Stocks on the move: Boeing, Netflix, Levi Strauss, McDonald’s

Yahoo Finance's Emily McCormick and Adam Shapiro discuss the top stocks they're watching today.

Video transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: But let's go to the 2&2 right now, two stocks that Emily is watching, two stocks that I'm watching. I want to start with Boeing. Now in the beginning of the trading session, shares had been trading higher for Boeing. But that was at the start of the trading session, after they reported earnings. And you should know that their revenue was not what the Street wanted. It was off-- it fell to $14.8 billion in the fourth quarter. That was down from the $15.3 billion a year earlier.

But if you go back before the 737 Max had been grounded, healthy revenue was $28 billion. So they've got a long way to go. There are some things on the horizon, though, that are looking pretty good. They announced a trio of orders covering 23 widebody freighters, also orders for 50 737 MAX Jets with options for 50 more. But Boeing has a long way to go, especially to catch up with the rival, Airbus.

Then let's look at Netflix. What a difference Bill Ackman makes. Shares plunged, remember, 20% after the earnings report, which disappointed on the slowdown of subscriber growth. But Ackman revealed to us in a tweet yesterday that Pershing Square has purchased more than 3.1 million shares of Netflix. Here's the quote from Ackman. "I have long admired Reed Hastings and the remarkable company he and his team have built. We are delighted that the market has presented us with this opportunity." I just got to tell you, folks. "Ozark" this season, it is dark. It's good, but it's dark. Emily.

EMILY MCCORMICK: Adam, let's shift gears here and talk now about shares of Levi Strauss. Now those shares are jumping by nearly 9%. And at session highs, they were tracking toward their best day since April 2020 after the company posted fourth quarter sales and profits yesterday afternoon that both topped estimates. Now even more encouraging was Levi Strauss's outlook for the full year, which suggested that demand was still strong for its denim wear and apparel, and that the company was still maintaining solid profits despite ongoing supply chain challenges.

Now the company sees 2022 revenue growing as much as 13% this year. And adjusted earnings per share are expected to come in between $1.50 and $1.56, or better than Wall Street's consensus estimate at $1.52. Now Morgan Stanley analysts called the results, quote, "encouraging for the holiday quarter" and also highlighted that they were better than Levi Strauss's apparel competitors, which indicates that momentum may have extended for this company into the beginning of 2022.

Then there are shares of McDonald's. Now this was another earnings story here. The stock fluctuating between small gains and losses throughout the course of today's session, as investors also take in that report from this morning from McDonald's. Now for the company, fourth quarter profits came under pressure and missed estimates due to staffing shortages, supply chain disruptions, and virus-related restrictions in major markets, including China and key parts of Europe. Now McDonald's' adjusted earnings of $2.23 per share were below the $2.34 consensus estimate.

Now McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski also said that he expects US wage pressure to rise further this year in another weight on margins as we head into fiscal 2022. And these cost concerns more than offset McDonald's' otherwise solid top line results for the quarter. And we did see that comparable same store sales were up 12.3% during the fourth quarter, or much better than the 10.7% expected. But still, as we take a look at the stock, down about half a percentage point in afternoon trading. Adam.