NVIDIA (NVDA)
Wall Street analysts welcomed Nvidia’s overwhelming earnings report; the average price target for the stock rose 19 percent.
The AI darling reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $5.16 on revenue of $22.1 billion (£17.4 billion) for the quarter. The company also forecast better than analysts’ expectations for the first quarter, expecting revenue of $24 billion.
“The global stock market rally continued as Nvidia’s earnings sparked a wave of record highs. NVIDIA added $277 billion to its value, the highest in market history, and took its year-to-date profits to $740 billion, pushing its market cap to $1.94 trillion,” said Jeremy Naylor, analyst at IG.
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Those who shorted Nvidia shares suffered a book loss of over $2.9 billion, according to Reuters data from Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners.
Standard Chartered (STAN.L)
Standard Chartered has unveiled plans to return cash to shareholders, becoming the latest lender to announce higher profits.
The Asia-focused bank launched a $1 billion (£800 million) share buyback and plans to pay out around $5 billion (£4 billion) to shareholders over the next three years.
This came after the company reported pre-tax profits of $5.7 billion (£4.5 billion) for 2023, up 22% from the previous year.
The rise in profits saw chief executive Bill Winters’ salary rise 22% to £7.8 million – from £6.4 million in 2022. It is his biggest pay package in nearly a decade.
Moderna (MRNA)
Moderna shares closed 13 percent higher on Thursday after the company reported a surprise quarterly profit due to revenue deferrals and cost cuts.
The US biotechnology company said sales in the three months to the end of December were $2.8 billion, down from the previous year’s figure of $5.1 billion but more than forecasts of $2.5 billion.
Net income fell from $1.5 billion to $217 million, while diluted earnings per share were $0.55.
Slowing demand for COVID vaccines and expectations of a loss in 2023 led to a sharp decline in Moderna shares last year.
CEO Stephane Bancel said: “2023 was a transition year for Moderna as we adapted to the endemic market.
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“At the same time, our development team made significant pipeline progress in infectious diseases, oncology and rare diseases, while our commercial team increased our COVID-19 market share in the U.S.”
Walmart (WMT)
Walmart investors are preparing for a stock split later this week.
The 1:3 split means that investors will receive two additional shares for each share they already own. This will increase the number of shares in issue in the company from 2.7 billion to around 8.1 billion.
The shares issued in the stock split will vest after the market closes on Friday, February 23, for investors who own the retailer’s shares “at the close of business” on Thursday, February 22. Walmart will begin trading on a post-split basis at the market open on Monday, February 26.
“Sam Walton believed it was important to keep our stock price in a range where purchasing whole shares rather than fractional shares was feasible for all of our employees,” said Doug McMillon, Walmart President and CEO.
“Given our growth and plans for the future, we thought it was a good time to split the shares and encourage our employees to participate in the coming years. As Sam said, ‘We’re all in this together. That’s the secret.'”
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