Southwest Airlines (LUV) shares never got the clearance for take-off today. After posting mixed quarterly results, the stock was down more than 7%. Earnings of $0.93 per share surpassed analysts' predictions of $0.88, but revenue of $5.14 billion was slightly before Wall Street's forecast.
CEO Gary Kelly spoke about the "interesting quarter" on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Wednesday. "We had a technology outage in July, that was anticipated by everybody, but we came in right in-line with what we expected," Kelly said. "We have tough year-over-year comparisons, so without the technology outage our unit revenues were down in the 3.5% range, and it looks like those trends were going to continue here in the fourth quarter."
Meanwhile, Boeing (BA) shares lifted off in midday trading, by 3.5%, following solid third-quarter results. Earnings of $2.81 per share beat analysts' expectations for $2.62. Revenue of $23.9 billion fell from $25.8 billion a year prior, but still topped Wall Street expectations for $23.6 billion. The aerospace company also updated its full-year guidance. Boeing now expects to report EPS between $6.80 and $7 and revenue in the range of $93.5 billion and $95.5 billion, increases from its prior outlook.
But TheStreet's Jim Cramer says the headline numbers are not the real story and that the company needs to watch its widebody aircraft production.
Shares of Vonage Holdings (VG) jumped 10% following strong quarterly results. EPS of $0.08 on revenue of $248.4 million beat consensus forecasts. The Vonage Business segment, which includes its recent Nexmo acquisition, saw revenue soar 86% year over year to $106 million, of which Nexmo contributed $24 million.
"The Nexmo acquisition should help accelerate growth, and in our view, makes the company quite inexpensive versus peers," wrote Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan in a research note today. "Long term, we believe the company is uniquely positioned to integrate voice, CRM and Productivity tools in the Cloud."
Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) shares were still under pressure, down more than 9% during Wednesday's trading session, after reporting disappointing quarterly results. The company posted EPS of $0.56, which was well below Wall Street's forecast for $1.56. Third-quarter sales also fell 21.9%, which missed analysts' predictions for a drop of 18.9%.
Finally, Tesla Motors (TSLA) was down slightly ahead of its 2016 third-quarter financial results, set to be released after the market close. Analysts are anticipating the electric carmaker to report revenue of $2.34 billion and a loss of $0.74 per share, according to FactSet. Tesla has also reported that it delivered 24,500 vehicles for the period, which put the company back on track to hit its target of 50,000 deliveries in the second half of the year. Still, TheStreet's Eric Jhonsa says questions linger about the role discounts may have played in driving sales.
TheStreet's Eric Jhonsa and Lou Whiteman will be live blogging Tesla's earnings report and conference call on Wednesday afternoon. Check out our home page for details.
