12 Earnings and News Movers Too Big to Ignore

July 27, 2018 by Jon C. Ogg

Earnings season is in full swing and many companies are seeing their shares face make-or-break reactions from investors. There is a growing fear that trade wars and tariffs will have an impact on earnings. Still, there are many winners.

24/7 Wall St. has compiled 12 of the top movers for Friday. These are far from the only ones, and some early bird earnings reports have yet to be factored into the mix.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) closed down almost 3% at $1,808.00 on Thursday after dismal earnings from Facebook killed the hot-money stocks. It turns out that, at least so far, Amazon managed to escape the fears of disappointing earnings. The company also now touches almost every household in America. Cloud, AWS and advertising drove the gains here. The shares were last seen trading up 4% at $1,885 and above its prior all-time high of $1,863.84. This stock traded more than $3.5 billion in dollar-trading volume during the after-hours session on Thursday. Amazon’s revenue gain of 39% to $52.9 billion was actually a tad short of expectations, but Amazon sees third-quarter revenues coming in between $54.0 billion and $54.7 billion. The driving force is a number of $5.07 in earnings per share that was roughly double the consensus estimate.

Atlassian Corp. PLC (NASDAQ: TEAM) was the top after-hours percentage mover on Thursday. While revenues rose 40% to $243.8 million, Atlassian is also selling its enterprise chat service to Slack. The shares were last seen trading up 15% at $76.85 on Friday morning, and its prior all-time high was $68.98.

BJ’s Restaurants Inc. (NASDAQ: BJRI) beat earnings at $0.79 per share, versus a $0.65 per share estimate. Revenues of $287.6 million were also above expectations. While shares were last seen up 13% at $69.75, this restaurant operator stock already has risen massively in 2018.

Boston Beer Co. Inc. (NYSE: SAM) was down 4.7% at $311.70 on Thursday, but higher costs had an impact on earnings, and the stock of the craft beer maker was trading down a sharp 16.5% at $260.00 Friday morning. Guidance for 2018 after missing earnings expectations is now $6.30 to $7.30 per share (versus $7.50 per share and higher expected).

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) issued an update to 2018 guidance and said that 2019 oil production is expected to grow approximately 10% from 2018 (adjusted for asset sales), with additional oil growth anticipated for 2020. The big news here is that asset sale, with Chesapeake selling its interests in the Utica Shale operating area in Ohio for approximately $2.0 billion to Encino Acquisition Partners. Chesapeake Energy shares were up 9.8% at $4.83 in Thursday after-hours, and the stock was last seen trading up 13.5% at $5.00 Friday morning. The shares have a 52-week trading range of $2.53 to $5.60.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) is no longer alone in food illnesses now that McDonald’s recently had a wider issue tied to salads. Chipotle beat earnings expectations at $2.87 in adjusted earnings per share and with 3.3% same-store sales. The stock’s 1% loss to $446.76 on Thursday vanished after a 6% after-hours gain to $475.25. That is now approaching a 100% gain from the 52-week low of $247.52.

Expedia Group Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) reported 11% higher revenues ($2.9 billion) and adjusted earnings per share came in at $11.38, compared with expectations of about $0.67. Bookings also rose 13% to $25 billion, with HomeAway posting a 33% gain in bookings. Expedia shares were up almost 10% at $138.25 in the after-hours, and that is still far short of the 52-week high of $161.00. The stock was indicated at $138.10 on Friday morning.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was trading lower after reporting a quarterly loss as revenue fell by about 50%. The loss was $0.46 per share, versus a positive earnings report of $0.50 a year earlier. The solar giant has narrowed its range on revenues in 2018 to $2.5 billion to $2.6 billion. First Solar shares were down 0.7% at $53.67 ahead of earnings on Thursday, but the stock was indicated down 7.75% at $49.50 on Friday morning. Its 52-week range is $45.26 to $81.72.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) was a focus outside of just the raw numbers at a time when it is in a period of flux. Earnings beat expectations, but chip delays and data-center sales missing expectations took a bite out of the Dow component’s stock. Several analysts have also trimmed their price targets. Intel closed down 0.5% at $52.16 on Thursday, and the premarket indications on Friday had Intel shares down over 6% at $48.70.

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) beat earnings and revenues estimates for the calendar second quarter of 2018. Its shares were up 2.6% at $177.26 on Thursday ahead of the report, but the stock was up another 4.4% at $185.00 on Friday morning. Lam Research has a 52-week range of $139.24 to $234.88.

LogMeIn Inc. (NASDAQ: LOGM) was down 3.5% at $104.45 on Thursday, but this was the premarket top Nasdaq loser as its shares were trading down 18.6% at $85.00 on Friday morning. The company’s results looked mixed on the surface, but guidance for the rest of 2018 looked soft, with a third-quarter range of $302 million to $304 million in revenues and adjusted earnings at $1.33 to $1.35 per share. The prior 52-week range was $99.45 to $134.80.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) met earnings expectations but the platform did pay a price after all for deleting all those accounts after user growth slowed and as the company indicated it was targeting a fix to the platform more than worrying about growth. Twitter closed down 2.9% at $42.94 ahead of the results, but shares were last indicated down 15% at $36.50. Twitter has a lot of room before traders and investors get overly worried because its 52-week range is $15.67 to $47.79.

Sponsored: Attention Savvy Investors: Speak to 3 Financial Experts – FREE

Ever wanted an extra set of eyes on an investment you’re considering? Now you can speak with up to 3 financial experts in your area for FREE. By simply
clicking here
you can begin to match with financial professionals who can help guide you through the financial decisions you’re making. And the best part? The first conversation with them is free.


Click here
to match with up to 3 financial pros who would be excited to help you make financial decisions.