Check out the companies making headlines before the market opens. Ulta — Shares of the beauty chain fell more than 1% after Jefferies downgraded its rating to “hold” from “buy.” Analyst Ashley Helgans cited increasing pressure from rival Sephora and a “lack of freshness” as two reasons for the change. Netflix—The video streaming platform’s full-year revenue growth outlook was weaker than consensus expectations and it said it would no longer report user growth in future quarters. The company’s stock price fell nearly 6%. Still, Netflix reported first-quarter profit and revenue that beat expectations. Shopify – The Canadian e-commerce stock rose 3%. Morgan Stanley upgraded Shopify to overweight, citing its confidence in the company’s growth potential and increased operating leverage. First Solar — Shares of First Solar rose 1.5% after Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to overweight. The company cited several upside catalysts, including expectations that the Biden administration will lift tariff exemptions on Chinese panels and potential trade restrictions. Sunnova Energy — The stock fell nearly 4% after Wells Fargo downgraded its rating to equal weight. The bank believes that a longer-term higher interest rate environment will be particularly detrimental to Sunnova’s upcoming debt maturities and tight liquidity. SLB — Energy stocks fell 1.7% despite a first-quarter report that was largely in line with expectations. SLB reported adjusted earnings of 75 cents per share on revenue of $8.71 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG expected earnings of 75 cents per share on revenue of $8.69 billion. The company did say revenue was down in North America. Intuitive Surgical — Shares of Intuitive Surgical rose 3% after the robotic surgery company reported better-than-expected first-quarter profit and revenue. Intuitive Surgical reported adjusted earnings of $1.50 per share last quarter, while analysts polled by LSEG expected earnings of $1.41 per share. Western Alliance — Shares fell 2% after the company missed profit estimates in its latest quarter. Western Alliance reported earnings of $1.60 per share, while FactSet expected earnings of $1.64 per share. KB Home — The homebuilding stock rose 1.6% after announcing a stock buyback program of up to $1 billion. KB Home also said it would increase its quarterly cash dividend by 25% to 25 cents per share, which will be paid on May 23. , Paramount Media shares soared 10%, and they have been discussing the possibility of joining forces to acquire Paramount. Paramount is in merger talks with production company Skydance Media. Bentley Systems — French energy management and automation company Schneider Electric confirmed it is in preliminary talks for a potential strategic deal for Bentley Systems, sending the software’s shares up less than 1%. Procter & Gamble Co. – The consumer products maker reported mixed results in its latest quarter, with earnings of $1.52 a share, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.41 a share, according to LSEG. However, the company’s revenue of $20.2 billion was slightly below expectations, compared with analysts’ expectations of $20.41 billion. Shares were little changed in premarket trading. American Express — Shares fell 1.5% even as the financial services company reported first-quarter profit and revenue that beat FactSet estimates. American Express also reiterated that its full-year guidance would be in line with expectations. —CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Tanana Macheel, Jesse Pound and Samantha Subin contributed reporting.
