QCOM, GPRO, and BIDU are among the stocks in the news today
Stock futures are trading just above fair value this morning, following an onslaught of corporate earnings reports. Among specific names in focus are tech stocks
QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) and
GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO), as well as Chinese internet issue
Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU). Here's a quick roundup of the news moving shares of QCOM, GPRO, and BIDU.
QUALCOMM Stock Set to Deepen Apple-Related Woes
After closing last night at $53.21, QCOM stock is trading down 4% ahead of the bell. Weighing on the shares is
QUALCOMM, Inc.'s downwardly revised third-quarter guidance, which the tech firm said is due to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) halting all future royalty payments until a legal dispute between the two companies is resolved. QCOM also said this action by Apple is "wrongful" and is "the latest step in ... [a] global attack on Qualcomm." Today's projected price move would be more of the same for
QCOM stock, which is down 18.4% year-to-date, most of which came on a late-January Apple-related bear gap. Analysts, meanwhile, have remained upbeat. Of the 21 brokerages following QCOM, 12 maintain a "strong buy," with not a single "sell" to be found.
Wedbush Securities Unconvinced By GoPro Earnings
Solid sales from its core cameras and
Karma drones helped GPRO report a slimmer-than-expected quarterly loss. Nevertheless, Wedbush Securities maintained its "neutral" rating and $9 price target, saying it is "unwilling to recommend GoPro shares," due in part to "ongoing questions about long-term demand ... and an unclear product roadmap." Against this backdrop, GPRO stock is 0.2% higher in pre-market trading, after settling last night at $8.94. Longer term, the shares have added 25% since bottoming at $7.15 in mid-March, but have run into trouble at their overhead 120-day moving average. On the sentiment front, short-term options traders are more put-skewed now toward GPRO than they've been at any other point during the past year, per the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.59 is docked at a 52-week peak.
Baidu Stock Trades Lower After CFO Split, Dreary Outlook
BIDU stock is set to open 2.2% lower, as the company's lower-than-expected current-quarter revenue forecast and news its chief financial officer is stepping down overshadow upbeat first-quarter results. Nevertheless, Benchmark boosted its price target on BIDU to $210, representing expected upside of roughly 12% to last night's close at $187.86, and territory not charted since December 2015. Despite today's expected price move, Baidu Inc has done well over the past month, up 13.1% from its March 27 low at $166. Short sellers have been growing antsy, though. Short interest surged 27.5% in the two most recent reporting periods to 6.53 million shares -- the most since last July.