A logo for Pfizer is displayed on a monitor on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange, July 29, 2019.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Check out the companies making headlines midday Monday:
Pfizer — Pfizer dropped more than 8% after the pharmaceutical giant reported disappointing results from its breast-cancer drug trial. The trial is unlikely to show a statistically significant improvement in the primary endpoint of invasive disease-free survival,” a release from the company said.
Coty — The beauty products company surged more than 18% after the company announced that it had agreed to sell a majority stake in its hair product lines to private equity firm KKR. The sale includes Coty’s Wella and Clairol brands, and Coty had announced that it was working on such a deal last month. As part of the deal, KKR will buy $1 billion of convertible bonds from Coty and deliver about $2.5 billion in net cash when the transaction closes.
United, American, Delta, Southwest — Airlines, which are positioned to benefit from the economy reopening, rose on Monday with United Airlines and American Airlines jumping more than 6%. Southwest and Delta gained 5.7% and 4.7%, respectively. Alaska Air Group gained 5.8%.
Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean Cruises — Shares of cruise operators rallied as the economy continues to gradually reopen on hopes of recovery in travel demand. Carnival and Royal Caribbean Cruises jumped 6.5% and 4.9%, respectively. Norwegian Cruise Line gained more than 8%.
Chipotle Mexican Grill — Shares of the restaurant chain rose 2.8% after Wedbush raised its price target on the stock to $1,200 per share from $870. The firm said in a note that positive signs from its research justified cutting its estimated decline in same store sales for the second quarter by more than half. A more permanent increase in people ordering takeout would also be beneficial for Chipotle, Wedbush said.
Amazon — Amazon shares gained about 1% after a Morgan Stanley analyst hiked his price target on the e-commerce giant to $2,800 per share from $2,600 per share. The new price target represents a 12-month upside of 14.6% from Friday’s close of $2,442.37. “2020 is setting up to be an e-commerce inflection year as the combination of shelter-in place, lower spend on experiences (dining out, bars, travel, etc) and gov’t stimulus have driven dollars online,” the analyst said in a note.
Canopy Growth — Shares of the cannabis grower dropped 8% after a Stifel analyst downgraded them to sell from buy. ”We believe the valuation has yet to fully reflect the challenges ahead,” said the analyst in a note to clients.
Target — Target dipped nearly 3% after the retailer announced late Saturday that it’s temporarily closing 175 stores across the country as a result of ongoing protests against police violence. Some businesses have been looted and vandalized in cities across the U.S. as protests turned violent, including Target stores in Minneapolis and Oakland.
Abbott Laboratories — Goldman Sachs downgraded Abbott Laboratories to sell from neutral, sending the stock down more than 2%. “We now expect ABT to garner a share of COVID testing much closer to its typical market share of molecular /polymerase chain reaction testing on the viral side, while we remain skeptical that the demand for antibody testing will reach a material level for ABT revenues given the much lower price point for those tests,” the analyst said.
Keurig Dr Pepper — Keurig Dr Pepper rose 1.2% after Evercore ISI upgraded the stock to outperform from in line, citing the company’s “strong” operating results during the coronavirus pandemic, adding: “We expect continued top and bottom line momentum into 2H20 and 2021.”
Teva Pharmaceutical — Teva shares gained 3.9% after SunTrust upgraded them to buy from hold amid optimism over the pharmaceutical prospects of reaching its margin an leverage targets.
Gap — Gap soared more than 12% after JPMorgan upgraded the apparel retailer to neutral from underweight. The bank cited a more attractive risk/reward after a 70% pullback from Gap’s October 2018 highs. The stock has gained about 28% in the past month as the economy started to reopen gradually.
Hostess Brands — Shares of Hostess Brands climbed 2.4% after a SunTrust analyst upgraded them to buy from hold. “The shares are a unique way to play both the reopening of America,” according to the analyst.
—CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Yun Li, Maggie Fitzgerald and Michael Bloom contributed to this report.