-- Technology stocks were rising pre-bell Wednesday, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) marginally advancing and the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) up 1.8%.
Seagate Technology (STX) stock was up more than 15% after the company posted higher fiscal Q3 non-GAAP earnings and revenue, and issued fiscal Q4 outlook above analysts' estimates.
Acceleware (AXE.V) on Wednesday said it entered into a second farm-in agreement for one section of land, with an option for an additional half-section of land, targeting the Mannville Stack oil formation in Saskatchewan.The company now has a total of two and one-half sections, including option lands, of Lloydminster-area Mannville stack land in its portfolio through farm-in agreements, where it will use its RF XL 2.0 technology to use radio waves to remotely heat and liquefy heavy oil so it can be pumped to the surface."The agreement represents another step in the company's stated strategy to build a portfolio of heavy oil production rights and a runway of field opportunities for RF XL 2.0 deployment, while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital deployment," said the company.Under the agreement, the company will have the opportunity to drill an RF XL 2.0 horizontal well pair in exchange for a gross overriding royalty."Upon payout of Acceleware's invested capital, the farmors may elect to convert the royalty into a 40% working interest," said the company.The agreement also provides the potential to drill additional well pairs on the property, added the company."This agreement builds on the company's earlier Mannville-focused farm-in and reflects continued progress in assembling field-ready opportunities," said chief executive Geoff Clark. "These farm-in agreements, and others that we are pursuing, are an excellent opportunity to show the potential of RF XL 2.0 while generating near-term revenue and cash flow from the production of heavy oil."The company's shares last traded April 27, closing at $0.12 on the TSX Venture Exchange.
General Dynamics (GD) increased its full-year earnings outlook after reporting fiscal first-quarter results above Wall Street's estimates, sending the company's shares surging Wednesday.The aerospace and defense company now projects earnings at $16.45 to $16.55 a share for fiscal 2026, up from its previous guidance range of $16.10 to $16.20, President Danny Deep said on an earnings conference call, according to a FactSet transcript. The current consensus on FactSet is for $16.30."Given our strong start, we thought it would be prudent to revise our EPS guidance to reflect our performance thus far," Deep told analysts. "Looking at the year from a quarterly perspective, the first and fourth quarters would represent the high points, favoring the fourth quarter."EPS climbed to $4.10 for the quarter through April 5 from $3.66 a year earlier, topping the Street's view for $3.68. Revenue improved 10% to $13.48 billion, exceeding the average analyst estimate on FactSet of $12.70 billion.General Dynamics' shares were up 11% in Wednesday afternoon trade. The stock has increased 2.9% so far this year.Marine systems business revenue jumped 21% year over year to $4.34 billion in the quarter, while the aerospace division saw an 8.4% gain. Sales in the combat systems and technologies units rose more than 4% each.Orders amounted to $26.6 billion in the quarter on a companywide basis, while total estimated contract value -- the sum of all backlog components -- was $188.4 billion at the end of the quarter. The company said this includes backlog of $130.8 billion.However, General Dynamics saw numerous transactions slow down at the end of the quarter as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, Deep told analysts."We were having a spectacular quarter from an order standpoint across the board here in the US, as well as the Middle East," Deep said. "As the conflict started to take form, we saw some slowing in order intake in the Middle East."Last week, Lockheed Martin (LMT) reported first-quarter results that missed the Street's views, while fellow aerospace and defense companies RTX (RTX) and Northrop Grumman (NOC) delivered beats.Price: $347.32, Change: $+33.64, Percent Change: +10.72%
CFRA, an independent research provider, has providedwith the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:We increase our 12-month target price by $6 to $198, driven by an EV/EBITDA of 8.5x our 2027 EBITDA estimate, which is between NUE's three-year average forward EV/EBITDA of 7.8x and the peers' average of 9.2x. We raise our 2026 EPS estimate by $1.97 to $13.75 and trim 2027 by $0.09 to $13.39. NUE reported strong Q1 results with record steel mill shipments of 7 million tons and a backlog of 4.7 million tonsthe highest since Q2 2021. While management is optimistic about sustained demand from data centers, infrastructure, and the border fence project, we believe current steel pricing dynamics reflect an unsustainable peak. Import penetration has fallen to 15%, aided by aggressive trade enforcement, which has tightened domestic supply and elevated prices. However, we expect competitive pressures to reassert as new capacity starts up in the U.S (including NUE's own West Virginia sheet mill ramping through 2027-2028) adding supply into potentially softer markets. We view the risk/reward as unfavorable at current levels.