Movers: BP, Chegg, Dupont, Pfizer, Uber

Scott Peters
02 May, 2023
New York City

Uber Technologies Inc increased 5.6% to $34.70 after the ride-hailing company reported better-than-expected quarterly results.  

Revenue in the quarter increased 29% to $8.82 billion and net loss in the quarter shrank to $157 million from $5.9 billion and diluted loss per share fell to 8 cents from $3.03 a year ago.  

Monthly active users in the quarter increased 13% from a year ago to 130 million and completed transactions soared 24% to 2.12 billion. 

The company guided gross booking between $33 billion and $34 billion and adjusted operating earnings between $800 million and $850 million. 

Pfizer Inc increased 1.1% to $39.61 after the company reported a sharp decline in revenue following the end of Covid-19 revenue. 

Revenue in the first quarter decreased 29% to $18.2 billion from $25.6 billion and net income plunged 30% to $5.5 billion from $7.86 billion and diluted earnings per share fell to 97 cents from $1.37 a year ago. 

The company reiterated its full-year 2023 outlook and forecasted revenue to fall between 29% and 33% or between $67.0 billion and $71.0 billion. 

Excluding Covid-19 products, the company forecasted operating revenue to increase between 7% and 9%. 

Pfizer also confirmed that it has not repurchased any of its shares and the company has no plan to buy back its own shares in the remainder of the year. 

The company still has $3.3 billion available in its stock repurchase program.  

DuPont de Nemours Inc dropped 8% to $63.55 after the company forecasted weaker-than-expected revenue and earnings outlook in the current quarter on the slower than expected recovery in the electronics market. 

Revenue in the first quarter decreased 8% to $3.0 billion from $3.3 billion and net income plunged to $265 million from $508 million and diluted earnings per share dropped to 56 cents from 95 cents a year ago. 

“Due to the delay in electronics recovery,  we are adjusting the high-end of our existing guidance ranges for full year net sales, operating EBITDA and  4  adjusted EPS. 

For the second quarter 2023, we expect similar results to the first quarter as overall market  conditions are anticipated to be generally the same,” said chief financial officer Lori Koch. 

The company estimated second quarter revenue of $3.02 billion and operating earnings of $750 million and adjusted earnings per share of 84 cents. 

For the full-year 2023, the company tightened its revenue range to between $12.3 billion and $12.5 billion and operating earnings range between $3.0 billion and $3.1 billion and adjusted earnings per share between $3.55 and $3.70.    

DuPont announced the acquisition of Spectrum Plastics Group for $1.75 billion from AEA Investors. After-tax, net purchase price is $1.72 billion.  

The net purchase price is 15.6 times of 2023 forecasted EBITDA and 13.2 times including expected $20 million of cost synergies.

BP Plc declined 4.8% to 508.70 pence after the energy company reported a decline in profit driven by lower crude oil and natural gas prices.

The company declared an ordinary share dividend of 61.6 cents per share and announced to purchase $1.75 billion of its shares prior to the release of its second quarter results around the first week in July.

The company also slowed its pace of stock repurchase to $4.0 billion, at the lower end of its $14 billion to $18 billion in capital expenditure in 2023, based on the $60 a barrel Brent crude price forecast.

Net profit attributable to shareholders declined to $8.2 billion from $10.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022 but ahead of $20.4 billion in losses a year ago.  

Chegg Inc plunged 46% to $9.47 after the company reported a decline in revenue and the company said AI tools are negatively impacting new subscribers growth. 

Revenue in the first quarter declined 7% to $187.6 million and net income plunged to $2.2 million from $5.7 million and diluted earnings per share fell to 2 cents from 4 cents a year ago. 

"In the first part of the year, we saw no noticeable impact from ChatGPT on our new account growth and we were meeting expectations on new sign-ups. However, since March we saw a significant spike in student interest in ChatGPT. 

We now believe it’s having an impact on our new customer growth rate," said Dan Rosensweig, chief executive officer and president.