An Olive Garden restaurant in Times Square in New York.
Richard Levine | Corbis | Getty Images
Here are the stocks making headlines in midday trading Thursday.
Novavax — Shares of the drug maker tumbled 13.3% after JPMorgan downgraded Novavax to underweight from neutral. The banks also slashed its price target on the stock, citing dwindling demand for Covid-19 vaccines.
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Darden Restaurants — Shares of Olive Garden’s parent company fell more than 4% after Darden’s fiscal first-quarter results showed lighter-than-expected revenue. The company reported $1.56 in earnings per share on $2.45 billion of revenue. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had penciled in $1.56 per share on $2.47 billion of revenue. Same store sales at Olive Garden rose just 2% year over year.
Eli Lilly — The pharmaceutical stock climbed 4.9% after UBS upgraded Eli Lilly to buy from neutral. UBS said that Eli Lily’s new weight loss product could be “the biggest drug ever.”
KB Home – Shares of homebuilder KB Home slipped 5.1% after the company reported earnings that disappointed Wall Street’s revenue expectations. The company reported earnings of $2.86 per share on $1.85 billion in revenue, where analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected earnings of $2.67 per share and $1.87 billion in revenue.
Lennar — Shares of Lennar rose 2% after the company reported mixed quarterly results on Wednesday. The home construction company reported earnings of $5.03 per share and $8.93 in revenue, where analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected $4.88 in earnings on $9 billion in revenue. KeyBanc said in a note to clients that Lennar “optimizes asset turns” better than competitors even as housing demand slows.
FactSet — Shares of the financial data company slumped more than 8% after FactSet’s fourth-quarter earnings came in short of expectations. The company reported $3.13 in adjusted earnings per share, below the $3.20 anticipated by analysts, according to Refinitiv. Revenue did beat expectations by $12 million, coming in at $499 million. FactSet’s operating margin shrank year over year.
Block — The payments platform tumbled 5.9% after Mizuho downgraded shares to neutral from buy and slashed its price target to $57 from $125, saying Block’s bitcoin focus is causing the company to lose focus on its main business.
Steelcase — Shares dropped 10% after the furniture company announced it will cut 180 salaried positions in the third quarter. In a statement, Steelcase CFO Dave Sylvester cited “recent volume decline in our incoming orders and lower than expected return-to-office trends in the Americas.” The company also reported its second-quarter results, saying organic order growth in the second quarter declined in the Asia Pacific region even as total revenue grew.
Trip.com — The U.S-traded shares of the Chinese travel company rose 4.8% despite Trip.com reporting shrinking revenue in the second quarter. Trip.com did report a much smaller net loss than in the first quarter. CEO Jane Sun said that bookings rebounded at the end of the second quarter and into the third.
Deutsche Bank — The bank’s shares rose 3.1%. CFO James von Moltke was reported saying at a conference Thursday that the bank will need to look at 2023 “with caution.” Dow Jones reported that company management also confirmed its full-year revenue guidance.
Virtu Financial — The market maker climbed more than 8.5% on a report that the Securities and Exchange Commission won’t ban the Wall Street practice of “payment for order flow.”
Alcoa — The aluminum maker’s stock fell 4.8% after Wolfe Research downgraded Alcoa to peer perform from outperform, citing the macro pressures on the commodity markets.
Li Auto — The stock jumped 4.9% after the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer announced an “early launch” of Li L8, a smart SUV model. Li Auto is hosting a launch event on September 30, and plans to start delivery in early November.
— CNBC’s Scott Schnipper, Sarah Min, Samantha Subin, Alex Harring and Carmen Reinecke contributed to this report.
