U.S. markets were moving slightly lower today after the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee held rates at zero and removed all calendar days from its forecast, opting instead for more general language as to when it may raise interest rates.
The Fed was forced to scramble after first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) came in this morning at a paltry 0.2, well below expectations for 1% growth and nowhere near the 2.2% from the fourth quarter of 2014. As a result, the dollar sold off and oil moved higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 dropped 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite was again the weakest index, losing 0.6%. The only sector holding its head above water today was energy.
Despite the bad GDP and weaker indices, several individual stocks reporting excellent earnings managed to power higher. Among those were Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc (NYSE:HOT), GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (NASDAQ:GT). As a result, those are three of today’s best stocks.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc (HOT)
Starwood was a hot stock today after posting adjusted earnings of 65 cents a share, handily beating the analysts’s expectations of 57 cents a share. The results even surpassed Starwood’s previous projections of 53 to 57 cents a share. Revenue of $1.42 billion was down nearly 3% from last year, but still beat the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion.
In addition, Starwood said it has now hired investment bank Lazard Ltd (NYSE:LAZ), to explore “other alternatives,” to increase HOT’s stock value. That fueled speculation that a sale to another hotel chain might be in the wind.
Between the speculation and the earnings beat, HOT stock rose more than 8% on heavy volume of 18.3 million shares.
GoPro Inc (GPRO)
GPRO shareholders also had two reasons to celebrate, as GPRO stock gapped up 12.6%. First, GPRO also beat the Street’s expectations, posting first-quarter adjusted earnings of 24 cents a share, ahead of Street estimates for 18 cents a share.
Revenue of $363.1 million was up 54% from a year ago, and trounced the analysts’ estimate of $341 million. GPRO also forecasted Q2 earnings from 24 cents to 26 cents on revenue of $380 to $400 million, ahead of the Street view of 17 cents a share and $341 million.
In addition, analyst Tavis McCourt of Raymond James Financial, Inc. raised GPRO stock’s rating from “market perform” to “outperform” and added a $63 price target. GPRO stock closed at nearly $53.
McCourt likes GPRO’s announcement from yesterday that it will buy Kolor, a French software company that makes software for virtual reality.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (GT)
It was a good quarter for Goodyear, as their first-quarter earnings came in at 54 cents a share, down 2 cents from last year but beating analysts’ estimates of 45 cents a share.
However, revenue of $4.02 billion was 10% lower than a year ago, and missed the Street’s estimate of $4.07 billion. Unfavorable foreign currency translation was blamed for dropping revenues.
GT stock moved 4.4% higher on more than twice normal volume and is now close to previous highs it set at the beginning of 2015.
As of this writing, Ethan Roberts does not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
