U.S. stocks had an early surge Wednesday before falling back down as a report revealed that most policymakers are in favor of raising interest rates. The S&P 500 was 0.1% higher and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1% yesterday.
A few more companies reported earnings Wednesday, including Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM). Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) also made the news Wednesday.
Here’s what’s moving these stocks:
Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)
Cisco was set to enjoy a strong Thursday of trading after CSCO earnings came in ahead of estimates.
For its fiscal third quarter, the network provider reported profits of 57 cents per share to beat Wall Street expectations for 55 cents. Revenues headed 3% higher to $12 billion, also just getting past estimates for $11.97 billion.
Cisco is in the middle of a transition to become more software-centric, but its Q3 results as well as its projections for the current quarter show that the company is having more success than not. Guidance for fiscal Q4 came to a range of 59 cents to 61 cents, while analysts expect 58 cents per share.
CSCO shares traded 6% higher in Wednesday’s postmarket trading, and that momentum didn’t stop in Thursday’s premarket.
Salesforce.com, Inc. (CRM)
Salesforce also reported its most recent quarter, it also beat and CRM is also set to outpace the markets on Thursday.
The cloud computing solutions provider posted adjusted earnings of 24 cents per share, beating the Wall Street estimate by 1 cent per share. Additionally, CRM announced that revenue amounted to $1.92 billion, topping analysts’ average projection of $1.89 billion. The performance was led by a 26% improvement in subscription and support revenues, according to COO Keith Block.
CRM also said it signed another nine-figure contract after inking a pair in the previous quarter.
The road ahead looks great, too, as Salesforce upped its Q2 revenue guidance to $2.005 billion to $20.15 billion, and full-year revenue guidance to $8.16 billion to $8.2 billion.
Salesforce shares were set to pop 6% in Thursday trading.
Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA)
Tesla sparked worries of stock dilution last night by announcing it planned to sell $2 billion in stock — though it’s for a growthy cause.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk shocked Wall Street a few weeks ago when he drastically increased the company’s production targets, saying the company would build 500,000 EVs annually by 2018 — two years sooner than originally planned. The expectation was that TSLA would have to spend big to make that happen, and that’s exactly what it will do.
TSLA said on Wednesday that it will sell $2 billion in additional stock to help pay for the boost in production it’ll need out of the Model 3 — as well as “to cover tax obligations associated with his exercise of more than 5.5 million in stock options,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Raising some eyebrows, however, was the coincidence of Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s (NYSE:GS) involvement in the deal. GS was announced as one of the underwriters for Tesla’s secondary offering … mere hours after analysts from the firm upgraded TSLA stock to a “buy” rating.
The news initially sent Tesla shares down 3% in Wednesday’s after-hours trading, but TSLA stock is rebounding this morning, actually showing gains of around 1%.
As of this writing, Karl Utermohlen did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
