Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Tesla — Tesla shares surged more than 9% after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to outperform from neutral. The firm said the pullback in technology stocks this month has created a buying opportunity. “With robust fundamentals ahead and with the stock having been caught in the market decline, we believe the stock should recover,” Credit Suisse said.
Spotify — Shares of the streaming platform are on watch after influential podcaster Joe Rogan apologized to Spotify amid a boycott over his content. Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their music from Spotify after the company continued to host “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which medical professionals have called out for spreading Covid misinformation. The stock also received an upgrade from Citi. Spotify shares surged more than 12%.
Netflix – Shares of Netflix jumped 10% after Citi upgraded the stock to buy from neutral, saying that the streaming service has ample pricing power to weather high inflation, and that prevailing equity values don’t reflect material subscriber growth prospects beyond 2023.
Beyond Meat – The alternative meat stock surged 15% on Monday following a double upgrade from Barclays. The investment firm said that Beyond Meat’s partnership with restaurant chains should help it stand out in a competitive industry.
Intuitive Surgical – Shares of Intuitive Surgical rose 3.5% after Piper Sandler on Monday upgraded the medical stock to overweight from neutral. The firm said the “recent pullback offers investors an attractive entry point into a premier medtech name.”
Align Technology — Shares of the dental company popped more than 7% in midday trading after Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of Align Technology as overweight. “ALGN is well positioned in the fastest-growing segment of the Dental market with its leading position in clear aligners,” the firm said. The bank gave the stock a $575 per share price target.
Kellogg — Shares of the food company ticked 2.8% lower in midday trading after BMO downgraded Kellogg to market perform from outperform. The Wall Street firm said that it sees cereal “challenges” ahead.
Enphase Energy — Enphase Energy shares surged 10% after the company, which makes microinverters and backup energy storage for solar systems, announced an expansion of battery storage in Massachusetts.
Citrix Systems — Citrix shares fell 3.7% after reports that the cloud-computing company will be taken private in an all-cash deal worth $16.5 billion, including debt. Vista Equity Partners and an affiliate of Elliott Management are acquiring Citrix for $104 per share, according to The Wall Street Journal.
BlackBerry – BlackBerry shares added 4.7% after the communications software company announced a deal to sell its legacy patents for $600 million. The noncore patent assets include mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking. Catapult, a special purpose vehicle, was formed to acquire the BlackBerry patents.
Otis Worldwide – Shares of the elevator company rose more than 2% after Otis reported 72 cents in earnings per share for the fourth quarter, four cents ahead of estimates, according to Refinitiv. The company missed on revenue estimates but said it expected sales and operating margins to grow in 2022.
Walgreens – Walgreens shares dipped about 2% after Bloomberg reported the company has started the sales process for its Boots international drugstore unit. Additional buyout firms, such as Sycamore Partners, are reportedly considering bids.
— CNBC’s Yun Li, Tanaya Macheel, Margaret Fitzgerald and Jesse Pound contributed reporting