Shortly after Friday’s opening bell, the Dow Jones industrials traded up 0.77%, the S&P 500 up 0.85% and the Nasdaq up 0.99%. Nonfarm payrolls jumped by 140,000 new jobs month over month in May to 349,000, far higher than expected. Offsetting that, the unemployment rate rose from 3.4% in April to 3.7%, more than expected. The mixed report has investors holding on to their hopes that the Federal Reserve will not raise rates at its FOMC meeting later this month.
After U.S. markets closed on Thursday, Lululemon beat the consensus earnings per share (EPS) estimate by 16% and reported a year-over-year revenue increase of 24%. Guidance for the second quarter is in line with consensus estimates, but full-year guidance for both EPS and revenue was higher than Wall Street estimates. Shares traded up 16% Friday morning.
SentinelOne reported a narrower-than-expected loss per share but missed the consensus revenue estimate. The security software company also issued downside revenue guidance for the current quarter and the full 2024 fiscal year. Shares were hammered Friday morning, trading down 33.3%.
Dell beat estimates on both the top and bottom lines. For the 2024 fiscal year, Dell raised EPS guidance and maintained prior guidance for a decline in revenue of 12% to 18%. The stock traded up 0.6%.
Broadcom also topped both top-line and bottom-line estimates and issued upside revenue guidance for the current quarter. Shares traded up 2.8%.
ChargePoint posted a smaller per-share loss than analysts expected and beat the consensus revenue estimate. However, downside revenue guidance for the current quarter has cost the stock a drop of around 0.7% in early trading.
No notable earnings reports are due to be released Friday. Here is a preview of two companies reporting quarterly results on Monday.
GitLab
GitLab Inc. (NASDAQ: GTLB) provides a collaborative software development platform in the United States, Europe and Asia. In early March, the company’s stock sported a year-to-date price increase of more than 34%. As of Thursday’s close, shares were down 7.7% for the year to date. GitLab releases earnings results after markets close Monday.
Recall that early March was also the time that Microsoft and OpenAI announced the release of ChatGPT. GitLab’s stock was hit hard as investors departed for greener pastures. Over the past month, however, GitLab has announced a number of AI initiatives, including a new version of its DevOpsSec (development, operations, security) platform that includes “enterprise-grade, AI-powered” capabilities.
The company’s moves into AI have resulted in a bounce of 20% in its share price over the past month, and, on Thursday, BofA said that it believed the company is “making steady progress” in adding AI features to its platform. The analysts maintained their Buy rating and $50.00 price objective on the shares.
Of 16 brokerages covering GitLab, 12 have a Buy or Strong Buy rating. It is Hold ratings from the other four. At a recent price of around $36.00 a share, the upside potential based on a median price target of $44.50 is 23.6%. At the high price target of $65.00, the upside potential is 80.6%.
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