In morning trading on Friday, the Dow Jones industrials were up 1.34%, the S&P 500 up 1.5% and the Nasdaq 1.77% higher.
After U.S. markets closed on Thursday, Apple beat analysts’ estimates on both the top and bottom lines, even though revenue was 2.5% lower than in the year-ago quarter. Mac sales fell by about $3.2 billion, accounting for more than all of the year-over-year decline. iPhone and iPad sales both came in higher than estimates. To top it all off, Apple increased its dividend by 4% and added a $90 billion share buyback. Shares traded up 4.7% just ahead of the noon hour Friday.
Block also reported earnings per share (EPS) and revenue that beat consensus estimates. Yet, the stock traded down about 0.3%.
Before markets opened on Friday, AMC reported a smaller-than-expected loss per share on better-than-expected revenue. The stock traded up 0.3%.
Enbridge beat the consensus EPS estimate by a penny but missed on revenue. Shares traded up 1.5%.
Warner Bros. Discovery posted a steeper loss than analysts were expecting and also fell short on revenue. Ad sales for the company’s cable networks were down 15% year over year. Shares traded down 0.7% late Friday morning.
There are no earnings reports scheduled for release Friday afternoon. Before markets open on Monday, BioNTech and Tyson Foods will report quarterly results. Look for reports from Devon Energy, Lucid and Palantir later in the day.
These four companies are scheduled to report quarterly earnings first thing Tuesday morning.
Duke Energy
Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) is the country’s third-largest regulated electricity provider, with a market cap of more than $76 billion. The company also sells electricity and natural gas at wholesale to local providers. Over the past 12 months, Duke’s share price has decreased by about 11%. Investors do not buy Duke stock for its short-term growth, although an increase of 19.3% over the past three years is better than Meta Platforms’ growth of 12.3% in the same period. Investors are most impressed by the company’s dividend yields, which Meta does not have.
Of 17 brokers covering the company, seven have a Buy or Strong Buy rating, and the other 11 have Hold ratings. At a recent price of around $98.50 a share, the potential upside to the median price target of $108.00 is 9.6%. At the high target of $120.00, upside potential is about 21.8%.
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