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Virgin Galactic’s space tourism rocket plane SpaceShipTwo returns after a test flight from Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, December 13, 2018.
Gene Blevins | Reuters
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Virgin Galactic — Shares of the space company soared 13%. On Thursday, the firm set its first commercial space tourism flight for this month. The company, which was founded by billionaire Richard Branson, completed its final test spaceflight in May.
iRobot — The stock surged 19% after U.K. regulators approved Amazon’s $1.7 billion acquisition of the Roomba vacuum cleaner maker. Meanwhile, Amazon inched down about 0.5%.
West Pharmaceutical Services — West Pharmaceutical Services gained 2.3% after Bank of America upgraded the life sciences stock to to buy from neutral, saying it will benefit from the rise of drugs targeting weight loss.
Cava Group — Cava Group shares dropped 15% during trading on Friday, giving back some of its gains from its massive debut Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. At one point, shares more than doubled in value during Cava’s first day of trading.
SoFi Technologies — The financial technology stock dropped more than 8% after both Bank of America and Piper Sandler downgraded it to neutral from buy, citing SoFi’s recent run higher. Bank of America said the fundamental aspects of the student loan payment moratorium expiration is now largely priced in.
Adobe — Shares added 2.5%. On Thursday, the company beat expectations and offered positive guidance when reporting for the fiscal second quarter. Adobe posted $3.91 in adjusted earnings per share on $4.82 billion in revenue, while analysts polled by Refinitiv anticipated earnings of $3.79 per share and $4.77 billion in revenue. Adobe said current-quarter and full-year revenue should come in around where Wall Street expects, while it said adjusted earnings per share in those periods would likely be higher than anticipated.
Nvidia — The chipmaker jumped more than 2% to another record high after Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore switched his top pick to Nvidia from Advanced Micro Devices. The analyst said Nvidia has more immediate upside than other artificial intelligence stock plays.
Micron Technology — Shares dipped 1.5% after Micron Technology said that a China chip ban could hurt the company. “We now believe that approximately half of that China HQ customer revenue, which equates to a low-double-digit percentage of Micron’s worldwide revenue, is now at risk of being impacted,” the company said in a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Humana — Humana shares declined 3.6%. The company reaffirmed its full-year insurance segment benefit expense ratio guidance, between 86.3% and 87.3%, though it expects it will be at the top end of this outlook. The company cited higher-than-expected “non-inpatient utilization trends,” including emergency room, outpatient surgeries and dental services as a driver of this forecast.
Truist Financial — Shares fell 1.6% 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
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