Ahead of Thursday’s Brexit vote, U.S. stocks gave back some of the gains accrued in the first two days of trading this week as the S&P 500 fell 0.17%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.27% while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.22%.
Oil rose modestly Wednesday, though generally investors leaned toward safer assets as highlighted by the dollar’s rise and falling Treasury yields.
On a slow day for stocks, La-Z-Boy Incorporated (NYSE:LZB), Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (NYSE:RH) and SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) soared and were easily three of the day’s best performers.
La-Z-Boy Incorporated (LZB)
Shares of home furnishings maker La-Z-Boy Incorporated soared 6.5% on more than five times the average daily volume after the company delivered fiscal fourth-quarter results that topped analysts’ estimates.
On an adjusted basis, LZB earned 52 cents a share in the quarter while analysts were expecting LZB to earn 48 cents a share.
LZB reported revenue of $417.1 million, ahead of the $416.3 million analysts expected. For its full fiscal year, LZB earned $1.56 per share on sales of $1.53 billion.
LZB stock is now up 12% for the year to date.
Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc (RH)
Shares of Restoration Hardware Holdings Inc climbed 7.2% on heavy volume after an analyst said it would make sense for RH and rival Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE:WSM) to merge.
BB&T analyst Anthony Chukumba reiterated his view that a marriage of RH and WSM makes sense in a note out Wednesday.
Chukumba originally floated the idea of an RH and WSM marriage two years ago, and said in today’s note that “the deal makes even more sense now than it did two years ago.”
SolarCity Corp (SCTY)
Solar leasing firm SolarCity Corp surged 3.3% on more than four times the average daily volume after Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) said it will acquire SCTY in an all-stock transaction worth up to $2.8 billion.
The deal is something of a family affair as SCTY is run by Musk’s first cousin Lyndon Rive. Musk owns 22% of SCTY.
Shares of TSLA tumbled 10.5% on the news amid investors’ concerns about dilutions and lingering questions from Wall Street regarding TSLA’s ability to become profitable.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
