Several companies made headlines before the bell, with Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) seeing a significant drop of over 14% after issuing lighter-than-expected second-quarter revenue guidance. However, their first-quarter earnings and revenue exceeded analysts’ estimates. Honeywell, an industrial stock, rose 2.2% in premarket trading after posting earnings per share of $2.25, beating expectations, and revenue of $9.11 billion. Merck also saw an increase of 2.1% after reporting stronger-than-expected earnings for the first quarter, with earnings per share of $2.07 and revenue of $15.78 billion.
Southwest Airlines, on the other hand, experienced a nearly 9% drop in shares after missing on both top and bottom lines for the quarter. Adjusted losses per share were wider than expected, and revenue also fell below estimates. American Airlines, despite a wider-than-expected loss for the first quarter, saw their shares rise about 6%. The company projected earnings per share of $1.15 to $1.45 in the second quarter, above the consensus estimate. Chipotle Mexican Grill’s shares rose 3% after beating Wall Street’s first-quarter estimates, with a 7% increase in same-store sales.
International Business Machines (IBM) reported a disappointing first-quarter revenue, causing a drop of 8.5% in their shares. Revenue missed estimates, but the company beat on the bottom line. IBM announced the acquisition of HashiCorp for $6.4 billion in enterprise value. Shares of HashiCorp jumped about 4.4%. Caterpillar also fell 4% after missing analysts’ estimates for revenue in the most recent quarter, despite beating earnings per share estimates. Deutsche Bank’s U.S.-traded shares surged 6% after reporting revenue and profit above expectations, driven by a recovery in its investment banking segment.
Comcast shares slipped 0.5% despite reporting better-than-expected first-quarter results, as the cable giant saw a drop in broadband subscribers. Align Technology gained 5.1% after surpassing analysts’ expectations for the first quarter, posting adjusted earnings of $2.14 per share on revenue of $997.4 million. ServiceNow shed 4% after narrowly beating analysts’ revenue expectations in the first quarter, with revenue slightly exceeding forecasts. Overall, the companies making headlines before the bell experienced a mix of positive and negative results in their earnings reports.
