Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill jumped +1.2% Monday, following a rating upgrade from Wedbush. Analyst Nick Setyan upgraded his rating of the fast food restaurant chain' shares to outperform from neutral.This was the program’s first full quarter since it began. Setyan mentioned that loyalty would be  a strong, key driver of penetration of Chipotle’s own app among consumers.

Kellogg got a rating boost from Goldman Sachs on Friday. Analysts at Goldman Sachs raised their rating on the cereal maker’s stock to buy from neutral.They also hiked price target on the shares to $72 from $58, a potential 15% upside over the stock's closing price Thursday of $62.84. Calling Kellogg "the most compelling value left in snacks", Goldman Sachs indicated that said Kellogg’s organic sales will accelerate  which in turn should boost profit margins.  

Cybersecurity company Symantec could be acquired in a deal valued at more than $16 billion. Citing people familiar with the offer, the Wall Street Journal reported that private equity firms Permira and Advent International have offered $26 to $27 a share to buy Symantec. The proposed deal involving the PE firms would happen along with the sale of Symantec’s enterprise business to Broadcom for $10.7 billion, according to the Journal. Under one possibility, Symantec would sell its consumer business to the PE firms after the deal with Broadcom closes; an alternative possibility has Permira and Advent acquiring the whole company and then selling off the enterprise unit to Broadcom, ( as indicated by the Journal).

Crowdstrike reported its fiscal second-quarter loss that was narrower than analysts' estimates, thanks to strength in recurring subscriptions of its cloud-based security systems. The cloud-based cybersecurity company’s non-GAAP net loss came in at - 18 cents a share, which was better than analysts’ forecasted loss of -23 cents  a share (based on FactSet survey of analysts).The loss was also smaller than the year-ago quarterly loss of -69 cents a share. Revenue of $108.1 million was slightly below the $111.1 million expected by analysts. Subscription revenue surged to $97.6 million in the quarter, from the prior year quarter’s $49.2 million. CEO George Kurtz cited customer growth acceleration for CrowdStrike's cloud-native Falcon platform as a major reason behind the improving performance in the quarter. Looking ahead, Crowdstrike expects its full-year fiscal 2020, to incur a non-GAAP net loss of between $93.5 million and $97.9 million, (or between -62 cents and -65 cents a sh

Even with the group as a whole underperforming, Penn National Gaming (Nasdaq: PENN) has performed worse than its peers.The stock is down over 20% in the past six months while the S&P is up just over 5% during the same time period. Looking at the daily chart we see that there is a trend channel that has formed over the last six months and it defines the cyclical moves within the overall downward trend.

Tickeron’s SMR rating for PDC is 80, indicating weak sales and an unprofitable business model.SMR (Sales, Margin, Return on Equity) rating is based on comparative analysis of weighted Sales, Income Margin and Return on Equity values compared against S&P 500 index constituents. Sales growth for PDC has been pretty good for the last few years, but analysts expect sales to decline by 21% for 2019.

Application software firm Splunk Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLK) has seen incredible growth over the last few years.Unfortunately the company lowered its forecast as part of the earnings announcement. Despite these impressive results for the most recent quarter and over the last few years, the stock is down over 20% since July 26.

However, the clothing & accessories retailer’s comparable sales growth came in lower than anticipated. The company’s adjusted earnings for the three months ending on August 3 came in at 39 cents, up from the year-ago quarter’s 34 cents and higher than the Street estimate of 32 cents. Group revenues increased +8% to $1.04 billion, slightly ahead of analysts’ expectation of $1 billion. While American Eagle’s same-store sales climbed +2% from last year, the growth rate fell short of  Wall Street forecasts of just over 3%.But he also emphasized on the company’s  18th consecutive quarter of positive consolidated comparable sales growth. The company's forecast for its third quarter 2019 earnings per share is between 47 cents and 49 cents, which is a lower range compared to Refinitiv forecast of 52 cents per share.

Amidst the ongoing Sino-American trade war, a leading gauge of U.S. manufacturing activity fell into contraction territory last month. For the first time during U.S. President Donald Trump's tenure, the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index dropped to a reading of 49.1% in August - from 51.2% in July.The manufacturing survey should not typically signal a recession in the overall economy until readings fall below 42.9%, according to the institute. While much of the U.S.-China tariff war narrative apparently centers around the objective of boosting U.S. industries, the decline in U.S. manufacturing activity could potentially imply headwinds to U.S. producers from rising tariff-induced costs of buying inputs/materials.

Coupa Software, Inc. reported an unexpected profit and surpassed analyst revenue estimates. The technology/software company’s earnings for the latest quarter came in at 7 cents a share, compared to a loss of -10 cents that analysts had expected.The figure is also higher than the year-ago quarter’s  $61.7 million. Looking ahead, Coupa boosted its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $369 million to $372 million, compared with its prior projection of $342 million to $344 million.

