Thursday saw the markets perform modestly thanks to a slight slip on hopes that U.S. crude will keep rising. The day finished with a 0.26% lift in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a 0.35% increase in the S&P 500.
Heading into Friday, the spotlight now falls on a few companies, including Ambarella Inc (NASDAQ:AMBA), Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) and H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB).
Here’s what you should know heading into today’s trading:
Ambarella Inc (AMBA)
Thursday was a topsy-turvy day for Ambarella. AMBA shares actually finished the regular trading day up a little more than 2%, followed by disappointing first-quarter revenue guidance that has the stock down 7.5% in Friday’s premarket trading.
The California-based maker of video processors expects revenue of $55 million to $57 million for the quarter, below Wall Street estimates of $62.44 million.
That news overshadowed Ambarella’s street-beating fourth-quarter earnings; AMBA reported profits of 64 cents per share, easily hurdling Wall Street’s bar at 48 cents.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (HPE)
Hewlett-Packard was on the move in premarket trading Friday, up more than 6% after the company reported its first-quarter financial results.
The IT solutions company posted earnings of 41 cents per share, just ahead of the Wall Street consensus estimate of 40 cents. HPE posted revenue of $12.7 billion, in line with expectations.
Additionally, the company expects adjusted earnings between $1.85 and $1.95 per share, with the high point well above Wall Street’s expectations of $1.87 for the year.
This is Hewlett-Packard Enterprise’s first time reporting quarterly earnings since HP split into two companies. HPE is the part of HP that sells servers, software and consulting to large enterprises.
H&R Block Inc (HRB)
H&R Block didn’t fare as well, posting lower-than-expected third-quarter results to send the stock down roughly 6% in premarket trading.
HRB, which was already expected to lose 24 cents a share for Q3, posted a much-wider-than-expected deficit of 34 cents. Revenues of $474.5 million also missed the mark.
The figures were also worse than the year-ago figures of 13 cents per share and $509 million, respectively.
The poor numbers were driven by lower client volumes in its U.S. tax-assisted offices.
As of this writing, Karl Utermohlen did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
