Check out the companies making headlines before the market opens. Estee Lauder — Shares of the beauty company fell nearly 2% after Bank of America downgraded the stock, citing headwinds in China. Weak demand in the United States also weighed on shares, the company added. Applied Materials — Shares of the semiconductor equipment company fell 1.8% despite better-than-expected third-quarter earnings. Applied Materials earned $2.12 a share, excluding items, on revenue of $6.78 billion in the period, while analysts polled by LSEG forecast earnings of $2.02 a share on revenue of $66.7 billion dollars. JD.com – Shares of JD.com rose 3% after the Chinese e-commerce group reported better-than-expected second-quarter revenue, driven by price cuts to attract conscious consumers. JD.com’s second-quarter profit excluding projects increased 73.7% to 9.36 yuan per share, while analysts surveyed by the London Stock Exchange Group expected 6.07 yuan per share. Microchip Technology — Shares rose 2.4%. Piper Sandler upgraded the semiconductor stock to overweight from neutral, saying the stock is expected to soar more than 20% on “numerous growth levers.” Amcor — Shares of Amcor fell 3% after the packaging company reported a larger-than-expected decline in second-quarter sales. Amcor reported sales of $3.54 billion for the quarter, missing analysts’ expectations of $3.57 billion, according to StreetAccount. Bayer – Shares of Bayer rose after the German life sciences company said it won a legal battle dismissing claims that exposure to Bayer’s Roundup herbicide and herbicide caused cancer and that the company violated state law by failing to add a cancer ingredient More than 11% issued warnings about Roundup labels. H & R Block – Shares of H & R Block rose 8.4% after the tax services company announced a dividend increase and $1.5 billion in buybacks. H & R Block also beat profit expectations and forecast higher-than-expected results for the current fiscal year. The company’s fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share were $1.89 on revenue of $1.06 billion, beating expectations for adjusted earnings of $1.74 per share on revenue of $1.03 billion, according to FactSet. Coherent — The electronics maker rose 3.1% after its fiscal fourth-quarter profit beat estimates. Coherent had revenue of $1.31 billion in the quarter and earned 61 cents per share excluding items, while analysts polled by FactSet expected profits of 60 cents per share and $1.28 billion per share. —CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Sarah Min and Hakyung Kim contributed reporting.
