Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Meta, Victoria's Secret, Microsoft, Caterpillar and more

Published Thu, Apr 25 202412:28 PM EDTUpdated Thu, Apr 25 20241:40 PM EDT

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading: Victoria's Secret — Shares dropped 3.5% after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of the stock with a sell rating, saying it sees a "tough macro and ongoing competitive pressure" for the lingerie company in the near term. Longer term, the firm is constructive on the company's loyalty initiatives and renewed merchandise focus. Meta Platforms — The Facebook parent company plunged more than 11%. Meta reported lighter-than-expected second-quarter revenue guidance on Wednesday, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke about spending in areas such as artificial intelligence and mixed reality that are not currently profitable. Meta's first-quarter earnings and revenue both came above analysts' estimates, however. Tech stocks — Shares of major tech giants dropped on Thursday as Meta's lackluster revenue outlook led to declines across the sector. Microsoft and Alphabet shares dropped roughly 3% and 2%, respectively, ahead of their earnings due after the bell. Amazon 's stock price shed 2%. Monster Beverage — JPMorgan downgraded Monster Beverage to neutral from overweight due to "cost pressure," pushing shares roughly 3% lower. Honeywell — Shares of the industrial company declined 1.5% after it reiterated its full-year guidance. Honeywell posted adjusted earnings per share of $2.25, beating analysts' estimates of $2.17 per share, per LSEG. Revenue for the quarter also came in better than expected at $9.11 billion, compared to the $9.03 billion analysts were expecting. Merck & Co. — The pharmaceutical giant added 2% on stronger-than-expected results for the first quarter. Merck earned an adjusted $2.07 per share on $15.78 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG forecast just $1.88 in earnings per share and $15.2 billion in revenue. Deckers Outdoor — Bank of America downgraded the lifestyle footwear maker to neutral from buy, saying it sees a better risk/reward elsewhere in the firm's coverage. Shares dropped 5%. Southwest Airlines — Shares declined more than 7% after the airlines missed on both top and bottom lines. The company reported adjusted losses of 36 cents per share, wider than the expected loss of 34 cents, per LSEG. Revenue of $6.33 billion also came below the consensus estimate of $6.42 billion. Management warned that Boeing's airplane delays would pressure its growth into 2025 and lowered growth guidance accordingly. ServiceNow — The digital workflow firm slid 5% after it only narrowly beat analysts' revenue expectations in the first quarter. ServiceNow posted revenue of $2.6 billion, slightly higher than the $2.59 billion analysts polled by LSEG had anticipated. Adjusted earnings surpassed estimates as well. Chipotle Mexican Grill — Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill rose 5% after the fast-casual burrito chain topped Wall Street's first-quarter estimates and reported a 7% rise in same-store sales, beating the 5.2% expected by StreetAccount. International Business Machines — IBM's revenue missed consensus estimates but beat on the bottom line, per LSEG, pulling shares of the tech hardware company nearly 10% lower. IBM also agreed to buy HashiCorp for $6.4 billion in enterprise value, pulling HashiCorp shares 4.7% higher. Bank of America reiterated its buy rating on the stock following earnings. Caterpillar — Shares tumbled 6.5% after revenues of $15.8 billion for the most recent quarter missed analysts' estimates of $16.04 billion, according to LSEG. The construction equipment maker's report also revealed soft sales guidance for the second quarter. Nvidia — Shares of the chip giant rose about 3% on Thursday, even as the broader market declined. Nvidia still has not fully recovered from its 10% decline on April 19, as its price remains below where it stood prior to that sell-off. Evercore ISI reiterated Nvidia as outperform, saying investors should use any weakness in the stock to buy the dip. Comcast — The media stock shed more than 6% after quarterly broadband subscriber losses overshadowed a top-and-bottom line beat. Comcast said it lost 65,000 broadband customers during the period. Deutsche Bank — U.S.-listed shares of Deutsche Bank popped nearly 8% and hit a 52-week high. The German lender reported first-quarter revenue and profit that topped expectations as its investment banking unit continued to recover. — CNBC's Alex Harring, Brian Evans, Samantha Subin, Yun Li, Lisa Kailai Han, Pia Singh and Michelle Fox contributed reporting. Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.