Reddit Stocks: What meme stocks are trending today? – August 30, 2023

US futures

• Dow Jones Industrial Average is flat
• S&P 500 is flat
• Nasdaq 100 is up 0.1%

US futures are treading water today after markets booked their strongest daily gain in almost three months yesterday, lifted by soft jobs data that markets believe could reduce pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep raising interest rates.

Today, we discovered that ADP Employment Change rose 177,000 in August. That eased significantly from the previous (revised) reading of 371,000 and was lower than the 195,000 rise pencilled-in by economists. That should reinforce the hope installed by yesterday’s job figures considering it is the smallest gain seen in five months and suggests the labour market is finally cooling down. That sets a positive tone for stocks ahead of the more closely-watched Non-Farm Payrolls report due out on Friday.

Meanwhile, the second estimate for US GDP growth for the second quarter of 2023 came in at 2.1%. That was slightly higher than the previous reading of 2% but came in lower than the 2.4% increase forecast by economists.

Attention will now turn to PCE index – the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation – due out tomorrow.

Most discussed Reddit stocks

Below is a list of the top 10 most mentioned US stocks on the WallStreetBets thread on Reddit over the last 24 hours, according to data from Quiver Quantitative. Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and other instruments have been excluded:

1. NVIDIA
2. Tesla
3. VinFast
4. C3.ai
5. AMC Entertaintment
6. Cassava Sciences
7. Advanced Micro Devices
8. Apple
9. Marathon Digital
10. Coinbase

Most active US stocks before the bell

Below are the most active stocks with a valuation of at least $500 million before the bell, based on trading data taken from Bloomberg:

1. Better Home & Finance
2. Globalstar
3. Tesla
4. Nikola
5. Palantir
6. Gingko Bioworks
7. NVIDIA
8. Marathon Digital
9. VinFast
10. Lucid Group

US premarket winners and losers

Here are the stocks worth at least $500 million experiencing the sharpest movements in premarket trade, according to data from Bloomberg:

Top US stocks to watch

Let’s have a look at the top stocks to watch today.

Salesforce forecast to deliver record earnings

Salesforce shares are up 0.8% and at a three-week high ahead of quarterly results out after markets close today. Salesforce has made improving profitability a priority and is starting to reap rewards, an aptly timed move considering it is suffering from a slowdown in demand.

Revenue is set to keep growing at a double-digit rate, but this is expected to be the seventh consecutive quarter of slower growth as businesses become more stringent with their spending. However, a sharper focus on the bottom-line is expected to see adjusted EPS jump to a new quarterly record of $1.90 as its adjusted operating margin – a key metric – is expected to improve to around 28.2% compared to just 19.9% the year before.

You can find all the consensus numbers to look out for and our technical analysis on the stock and the Dow Jones Industrial Average in our Salesforce Q2 Earnings Preview.

NVIDIA stock continues to linger below all-time highs

NVIDIA shares are up 0.9% at $491.76. The stock gained ground yesterday amid fresh signs of strong demand for its AI chips from the likes of Tesla, and it now sits less than 4% off the all-time highs it managed to briefly hit after its blowout results last week before it suffered a pullback.

Daiwa Capital Markets become the latest broker to raise its target price on NVIDIA this morning, lifting it to $535 from $475. Wall Street is about as bullish as it gets right now, with the average target price of over 50 brokers that cover the chipmaker having risen to over $620 today from less than $440 just three months ago! Some have a target as high as $1,100!

The good news is that this dynamic means NVIDIA’s valuation multiple has tumbled to its lowest level in 2023 after estimates were raised following the recent blowout quarter while its share price has failed to gain ground. Its forward price-to-earnings ratio now stands at less than 36x. That is still a big 43% premium to the industry average but is down from the lofty numbers we have seen in recent months. A week ago, before the latest results, it stood around 46x and it hit as high as 64x back in May.

Tesla stock hits 4-week high

Tesla shares are down 0.3% before the bell at $256.50 after popping 7.7% yesterday – marking its strongest daily gain in five months – to hit its highest level in almost four weeks. Buying activity was extremely strong yesterday but found some resistance upon hitting the 50-day moving average at $257.

It found support from the broader market rally we saw yesterday, while investors and traders are also busy discussing its AI potential after analysts at Oppenheimer said it has launched a new AI computing cluster this week that will utilise 10,000 of NVIDIA’s advanced AI chips to make it the world’s third most powerful supercomputer. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has previously said Tesla would undergo its own AI-moment in the not too distant future and has set the bar high for its long-awaited full self-driving technology.

VinFast stock remains highly volatile

VinFast shares are up another 16% this morning, after suffering its biggest daily fall yesterday since going public after slumping 44% and erasing over $80 billion off its lofty valuation.

The small and loss-making Vietnamese electric vehicle company is still the world’s third most valuable automaker despite the massive drop after rallying to unsustainable levels following its listing through a SPAC earlier this month, surging to as high as $93 a share to give it a valuation of over $190 billion! Today, its valuation sits at around $107 billion, meaning it is still worth more than the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Ferrari, Porsche, Ford and General Motors. Only Tesla and Toyota are worth more!

