Category: Stock Market News

Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car division, Waymo, announced a lawsuit against Uber Technologies Inc. on Thursday that claims the founder of Uber acquisition Otto used key technology he helped develop while working for Google’s parent company. The lawsuit, announced in a Waymo blog post, claims that Anthony Levandowski downloaded proprietary information on key components for self-driving technology before leaving Alphabet and founding Otto, which makes self-driving trucks for hauling. “We believe these actions were part of a concerted plan to steal Waymo’s trade secrets and intellectual property,” the blog post reads. “Months before the mass download of files, Mr. Levandowski told colleagues that he had plans to ‘replicate’ Waymo’s technology at a competitor.” Alphabet and Uber have a complicated relationship: Google made a venture investment in Uber in 2013, but is developing its own ride-sharing service as Uber looks to distance itself from Google’s mapping services.

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Merck & Co. said late Thursday it will book a pre-tax charge of $2.9 billion for a hepatitis C drug candidate. Merck said recent changes to its product profile and expectations for pricing caused it to evaluate the drug candidate uprifosbuvir, which it acquired along with Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2014, as an intangible asset for impairment. As a result, Merck said the charge lowers its unadjusted fourth-quarter results to a loss of 22 cents a share, from previous earnings of 42 cents a share. Adjusted earnings for the fourth quarter are not affected, Merck said. Shares of Merck declined 0.5% to $65.52 after hours.

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U.S.-listed shares of Baidu Inc. rose in Thursday’s extended session after the Chinese search engine announced quarterly results. Baidu reported fourth-quarter earnings of 4.13 billion yuan ($594.7 million), or $1.64 per American depositary share. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $1.91 per ADS. Revenue fell 2.6% to $2.62 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of $1.09 a share on revenue of $2.66 billion. It also announced the appointment of Chief Operating Officer Qi Lu as vice chairman of the board. Baidu gained 2.2% after hours.

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President Donald Trump’s attorney general Thursday rescinded a memorandum that would have ended the federal government’s use of private prisons, and stocks in companies that provide those services jumped. CoreCivic Inc., formerly Corrections Corp. of America, rose 3.7%, and The GEO Group gained 1.5% in immediate late trading after the move was announced. Both stocks suffered greatly in the wake of the Justice Department’s announcement in August that it would phase out using private prisons, which closely followed a Mother Jones investigation detailing life in one of CoreCivic’s facilities in Louisiana. CoreCivic took on its new name and slashed staff amid the fallout. Private prison companies rebounded after Trump won the election, however; The GEO Group has gained 98.2% and CoreCivic is up 136.8% since Nov. 8, 2016, even before Thursday afternoon’s bump.

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Shares of RH , the company formerly known as Restoration Hardware, rallied in the extended session Thursday after the high-end home furnishings retailer forecast higher-than-expected quarterly results. RH shares surged 14% to $28.70 after hours. The company said it expects adjusted fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 68 cents a share on adjusted revenue of about $590 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated 65 cents a share on revenue of $584.7 million. Separately, RH said its board authorized up to $300 million in stock buybacks.

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Acacia Communications Inc. plummeted 17% in late trading Thursday after the networking company projected sharply lower earnings and revenue than Wall Street expected. Acacia, which went public in May amid a sudden resurgence in investor demand for optical-networking companies, reported net income of $64.5 million, or $1.55 a share, on sales of $142.4 million. After adjustments for stock-based compensation, Acacia reported adjusted earnings of 94 cents a share. That performance easily beat average analyst forecasts of 90 cents a share in adjusted earnings on sales of $139.7 million, according to FactSet, but Acacia’s forecast fell far short of expectations. The Maynard, Mass., company projected first-quarter adjusted earnings of 63 cents to 70 cents a share on revenue of $108 million to $114 million. Analysts on average projected adjusted profit of 78 cents a share on revenue of $137.3 million, according to FactSet. Acacia shares, which closed with a 1.9% gain at $63.43, plunged to close to $52 in after-hours action. The stock has been very volatile in its first year on Wall Street, with prices ranging from $27.05 to $128.73; at Thursday’s closing price, the company had a market capitalization of $2.37 billion.

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Splunk Inc. shares fell in the extended session Thursday after the data-analysis company’s outlook for the quarter fell short of Wall Street estimates. Splunk shares dropped 7.2% to $60.25 after hours. The company forecast revenue of $231 million to $233 million in the fiscal first quarter, and about $1.19 billion for the year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated revenue of $241.5 million for the first quarter, and $1.19 billion for the year. For the fiscal fourth quarter, Splunk reported adjusted earnings of 25 cents a share on revenue of $306.5 million. Analysts expected 17 cents a share on revenue of $288.2 million.

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Gap Inc. shares rose 1% in late-Thursday trading after the retailer reported fourth-quarter earnings and sales that beat expectations. Gap Inc., whose brands include the namesake chain of stores, Banana Republic and Old Navy, reported net income of $220.0 million, or 55 cents per share, up from $214.0 million, or 53 cents per share, last year. Adjusted EPS was 51 cents, beating the 50-cent FactSet consensus. Sales totaled $4.43 billion, up from $4.39 billion and ahead of the $4.41 billion FactSet consensus. Same-store sales were up 2%, with Old Navy reporting a 1% same-store sales increase, and Gap and Banana Republic reporting same-store sales declines of 3% and 7% respectively. The company sees fiscal 2017 EPS in the range of $1.95 to $2.05. Same-store sales are expected to be flat or up slightly. Gap shares are down 12.1% for the past year while the S&P 500 index is up 23% for the same period.

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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. shares dropped sharply Thursday afternoon after the company reported lower sales than expected and slashed its earnings projections for the fiscal year. HPE revealed net income of $267 million, or 16 cents a share, on sales of $11.41 billion for the fiscal first quarter. After adjusting for restructuring charges and a host of other costs, HPE claimed adjusted profit of 45 cents a share. Analysts on average expected HPE to report adjusted earnings of 44 cents a share, the midpoint of HPE’s forecast of 42 cents to 46 cents a share, on sales of $12.06 billion. HPE brought down its previous forecast for full-year earnings, to a range of 60 cents to 70 cents a share on a GAAP basis and $1.88 to $1.98 a share after adjustments. HP’s previous projections called for standard profit of 72 cents to 82 cents a share and adjusted earnings of $2 to $2.10 a share. In its announcement, HPE cited three “significant headwinds” that have developed since those projections were provided in October: “increased pressure from foreign exchange movements, higher commodities pricing, and some near-term execution issues.” HPE shares dropped nearly 6% in late trading, after closing with a 0.5% decline at $24.66.

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The Nasdaq on Thursday is on track to end in negative territory on back-to-back days for the first time in 2017. The tech-heavy index was under pressure, off 0.5% at 5,832 in late-afternoon trade, as shares of tech companies slumped, including Nvidia Corp. which threatened to see its biggest daily drop ever. The last time the Nasdaq Composite Index fell on successive sessions was the three-day period to end 2016, according to FactSet data. That’s 36 days without a two days in a row in the red, which marks the longest such streak since Aug. 25, 2016, Dow Jones data show. So far, the Nasdaq has only declined 9 times this year and hasn’t seen a 1% drop since Dec. 1, 2016, representing 56 trading days. The index’s longest streak without a 1% tumble was 73 trading days from Jan. 4, 1995 to April 18, 1995, when it closed down 1.1% on the 74th. The downtrend for the Nasdaq comes as the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are trading slightly higher, with blue-chips set for 10 straight days of gains, its longest such streak in 30 years.

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