Despite a recession and despite what had been a brutal bear market, the stock market is trying to signal that the worst is over despite the recent surge in COVID-19 cases and the baggage and pain that has been seen as a result. The S&P 500 closed up almost 0.6% at 3,276.02 and was last seen down just 3.5% from March’s all-time high of 3,393.52 — but that is actually up over 1% for the year-to-date reading. The tech-heavy NASDAQ has risen to the point that the entire index is now up nearly 20% year-to-date.

Investors have been amazed at the strength of the overall market, and the notion that it’s just a portion of the major stocks making the gains doesn’t seem to deter investors at this time. The real test of a company over time is its earnings power, and growth also plays a role. This is the week that earnings floodgates opened wide and earnings season is delivering some big winners and some big losers.

24/7 Wall St. has tracked multiple winners and losers from earnings and other news for the after-hours trading session on Wednesday, July 22, 2020. All references to consensus data comes from Refinitiv and there have been some color and news summaries added on each company along with some selective links to more detailed coverage.

Here are the top after-hours stocks on the move, and most of these will be looked at and given analyst coverage on Thursday.

Align Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN) announced that revenues fell to $352.3 million versus $600.7 million in the same quarter of 2019. Its Invisalign volume was 221.9 thousand cases, down a sharp 41.2% year-over-year. Align closed up almost 1% at $317.97 on Wednesday, but the after-hours trading was down almost 6% at $299.90 on last look.

Banner Corporation (NASDAQ: BANR) reported earnings at $0.67 per share and kept its $0.41 per share dividend. Despite the problems in the economy, the parent of Banner Bank and Islanders Bank talked about strong loan, deposit growth, core operating performance generating solid revenue growth, rising net interest income and rising non-interest income. That hardly even sounds like a bank in 2020. Banner’s shares closed down 2.1% at $35.98 but the stock was indicated up 7% at $38.50 in Wednesday’s after-hours trading. Banner is thinly traded and had a $1.26 billion market cap at the close.

Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) has moved well beyond its data breach of the past. It reported double digit revenue growth, margin expansion, and it said that its Workforce Solutions income and employment business had its strongest results in over 10 years. Equifax stock closed up 1% at $168.01, but the after-hours gain of over 4% to $175.00 was within striking distance of its $180.07 high in the last year. Equifax had a $176.38 consensus analyst target price.

Kinder Morgan inc. (NYSE: KMI) was down 1.3% at $14.89 ahead of the earnings report, and those losses continued with a 3.3% drop to $14.38 in the after-hours trading session. Kinder Morgan’s earnings came with a loss based on a $1 billion asset impairment charge as the COVID-19 trends have hurt natural gas and lowered the value on some of its infrastructure assets. Kinder Morgan is down from a 52-week high of $22.58 and it has a consensus analyst target price of $17.85.

Limelight Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: LLNW) closed down over 4% at $6.69 in regular trading on Thursday, but a capital raise had its stock down almost 7.5% at $6.19 in the after-hours session on Wednesday. Limelight Networks is selling an aggregate of $100 million in convertible senior notes due 2025. Its 52-week range is $2,.20 to $8.19 and it had a $816 million market cap as of the close.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) managed to beat earnings, but profit taking came into the fold as the shares were up and as the focus seemed to be on some slowing growth in the Azure cloud services. Microsoft closed up 1.4% at $211.75 on Wednesday and its after-hours move was down over 2.5% at $206.30 on more than 3.6 million shares as of 5:00. Its consensus analyst target price was $212.03 and it recently hit an all-time high of $216.38.

NETGEAR, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR) may have been forgotten about, but the networking and connected products company is winning from the stay at home economy as people have had to buy better tech. NETGEAR said revenue rose in the double-digits (21.3%) to $280 million and strong demand is expected to continue through year-end. After closing down 1.3% at $29.77 in regular trading, NETGEAR’s after-hours move was up 9.2% to $32.50 in rather active trading. Its 52-week range is $15.01 to $36.87 and its market cap was just $875 million as of the close.

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its fourth straight quarter of profits and its revenue hit $6 billion in the second quarter of 2020. Most deliveries and orders were already known, but the report now qualifies Tesla for the S&P 500 Index that the market has been speculating about for some time. Tesla shares closed up 1.5% at $1,592.33 and was indicated up almost 5% at $1,673 in the after-hours trading session.

UFP Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: UFPI) closed up 2.2% at $52.46 and was last seen up over 7% at $56.35 in the after-hours. The supplier of supply wood, wood composites and other products to retail, construction and industrial clients said that virus-related shutdowns negatively impacted its industrial and construction segment, but the increase in home improvement activity from the stay-at-home issued helped it post record results with a 23% earnings gain and a 22% EBITDA gain.

Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) closed up over 2% at $146.89 ahead of earnings, but the strength of people improving their homes helped the company beat expectations with earnings. Whirlpool was last seen up 4.6% at $153.74 in the after-hours trading on Wednesday. Its 52-week high is $163.64 and its consensus analyst target price was $126.71.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in shares of AGCO, Coca-Cola, Fannie Mae, FirstEnergy, JPMorgan, Macy’s, Owens & Minor, PayPal, Snap, Square, Wells Fargo and many more stocks.

These are the 8 blue chip stocks analysts are telling their clients to buy and hold ahead of earnings for more upside ahead.

As a reminder, after-hours and pre-market trading is not the same liquidity and some of these moves may be vastly different by Thursday morning after conference calls and analyst ratings changes after the news has been more digested. Earnings will be out on Thursday from AT&T, Dow, Southwest Air, Twitter, America Airlines and others.

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