A pedestrian wearing a protective mask walks past a Wells Fargo & Co. bank branch in New York, U.S., on Thursday, July 9, 2020.
Peter Foley | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Check out the companies making headlines midday on Wednesday:
Wells Fargo — Wells Fargo shares dropped 5% after the banking giant reported a weaker-than-expected profit for the third quarter. The company said its earnings per share came in at 42 cents and analysts polled by Refinitiv had forecast a profit of 45 cents per share. Wells Fargo’s net interest income fell by 19% to $9.368 billion from the year-earlier period.
Bank of America — The banking giant’s stock fell 4% on the back of a disappointing revenue figure for the third quarter. Bank of America said its revenue for the quarter came in at $20.45 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected a revenue print of $20.8 billion. The company also reported a 16% year-over-year earnings drop.
UnitedHealth — Shares of the healthcare giant ticked down about 2.8% despite beating on the top and bottom lines of its quarterly results. UnitedHealth reported earnings per share of $3.51 on revenue of $65.12 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings per share of $3.09 on revenue of $63.88 billion, according to Refinitiv. The company’s CEO said on the earnings call that Covid-19 paints an uncertain picture for earnings in 2021.
Constellation Brands — Shares of the beverage maker lost 1.9% after Atlantic Equities downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight. The investment firm said in a note that it was worried that concerns over “beer supply capacity” would hurt the stock going forward.
New York Times — The media stock jumped 3.5% after Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of the company with an overweight rating. The investment firm said in a note that the Times has a “unique opportunity to scale its paid subscriber base” and could grow its U.S. subscriber base by about 200%.
Nio — The electric vehicle maker’s stock jumped more than 18% after JPMorgan upgraded the company to an overweight rating. The firm also lifted its price target to $40, which is nearly double where shares closed on Tuesday. The stock is up more than 500% for 2020.
Tesla — Tesla shares climbed 3.7% after a Goldman Sachs analyst hiked his price target on the electric car maker to $450 per share from $400 per share. The analyst said Tesla will “benefit” from an improving auto environment.
Kroger — A Wells Fargo analyst downgraded Kroger to equal weight from overweight, sending the stock down 3.8%. “KR remains a key beneficiary of the COVID pandemic, but the risk/reward no longer looks favorable to us,” the analyst said.
Bed Bath & Beyond — The retailer rose more than 7% after announcing plans to offload parts of its non-core assets, which will generate roughly $250 million. The company will sell its Christmas Tree Shops retail chain, its Linen Holdings business and a distribution center in Florence, New Jersey.
AMC — AMC dropped more than 15% after Bloomberg News reported the movie theater chain was considering its options, including a potential bankruptcy filing. On Tuesday, the company warned it could run out of cash by early 2021.
Dave & Buster’s — Shares of Dave & Buster’s jumped 5.3% after the company said it has reopened 98 of 136 stores while same-store sales have stabilized since plunging by 87% in the second quarter.
—CNBC’s Maggie Fitzgerald, Pippa Stevens, Jesse Pound and Michael Bloom contributed to this report.