The stock market rose Wednesday following financial results from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), which helped boost U.S. banks. The S&P 500 was finished 1% higher at day’s end, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1.1%, helping stocks hit their highest levels in 2016.
Pier 1 Imports Inc (NYSE:PIR) released its quarterly earnings report, while Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) and SunEdison Inc (NYSE:SUNE) were also major movers after the bell yesterday.
Here’s what you need to know:
Pier 1 Imports Inc (PIR)
Pier 1 shares fell in after hours trading Wednesday. as the company posted its latest quarterly earnings report.
The retailer posted fourth-quarter earnings of 23 cents per share, falling short of the 37 cents per share reported in the year-ago period. However, it was enough to beat estimates for 21 cents. Revenue for the quarter fell 1.4% year-over-year to $542.33 million, but also beat the consensus estimate of $526.76 million.
Pier 1 has suffered from disappointing sales since shifting its focus toward e-commerce. The retailer’s brick-and-mortar presence suffered as established stores suffered a 0.6% decline in sales.
Outlook was disappointing, as PIR’s updated full-year outlook of 42 cents to 50 cents per share missed the analyst mark off 56 cents.
PIR shares were set to open Thursday’s trading down 5%.
Seagate Technology PLC (STX)
The data storage products manufacturer’s stock fell after the company updated its outlook for its most recent quarter.
Seagate Technology now estimates that its quarterly revenue for the period ended April 1 will amount to $2.6 billion with adjusted margins of about 23%, short of the $2.7 billion revenue and adjusted margins of 25.6% originally projected.
Chairman and CEO Steve Luczo spoke on the matter, stating that the company has experienced a decline in demand for enterprise disk drives, as well as in its desktop-client products, especially in China.
SunEdison Inc (SUNE)
SUNE stock plummeted after the bell on Wednesday, but is rebounding sharply in Thursday morning trade.
On Wednesday, bond research firm CreditSights revealed that the solar energy products manufacturer may be in technical default as it believes the company failed to make a $2.6 million interest payment on its convertible bonds. That resulted in SUNE dropping about 8% in after-marketing trading.
The firm added that the missed payment — due April 1 — could have a negative effect on SunEdison’s yieldcos, TerraForm Power (NASDAQ:TERP) and TerraForm Global (NASDAQ:GLBL). These companies own and operate clean renewable energy assets.
Missed financial obligations led to banks cutting financing on SunEdison’s proposed $1.9 billion acquisition of Vivint Solar Inc (NYSE:VSLR), a solar energy company.
However, shares rebounded strongly this morning after a SunEdison committee said “they had completed a probe of past accounting and found no material misstatements in historical financials or evidence to support a finding of fraud or willful misconduct by management, apart from by one former non-executive employee,” according to a MarketWatch report.
While the same report also pointed out a lack of certain controls and an abundance of optimism, the overall takeaway was exceedingly positive, leading to a nearly 50% pop in Thursday’s premarket trading.
As of this writing, Karl Utermohlen did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