Importantly, Vietnam’s richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong, still owns virtually all of the company and it has a tiny free float, which makes VinFast highly vulnerable to sharp and volatile price movements. This helps explain why the company has been on such a rollercoaster ride in its first two weeks as a publicly-listed company.

Chinese ADRs are under pressure

Chinese companies listed on US exchanges such as Alibaba, JD.com, Bilibili, NetEase and Baidu are all down as much as 2.7% today, with electric vehicle stocks NIO, XPeng and Li Auto trading 1.7% to 4% lower before the bell after being hit by growing concerns over China’s property market and remain cautious about geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Concerns about the property market have been brewing for months and markets are bracing for results out from the country’s largest property developer, Country Garden Holdings, later today. We already know it has missed debt repayments.

Meanwhile, US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo spooked the markets by saying that US companies had told her China was “uninvestable” because of the ever-changing regulatory environment that has made doing business in the country more risky. She did lift her tone later as she stressed US businesses want to do more business with China.

Apple to unveil iPhone 15 on September 12

Apple shares are up 0.2% after popping to its highest level in almost a month yesterday, when it confirmed it will be holding an event on September 12 that will see it reveal the next iPhone model and a next-generation of watches.

The event could carry even more significance than usual considering iPhone sales, which account for almost half of Apple’s total revenue, have been under pressure this year as demand for new devices wanes and consumers are left with fewer reasons to upgrade. In fact, annual iPhone sales this financial year are expected to suffer their first drop in three years, heightening pressure for the iPhone 15 to revive demand and entice consumers to upgrade or switch from Android.

The most significant upgrades to the iPhone 15 are expected to be made to its Pro models, where demand has been more resilient.

Microsoft: OpenAI to make over $1 billion in sales

Microsoft shares are up 0.3%. OpenAI, the company being backed by Microsoft and behind the hugely successful ChatGPT, is set to report over $1 billion in annual revenue over the next 12 months, according to reports from The Information.

ChatGPT has been at the forefront of the AI industry since it exploded this year and the figure, cited from unnamed sources, suggests it is making over $80 million in sales each month. However, OpenAI is thought to still be in the red and booked a $540 million loss last year, the report said.

HP lowers outlook as slump continues

HP shares are down 8.7% and at their lowest level in almost six months after the company, which makes devices like computers, lowered its full year outlook as the drop in demand for consumer electronics continues to bite.

The company warned it is now anticipating full year adjusted EPS of $3.23 to $3.35, down from its previous target range of $3.30 to $3.50. That came as it reported a 9.9% fall in revenue in the latest quarter, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of year-on-year declines. Adjusted EPS in the quarter fell 17% to $0.86, marking the fourth straight quarter of declines.

Will CrowdStrike deliver record sales?

CrowdStrike has risen over 40% in 2023 as overall demand for cybersecurity remains resilient, allowing the firm to report record sales, earnings and cashflow in the last quarter. Still, the stock is trading at almost half the peak valuation we saw when markets went on an over-zealous buying-spree of tech stocks back in 2021. The stock is up 0.7% before the opening bell today.

This should mark another quarter of progress. Revenue is forecast to rise 55% from last year and hit a new record of $724.9 million. Annual recurring revenue should climb 40% and also hit a new high of $2.98 billion.

The improved billings outlook recently posted by larger rival Palo Alto Networks heightens the pressure for CrowdStrike to provide a bullish tone to show that it is successfully competing against the bigger players. CrowdStrike’s remaining performance obligations should be up around 35%, providing better visibility over future growth than some others in the industry.

Adjusted EPS is seen coming in at $0.56, up 55% from last year but one cent short of the record figure we saw in the previous quarter.

As for the third quarter outlook, analysts are looking for revenue of $774.5 million and a new record adjusted EPS figure of $0.60. CrowdStrike is aiming to deliver annual sales growth of around 35% and a 55% rise in full-year adjusted EPS.

Can Okta keep up the momentum amid slowdown?

Cybersecurity outfit Okta is up 0.3% this morning ahead of second quarter results due out after markets close today.

Okta is forecast to report am 18% year-on-year rise in revenue to $534.6 million, which will continue to be driven by its subscription services. Current remaining performance obligations – representing work it has been paid for but is yet to deliver and used as a barometer for future growth – is seen rising 15% to $1.72 billion, which would mark the sixth consecutive quarter of slower growth. The slowdown is the result of businesses being more stringent with budgets, a longer sales cycle and because it has been increasingly bundling its services into packages.

Adjusted EPS is expected to come in at $0.22, which would be welcomed compared to the $0.10 loss we saw the year before. Okta delivered record cashflow in the previous quarter but markets believe it will actually have burnt through around $31 million in free cashflow in the second.

J&J lowers profit guidance after Kevue spinoff

Johnson & Johnson has updated its financial targets after completing its spinoff of consumer healthcare unit Kenvue, stating it expects to grow annual adjusted EPS by about 12.5% this year.

