Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Palantir — The tech company slid more than 10% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to underweight. The firm said Palantir now trades at a “significant premium” to its peers following shares’ more than 100% jump since the company went public on Sept. 30.
Tesla — Shares of the electric vehicle company slid 2%, giving back some of its recent gains. The stock is still up more than 40% over the last month, however, and roughly 580% year to date.
NetApp — The data management services company jumped 10% after NetApp beat top- and bottom-line estimates during the second quarter. The company earned an adjusted $1.05 per share on revenue of $1.42 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting the company to earn 73 cents per share while generating $1.32 billion in revenue.
Peloton — The exercise equipment maker jumped more than 3% after Needham raised its target on the stock to $140, which is 25% above Tuesday’s closing price. “We believe that PTON continues to benefit from an improved competitive position in 2021 vs pre-pandemic levels,” the firm said.
Workhorse — Shares of the electric delivery truck company slid more than 21% after Trucks.com reported that the U.S. Postal Service has delayed its mail truck replacement contract. Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne reiterated his outperform rating on the company following the announcement, noting that the delay is not surprising given the changing presidential administration and the ongoing impacts from Covid-19, among other things. “Workhorse remains well-positioned to win a portion of the contract in our view,” he wrote in a note to clients.
Pfizer, BioNTech — The companies rose 3.2% and 5.4%, respectively, after the UK authorized their coronavirus vaccine for use. UK authorities said the rollout will begin next week, with elderly people and medical workers first in line to receive the vaccine.
Salesforce — Shares fell more than 7% after the cloud company announced it will buy Slack for more than $27 billion. That marks the biggest-ever acquisition for Salesforce. The deal values Slack at more than 24 times estimated revenue for 2021.
Zoom Video — Shares of the video conferencing company advanced 2% in midday trading, gaining back some of its losses for the week. Zoom shed 15% on Tuesday as investors digested signs that the video conferencing company’s explosive growth this year may be slowing.
Hasbro — The toymaker lost 4% in midday trading after BMO Capital Markets downgraded the stock to market perform from outperform. The Wall Street firm said the downgrade was primarily due to valuation, as Hasbro surpassed BMO’s target price.
Nikola — The battered electric vehicle stock rebounded 3.9% on Wednesday, reclaiming some of its recent losses. The stock is still down more than 35% for the week after GM and Nikola announced a scaled back agreement that did not include an equity stake in the start-up from the legacy automaker.
Moderna — Shares of biotech company Moderna rose nearly 4% despite Merck’s announcement that it was divesting its direct holding in the company. The firm’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate is similar to the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which received emergency approval in the UK on Wednesday.
Advanced Micro Devices – The stock gained 2% to hit an all-time high after the chipmaker announced that Amazon Web Services has expanded its AMD-based offerings, including a dedicated game server hosting solution. The stock has more than doubled this year.
Box – Shares dropped more than 7% after the cloud storage company issued a disappointing outlook for the fourth quarter. Box said it sees adjusted earnings per share in the range of 16 cents to 18 cents and sales in the range of $196 million to $197 million. Both estimates are lower than what analysts were expecting, according to FactSet. Box reported better-than-expected results for the third quarter, however.
– CNBC’s Yun Li, Maggie Fitzgerald, Fred Imbert and Jesse Pound contributed reporting.
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