Costco (COST) – The company reported mostly inline comparable-store sales for the month of November Wednesday evening. An analyst at Raymond James reviewed the sales figures Thursday morning and noted an expectation for Costco to continue gaining market share amid a favorable “product mix, clean balance sheet and sticky customer base.”
Yum! Brands (YUM) – A play on a likely upcoming acquisition for one of the company’s brands, Taco Bell. At a JP Morgan conference Wednesday, Taco Bell CFO said management is keeping its eyes open and “always scanning categories” for a potential purchase. The exec specifically named the middle-eastern food space as “interesting.”
Box (BOX) – A play on the software space. Shares were down about 2% Thursday morning following mixed quarterly results and soft guidance out of Box. Reviewing the results, a sell-side analyst noted Box is “a few years ahead” of other software companies in their focus on profitability.
Li Auto (LI) – A play on a Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer. While peer in the space, XPeng (XPEV),reported mixed quarterly results Wednesday morning, shares rallied nearly 50%. Li will report quarterly results on Friday of next week.
Five Below (FIVE) – A play on the dollar-store space. Shares were up 9% Thursday morning following better-than-expected quarterly results but guidance which missed analyst estimates. Competitor in the space, Dollar General (DG), reported worse-than-expected earnings Thursday morning.