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Salesforce reported second-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates.
Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
Stock futures traded mostly higher as recent economic data have spurred hopes the Federal Reserve is nearing the end of its rates-hiking cycle. Investors will be awaiting the release Thursday of the central bank’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index.
These stocks were poised to make moves Thursday:
Salesforce
(CRM), the cloud-based enterprise software provider, reported second-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates and issued an outlook for the third quarter and fiscal year that also topped forecasts.
Salesforce
said it expects fiscal-year adjusted earnings of $8.04 to $8.06 a share on revenue of $34.7 billion to $34.8 billion. Analysts had been predicting profit of $7.42 a share on revenue of $34.7 billion. The stock rose 5.5% in premarket trading.
Okta
(OKTA) shares rose 11% after the identity-management software company reported better-than-expected adjusted earnings and revenue in the second quarter and said it saw signs of stabilization in spending on information technology.
Okta
raised its fiscal-year forecast, saying it expects adjusted profit of $1.17 to $1.20 a share on revenue of $2.21 billion to $2.22 billion Analysts had expected earnings of 91 cents a share on revenue of $2.18 billion.
UBS Group
(UBS) gained 4.2% after the Swiss bank reported a second-quarter net profit of $29 billion following the integration of Credit Suisse, the former rival that was acquired in June.
Chewy
(CHWY), the online seller of pet foods and accessories, reported a surprise second-quarter profit and higher-than-expected sales. The company finished the quarter with 20.4 million active customers, matching expectations but falling from a year earlier.
Chewy
said it expects third-quarter net sales of between $2.74 billion and $2.76 billion, below expectations of $2.79 billion. Chewy shares fell 5.8%.
Palantir Technologies
(PLTR) declined 4.3% to $15.63 after
Morgan Stanley
downgraded shares of the data-analytics software company to Underweight from Equal Weight. Analysts raised the price target to $9 from $8.
CrowdStrike
(CRWD) earned 74 cents a share on an adjusted basis in the second quarter, higher than analysts’ expectations of 56 cents. Revenue rose to $731.6 million from $535.2 million and also was higher than estimates. Annual recurring revenue was $2.93 billion, up 37%. The cybersecurity company raised its outlook for the fiscal year and the stock rose 1.7%.
Arista Networks
(ANET) was rising 1.8% to $190.50 after analysts at Citi upgraded the provider of data center networking hardware to Buy from Neutral and raised the price target to $220 from $177.
Victoria’s Secret
(VSCO) was falling 5.5% in premarket trading after reporting a surprise loss in the second quarter and forecasting that fiscal-year sales would decrease in the low-single digit range from the year earlier.
Five Below
(FIVE) fell 6% after the discount retailer adjusted fiscal-year guidance to “reflect an anticipated increase in shrink reserves,” the industry term for merchandise theft and damage. The company said fiscal-year earnings were expected in the range of $5.27 to $5.55 a share. Five Below’s sales outlook remained unchanged.
Costco Wholesale
(COST) said same-store sales rose 3.4% in August. The U.S. was the retailer’s weakest market, with same-store sales rising just 2.8%. E-commerce sales fell 2.5%. Shares were up 0.3%.
Write to Joe Woelfel at [email protected]
