In morning trading on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrials were down 0.12%, while the S&P 500 was up 0.34% and the Nasdaq 0.97% higher. On the inflation front, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the year-over-year consumer price index rose 4.9% in April, slower than the 5% growth posted in March. Core CPI rose 5.5% year over year in April, less than the 5.6% growth reported in March.

After U.S. markets closed on Tuesday, Affirm beat consensus estimates for earnings per share (EPS) and revenue. The company issued in-line guidance for the current quarter and upside guidance for the full 2023 fiscal year ending in June. Shares traded up 1.3% in the first hour of Wednesday’s regular trading session.

Airbnb also beat estimates on the top and bottom lines but issued a soft forecast for current quarter bookings. Shares traded down 11.4%.

Luminar missed the consensus EPS estimate but topped the revenue consensus. The company issued in-line guidance, and shares traded down 3.7%.

Occidental Petroleum missed estimates on both the top and bottom lines but raised pretax income guidance. Shares traded down 3.3%.

Rivian reported a narrower loss but missed slightly on revenue. The company said it expects to report positive gross profit next year. Shares traded up 11.2%

Before U.S. markets opened on Wednesday, Hecla Mining missed the consensus EPS estimate by 50% (one penny) but beat on revenue. The stock traded down 4.2%.

Li Auto beat the consensus estimates on both the top and bottom lines and issued upside revenue guidance for the current quarter. Shares traded up 11.2%

Roblox missed analysts’ consensus EPS estimate but posted better-than-expected revenue. The company said it expects bookings to grow faster than infrastructure costs in the second half of this year and throughout 2024 and 2025. Shares traded up 6.2%.

Robinhood and Unity Software are scheduled to report quarterly earnings after U.S. markets close on Wednesday. Disney reports results late Wednesday as well. The following morning, look for reports from  Algonquin Power and JD.com.

Here are previews of three companies scheduled to report quarterly results later on Thursday. No notable results are scheduled for release on Friday.

Since its SPAC IPO in late July 2021, ultra-luxury EV maker Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIE) has lost 98% of its value, and the shares have traded below $1.00 every day but one since the beginning of the year. The stock traded up nearly 14% in Wednesday’s premarket session following an announcement that the company has received commitments for a financing package totaling $100 million in unsecured convertible notes from a group of investors and current shareholders.

With a starting price of around $200,000, the first delivery of the company’s first EV, the FF 91, is now set for the end of June. That is about five years late.

Faraday Future gets a Hold rating from the only analyst who follows the company. In other words, it cannot get much worse, so if you own the stock, maybe you will get lucky. Few investors are taking this advice, though. Faraday Future trades an average of around 62 million shares a day.

The company made no revenue in 2022 and is expected to post $140 million in sales this year. That estimate includes $26.25 million in the current quarter, but that will not happen because the first delivery is not scheduled until the end of the quarter. Last year’s loss per share was $1.50, and the single estimate is calling for a 2023 loss of $0.43 per share. That probably will worsen too because of the late delivery.

Here is a chart showing share price changes for Fisker, Rivian, Lordstown and Lucid since Faraday’s July 2021 IPO.

News Corp

Media and information services company News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA) is among the country’s largest financial publishing companies, with ownership of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, along with information services Dow Jones and Factiva.

Like Fox, the company is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, who in January killed a proposed merger of the two companies. News Corp was contemplating selling its Realtor.com business to commercial real estate firm CoStar, but that deal, too, sputtered out in late February, not long after News Corp announced it planned to fire about 1,250 employees.
Only six brokerages cover the stock, and four have a Buy or Strong Buy rating, while the others rate it at Hold. At a recent price of around $17.00 a share, the upside potential based on a median price target of $25.00 is about 326%. At the high target of $29.00, the upside potential is 70.6%.

Fiscal third-quarter revenue is forecast at $2.38 billion, which would be down 5.7% sequentially and 4.4% lower year over year. Adjusted EPS are forecast at $0.04, down 71.4% sequentially and by 75.0% year over year. For the 2023 fiscal year ending in June, analysts anticipate EPS of $0.43, down 64.9%, on sales of $9.96 billion, down 4.1%.

The stock trades at 39.2 times expected 2023 earnings, 22.4 times estimated 2024 earnings of $0.76 per share and 18.3 times estimated 2025 earnings of $0.93 per share. Its 52-week trading range is $14.87 to $21.69. The company pays an annual dividend of $0.20 (yield of 1.17%). Total shareholder return for the past year was negative 2.08%.

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

Petrobras

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR), or Petrobras, is Brazil’s government-controlled oil and gas supermajor. Surprisingly, perhaps, the company’s returns to shareholders so far in 2023 approaches 15%, more than Exxon Mobil’s year-to-date loss of 0.7%, Chevron’s loss of 10.9% and Norway’s state-controlled giant Equinor’s loss of 15.6%. That is entirely due to Petrobras’s massive payout ratio of 103% and a dividend yield of more than 58%.

The company’s share price is down nearly 17% over the past 12 months, worse than Equinor’s dip of 9%, Chevron’s slip of less than 1% and far below Exxon Mobil’s addition of 28% to its stock price.

Of 13 analysts covering the company, two have a Buy or Strong Buy rating on the American depositary receipts, and 11 have Hold ratings. At a price of around $11.00 per ADR (which is equal to two ordinary shares), the stock’s upside potential based on a median price target of $11.50 is 4.5%. At a high price target of $16.00, the upside potential is 45.5%.

For the third quarter, revenue is forecast at $26.37 billion, down 2.8% year over year. Adjusted EPS are forecast at $0.88, down 30.7% year over year. For the full year, analysts expect EPS of $3.39, down 35.9% year over year, on sales of $103.81 billion, down 16.4%.

The stock’s 52-week range is $8.88 to $16.32. Petrobras pays an annual dividend of $6.44 (yield of 58.47%). Total shareholder return for the past 12 months has been 23.02%.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.