A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a “Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine” sticker and a medical syringe in front of displayed Novavax logo in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Rocket Companies — The online mortgage provider’s stock price skyrocketed more than 21%, on track for its best day ever, in a surprising move on no apparent new news. Rocket has large short bets placed against it by hedge funds and appears to have garnered some bullish interest from day traders on Reddit’s WallStreetBets.
Novavax — Shares of Novavax slipped more than 15% after missing on the top and bottom lines of its quarterly results. Novavax reported a loss of $2.70 per share, compared to the loss of $1.49 per share expected on Wall Street, according to Refinitiv. The company made $279.7 million, lower than the forecast $304.9 million.
TripAdvisor – Shares of the travel booking site jumped more than 7% after Citi upgraded the stock to a buy rating. The firm said the company’s new subscription offering, which is currently in beta, could attract 10 million subscribers while creating an additional $1 billion of high-margin revenue. Citi also raised its price target on TripAdvisor to $62, up from $29.
Switch – Shares of the data center operator dropped nearly 15% following the company’s fourth quarter earnings. Switch beat earnings estimates, reporting a 6 cent per share profit excluding items compared to the expected 5 cent per share profit, but revenue fell short of expectations. The company said sales reached $127.7 million during the period, short of the expected $131.3 million, according to analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.
Lemonade — The insurance stock sank about 14% despite Lemonade beating expectations on the top and bottom lines in its fourth-quarter report. The company said it expected its gross loss ratio to increase during the first quarter of this year due in part to claims from the winter storm in Texas.
Target — Shares of the big box retailer fell close to 5% despite reporting better-than-expected quarterly results. Same-store sales rose 20.5%, compared to the estimated 16.8%, according to Refinitiv. Sales got a lift from a strong holiday season and stimulus checks. Target reported earnings per share of $2.67 on revenue of $28.34 billion. Analysts expected earnings per share of $2.54 on revenue of $27.48 billion.
Kohl’s — Shares of the retail chain were up more than 2% after the company said it brought in two million new customers last year thanks to a partnership with Amazon. Kohl’s also reported fourth-quarter earnings that topped analyst expectations. The retailer posted earnings per share of $2.22 on revenue of $5.88 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected earnings per share of $1.01 on revenue of $5.86 billion.
Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian — Cruise stocks rose on Tuesday after Macquarie upgraded Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian to outperform from neutral. The firm said in a note that it believes that negative catalysts related to the pandemic are now in the past for the industry. Shares of all three companies rose more than 2%.
Foot Locker —Shares of the shoe retailer lost more than 2% following a downgrade to hold from buy from Williams Trading. The Wall Street firm citied valuation and increased competition for the rating change.
— with reporting from CNBC’s Yun Li, Pippa Stevens, Jesse Pound and Rich Mendez.
