Boxes containing vials of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine are stored at the Kedren Community Health Center on January 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Moderna — Moderna shares surged 5.6% after the company said its Covid vaccine showed promise in a lab setting in protecting against coronavirus variants, including the highly contagious delta variant first identified in India.
Banks — Big banks saw their shares gain after announcing dividend increases following the Fed’s latest stress tests. Morgan Stanley shares gained 4% after the bank said it would double its dividend. Goldman Sachs shares added 1.8% as the bank announced it would boost its dividend by 60%. Meanwhile, Citigroup saw its shares dip 1.1% after it was the only major bank to not commit to any specific dividend increases.
Lennar, PulteGroup — Homebuilder stocks rose on Tuesday as the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index showed that home prices rose more than 14% on an annual basis in April. Several major U.S. cities saw their highest annual price gains on record. Shares of Lennar rose 1.6%, while PulteGroup jumped 2.3%.
General Electric — General Electric shares added 2.1% after Goldman Sachs named the stock a top idea. “We view GE as the ultimate self-help, re-opening levered story in Industrials,” Goldman Sachs’ Joe Ritchie said in a note released Tuesday.
Herman Miller – Shares of the furniture company dipped 6.6% after its fiscal fourth quarter earnings report. The company beat top and bottom line estimates for the period, earning an adjusted 56 cents per share on $621.5 million in revenue, ahead of the expected 39 cent profit and $583 million in revenue, based on estimates compiled by FactSet. However, shares dipped on the company’s lower-than-expected earnings forecast.
Facebook — The Big Tech stock dipped 1.5% after rising more than 4% on Monday following a court decision that dismissed both federal and state antitrust complaints against the social media giant. Monday’s stock jump pushed the social media giant into the trillion dollar club.
Textron – Shares of the industrial conglomerate increased 1.6% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight. The Wall Street firm said Textron will benefit from the return of sustained growth in business jets as well as a growing market for electric aircrafts.
FedEx – The courier stock rose 1.8% after Bank of America Securities added it to its “US1” list of top picks and reiterated its buy rating on the stock. It also said it’s maintaining its price target of $372, implying upside of 26.5%. “We see significant tailwinds for FDX, led by pricing gains, margin improvement (including TNT integration), continued ecommerce growth, and the return of [business-to-business] volumes,” BofA’s Ken Hoexter said in a note.
FOX — Shares of Fox fell 2.7% after Guggenheim downgraded the media company to neutral from buy. “Our revised estimates reflect our view of the advertising market as well as adjustments for the timing of y/y shifts in the sports calendar, production timing, and incremental investments,” the firm said.
DoorDash — DoorDash shares increased 1.8% after Wells Fargo raised its price target on the delivery company to $215 from $170. The new price target is Wall Street high.
— CNBC’s Pippa Stevens, Maggie Fitzgerald, Tanaya Macheel, Yun Li and Jesse Pound contributed reporting
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