Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during an unveiling event for the Tesla Model Y crossover electric vehicle in Hawthorne, California, U.S., on Friday, March 15, 2019.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Check out the companies making headlines midday Monday:
Tesla (TSLA) — Shares of Tesla rose more than 1% on heavy trading volume. Earlier in the day, the volatile stock climbed as much as 7%, topping $800 a share after the Shanghai municipal government said it would help companies like Tesla “resume production as soon as possible.” Tesla’s Shanghai factory has been closed while the Chinese government tries to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Slack (WORK) — Slack surged nearly 14% after the workplace chat application scored its biggest customer ever. IBM is reportedly deploying Slack to every single one of its 350,000 employees worldwide, as part of the push to modernize the company. The stock is on track for its second best day since its IPO.
L Brands (LB) — L Brands climbed 2.2% after CNBC reported that the apparel company is nearing a deal to sell its Victoria’s Secret brand to Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm. The company’s stock is down more than 8% over the past year amid struggles at Victoria’s Secret and pressure on CEO Les Wexner to step down due to his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Taubman Centers (TCO) — Taubman Centers shares soared more than 50% after the mall owner announced that it would be acquired by rival Simon Property Group. The deal is valued at roughly $3.6 billion, and the offer price of $52.50 per share is 51% higher than Taubman’s stock closed on Friday. Shares of Simon Property Group rose slightly following the news.
Xerox (XRX), HP Inc (HPQ) — The stock price of both companies rose in midday trading after Xerox raised its bid to acquire HP to $24 a share from $22 a share. The new offer consists of $18.40 per share in cash and 0.149 Xerox shares for each HP share and values the company at $34.8 billion. Xerox CEO John Visentin has been pursuing a deal with HP since November based on what he sees as billions in cost synergies, but his advances have been rejected by HP thus far. Xerox was last seen up 1.3% and HP Inc. was last up 1.5%.
FedEx (FDX) — Shares of the shipping company rose nearly 2% following an upgrade to buy from neutral from UBS. The firm said with shares down 12% in the past 12 months, now is a good time to buy the stock. The UBS analyst also hiked his price target to $187 per share from $161 per share.
Nvidia (NVDA) — The semiconductor builder’s stock popped more than 2% after RBC Capital Markets raised its price target to $301 per share from $251 per share, the highest on the Street. RBC raised its earnings estimates ahead of the chip stock’s report on Wednesday. The analyst said gaming and data center revenues should surprise to the upside.
Restaurant Brands International (QSR) — Shares of the Burger King parent company rose as much as 3.6% on the back of better-than-expected quarterly results. Restaurant Brands reported a profit of 75 cents per share on revenue of $1.479 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected earnings of 73 cents per share on sales of $1.463 billion. The results were driven by a 34.4% surge in Popeye’s same-store sales. However, sales for the company’s Tim Horton’s and Burger King franchises disappointed analysts, knocking the stock from its session high. Around midday, Restaurant Brands traded along the flatline.
Biohaven Pharmaceutical (BHVN) — Disappointing trial results for a drug designed to treat patients with Generalized Anxiety Disorder sent Biohaven Pharmaceutical shares down by more than 11%. The stock was on pace for its biggest one-day decline since June 6, when it plummeted more than 20%.
Foot Locker (FL) — An analyst at Telsey Advisory Group downgraded Foot Locker to market perform from outperform, sending the retailer’s stock down more than 3.5%. The analyst, who also slashed her price target to $42 per share from $50 per share, said Foot Locker lacks catalysts to push its stock higher.
Lyft (LYFT) — Shares of the ride-hailing company jumped 6% following an upgrade to buy from neutral from Northcoast. The firm said it has “more confidence that competitive dynamics and unit economics of the “ride business” are sound.”
—CNBC’s Maggie Fitzgerald, Yun Li, Michael Sheetz, Jesse Pound and Tom Franck.