Tilray  shares climbed on Tuesday, following a re-iteration of a rating from Cowen & Co. Analysts at Cowen & Co. affirmed their outperform rating on the cannabis company.However, they also reduced their price target to $60 a share from $150. Tilray is facing headwinds in the form of weak industry supply, the company being substantially dependent on third parties - as indicated by analyst Vivien Azer. Nevertheless, the company is trying to mitigate the challenges by acquisitions (such as the Natura Naturals purchase) and expansions of its current facilities. Azer suggested that Tilray is well-positioned for multiple entry points into the U.S. , as well as benefit from international markets as it awaits final GMP certifications on its Portuguese license.

Tesla currently  imports all of the cars that sells in China from the U.S. – thereby  getting affected by retaliatory tariffs in China.China threatened last week to hike duties on U.S.-made cars to as high as 50% in response to President Donald Trump's latest round of tariffs on Chinese goods. But the recent tax exemption on some of the Tesla models  could potentially lower the overall tariff effect for Tesla.

On Sunday, the U.S. kicked off its latest round of tariff on China goods. The U.S.is  imposing 15% tariff rate on a range of imports from China, including footwear, smart watches and flat-panel televisions  - which are largely consumer goods.As part of this fresh round of levies, tariffs on $112 billion worth of Chinese goods have already been slapped on Sunday, with plans to impose duties on another $160 billion in mid-December. The tariffs prior to Sunday’s announcement were more focused on intermediate inputs like industrial components. According to the American Apparel and Footwear Association, 91.6% of Chinese apparel imports will be affected by the new round of tariffs, while 68.4% of home textiles and 52.5% of footwear would be hit as well. The remainder of the tariffs on China, planned for December, are expected to include cell phones and laptops as well. However, U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated that U.S. negotiations/talks with China are still und

The company is expecting revenue for the quarter to range between $140 million to $150 million, compared to analysts’ prediction of $162.6 million. For the fiscal full-year, American Outdoor’s earnings forecast is in the range of 70 cents to 78 cents a share – again below analysts’ expectation of 82 cents a share.The company’s full-year revenue guidance is a range of $630 million to $650 million, compared to analysts’ forecast of $644.4 million

Dell Technologies Inc.’s second quarter earnings came in higher than expected. The maker of computers and software reported second quarter non-GAAP earnings of $2.15 a share, surpassing analysts’ expectations of $1.47 a share. Revenue rose +2% year-over-year to reach $23.4 billion in the quarter, also beating the Street estimate of $23.27 billion. Vice chairman Jeff Clarke emphasized that IT spending remained healthy. The quarter saw exceptionally strong performance in Dell’s PC segment.Consumer revenue fell -12%, but that was cushioned by enterprise market – since the latter makes up the larger  part of the company’s total PC business. However, Dell’s storage revenue was flat, while servers and networking sales declined -12%.   

On Friday, Ambarella posted higher-than-expected second-quarter earnings. The video compression/ image processing semiconductor company’s adjusted earnings of 21 cents a share for the quarter significantly surpassed Zacks Consensus Estimate of 3 cents per share.  Revenue of $56.4 million for the quarter came in lower than  the year-ago quarter’s $62.5 million, but beat analysts’ estimate of $52 million (according to Zacks). Ambarella’s forecast for the fiscal third-quarter revenue ranges between $63 million and $67 million. Ambarella CEO Fermi Wang emphasized that the company’s optimism for its fiscal year 2020 prospects has increased, despite geopolitical uncertainty.  

Recently Big Lots reported its second quarter earnings, which turned out to be higher than analysts’ expectations.  The retail company’s adjusted earnings for the quarter came in at  53 cents a share, beating analysts’ estimate of 40 cents.However, the EPS was lower compared to the year-ago quarter’s  59 cents. Revenue of $1.25 billion matched the Street expectations, while rising above the year-ago quarter’s $1.22 billion. For the full-year, the company reiterated its outlook on earnings range, i.e.

Ulta Beauty shares plummeted close to -30%  Friday, after the company lowered its fiscal- full-year outlook and also missed earnings expectations. The chain of stores selling cosmetics and hair & skincare products reported net income of $2.76 per share which, although higher than the year-ago quarter’s $2.46, fell short of the Street estimate of $2.80. Revenue for the quarter increased +12% year-over-year to $1.7 billion, which was in line with expectations.  Comparable sales (which in this case includes stores open at least 14 months and e-commerce sales) increased +6.2%.

Workday’s second quarter earnings edged past analysts’  expectations, while the company boosted  its FY 2020 subscription revenue outlook. The  cloud-based financial management and human capital management software vendor reported a non-GAAP net earnings per diluted share of 44 cents, which is higher than the Street estimates of 35 cents.For the third quarter, the company’s forecast for subscription revenue is between $783 million and $785 million.   

Online payment solution provider Square, Inc (NYSE: SQ) has pulled back over the last four or five weeks and the stock gapped lower after its most recent earnings report.The company beat on both the top and bottom line, but investors were disappointed with the forecast. The stock gapped sharply lower after the earnings report and it continued down for a few weeks after the report.