Wednesday’s Pre-Market Look: Stocks In The News Before The Open

ByGary Kaltbaum

Amgen (AMGN)— Amgen raised its quarterly dividend by 15 percent to $1.15 per share. The biotech company’s dividend will be paid on March 8 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 15.

Twitter (TWTR) — Twitter’s Chief Technology Officer Adam Messinger is leaving the company after five years. The former Oracle vice president had served as CTO since March of 2013.

Microsoft (MSFT)— Microsoft was awarded a $927 million information technology support contract by the Department of Defense.

Amazon.com (AMZN)— Amazon was hit by a strike at its German warehouses in a dispute over pay and working conditions. The strike is scheduled to run until Dec. 24. Germany represents Amazon’s second largest market after the U.S., and the company employs 11,000 full-time warehouse workers, as well as thousands of seasonal employees.

Goldman Sachs (GS) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight’ at Atlantic Securities with a 12-month target price of $240.

JetBlue Airways (JBLU) was downgraded to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ at Raymond James.

Sunoco LP (SUN) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Neutral’ at Credit Suisse with a target price of $31.

Goldcorp (GG) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at TD Securities with a 12-month target price of $18.50.

Texas Instruments (TXN) was rated a new ‘Positive’ at Susquehanna with a 12-month target price of $85.

Fluor (FLR) gained 1% in after-hours trading after it was awarded a contract by Novo Nordisk to build a $2 billion manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina.

BB&T (BBT) boosted its 2016/17 share buyback program by $200 million.

Nike (NKE ) climbed 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 50 cents, higher than consensus of 43 cents. Under Armour (UAA -0.33%) also gained 1% on the news.

FedEx (FDX) dropped 3% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 adjusted EPS of $2.80, weaker than consensus of $2.91.

DexCom (DXCM) gained almost 2% in after-hours trading after the FDA approved its G5 Mobile CGM system as the first and only continuous glucose monitoring system that can be used without finger pricking to test glucose levels.

Steelcase (SCS) slumped 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q3 revenue of $786.5 million, less than consensus of $787 million, and then lowered guidance on Q4 revenue to $735 million-$760 million, below consensus of $762 million.

Sources: FoxBusiness, Barchart, CNBC, Bloomberg, Reuters