Yahoo Finance Trending tickers: Arm l Adobe l THG l BP
A look at the stocks making headlines on Thursday
Arm (ARM)
The UK-based, SoftBank-owned company Arm is set to debut when the US markets open later – and will be the biggest IPO of the year.
The semiconductor company, which mainly focuses on central processing units and also graphics processing units, will list its shares on the Nasdaq (^IXIC) under the ticker symbol ARM.
Arm Holdings said it is aiming for a valuation of $52bn (£41.66bn) in the initial public offering, while SoftBank (SFTBY) said in a regulatory filing that it is offering 95.5 million depository shares at a price range of $47 to $51 per share.
“The Arm IPO price of $51 is in and all the talk is the float has been priced to pop on its debut later on. The market valuation is still a long way short of the $64bn implied by internal dealmaking at current owner Softbank last month, but if the bankers advising the company called it right then the chip designer could be approaching those levels sooner rather than later,” AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said.
Read more: LIVE: FTSE outperforms European peers ahead of ECB interest rate decision
Meanwhile, Matt Oguz, founding partner at San Francisco-based Venture Science, said Arm's upcoming IPO is particularly intriguing due to its commanding presence in the semiconductor industry and its vital role in enabling technologies from smartphones to cloud computing.
“The company has exhibited robust financial performance, and its strategic advantages are manifold. These include a wide range of applications for its technology, a deep intellectual property moat, and established partnerships with key industry players,” he said.
“Its substantial contributions to the ecosystem of connected devices make Arm an attractive proposition for investors looking to capitalise on the continued growth of IoT, AI, and edge computing,” he added.
Venture Science is participating in the IPO as an institutional Investor.
Adobe (ADBE)
US software company Adobe is releasing its latest financial results later after raising its outlook in the previous quarter with demand for its software remaining strong.
Adobe’s stock has climbed this year, by about 65% and at the end of August, it hit its highest level since January 2022 after it outlined that its fundamentals were improving.
The company has also been developing its AI strategy and on Wednesday announced that its Firefly generative AI model is now commercially available across Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Express, and Adobe Experience Cloud.
The company is also launching a standalone Firefly web app that will allow users to explore some of its generative capabilities without subscribing to specific Adobe Creative Suite applications.
Meanwhile, Adobe Express Premium and the Firefly web app will be included as part of a paid Creative Cloud subscription plan.
According to analysts at Forex, Q3 revenue is forecast to deliver record revenue of $4.86bn in the third quarter, up 9.8% from the year before, while adjusted operating profit is expected to rise 13.4% to $2.21bn and adjusted EPS is seen as rising 17% to $3.98.
THG (THG.L)
Shares in THG plunged nearly 18% on the London Stock Exchange to 72p after the company announced its latest financial results.
The Manchester-based e-commerce firm said in the six months to 30 June 2023, revenue fell 9.3% to £969.3m from £1.07bn the year before.
It highlighted record nutrition revenue of £340.7m, up 2.6%, while beauty revenue fell 10.4% to £538.7m – and ingenuity revenue declined 14.9% to £320.0m.
Meanwhile, it said underlying earnings (EBITDA) from continuing operations came in at £50.1m, up 22.9% from £40.8m last year,.
It left adjusted EBITDA guidance unchanged for the full year but said operating losses had increased to £99.5m from £89.2m.
“Inflationary pressures provided significant challenges to consumers and businesses alike over the past 18 months,” chief executive, Matthew Moulding, said on the results.
“The strategy of supporting our consumers through 2022, sacrificing margins in the short-term, is bearing fruit,” he added.
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould commented: “Another period of operating losses and with more moving parts than a Swiss watch, it’s no wonder that investors struggle to get their head around exactly what this company is trying to do. The word ‘adjusted’ is used 118 times in the half-year results, which says it all.
“The nutrition business looks to be improving, helped by inflationary pressures easing. It wants to build sports nutrition brand Myprotein into a global lifestyle brand – notably, this part of its business has been the focus of activist investor Kelso which has called it one of THG’s undervalued assets.”
Mould also noted that THG seems to realise that something has to change if it is to win over the market’s favour, hence the recent disposal of two loss-making businesses.
“That reinvention journey needs to speed up if it wants the share price to move higher. As it stands, the latest results went down like a lead balloon with the market, the shares falling nearly 18% in the first hour of trading.”
BP (BP)
Shares in BP are set for a higher open on the New York Stock Exchange after the energy giant’s chief executive Bernard Looney resigned on Wednesday amid a review of his personal relationships with colleagues.
The oil and gas firm said Looney, who had led the company since 2020, was stepping down with immediate effect and said it recently started an investigation into alleged relationships he had with colleagues, the second in two years.
The firm also said he had admitted he was not "fully transparent" initially.
"The company has strong values and the board expects everyone at the company to behave in accordance with those values," a spokesman said.
"All leaders in particular are expected to act as role models and to exercise good judgement in a way that earns the trust of others."
BP’s chief financial officer Murray Auchincloss is acting as chief executive on an interim basis.
Watch: AI's biggest upside is 'augmenting human potential: Salesforce AI CEO
Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.
