Stocks – Goldman, BofA, Target All Fall in Premarket

By Geoffrey Smith

Investing.com — Stocks in focus in premarket trading on Wednesday, 16th January. Please refresh for updates.

8:58 AM ET: Beyond Meat‘s (NASDAQ:) hot streak has come to an abrupt end. The stock was down 5.8% on profit-taking after a rally that pushed it 50% higher since the start of the year. Bernstein analysts led by Alexia Howard earlier downgraded the stock to market perform, noting likely capacity constraints in the coming year.

8:50 AM ET: UnitedHealth (NYSE:) stock rose 0.7% after the U.S.’s largest health insurer reported stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results. The surprise was due largely to its Optum unit, which includes its pharmacy benefits management business. UnitedHealth also reaffirmed its full-year outlook for 2020 at around $16.40 a share.

• 8:28 AM ET: BlackRock (NYSE:) stock was up 0.8% after reporting record net inflows for 2019 thanks to the sustained boom in passive investing. Its iShares-branded ETFs took in $75.20 billion of new money, up from $41.50 billion in the prior quarter. Fourth-quarter earnings were some 8% ahead of consensus.
• Target (NYSE:) stock was down 7.0% after the big-box retailer said holiday sales had risen only 1.4% on the year, well below last year’s 5.7% increase and also below its own expectations. The company had a particularly hard time in electronics and toys, although beauty and apparel fared better.
• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) stock was down 0.6% after missing consensus forecasts for earnings due to a steep rise in provisions against credit losses. Litigation-related impairments of over $1 billion – chiefly arising from the Malaysian 1MDB scandal, also weighed on full-year numbers. That overshadowed a strong end to the year by the bank’s currency and bond traders.
• Bank of America (NYSE:) stock was down 0.3% after the bank reported a modest drop in revenue and net profit in the fourth quarter. The decline in earnings was less than expected but its core lending figures failed to impress as much as JPMorgan’s and Citi’s on Tuesday.

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