Ten stocks capped off the trading week delivering strong gains, as investors took heart from a flurry of positive corporate developments that bolstered buying appetite. Of the 10, four surged to new record highs.
Notably, the companies bucked a broader market pessimism, with Wall Street’s three major indices finishing in the red, led by Nasdaq losing 1.69 percent, followed by the S&P 500, which declined by 1.07 percent, and the Dow Jones, which dropped by 0.51 percent.
Indices aside, we name the top performers in Friday’s trading and break down the reasons behind their gains.
To come up with the list, we focused on the stocks with a $2 billion market capitalization and 5 million shares in trading volume.
The New York Stock Exchange building. Photo by Дмитрий Трепольский on Pexels
10. GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE)
GE Aerospace rallied for a second day on Friday, jumping 3.95 percent to close at $299.81 apiece as investor sentiment was fueled by Citigroup’s bullish stance in its first coverage about its stock.
In a market report, Citigroup gave GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) a “buy” recommendation with a price target of $386, marking a 28.75 percent upside potential from its latest closing price.
The coverage reflected the investment firm’s confidence in GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) in becoming a trillion-dollar company in as little as five years amid a number of megatrends and opportunities across the commercial aerospace, defense, shipbuilding, and space sectors.
In other news, GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) said that its Marine Engines & Systems unit recently secured eight orders of LM2500 marine gas turbine engines for two of the US Navy’s Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers.
The destroyers—USS Intrepid (DDG 145) and USS Robert Kerrey (DDG 146)—are both powered by four LM2500 engines, providing the proven propulsion power that has made the Arleigh Burke class the backbone of the US Navy’s surface fleet for over three decades.
“The LM2500 has been the engine of choice for the US Navy’s destroyer fleet for decades, and we’re proud to continue that legacy as the Navy builds toward its 390-ship goal,” said GE Aerospace (NYSE:GE) Vice President for Sales and Marketing Mark Musheno.
“GE Aerospace is committed to ramping up production capacity to meet the Navy’s expanding fleet requirements while maintaining the quality and reliability that have made the LM2500 the most trusted marine gas turbine in naval service worldwide,” he added.
9. The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS)
The Mosaic Company extended gains to a second day on Friday, adding 4.05 percent to finish at $26.21 apiece as investors resorted to bargain-hunting following a drop earlier in the week, dampened by an analyst’s price target downgrade for its stock.
On Wednesday, RBC issued a new price target of $27 for The Mosaic Company’s (NYSE:MOS) stock, lower than the $30 previously, on expectations of a weaker fertilizer supply next year.
Additionally, RBC said that softer prices and lower input costs are set to challenge the phosphate business segment, which The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) is currently implementing improvements in.
For its part, Zacks Research upgraded The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) to “hold” from a “strong sell’ previously.
In other news, common shareholders as of the December 4 record date are set to receive $0.22 cash dividends on December 18. This followed the results of its earnings performance in the third quarter of the year, where it expanded its net income by 237 percent to $411 million from only $122 million in the same period last year, on the back of a $308 million mark-to-market unrealized gain on the value of Ma’aden shares worth approximately $1.9 billion.
Net sales also increased by 25 percent to $3.5 billion from $2.8 billion year-on-year, on the back of higher sales across its fertilizer, phosphate, and potash segments.
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