administered coronavirus test.
ViacomCBS — ViacomCBS shares dropped 2% after parent company National Amusments announced it reached a deal with lenders amending its credit facility. “Following this amendment, NAI will have a revolving facility of $125 million and ample liquidity, in addition to its substantial cash reserves,” the company said in a statement.
Signet Jewelers — Shares of the jewelry company surged more than 38% after reporting blowout earnings. The retailer reported quarterly earnings of $3.67 per share, 20 cents a share above estimates, according to Refinitiv. Revenue beat forecasts as well. Same-store sales were up 2.3%, more than double the consensus estimate of a 1.1% increase.
Slack — Slack shares jumped more than 11% after CEO Stewart Butterfield said the company has already added 9,000 new customers for the first quarter, up from about 5,000 in previous quarters.
Interpublic Group — Shares of the advertising company jumped more than 9% despite news Interpublic is removing its financial performance targets for fiscal 2020 amid the coronavirus outbreak. However, CEO Michael Roth said in a statement: “We have multiple cost levers to align expenses with changes in revenue and our operators are executing as appropriate on both the revenue and expense sides.”
Ford Motor — Ford lagged the broader market but still rose 1.6% after S&P Global Ratings downgraded its credit rating to junk status. CEO Jim Hackett said in a letter to employees that the company’s executives were deferring some of their compensation and that job cuts could be necessary.
—CNBC’s Yun Li, Jesse Pound, Michael Bloom and Maggie Fitzgerald contributed to this report.