Check out the companies that made headlines in midday trading: Apple — The tech giant soared about 6% after announcing it would buy back $110 billion in stock. Apple also beat sales and bottom line, with second-quarter earnings of $1.53 per share on revenue of $90.75 billion. This beat analysts’ expectations for earnings of $1.50 per share and sales of $90.01 billion, according to LSEG. BLOCK — The payment services provider fell more than 1% despite reporting first-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations. Block reported adjusted earnings of 85 cents per share on sales of $5.96 billion, compared to analysts surveyed by LSEG that expected sales of $5.82 billion. That beat the profit of 72 cents. Live Nation Entertainment — Shares rose 7.2% after first-quarter earnings beat expectations. Management said it expects 2025 to be a strong year for the stadium, with continued growth in concert attendance. Expedia — Shares fell 15.3% after the online travel booking company cited weaknesses in its vacation rental arm, Vrbo, and lowered its full-year outlook. Following the report, Wall Street firms including Piper Sandler and BMO Capital Markets downgraded Expedia’s ratings. DaVita — Shares of the healthcare provider fell 5.5% despite beating revenue and bottom line expectations and slightly raising its earnings outlook for this year. The company on Thursday reported first-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.38 per share on revenue of $3.07 billion, compared with analyst estimates compiled by FactSet for earnings of $1.95 per share and revenue of $3.07 billion. It was $3.03 billion. Booking Holdings — The online travel booking company rose 1.6% after reporting first-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations, helped by the early start of this year’s Easter holiday. The company said overall consumer demand remained strong, but pointed to risks from geopolitical tensions. Avidity Biosciences — Shares soared more than 8% after a bullish call from Bank of America. The company initiated coverage with a Buy rating and called for a potential 56% upside from Thursday’s closing price, citing Avidity’s strong pipeline for rare myopathy treatments. Amgen — The biotech company rose 11.8% after reporting improvements in both sales and bottom line profits in the first quarter. The company also announced that it will move forward with Phase 3 trials of its injectable obesity treatment. At the same time, shares of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly fell about 1% and 2%, respectively. Cloudflare — Shares fell 16.4% after the company released weak full-year guidance despite first-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue beats. Arista Networks — This cloud networking company rebounded more than 3% after Jefferies upgraded the stock from hold to buy. The bank predicts Arista will be a “key beneficiary of AI.” Fortinet — The security stock fell more than 8% after the midpoint of its second-quarter revenue forecast was lower than analysts expected. However, the first quarter exceeded analysts’ expectations. —CNBC’s Alex Harring, Lisa Kailai Han, Michelle Fox and Pia Singh contributed reporting.
AAPL, EXPE, SQ, LYV etc.
