U.S. stocks’ downward trend simply won’t let up, as Thursday saw yet another down day. Healthcare stocks led the way lower as the S&P 500 Index suffered a 0.4% setback, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.9%.
Earnings season is still in full gear, though, and a number of stocks — including Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI), Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) and Twilio Inc (NYSE:TWLO) — are on the move in response to their most recent updates.
Here’s what to look for as we get into Friday’s action.
Twilio Inc (TWLO)
TWLO shares were rebounding Friday morning after an initial after-market dip sparked by the company’s third-quarter earnings report.
The communication software applications developer reported a non-GAAP loss of 4 cents per share, which was half of the red ink Wall Street expected. Revenues of $71.53 million were well better than the consensus estimate for $66.77 million.
For its fourth quarter, Twilio expects a non-GAAP loss of 5 to 6 cents per share, while revenue should be in a range of $72.5 million to $74.5 million.
The app did especially well with developers, who make up the company’s target audience. Twilio previously expected to have 34,000 active customers — which would’ve been an improvement of 43% year-over-year — and the company announced the actual number was 34,457.
While TWLO stock initially dropped about 5% on Thursday night’s news, it was up by about the same amount in Friday’s premarket trade.
Activision Blizzard, Inc. (ATVI)
ATVI shares were hit hard late in the day despite the company’s positive quarterly results.
Activision’s third-quarter revenues popped 58% year-over-year to $1.57 billion, topping the company’s own forecast of $1.49 billion. ATVI also earned 42 cents per share on a non-GAAP basis, which marked a 145% surge compared to a year ago. However, both figures only met Wall Street expectations.
Over the quarter, Activision Blizzard released a new World of Warcraft expansion that sold 3.3 million copies on the first day. Overwatch, which was released just four months ago, already has 20 million registered players, making it the fastest Blizzard game to reach that mark.
The number of people who bought Call of Duty DLC was more than twice as they did a year ago. Average revenue per player was higher, too.
Nonetheless, ATVI shares were off more than 2% before the bell.
Starbucks Corporation (SBUX)
SBUX shares remained completely indifferent to Thursday night’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings.
Starbucks reported a profit of 56 cents per share for the three-month period, besting estimates by a penny per share. Revenues just managed to squeeze past expectations, too, coming in at $5.71 billion to beat by about $30 million. U.S. comparable-store sales, however, disappointed at 4%. Wall Street was looking for 4.8%.
The Starbucks mobile app is more popular than ever; membership has increased by 18% year-over-year. Mobile payments now represent 25% of U.S. transactions, which is higher than the 20% from a year ago.
Starbucks now plans on growing out a chain of cafes focused on premium roasts in several locations around the world, including New York City, Shanghai and Tokyo.
SBUX shares were essentially flat, however, in Friday morning’s trade.
