Charles Schwab Tops Profit and Revenue Estimates, and Shares Hit Record High
9 minutes ago
Charles Schwab (SCHW) shares traded at an all-time high on Friday after the discount broker and investment firm reported better-than-expected results on higher trading fees and net interest income.
The company posted second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.14, with revenue rising 24.8% to $5.85 billion. Both were above estimates.
Trading revenue jumped 22.5% to $952 million, and net interest income soared 30.8% to $2.82 billion. Bank deposit fees skyrocketed 61.4% to $247 million. Total client assets grew 14%, hitting a record of $10.76 trillion.
CEO Rick Wurster said retail investors and registered investment advisors drove the performance, which included more than 1 million new brokerage accounts added, and $80.3 billion in core net new assets, a 31% increase year-over-year.
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Shares of Charles Schwab are up about 30% this year.
Sarepta Therapeutics Stock Tumbles on Report of Third Death in Clinical Trial
59 minutes ago
Shares of Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT) plummeted Friday following a report that a third patient has died during a clinical trial for one of its medications.
Bloomberg reported late Thursday that a third person who was involved in a clinical trial for a gene therapy drug had died from acute liver failure, after the company announced that patients had died in March and June during a clinical trial for the drug Elevidys, which treats muscular dystrophy.
A company spokesperson told Bloomberg that regulators and investigators were informed “in an appropriate and timely manner.” Sarepta did not immediately respond to Investopedia’s request for comment. The company earlier this week said it had agreed to put a warning label about the risk of liver failure on the drug.
Sarepta on Wednesday announced plans to lay off some of its staff and pause the development of some drugs as part of a restructuring effort to cut an estimated $400 million in costs. That news boosted shares by nearly 20% in Thursday trading. But they were down 26% early Friday afternoon as the latest report hit shares.
UBS analysts on Thursday said the warning label addition and Sarepta’s restructuring effort were both positives for the company, but cut their price target to $45 from $85 to account for their lowered revenue projections.
Lucid Levels to Watch After News of Robotaxi Partnership
1 hr 43 min ago
Lucid Group (LCID) were down slightly Friday after soaring yesterday on news the EV startup is partnering with self-driving software maker Nuro and rideshare giant Uber Technologies (UBER) to bring a new group of robotaxis to Uber’s platform.
The deal will see at least 20,000 self-driving Lucid vehicles enhanced with Nuro’s autonomous driving software added to Uber’s network over the next six years in exchange for Uber investing hundreds of millions of dollars in both companies.
Following the partnership announcement, analysts cautioned that the companies may face challenges scaling as fast as Uber wants, pointing out that Tesla and Google parent Alphabet’s (GOOGL) autonomous vehicle company Waymo have scale and technology advantages over Lucid and Nuro. Last month, Tesla (TSLA) launched its own robotaxi service in Austin, Texas as competition in the self-driving taxi market accelerates.
Lucid shares jumped 36% on Thursday, putting the stock back into positive territory for 2025, though it remain about 12% lower over the past 12 months, weighed down by heavy losses, capital raises, and a string of analyst downgrades. Lucid shares were down 1% at $3.09 in late-morning trading Friday.
After consolidating just below the 50-day moving average in recent weeks, Lucid shares staged a decisive breakout in Thursday’s trading session, potentially setting the stage for follow-through buying. Importantly, the pop occurred on the highest volume since the company debuted on the Nasdaq in July 2021, suggesting conviction behind the move.
Thursday’s breakout also raises the possibility that the stock has completed a triple bottom, with three distinct troughs forming at roughly the same level on the chart between November and July. Meanwhile, the relative strength index confirms bullish price momentum, though the indicator has crossed into overbought territory, increasing the chances of short-term profit-taking.
Investors should watch important overhead areas on Lucid’s chart around $3.60, $4.35 and $5.30, while also monitoring an key support level near $2.50.
Read the full technical analysis piece here.
Does Netflix Stock Need ‘A Breather’ After Earnings?
2 hr 21 min ago
Have investors binged too much Netflix?
That’s one analyst’s theory, though not the Street’s consensus. The streaming giant’s shares were down 5% Friday morning following yesterday evening’s earnings report. Netflix (NFLX) shares, which rose nearly 2% yesterday ahead of the results, had gained more than 40% this year through Thursday’s close.
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The company’s results and improved outlook were “solid against high expectations,” wrote JP Morgan analysts. But they reiterated a neutral rating, setting a $1,300 price target that calls for comparatively little appreciation between now and the end of next year. The shares, they wrote, “need a breather.”
Most of Wall Street, according to Visible Alpha data, is more optimistic, with nearly all the analysts who track the stock holding bullish ratings and the mean price target sitting right around $1,400. (That number would represent a new milestone for the shares.)
UBS analysts, for example, lifted its price target by $45 to $1495—which is high, but not the high, with Visible Alpha tracking several targets at or above $1,500. “We see Netflix as a secular winner and think 2Q results support our conviction,” they wrote.
Netflix yesterday turned in net income that topped analysts’ estimates and revenue, lifted by price increases, that came in right around them; it also lifted its sales forecasts for the third quarter and full year. The company said its second-half operating margin will come in lower than its first-half figure, which it called typical and tied largely to the timing of expenses throughout the year.
Amex Tops Earnings Expectations on Record Card Spending
3 hr 4 min ago
American Express (AXP) on Friday reported second-quarter results that were lifted by record spending.
The payment-cards provider reported earnings per share of $4.08 as revenue increased 9% from the same time a year ago to $17.86 billion. Both metrics came in higher than Visible Alpha’s average analyst forecast.
Net interest income rose 12% year-over-year to $4.19 billion, just below the analyst consensus of $4.23 billion. More than $416 billion in transactions were billed on American Express cards in the quarter, up 7% from last year.
“We saw record Card Member spending in the quarter, demand for our premium products was strong, and our credit performance remained best in class,” American Express CEO Stephen Squeri said.
The company affirmed its full-year projections of 8% to 10% revenue growth and EPS of $15 to $15.50, ranges it also held steady last quarter.
Shares of American Express were down nearly 3% in early trading, after rising slightly in the premarket session following the release of the numbers. The Dow component entered the day up about 6% since the start of the year.
Major Index Futures Point to Slightly Higher Open
4 hr 31 min ago
Futures tied to the three major U.S. stock indexes were up 0.1% in recent trading.
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