Guess shares jumped during after-hours Wednesday, after its fiscal second quarter results came in stronger than expected while the company boosted its full-year outlook. For the three months ending Aug.3, the retailer of clothing and accessories reported adjusted earnings of 38 cents per share, which beat analysts’ estimates of 29 cents.The adjusted EPS figure was also higher than the prior year quarter’s 36 cents. Revenue increased +5.8% year-over-year to reach $683.2 million in the quarter, surpassing the Street expectations of $671.4 million. Looking ahead, Guess expects its fiscal full-year 2020 GAAP earnings to sit between $1.18 to $1.26 a share, or an adjusted $1.28 to $1.36.

Credit Suisse analysts gave Monster shares a $77 price target, representing 36% potential upside from the stock's previous close.  Monster shares have been hurt by its second-quarter sales and earnings figures (reported early August) that fell short of the Street expectations.Also, there have been apparent concerns over sales of its new recent fitness beverage Reign, which haven’t been as strong as expected. However, at a price multiple of 26 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, Credit Suisse analyst Kaumil Gajrawala views Monster Beverage shares as “cheap, given best-in-class growth prospects, low capital needs, and a clean balance sheet” .

Five Below shares declined during extended trading, after the company’s second-quarter revenue missed analysts' expectations. For the quarter ended Aug. 3, Five Below’s net sales increased +20% year-over-year to $417.4 million, falling short of analysts’ estimates of $421.1 million.Anderson said the company opened 44 new stores in 21 states, and is on track to finish the year with 150 new stores. Looking ahead, Five Below has forecasted third-quarter net sales to range between $369 million and $374 million based on opening 55 new stores and assuming a 2% to 3% increase in comparable sales.

H&R Block shares traded slightly lower during after-hours Wednesday, following its report of a fiscal first-quarter loss that was almost unchanged from the prior-year period. The tax-services provider’s quarterly loss came in at -74 cents a share, flat from a year earlier.The fiscal first quarter accounts for less than 5% of annual revenue and less than 15% of annual expenses, according to the company.

However, the company’s guidance for  the October quarter  fell behind the Street’s estimates. The cloud-based identity and access management company reported a quarterly loss of -5 cents per share, faring better than analysts’ estimate of a loss of -11 cents a share.According to the company,  it had a total of 1,222 customers with annual contract value above $100,000 as of last quarter.

MyoKardia Inc MYOK 1.87%, a thinly traded mid-cap biotech, is on the radar of investors ahead of the company's scheduled presentation at the European Society of Cardiology Congress Aug. 31-Sept. 4 in Paris. The South San Francisco, California-based biotech, founded in 2012, uses a precision medicine approach to discover and develop targeted therapies for serious and neglected rare cardiovascular diseases. READ MORE...

Chinese internet firm Baozun (Nasdaq: BZUN) reported earnings on August 21.In fact the stock dropped 12.6% on August 21. This was a little puzzling to me and I started looking back at the last couple of earnings reports.

Discount retailer Five Below (Nasdaq: FIVE) is set to report second quarter earnings results on August 28 and analysts expect the company to earn $0.50 on revenue of $421.16 million.This means that if estimates are accurate, earnings will increase by 10% and revenue will increase by 21.1%. The company has been able to grow earnings by 36% per year over the last three years and sales have grown by an average of 24% per year during that same time period.

This reflects the overall downward trend for the stocks in the industry. The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (AMEX: KWEB) reflects how the industry has been moving lower.The stock hit the trend line again this past week before turning lower. You can also see how the 50-day moving average is right in the same area as the trend line and that could act as a secondary layer of resistance going forward. The daily stochastic readings had hit overbought territory after rallying from the low earlier this month.

Chinese social media platform Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) has been doing relatively well as a company, but the stock hasn’t followed suit.The stock was in oversold territory based on the 10-week RSI and the weekly stochastic readings, but the RSI has recently moved out of oversold territory while the stochastic readings remain there. The Relative Strength Rating from Investor’s Business Daily is a 12 and that means the price performance is in the bottom 12% of stocks for the past year.

Beverage major Constellation Brands mentioned in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday that adjusted losses from its stake in Canopy Growth would amount to -$38.5 million, in its fiscal second quarter ending Aug. 31. Constellation made a $4 billion investment (i.e.It recognizes equity earnings from its equity-method investment in Canopy on a two-month lag. For the two quarters ending Aug. 31, its share of Canopy loss will be -$77.3 million on an adjusted basis. Constellation shares went up +0.6% in premarket trading, and Canopy's U.S.-listed stock climbed +1.6%.

