3 Stocks to Watch on Thursday: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) and Yum China Holdings Inc (YUMC)

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Wednesday’s trading was a seesaw affair that ended in an ugly fashion. While the major indices were ahead solidly for most of the day, comments from the Federal Reserve sent the markets into a reversal. The S&P 500 index lost 0.3%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite took a 0.6% dip.

3 Stocks to Watch on Thursday: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY) and Yum China Holdings Inc (YUMC)Heading into Thursday’s trade, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is taking a punch on the analyst front, but Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ:BBBY) and Yum China Holdings Inc (NYSE:YUMC) are on the rise thanks to some encouraging quarterly results.

Here’s a look at what to watch for heading into Thursday’s action:

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)

Just a couple days after fellow chipmaker Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) took a precipitous fall, AMD stock is off to its own rocky start this morning.

Goldman Sachs ticked off the bulls by kicking off coverage of AMD shares at a “Sell” rating at a price target of $11, or 22% lower from current levels. Analyst Toshiya Hari also set earnings-per-share estimates for the next three years — 2 cents of EPS in 2017, 14 cents in 2018 and 48 cents in 2019. The 2017 and 2018 estimates are well below analyst consensus expectations of 8 cents and 30 cents, respectively.

Hari admits that the company is executing better under CEO Lisa Su, but believes that all progress has been baked into the share price. Thus, the risk/reward situation is unfavorable at this juncture. Hari not only considers Nvidia to be a strong competitive threat, but Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) as well.

AMD stock chartUPDATE: AMD shares were tracking 3% losses premarket that accelerating to a 7% decline at the open as traders woke up to the news. Advanced Micro Devices was still up 25% year-to-date heading into Thursday’s trade, but has mostly plateaued since late February.

Recently, shares have been battling to stay above the short-term 20-day moving average, and will start today’s action below that level. Thanks to this morning’s drop, the stock has slipped below next support at its 50-day MA, which sits around $13.40 per share.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (BBBY)

BBBY shares had some pep in their step early Thursday after the company released its fourth-quarter earnings data and hiked its dividend.

The homewares retailer earned $268.7 million ($1.84 per share) in its most recent quarter. That was 11% lower year-over-year, but an easy beat of expectations for $1.77 per share. Meanwhile, revenues of $3.5 billion were actually a bit higher year-over-year, as were comparable-store sales, which inched higher by 0.4%. Bed Bath’s top line was a match of analyst estimates.

On the upside, those comps included digital improvement of 20%. But there were a couple of low points.

For instance, the natural flipside is that brick-and-mortar comps actually declined “in the low single-digit percentage range” for the quarter.

Bed Bath also says it expects earnings per share to decline between low single digits to 10% for the current fiscal year.

Income investors got a little something extra, with a hike to the quarterly dividend. The regular payout, which was initiated in 2016 at 12.5 cents per share, will be elevated to 15 cents quarterly — good for a 1.5% yield on current prices. The dividend is payable July 18 to shareholders of record as of June 16.

BBBY shares nonetheless were up around 4% in Thursday’s premarket trade.

Yum China Holdings Inc (YUMC)

Yum China — the spun-off Chinese operations of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell parent Yum! Brands, Inc.’s (NYSE:YUM) — posted impressive earnings as a standalone unit for its fiscal Q1, sending YUMC shares robustly higher.

Adjusted earnings of 44 cents per share beat the Street, which was looking for 38 cents. Revenues of $1.28 billion squeaked by, as analysts were looking for $1.27 billion. That came on positive comps of 1%, which the pros thought would decline 0.7%.

Pizza Hut helped drive much of Q1’s success, with the division posting 2% growth in comps, versus expectations that same-store sales would be flat.

CEO Mickey Pant noted that the current fiscal year could be big for the company, which plans to bolster its 7,600 existing stores by another 600 a year.

YUMC shares were already beating their American counterpart, 8% to 1%, so far in 2017. That lead should expand this morning, as the stock is tracking a 10% gain.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/04/3-stocks-to-watch-on-thursday-advanced-micro-devices-inc-amd-bed-bath-beyond-inc-bbby-and-yum-china-holdings-inc-yumc/.

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