Humana, Discover, Spirit Airlines, Taiwan Semi, Apple, M.D.C. Holdings, and More Movers

Humana
fell 8% after the health insurer reduced its fiscal 2023 adjusted earnings outlook to $26.09 a share because of higher medical costs. It expects GAAP earnings for the year of $20 a share.
UnitedHealth
stock declined 1.6% and
CVS Health
slumped 4%.

Discover Financial Services
dropped 11% after reporting that its charge-off rate—the percentage of outstanding debt that credit-card issuers write off as a loss—rose to 4.1% in the fourth quarter, up from 2.1% a year earlier. Discover also said its provision for credit losses at the end of the quarter was $1.9 billion, up $1 billion from a year earlier, driven by the increase in net charge-offs and a higher reserve build. Fourth-quarter earnings at Discover also missed analysts’ estimates. 

Spirit Airlines
declined 7.2%, to $5.70, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Spirit was planning to explore restructuring options with advisors following a blocked merger with
JetBlue Airways
as it faces near-term debt maturities. Citi analysts downgraded the stock to Sell after a federal judge blocked the budget carrier’s proposed merger with 
JetBlue,
siding with the Justice Department on antitrust grounds. Spirit dropped 47% on Tuesday and 22% on Wednesday.

U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan-based chip maker
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
were up 9.8% after the company said it expects revenue growth this year of at least 20%, more than double the rate of the wider chip market. The company reported fourth-quarter profit that fell 19% from a year earlier but still topped analysts’ expectations. Revenue in U.S. dollars fell 1.5% in the quarter to $19.62 billion but rose 13.6% from the third quarter. Chip maker
Nvidia
was up 1.9%.

Apple
again has been banned from selling current versions of the
Apple
Watch with blood-oxygen sensors in the U.S. in connection with a patent-infringement case filed against the tech giant by medical device maker 
Masimo.
The company said it would disable the blood-oxygen feature, according to reports. Apple shares rose 3.3%, to $188.63, however, after analysts at BofA Securities upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral and raised the price target to $225 from $208.

Alcoa
reported a narrower-than-expected adjusted loss in the fourth quarter and a revenue decline of 2.5% to $2.6 billion, which just edged estimates. The aluminum-products maker said it expects lower production in 2024. The stock fell 1.6%.

Plug Power
fell 12%, to $2.42, after disclosing in a filing that it will be selling up to $1 billion of shares. The clean-energy company said it entered into an at-the-market issuance sales agreement with B. Riley Securities that allows it to sell up to $1 billion in common stock.

Hertz
was up 7.5%, to $8.99, after analysts at Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of the car-rental company to Overweight from Equal Weight. The price target was reduced to $15 from $16. The company last week said it would sell about 20,000 electric vehicles in the U.S.

Fastenal
was up 7.2% after fourth-quarter earnings at the distributor of industrial and construction supplies topped analysts’ estimates.

Birkenstock
fell 7.7% after the German sandal-maker said it expected a “modest headwind” to fiscal 2024 margins in adjusted Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, “due to planned ramp-up costs and an initial under-absorption” in Pasewalk, Germany, where a new production plant will be located.

M.D.C. Holdings
was up 18% after the home builder said it was selling itself to Japan’s
Sekisui House
for $4.9 billion in cash.

Boeing
rose 4.2%. India’s newest airline, Akasa Air, has ordered 150 Boeing 737 MAX planes. Akasa will be purchasing 737-10 airplanes and 737-8-200 jets. The order doesn’t include the 737 MAX 9, which has been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration following an incident on an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this month.

Write to Joe Woelfel at [email protected]