NetApp shares climbed on Monday, after receiving a rating upgrade and a price target hike from Cowen. Analysts at Cowen boosted their rating on the hybrid cloud data services/management company’s stock to market perform from underperform.They indicated that NTAP's leadership in hybrid cloud purpose-built storage systems and data management software should help the company generate low-single digit revenue growth and high-single digit EPS growth through 2020.  They also praised NetApp’s “industry-leading profitability and capital return to shareholders”.    

PDC Energy announced that it is acquiring SRC Energy in a deal valued at $1.7 billion, including debt. As part of the all-stock acquisition, SRC shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.158 PDC shares for each share of SRC common stock, implying a value of $3.99 per SRC share based on PDC's closing common stock price on Aug. 23. PDC will also be assuming approximately $685 million in debt, as part of the acquisition.The combined entity is expected to advantage from "complementary assets" in the Delaware Basin - a geologic basin in West Texas and southern New Mexico famous for holding large oil field deposits. Following the deal’s closure, PDC shareholders will own about 62% of the combined company, and SRC shareholders will own around 38%.  

Kentucky Fried Chicken in Atlanta could soon be serving Beyond Meat's plant-based fried chicken. YUM!Beyond Fried Chicken will be available in nuggets at prices between $1.99 and $8.49 and boneless wings for between $6 and $12 (depending on the number of pieces), at the Cobb Parkway KFC in Atlanta in the test.  In May, Kevin Hochman, who heads KFC’s U.S. division, had said that the restaurant-chain did not have plans to test vegan options, but that he had meetings scheduled with some major suppliers to learn more about meatless meats. Amidst the soaring popularity of its plant-based meat products,  Beyond Meat has registered a +123% gain in its stock price since the shares’ IPO in May.

Ross Stores Inc. reported second-quarter earnings that surpassed Wall Street estimates. The department store chain reported earnings of $1.14 a share, higher than analyst’ estimate of $1.11 a share.Its comparable-store sales grew +3% compared with the same quarter last year. According to Ross Stores, there would be a slight impact on its third and fourth quarters from the 10% tariffs on goods imported from China.

The cloud software company also boosted its full-year outlook. The company’s fiscal second quarter adjusted earnings came in at 66 cents per share, compared to 47 cents per share expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenue increased +22% from the year ago quarter to reach $4 billion, which is higher than analysts’ estimate of $3.95 billion (according to Refinitiv).Revenue from Sales Cloud, the company’s biggest product, grew +13%, and that from Service Cloud, the second-largest division, surged +22%. In addition to strong organic growth, Salesforce also seems to be potentially on a  path of further expansion as it acquired, earlier this month, data visualization software company Tableau in a  $15.3 billion deal. Looking ahead, Salesforce raised its revenue projection for the year to between $16.75 billion and $16.9 billion, up from its previous guidance of up to $16.25 billion. For the fiscal third quarter, the company expects revenue of $4.44 billion to $4.45 bill

They are expected to have better water resistance, as well as more robust shatter resistance.  It is also rumored that Apple will roll out (not necessarily at the same vent) a new MacBook Pro with a display size over 16 inches.Apple could also be planning to  launch new AirPods, which might be pricier but would come in with added water-resistance and noise-canceling features.

The selling that has hit Brazilian stocks could be providing a buying opportunity for the iShares MSCI Brazil Capped ETF (NYSE: EWZ). The ETF has been trending higher since last September and a trend channel has formed that defines the different cycles within the overall trend.

Target reported second-quarter earnings and sales - both of which surpassed analysts’ expectations. The retail giant’s earnings per share for the quarter came in at $1.82 (from the year-ago quarter’s $1.47), beating the $1.62 expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenue of $18.42 billion, too, exceeded analysts’ estimates of $18.34 billion. Same-store sales grew +3.4%, compared to 2.9% growth expected by analysts. Looking ahead, Target boosted its outlook on full-year earnings.Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting full-year per-share earnings of $5.94 a share on sales of $78 billion. While its physical stores showed a strong performance, Target (along with several traditional retailers) are apparently working on making shopping more convenient and attractive to consumers.

In the case of home improvement retailer Home Depot (NYSE: HD), expectations must not have been too high.The stock gained 4.65% on the day while the overall market was lower. From a fundamental perspective, Home Depot has been pretty solid over the last few years.