The stock market experienced a boost from health care stocks that helped major indices to surge. The S&P 500 edged 0.3% on Thursday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average also crawled 0.3% higher.
Ambarella Inc (NASDAQ:AMBA) and Broadcom Ltd (NASDAQ:AVGO) are moving on their latest earnings reports, while Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) also made headlines.
Here’s a look at what these companies are set to do in Friday’s trading:
Ambarella Inc (AMBA)
AMBA stock is set to pop by double digits in Friday’s trading after a better-than-expected first-quarter earnings report.
On its face, Ambarella’s earnings report wasn’t particularly uplifting, as GAAP earnings plummeted 90% year-over-year while revenues dropped by 20%. Still, the company did manage to top analyst expectations on both the top and bottom lines, with sales of $57.2 million beating a $57.01 million mark, and adjusted earnings of 34 cents per share beating estimates for 28 cents.
The company also announced that it would repurchase $75 million in stock.
AMBA shares are up 10% in Friday’s premarket action — should that hold, that would put Ambarella shares at highs last seen in January.
GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO), which uses Ambarella video processing chips in its action cameras, was 3% higher in premarket trading.
Broadcom Ltd (AVGO)
The newly created entity from the merger of Broadcom and Avago Technologies reported its first quarter as one big, happy family on Thursday night, and managed to beat the Street’s views.
AVGO lost $1.19 per share for the quarter, though backing out charges related to the merger and restructuring, profits came to $2.53 per share, which trumped expectations for $2.38. Meanwhile, revenues rocketed nearly 120% higher to $3.56 billion, which was just enough to beat estimates for $3.55 billion.
Current-quarter guidance of $3.675 billion and $3.825 billion managed to cover analysts’ expectations of $3.71 billion.
The news led to a number of target price upgrades, including by analysts at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Mizuho and RBC Capital.
A 7.5% jump at the open — which AVGO is pacing right now — would put shares at new highs since the companies merged a few months ago.
Gap Inc (GPS)
Gap should join AVGO and AMBA in heading higher in today’s trading.
Despite a rough report of same-store sales for its Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy brands, GPS did manage to beat expectations on the comps front, helping lift shares.
Specifically, Gap Inc suffered 6% overall declines across its brands, led by an 11% plunge at Banana Republic. Old Navy declined 7%, and comps were down just 3% for the namesake Gap brand.
The declines still were better than Thomson Reuters projections for a 7.2% drop, leading to a 4% surge in Friday’s premarket trade.
As of this writing, Karl Utermohlen did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
