Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
Carnival — Shares of Carnival rose 3.2% despite Covid concerns as the company announced it expects to see profit in the second quarter of 2022. Carnival said advanced bookings for the second half of 2022 and 2023 are at high levels and at high prices relative to 2019.
Devon, Diamondback, Exxon Mobil — Energy stocks fell broadly on Monday as concerns about the omicron variant dragged down oil prices. Devon Energy fell more than 5%. Diamondback and Exxon dropped 4.6% and 2.2%, respectively.
Oracle — Enterprise software maker Oracle’s shares slid 4.8% following the announcement that the company will acquire medical records technology provider Cerner in an all-cash deal for worth $95 per share, or approximately $28.3 billion in equity value. Cerner shares, which jumped nearly 13% on Friday following initial reports of the deal, inched less than 1% higher on Monday. The acquisition is the largest ever for Oracle.
Canopy Growth — Shares of the cannabis producer dropped about 8.8% after Piper Sandler downgraded the stock to “underweight” from “neutral,” citing sales trends under pressure. Last week, Wells Fargo initiated coverage of the stock with an underweight rating, calling the company overvalued.
Sunrun — Shares of the residential solar company dipped 6.6% amid uncertainty around the Build Back Better plan, and after KeyBanc cut the stock to a sector weight rating. The firm’s call centers on the proposed decision from California regulators to slash solar incentives that have been instrumental to the industry’s growth. Given Sunrun’s exposure to the California market, KeyBanc said the valuation implications are “too wide for comfort.”
AT&T — Shares of the telecom giant rose 0.7% amid a broad market sell-off after an upgrade from Barclays. The Wall Street firm hiked its rating on AT&T to overweight from neutral, saying that the telecom stock deserved to close the valuation gap to some of its rivals.
Verso — Shares of Verso surged nearly 35% after the Ohio-based maker of specialty, graphic and packaging paper announced will be acquired by Swedish paper producer BillerudKorsnäs in a deal worth $27 per share in cash.
— CNBC’s Yun Li, Tanaya Macheel, Jesse Pound and Pippa Stevens contributed reporting