Workers walk outside the Tesla Inc. Gigafactory in Shanghai, China, on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019.
Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Tesla — Shares of Telsa rose nearly 3% after JMP Securities upgraded the stock to market outperform from market perform and established a price target of $1,060 per share, the highest on Wall Street, according to FactSet. The firm said to buy the pullback in Tesla’s stock, as its “market position should continue to be dominant.”
Target — Shares of the big-box retailer dropped more than 3% after posting mixed fourth quarter results. Earnings beat expectations but revenue came in at $23.40 billion, while analysts were expecting $23.50 billion, according to Refinitiv. The company blamed the revenue miss on weakness in the toy segment. This was Target’s first revenue miss in three years.
JPMorgan, Bank of America — Shares of bank stocks sold off sharply following the Federal Reserve’s emergency rate cut to combat an economic slowdown triggered by the coronavirus. Shares of JPMorgan and Bank of America dropped 4% and 3%, respectively, while Citigroup and Morgan Stanley fell more than 2%. Bank margins could take a hit if they are paying out deposit rates at a higher level than market rates.
Lennar, PulteGroup, KB Home, D.R. Horton — Major home builder stocks climbed following the Fed’s emergency rate cut. Lennar was trading about 3.6% higher, while PulteGroup, KB Home and D.R. Horton all gained about 2%.
Kohl’s — Shares of the retailer fell 2% despite beating on the top and bottom lines of its quarterly earnings. Kohl’s reported earnings per share of $1.99 on revenue of $6.537 billion. Wall Street expected earnings per share of $1.88 on revenue of $6.523 billion, according to Refinitiv. Kohl’s same-store sales were flat, compared to the expected declined of 0.1%. The company raised its dividend by 5%.
Uber — Shares of Uber rose about 1% after Needham added the ride-hailing company to its “conviction list” of stocks. Needham analyst Brad Erickson said the stock has dropped “over 20% since its post-earnings levels, and we think Coronavirus concern has created a very attractive buying opportunity with the stock at an EV/revenue multiple of only 3x our ’21 estimate.” Overall, Needham expects Uber will bounce back from coronavirus-related travel declines better than the market expects.
UPS — Shares of UPS rose 1.7% following an upgrade to buy from hold from Deutsche Bank. The firm said UPS is one of the most compelling names in its coverage, with upside given the recent correction. Deutsche Bank said the spread between UPS’s dividend and the 10-year Treasury yield has never been wider.
Advanced Micro Devices — Shares of the chip stock rose nearly 3% following an upgrade to overweight from neutral at PIper Sandler. The firm said the recent pullback in the multinational semiconductor company creates an attractive entry point.
— with reporting from CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Yun Li and Michael Sheetz.