Stocks largely gained Wednesday with tech shares leading the way after
Netflix
reported strong subscriber growth. The
S&P 500
eked out another record.
These stocks made moves Wednesday:
Netflix
posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue and a substantial subscriber beat in the period sent shares of the streaming giant up 11%. The company added a record 13 million subscribers in the quarter, bringing its worldwide total to 260 million. Analysts had been expecting an increase of 8.7 million.
Netflix
said it expects first-quarter revenue of $9.24 billion, up 13% and roughly in line with Wall Street estimates of $9.27 billion. It expects first-quarter profit of $4.49 a share, higher than analysts’ forecasts of $4.10 a share.
DuPont
sank 14% after the company said it expects to earn 63 cents to 65 cents a share in the first quarter on sales of $2.8 billion. Wall Street was looking for profit of 88 cents and revenue of $3 billion.
AT&T
reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings below Wall Street expectations, but revenue came in above the consensus and the telecommunications company added more customers than had been forecast. The stock declined 3%.
ASML Holding
rose 8.9% after the Dutch chip equipment maker reported fourth-quarter profit that rose from a year earlier and topped analysts’ estimates. The company said it was maintaining a “conservative view” for the year and expects 2024 revenue similar to 2023, when ASML reported revenue of €27.56 billion.
SAP,
the German software giant, said it would undergo a restructuring program this year that will affect about 8,000 jobs. The company also reported fourth-quarter operating profit and revenue that topped analysts’ expectations and issued updated financial guidance for both 2024 and 2025. SAP said this year it would “further increase its focus on key strategic growth areas,” including artificial-intelligence software. U.S.-listed shares of SAP jumped 6.9%.
Advanced Micro Devices
was up 5.9% to $178.29 after shares of the chip company were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at New Street Research and the stock price was set at $215. Analyst Pierre Ferragu noted in a research note that AMD CEO Lisa Su last year projected the market for datacenter artificial-intelligence chips at $400 billion by 2027. “Lisa is to be taken seriously; this forecast might eventually prove wrong, but it was certainly not pulled out of a hat,” Ferragu wrote.
Industrial conglomerate
Textron
jumped 7.8% after reporting fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.60 a share, better than analysts’ estimates of $1.53.
Shares of
Texas Instruments
were down 2.5% after the chip maker reported a decline in fourth-quarter earnings and revenue and issued a forecast for the first quarter below expectations, citing softness in the autos and industrial sectors.
Abbott Laboratories
fell 2.8% after the maker of healthcare products reported solid fourth-quarter earnings but issued light guidance.
Kimberly-Clark
reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings and sales that missed analysts’ estimates and shares of the maker of Kleenex were down 5.5%.
BlackBerry
declined 18% after the Canadian security software company said it would sell $160 million of convertible senior notes due in 2029 in a private offering.
Write to Joe Woelfel at [email protected]
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