Equities dithered Thursday as the investors took profits in the financial services sector, which soared during the past two sessions. The S&P 500 lost a mere 0.02% today while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 0.13%. The Nasdaq Composite cobbled together a gain of 0.14%.
Economic data out Thursday showed falling jobless claims, rising pending home sales and declining orders for business equipment.
Although stocks mostly did a whole lot of nothing today, Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR), Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF) and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) delivered stellar gains.
Dollar Tree, Inc. (DLTR)
Shares of dollar retailer Dollar Tree jumped 12.8% on more than quintuple the average daily volume after the company said it earned 89 cents a share on sales of $5.09 billion in the first quarter. Analysts expected DLTR to earned 81 cents per share on sales of $5.1 billion.
For the current quarter, DLTR expects to earn 66 cents to 72 cents per share on sales of $5.03 billion to $5.12 billion. Analysts are expecting DLTR on sales of $5.09 billion.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF)
Movie studio Lions Gate Entertainment surged 7.7% on more than five times the usual turnover after the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter results topped estimates. LGF earned $10.9 million, or 7 cents a share, in the first quarter on revenue of $791.2 million. Analysts expected LGF to lose 2 cents a share on revenue of $738.7 million.
LGF said strength in its television unit, which includes the Netflix series “Orange is the new Black,” helped mitigate some of the
.
Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)
Netflix rose 2.6% Thursday following reports that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) attempted to acquire cable giant Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) last year.
Wall Street is concluding NFLX could be a takeover target for AAPL, a frequently mentioned theory in the past.
Citing a Financial Times report, notes “Apple would be more likely to go after a streaming company such as Netflix than a pure content player.”
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
