Palantir (PLTR)
Shares of analytics software company Palantir closed up nearly 5% in pre-market trading after Barron’s reported Wednesday that Chairman Peter Thiel had completed a stock sale in his latest trading plan.
Thiel reportedly sold 12,412,322 shares between September 27 and October 1 for $457 million (£347 million).
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Palantir is up nearly 129% since the beginning of the year, and shares soared in August following the company’s second-quarter results.
Palantir’s second-quarter sales were $678.1 million, up 27% year over year, compared to expectations of $652.8 million.
The company raised its fiscal 2024 revenue outlook to $2.75 billion from $2.742 billion. The company also raised its adjusted operating profit forecast to $966 million to $974 million.
Tech giant Meta has continued to hit new highs over the past week, with shares rising to $583 in pre-market trading Friday morning.
Shares rose after last week’s developer event, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Meta’s latest artificial intelligence (AI) model, Rama 3.2. Meta also announced new “Orion” augmented reality glasses, the latest Ray Ban smart glasses, and the mixed reality Quest headset.
Meta said in April that it plans to spend between $35 billion and $40 billion in 2024.
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Rosenblatt senior research analyst Burton Crockett explained why he’s bullish on the stock in an interview with Yahoo Finance on Thursday.
“The device they were showing off at the recent MetaConnect [are] “It’s going to resonate more with consumers than what Apple is doing right now,” he said, “and their Ray-Ban glasses could actually be a hit this Christmas.”
Meta announced earlier this week that it plans to release its third-quarter financial results on October 30, after the market closes.
Amazon (AMZN)
Another technology company trending among investors is Amazon. The company ended Thursday trading in the red nearly 2%, but rose 1% in premarket trading Friday.
Amazon plans to increase the number of ads for movies and TV shows on Prime Video in 2025, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Kelly Day, vice president of Prime Video International, told the FT that advertising “will increase a little bit more into 2025.”
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Amazon began rolling out ads on its Prime Video streaming service earlier this year, and Day said it started with a “very light ad load.”
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Prime Video has more than 200 million subscribers worldwide, and Day said the number of people leaving the Prime service was “much lower” than the e-commerce giant expected. It is reported that.
Amazon stock is still up nearly 20% year-to-date.
JD Weatherspoon (JDW.L)
Back in the UK, shares in pub chain JD Wetherspoon were little changed despite the company reporting sales of $2 billion for the 2024 financial year that ended July 28.
This represents a growth of nearly 6% compared to 2023, while pre-tax profit ‘excluding separately disclosed items’ fell 33% to £60.6m.
Wetherspoon has also reinstated its dividend for the first time since pre-pandemic, with a recommended dividend of 12p per share.
JD Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin reiterated his estimate that the company could have “around 1,000 pubs in the UK”.
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In his findings, Mr Martin also criticized the circulating suggestion that pubs should sell beer in two-thirds of a pint size rather than the traditional size, calling it “a bit ridiculous”. .
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: “While some indicators are above pre-pandemic levels, a number of subsequent headwinds during that period, including the aforementioned ‘scorching’ inflation, have pushed the overall Profitability is being hindered.” There are pressures on energy, food and labor in particular, but recently some of these pressures have begun to ease. ”
He added: “The market consensus that the stock is strong reflects some confidence in Wetherspoon’s ability to continue fighting in its corner, while also adding some caution to the difficult mix.” Ta.
Shares of U.S. electric vehicle (EV) charging company EVgo soared on Thursday, rising nearly 61% after the company received a conditional $1.05 billion commitment from the Department of Energy to expand its charging network. The transaction was completed.
The company said this access to low-cost financing will facilitate the construction of approximately 7,500 additional fast-charging stations across the United States. EVgo said it expects the rollout of these new stalls to be completed by 2030, once the funding is complete.
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EVgo estimates that the expansion project will create more than 1,000 jobs, more than 700 of which will be in contract roles.
“EVgo shares the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of increasing access to EV charging in the regions that need it most,” said Badar Khan, CEO of EVgo.
“This historic investment will meaningfully accelerate network expansion to provide public charging to EV drivers across the United States,” he added.
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