Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo space tourist rocket plane returns after a test flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, on December 13, 2018.
Gene Blevins | Reuters
Take a look at the companies making the headlines in midday trading.
Virgin Galactic — Shares of the space company rose 16.5%. Company on Thursday planned its first commercial flight for space tourism this month. The company, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, completed its last test flight into space in May.
i robot — Shares rose 21.2% afterward. British regulators approved the acquisition of Amazon for $1.7 billion Roomba vacuum cleaners. Meanwhile, Amazon fell 0.5%.
West Pharmaceutical Services — West Pharmaceutical Services gained 0.6% after Bank of America upgraded Life Sciences shares to buy from neutral and said it will benefit from a surge in weight-loss drugs.
Cava group — Shares of Cava Group fell 12.9% during Friday trading, giving back some of its gains massive debut Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. At one point, Cava’s stock more than doubled in value during its first day of trading.
SoFi technology — Fintech stocks fell nearly 10% after both. Bank of America and Piper Sandler downgraded it from buy to neutral, referring to SoFi’s recent increase. Bank of America said the fundamental aspects of the expiration of the moratorium on student loan repayments are now largely accounted for.
Adobe — The stock added 0.9%. On Thursday, the company beat expectations and offered a positive outlook when reporting its fiscal second quarter. Adobe reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.91 on revenue of $4.82 billion, while analysts polled by Refinitiv had expected earnings of $3.79 per share on revenue of $4.77 billion. Adobe said revenue for the current quarter and full year should come in around where Wall Street expects, while it said adjusted earnings per share in those periods were likely to be higher than expected.
Nvidia — The chipmaker at one point jumped more than 2% to another record high after Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore switched to nvidia from Advanced Micro Devices. The analyst said Nvidia has more immediate upside than other AI stocks. It closed up 0.1%.
Micron technology — Shares fell 1.7% after Micron Technology said a chip ban in China could hurt the company. “We now believe that approximately half of the revenue from customers headquartered in China, which equates to a low double-digit percentage of Micron’s global revenue, is now at risk of being impacted,” the company said in a statement. Friday submission with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Humana — Humana shares fell 3.9%. The company reaffirmed its outlook for the insurance segment’s full-year revenue-to-expense ratio between 86.3% and 87.3%, although it expects to be at the top end of that outlook. The company cited higher-than-expected “non-bed utilization trends,” including emergency, outpatient and dental services, as driving the forecast.
Trust Financial — Shares fell about 1% after Odeon Capital Group downgraded Truist Financial to hold from buy, according to FactSet.
— CNBC’s Michelle Fox, Alex Harring and Yun Li contributed reporting.