Zacks analyst blog spotlights advanced micro devices, Starbucks, Airbnb, Uber and Lyft
For immediate release
Chicago, IL – May 4, 2022 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the analyst blog. Every day, Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Advanced Micro Devices AMD, Starbucks SBUX, Airbnb ABNB, Uber UBER and Lyft LYFT.
Here are the highlights from Tuesday’s analyst blog:
Markets up ahead of the Fed; Q1 Beats for AMD, ABNB and more
Don’t look now, but major stock indices are on a winning streak. Of course, it’s only two days; we have been here recently and always found ourselves in the red at the end of the week. But with the Fed’s decision to raise rates by 50 basis points and the imminent start of the drawdown of the $9 trillion from the Fed’s balance sheet, markets appeared to sell far in order to make way for a post- Fed springs tomorrow. Based on the actions of the markets this week so far, some are already betting on it.
The Dow was +0.20%, the S&P 500 +0.48%, the Nasdaq +0.22% and the Small Cap Russell 2000 +0.87% yesterday. While encouraging, especially on the heels of Monday’s late high at the close, there is still a long way to go to approach March levels. The Nasdaq alone is still -13% last month. Even a spring-loaded post-Fed rally probably won’t take such a big chunk of cheese.
BLOWS March results came out early yesterday, with 11.5 million job openings still pending, more than the 11.2 million expected. Departures were also higher than expected: 4.5 million against 4.4 million expected. While job growth has been robust over the past year and more, we continue to see more labor demand than capacity. Or perhaps salaries will have to rise further at the lower end of the spectrum to make up the difference.
Factory orders performed well in March: +2.2% – more than double expectations, and well above the upward-revised +0.1% for February. Although its scope is relatively limited, all these figures suggest a level of productivity in the first quarter of the year much higher than previously assumed. It would be nice to think that orders can go up from here, but that’s a volatile month-to-month figure. On average over the last 12 months, these orders amounted to +1.1%.
Advanced micro-systems had another impressive Q1 on Tuesday afternoon, with earnings of $1.13 per share leaving the expected 91 cents in the dust, and more than doubled from 52 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue of $5.89 billion was also well above the expected $5.00 billion. Even better, AMD has seriously raised its revenue forecast for the second quarter to $6.5 billion.
This is the first quarter for the chipmaker giant to include synergies from its Xilinx acquisition, which closed earlier in the quarter. During its conference call, AMD will likely answer questions about gaming trends starting to slow that we’ve seen elsewhere. But those numbers are hard to contradict: AMD continues to succeed even in a tougher industry. The shares are up +4% at the end of the session, but still -39% since the start of the year.
Starbucks reported a mixed fiscal second quarter after the close, missing earnings by a penny to 59 cents per share while outperforming on quarterly sales: $7.64 billion vs. $7.61 billion expected. Same-store sales were +12% in the Americas, but a -23% decline in China (based on continued significant Covid restrictions) sent international competitors down -8% in the quarter.
Airbnb performed much better than expected on its net income during the quarter: -$0.03 per share vs. expectations of -$0.28, and thankfully after those horror lows of -$1.75 per share there one year old. Revenue of $1.51 billion also topped the Zacks consensus of $1.45 billion. Its average daily rate was $168 per night, up 37% from 2019, the last reasonably comparable year. Reservations outperformed at 102.1 million vs. 100.9 million expected. Shares initially jumped +6% on the news.
Lyft tipped to a positive 7 cents per share against an expected loss of -7 cents, with sales of $876 million in the quarter easily beating the $842.2 million expected. Although Active Riders fell short of expectations by a bit at 17.8 million, revenue per user rose from $47.07 to $49.18, reflecting higher prices in the ride-sharing market.
Still, Lyft has lowered its revenue forecast for the current quarter and is now guiding adjusted EBITDA to come down significantly – to $10-20m from $84m expected. Continued investment in driver supply (perhaps constituting part of the JOLTS data we just saw) keeps costs higher for the ridesharing company. Uber reports Wednesday.
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Past performance is not indicative of future results. The potential for loss is inherent in any investment. This document is provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security. No recommendation or advice is given as to whether any investment is suitable for any particular investor. It should not be assumed that investments in the securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described have been or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date hereof and is subject to change without notice. The views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the company as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management of securities. These returns come from hypothetical portfolios composed of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that have been rebalanced monthly without transaction fees. These are not the returns of actual stock portfolios. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. To visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for more information on the performance figures displayed in this press release.
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Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD): Free Inventory Analysis Report
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Airbnb, Inc. (ABNB): Free Inventory Analysis Report
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