Kenvue was carved-out and given its own listing earlier this year and Johnson & Johnson has recently completed an exchange offer that allowed shareholders to trade in their J&J shares for stock in Kenvue, which saw strong uptake ad generated over $13 billion for J&J. J&J, which has retained a stake of about 9.5% in Kenvue, will now book its consumer healthcare division as a discontinued operation and book a $20 billion one-off gain in the third quarter.

The result will see J&J target adjusted EPS of $10.00 to $10.10 this year, with sales predicted to grow by about 7% to 8%. That marks a reduction from the EPS range of $10.70 to $10.85 issued back in July. J&J shares are  trading flat today while Kenvue is up 0.6%.

Regional banks may need to raise $70 billion in fresh debt

Larger regional banks including the likes of PNC Financial Services, Fifth Third Bancorp and Citizens Financial Group could be forced to raise up to a combined $70 billion in fresh debt under new proposals outlined by the Federal Deposit Insurance Scheme as it tries to shore-up the industry following the banking crisis we saw earlier this year.

The new rules would apply to all banks with over $100 billion in assets and could require them to raise their long-term debt issuance by about 25%, or $70 billion, the FDIC said. That is yet to be finalised, and could see other rules, such as the need to hold more capital on their balance sheets, introduced. The impact on each individual bank will vary as it will depend on their assets.

Globalstar recruits former Qualcomm execs

Globalstar is up another 12% today and poised to open at a new 2023-high today after markets embraced news that it has appointed Paul Jacobs, the former CEO and executive chairman of giant Qualcomm, as its new chief executive. It has also recruited the former chief technical officer of Qualcomm, Matt Grob.

Markets have welcomed the arrival of some experienced executives, with Jacobs having grown Qualcomm’s revenues from less than $6 billion in 2005 to over $25 billion when he left in 2014, adding about $50 billion in value to Qualcomm’s market cap during that time.

Gingko Bioworks partners with Google Cloud

Gingko Bioworks is down 0.5% after popping over 24% yesterday to hit its highest level since early August, driven by news it has signed a partnership with Google Cloud that will allow it to deploy AI tools for biology and biosecurity.

The five-year partnership will see Gingko develop new large language models that will run on Google Cloud, which will also become Gingko’s primary cloud provider.

Sunrun selloff yields “attractive valuation”

Sunrun shares are up 3.8% at $15.75 and at their highest level in over two weeks after being upgraded to Buy by Citigroup, which said headwinds have now been priced-in following the selloff we have seen over the past six weeks.

Sunrun has slumped over 30% in the past six weeks and has recently rebounded from three-and-a-half year lows, which Citi said gives it an “attractive valuation”. Citi cut its price target on Sunrun to $21 from $25.

Cassava Sciences stock hits August-high

Cassava Sciences is up 0.5% after climbing to its highest level in four weeks yesterday, when it booked its strongest daily gain in over three months!

There has been no news out from the biopharmaceutical company but interest among retailer traders has risen this week alongside trading volumes. Notably, Cassava Sciences is among those that are heavily shorted, with short interest standing at over 31% of its free float, according to Fintel. That could be drawing attention from retail traders seeking the next short-squeeze, with the stock up almost 27% since hitting its lowest level in over a year just over a week ago.

Will AMC stock hit all-time lows?

AMC shares are up 0.6% at $10.98 as it hopes to end a recent selloff. The cinema chain and meme stock favourite has lost 70% of its value in the last seven sessions alone, marking one of the worst periods on record for the share price. The selloff has been prompted by a reverse stock split and the conversion of APE preferred shares, which diluted existing investors and sparked fears they could be watered-down even more in the future as AMC still needs to raise cash to fund its recovery from the pandemic.

The stock will set new all-time lows if it sinks below $10.35. The RSI is now in deep oversold territory, but the surge in trading volumes during the selloff suggests sellers remain firmly in charge and that AMC is losing its shine among retail traders.

Chewy earnings to come under pressure

Chewy shares are up 1% ahead of quarterly results out from the pet supply store after the closing bell today.

The company is forecast to report a 13.7% year-on-year rise in sales to $2.76 billion in the second quarter, but adjusted Ebitda is forecast to drop 15% to $70.6 million as it starts to come up against some very tough comparatives, which are likely to see the bottom-line continue to contract over the coming quarters. Customer numbers have been under pressure of late, but Chewy has done well to significantly increase the amount spent by those users that have remained loyal (albeit helped by inflation).

Coinbase & Marathon Digital get boost from bitcoin

Coinbase and Marathon Digital are trading down 1% and 2.9%, respectively, before the bell today. Both were among cryptocurrency stocks that gained ground yesterday after Bitcoin jumped over 6% to hit a two-week high as markets became more hopeful that we will get a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

A federal court said the Securities & Exchange Commission’s decision to block an effort to launch a Bitcoin ETF by Grayscale Investments was arbitrary and that it had contradicted itself by approving funds that own bitcoin futures but not allowing an ETF. The path to Bitcoin ETFs is not clear, but a major hurdle has been cleared and lifted confidence. However, we are seeing bitcoin give back some of those strong gains today.

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