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Hibbett Sports Inc. shares surged 22% in premarket trade Friday, after the sports retailer blew past estimates for its fiscal third quarter and raised guidance for the full year. Hibbett said it had net income of $7.6 million, or 37 cents a share, for the quarter, down from $14.6 million, or 66 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Sales rose to $237.8 million from $237.0 million. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 22 cents and sales of $219 million. Chief Executive Jeff Rosenthal said the company was “very pleased” with results for the period. “Sales in equipment and accessories remained soft, but were offset by positive comparable store sales in footwear and significant improvement in branded apparel,” he said. “Our e-commerce sales exceeded even our high expectations, as we experienced good response from early marketing initiatives and strong conversion from online traffic.” The company raised its outlook for fiscal 2018, and said it now expects EPS of $1.42 to $1.50, up from prior guidance of $1.25 to $1.35. It expects same-store sales to be down in a mid-single-digit range, against earlier expectations of a decline in the mid to high-single-digit range. Shares have fallen 60% in 2017, while the S&P 500 has gained 15%.

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Shares of Foot Locker Inc. shot up 11% in premarket trade Friday, after the athletic footwear retailer reported fiscal third-quarter profit and sales that fell less than expected. Net income for the quarter to Oct. 28 declined to $102 million, or 81 cents a share, from $157 million, or $1.17 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted earnings per share came to 87 cents, above the FactSet consensus of 80 cents. Revenue slipped to $1.87 billion from $1.89 billion, but beat the FactSet consensus of $1.83 billion. Same-store sales decreased 3.7% from a year ago, but the FactSet consensus was for a decline of 4.6%. Merchandise inventories were $1.32 billion, down 3.4% from a year ago. Chief Executive Richard Johnson said despite the “highly promotional” environment, the availability of premium product is gradually improving compared with the first half of the year. The stock had plunged 33.2% over the past three months through Thursday, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has climbed 6.0% and the S&P 500 has gained 6.4%.

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SailPoint Technologies Holdings, Inc. priced its initial public offering at $12 Thursday night, setting the company up to begin trading Friday morning. The price for 20 million shares was higher than the expected range of $9 to $11 a share, and means the IPO will bring in at least $240 million. Sailpoint sells enterprise identity-management tools, which helps businesses securely manage employees’ use of multiple apps on their systems. The company has been owned by private-equity firm Thoma Bravo, which will maintain a majority stake in Sailpoint after the IPO. Thoma Bravo offered 5 million shares in the IPO, while Chief Executive Mark McClain and President Kevin Cunningham sold 700,000 shares combined. The other 14.3 million shares were sold by Sailpoint, which will collect at least $171.6 million before fees that it intends to use for general corporate purposes, including “expanding our global presence,” according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Sailpoint revenue increased to $132.4 million in 2016 from $95.4 million in 2015, while net losses were reduced to $3.2 million from $10.8 million in that time. Underwriters have access to 1.5 million more shares, which are expected to list Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SAIL.

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Electronic Arts Inc. late Thursday suspended micropayments on its highly anticipated new video game “Star Wars: Battlefront II,” just hours before the game’s Friday launch. The move was made to appease fans, who had revolted online in the days leading up to the game’s release. Many voiced strong opposition to its “loot-box” system, in which players paid real money to unlock characters and in-game items, arguing that the game forced players who did not pay for upgrades to spend dozens of hours to unlock items, and potentially penalized players who did not want to spend as much. “We’ve heard the concerns,” said Oskar Gabrielson, general manager of EA’s Dice unit, in a statement Thursday. “We hear you loud and clear, so we’re turning off all in-game purchases. . . . and all progression will be earned through gameplay.” EA said it would make changes to improve gameplay, and in-game purchases would return at a later date. EA shares were flat after hours Thursday, after closing up slighly for the day, and are up almost 42% year to date compared to the S&P 500’s 15% gain.

