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Top Midday Stories: Apple Tops Fiscal Q2 EPS, Revenue Estimates, Raises Dividend; Pentagon Strikes Deals With 7 AI Companies

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-- All three major US stock indexes were up in late-morning trading Friday, as The Street looks to close out a tumultuous week of trading on a high note.

In company news, Apple (AAPL) reported fiscal Q2 earnings late Thursday of $2.01 per diluted share, up from $1.65 a year earlier and above the FactSet consensus of $1.95. Fiscal Q2 revenue was $111.18 billion, up from $95.36 billion a year ago and above the FactSet consensus of $109.46 billion. Apple's board raised its quarterly dividend by a cent to $0.27 per share, payable May 14 to stockholders of record as of May 11. The board also authorized an additional program to repurchase up to $100 billion of common shares. Apple shares were up 4.5% around midday.

The US Department of Defense said Friday it has entered into agreements with seven of the largest artificial intelligence companies to deploy their AI capabilities on its classified networks. The Pentagon said it reached deals with Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google, Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon's (AMZN) Amazon Web Services, SpaceX, OpenAI and Reflection. Alphabet's Class C and Class A shares were down 0.1% and up 0.1%, respectively. Shares of Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon were down 0.3%, up 1.7% and up 1.7%, respectively.

Exxon Mobil (XOM) reported Q1 adjusted earnings Friday of $1.16 per diluted share, down from $1.76 a year earlier but above the FactSet consensus of $0.98. First-quarter revenue and other income was $85.14 billion, up from $83.13 billion a year ago and above the FactSet consensus estimate of $81.13 billion. Exxon Mobil shares were down 0.8%.

Chevron (CVX) reported Q1 adjusted earnings Friday of $1.41 per diluted share, down from $2.18 a year earlier but above the FactSet consensus of $0.97. First-quarter revenue and other income was $48.61 billion, up from $47.61 billion a year ago but below the FactSet consensus of $51.86 billion. Chevron shares were down 1.2%.

SanDisk (SNDK) reported fiscal Q3 adjusted earnings late Thursday of $23.41 per diluted share, up from a loss of $0.30 a year earlier and above the FactSet consensus of $14.62. Fiscal Q3 revenue was $5.95 billion, up from $1.70 billion a year ago and above the FactSet consensus of $4.72 billion. For fiscal Q4, the company said it expects adjusted EPS of $30 to $33 on revenue of $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expect $23.38 and $6.62 billion, respectively. SanDisk shares were down 0.5%.

Price: $284.89, Change: $+13.54, Percent Change: +4.99%

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