Stocks – Accenture, ConAgra, Micron Rise in Premarket

Investing.com — Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Thursday, 19th December. Please refresh for updates.

• Accenture (NYSE:) stock fell 0.7% after giving revenue guidance for the current quarter below consensus forecasts.
• In the three months through November, the consulting firm beat estimates for both revenue and earnings as investments in fast-growing digital and cloud support services paid off. Gross margins rose 100 basis points on the year to 32.1%.
• Earnings per share of $2.09 were 4.5% above consensus forecasts. Revenue of $11.36 billion was also ahead of expectations but it was the guidance range for the current quarter, with a midpoint of $10.9 billion, that disappointed.

• ConAgra Foods (NYSE:) stock rose 7.9% to a three-month high after reporting better-than-expected results for the second quarter of its fiscal year. Sales rose nearly 20% thanks to the acquisition of Pinnacle, while organic net sales rose 1.6%.
• ConAgra said it now expects synergies of $305 million of synergies from the Pinnacle deal, $20 million more than originally estimated, and will invest the extra money saved in growing sales.
• Adjusted earning per share of 63c were 10% above consensus forecast.
• • Micron Technology (NASDAQ:) stock rose 3.5% to a five-month high after saying that the current quarter would represent the bottom of the current cycle for chipmakers.
  • The company reported a fifth straight quarter of double-digit percentage declines in revenue after the bell on Wednesday. Operating profit also fell sharply.
  • Match Group (NASDAQ:) stock rose 2.5% and InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:) stock rose 1.3% after the two companies said they would separate.
• InterActive is Match’s majority shareholder and will distribute its stake directly to its shareholders, saying that the operator of dating websites such as Tinder and OKCupid was now big enough to stand alone and would benefit from more focused management.
• • Darden Restaurants (NYSE:), the owner of chains such as Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, fell 3.4% to a six-week low despite reporting earnings and revenue broadly in line with forecasts and upholding its guidance for the fiscal year.
• Chipmaker Broadcom (NASDAQ:) rose 0.6% to a new all-time high after a Wall Street Journal report saying that it is looking to sell one of its wireless memory chip units.
• The WSJ said the unit, which has annual revenue of some $2.2 billion, may fetch as much $10 billion.
• • Oilfield services company Apergy (NYSE:) rose 14% after saying it will merge with the upstream drilling business of Ecolab (NYSE:) in deal valued at around $4 billion. EcoLab stock rose 0.7%

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