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Stitch Fix Inc. priced its initial public offering at $15 a share Thursday evening to pull in at least $120 million ahead of the online clothing seller’s market debut Friday. The price was lower than the $18 to $20 range that the company originally expected, as The Wall Street Journal reported was likely earlier Thursday. Stitch Fix is selling 8 million shares in the offering, lower than the initial estimate of 10 million shares, while founder and Chief Executive Katrina Lake is selling 1 million shares; underwriters, led by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, have access to an additional 1.2 million shares. Financial information shared in the filing show very strong revenue gains, from net revenue of $73.2 million in its 2014 fiscal year to $342.8 million in 2015, $730.3 million in 2016 and $977.1 million in the 2017 fiscal year, which ended July 31. Stitch Fix turned a profit in its 2015 and 2016 fiscal years, $20.9 million and $33.2 million in net income respectively, but slipped back to a loss of less than $600,000 last year. The company’s stock is expected to begin trading Friday on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol SFIX.

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Nvidia Corp. shares rose slightly in late trading Thursday after RBC Capital Markets analyst Mitch Steves boosted his price target on the stock. Steves moved his price target to $250 from $240 and maintained an outperform rating on the stock in a note delivered shortly after the end of Thursday’s trading, explaining that the chip maker’s recent earnings beat dramatically increased his best-case scenario for the stock. “Overall, after a single quarter of out-performance the 2020 upside case increases by 10%,” Steves wrote. The RBC analyst had already raised his price target to $240 from $230 in the wake of Nvidia’s third-quarter earnings report, along with a host of other analysts who helped push Nvidia stock to record levels. Nvidia shares gained about 0.5% in late trading after closing with a 0.8% gain at $211.61; the stock is up more than 98% so far this year, as the S&P 500 index has gained 15.5%.

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Comcast Corp. has approached 21st Century Fox Inc. to express an interest on a deal, according to a report on The Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the situation. It was unclear whether Comcast would be interested in all or part of Fox, the report said. Verizon Communications also is exploring buying parts of Fox, according to the report. Earlier this month, Walt Disney Co. and Fox discussed a potential deal, but talks fell through. Shares of Fox rose more than 6% on the news, while Comcast stock rose 0.9%.

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Applied Materials Inc. shares rose in the extended session Thursday, following an initial dip, after the chip-materials company’s quarterly results and outlook topped Wall Street estimates. Applied Materials shares, which slipped about 2% at first, later rose 2% to $59 after hours, following a 3.7% gain during the regular session. At the close, shares were up 79% for the year. The company reported fiscal fourth-quarter net income of $982 million, or 91 cents a share, compared with $610 million, or 56 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted earnings were 93 cents a share. Revenue rose to $3.97 billion from $3.3 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had estimated 91 cents a share on revenue of $3.94 billion. For the fiscal first quarter, Applied Materials estimates earnings of 94 cents to $1.02 a share on revenue of $4 billion to $4.2 billion. Analysts expect earnings of 91 cents a share on revenue of $3.97 billion for the first quarter.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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Apple Inc. is losing its first-ever vice president of diversity and inclusion at the end of the year the company confirmed late Thursday. Denise Young Smith has held the position since May, and will leave at the end of 2017. She has worked at Apple for 20 years, and previous positions include head of retail, and worldwide head of human resources. “We deeply believe that diversity drives innovation,” Apple said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to welcome an accomplished leader like Christie Smith to help us continue the progress we’ve made toward a more diverse workplace.” Verizon-owned tech blog TechCrunch reported the news earlier Thursday. Apple stock is up 48% this year, with the S&P 500 index up 15%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average , of which Apple is a component, is up 19% this year.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.

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The International Swaps and Derivatives Association ruled Thursday that Venezuela, as well as state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA, defaulted on their debts. ISDA’s determination committee will reconvene on Nov. 20 to make a decision on how credit-default swaps, which can be used to protect against nonpayment, will be settled, according to a report from the Financial Times. “This is an evolving story,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. “The default is clear and there is a real risk that this will lead to a dramatic drop in [Venezuelan] oil production that is well below 2 million barrels a day right now,” he said. “This should make it more difficult for refiners to get caught up on distillate supply that is well below normal in the U.S. and Mexico. Not great news at all and [this] will be another reason to not be bearish on crude.” December West Texas Intermediate crude was at $55.26 a barrel in electronic trading, above the $55.14 Thursday settlement on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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