Wednesday was a positive day for the market, led by utility stocks, which gained a robust 1.5% amid this hot, hot summer. All told, the S&P 500 improved by 0.2%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.1% higher and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.03%.
Earnings were all the rage Wednesday, with Agilent Technologies Inc (NYSE:A), L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB) and NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) all releasing quarterly financial results.
Here’s how they did:
Twitter Inc (TWTR)
The hot run in TWTR has been replaced with what likely will be a three-day slide if Thursday morning’s premarket trade holds. Leading the stock lower today was an analyst downgrade.
Evercore ISI analyst Ken Sena said that he sees “more risk than reward” in TWTR stock amid looming monetization efforts by rival Snapchat.
As a result, he downgraded Twitter shares from “Hold” to “Sell.” He also tweaked his price target lower, from $18 to $17.
TWTR stock is off another 2% or so in early Thursday trade. The stock is set up for its third straight slide after ripping off 40% gains over the past three months. Powering Twitter ahead has been the announcement of streaming deals with several sports leagues, as well as news that it is in talks to stream on Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Apple TV.
Agilent Technologies Inc (A)
The alphabetically very first stock in the nation was off a few percent Thursday morning on a disappointing fiscal third-quarter report.
Laboratory equipment manufacturer Agilent earned 49 cents per share for its most recent period, on an adjusted basis. Analysts predicted earnings of 47 cents a share. Revenue was not as strong, however. Sales of $1.04 billion missed estimates for $1.05 billion. Meanwhile, the full-year outlook of $1.89 to $1.91 per share of A stock only hit estimates of $1.91 with its upper end.
Looking ahead, Agilent is looking to build a facility that will double its manufacturing capacity for nucleic acid and pharmaceutical ingredients with the recent acquisition of 20 acres in Weld County, Colorado.
A stock is down nearly 5% in Thursday’s premarket trade.
NetApp Inc. (NTAP)
NTAP had a strong quarter boosted by a “disciplined execution” of its strategy, according to CEO George Kurian.
For its first quarter, the data software storage provider reported earnings of 46 cents per share. That figure is up a whopping 59% year-over-year, and easily topped expectations of Thomson Reuters-polled analysts, who were looking for 36 cents per share.
NetApp raked in $1.29 billion in net sales, beating revenue expectations by $30 million.
Looking ahead, NetApp says it will release innovative products in the data storage industry that will match the demands of its business clients. Meanwhile, NTAP sees second-quarter revenue in a range of $1.265 billion to $1.415 billion. The midpoint was in line with Wall Street’s $1.33 billion.
NTAP shares are jumping more than 7% in Thursday’s premarket action.
As of this writing, Karl Utermohlen did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
