Amazon (AMZN)
Amazon rose in premarket trading after shares rose over 4% on Thursday as strong results from retail leader Walmart eased recession fears in the markets.
Despite this momentum, Amazon shares have fallen 15 percent since hitting a record high of $201.20 (£155.94) in July, leaving many investors wondering if it’s time to buy the stock while it’s undervalued.
“And just like the sell-off in Meta (META) after Q1 2024, we believe Amazon’s recent share price decline provides a good entry point as the fundamental story is just as strong as it was prior to the earnings release, albeit with lower expectations,” Bernstein analysts wrote.
Read more: FTSE 100 LIVE: European shares mixed after UK retail sales rise
The research firm expects strong growth in Amazon’s operating profit and free cash flow for the second quarter despite lower-than-expected sales.
“Operating profit performance remains unchanged, with further contributions from robust growth in Amazon Web Services, a renewed acceleration in advertising (in the second half of 2024) from advertising expansion on Prime Video, and a steady expansion of retail margins while prioritizing gross profit,” the statement said.
Amazon has announced that it plans to increase spending on AI-related infrastructure for its cloud division, Amazon Web Services.
JD.com shares rose 3% in premarket trading after the company’s quarterly profit nearly doubled despite increasing competition.
The Chinese e-commerce platform’s net profit rose 92% year-on-year to 12.64 billion Chinese yuan (£1.31 billion/$1.7 billion) in the third quarter, as price cuts attracted budget-conscious consumers to the platform.
Read more: Stocks that are trending today
JD.com reported a 1.2 percent increase in revenue to 291.4 billion yuan, or $40.7 billion, above estimates of 291 billion yuan, according to FactSet.
“We continued to improve our price competitiveness during the promotional season through our supply chain and disciplined approach rather than relying on subsidies,” Chief Financial Officer Ian Su Shan said in a statement, adding that gross margins increased to 15.8% in the quarter.
Bayer shares have risen sharply after the company won a court victory in its long-running legal battle over its weed killer Roundup.
A three-judge panel dismissed the lawsuit brought by David Schaffner, a Pennsylvania man who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2006. Schaffner claimed Bayer violated state law by failing to include a cancer warning on Roundup.
Read more: Binance executive insists Bitcoin can recover despite 20 percent drop
The court ruled that the company could not place the warning in Pennsylvania because the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act requires nationwide uniformity in pesticide labeling.
The stock had fallen by around 49 percent last year and by more than 70 percent since Bayer completed its takeover of the agricultural group Monsanto, the Roundup manufacturer, in 2018.
Applied Materials (AMAT)
Applied Materials shares fell more than 3% in premarket trading, even though the Santa Clara-based company forecast fourth-quarter revenue that was slightly above Wall Street expectations.
The decline appears to be partly a reaction to the sharp rise in the stock price earlier in the day, according to Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital.
“Part of the aftermarket decline is due to how much the stock rose today, the mixed sales reports from China and the big deviation in fourth-quarter guidance,” Schulman said. “Some analysts may have been looking for more robust guidance for next quarter.”
Applied Materials on Thursday forecast fourth-quarter revenue that was slightly above Wall Street expectations, citing rising demand for chip manufacturing equipment in the wake of the AI boom.
Growing demand for AI chips has increased the need for advanced wafer fabrication equipment, which is essential for chip manufacturing, which should benefit companies like Applied Materials. However, the market reaction suggests that investors remain cautious.
Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple And Android.
