Stocks rose on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.47%) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.04%) indexes each finishing higher by more than 0.5%.
Today's stock market
|
Index |
Percentage Change |
Point Change |
|---|---|---|
|
Dow |
0.69% |
141.82 |
|
S&P 500 |
0.68% |
16.01 |
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Financial stocks saw some of the heaviest trading, and the popular Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF 0.58%) beat the broader market by logging a 0.9% increase. An uptick in gold prices, meanwhile, helped VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 1.01%) rise nearly 1%.
Image source: Getty Images.
As for individual stocks, Foot Locker (FL 1.51%) and Autodesk (ADSK 0.32%) made big moves following the companies' quarterly earnings report announcements.
Foot Locker sees lower profits ahead
Foot Locker shares sank nearly 17% after the retailer posted surprisingly weak first-quarter earnings results. Comparable-store sales inched higher by 0.5% to mark a sharp slowdown from the 5% increase it booked in the prior quarter. Revenue gains sped up late in the quarter as delayed income tax refunds began arriving. However, that boost couldn't completely make up for the lost sales. "The slow start we experienced in February," CEO Richard Johnson said in a press release, "was unfortunately not fully offset by much stronger sales in March and April."
Image source: Getty Images.
Foot Locker also endured a dip in profitability that suggests it struggled to move some inventory through its system. Gross profit margin fell by a full percentage point to 34% of sales.
Johnson and his team cited "tremendous appetite for athletic footwear and apparel" that should see the company through rough patches like this over the long term. Still, the business may struggle to hit management's target of mid-single-digit comps growth in 2017.
Autodesk boosts subscriber rolls
Shares of computer-aided design software specialist Autodesk jumped 15% to a new high following strong fiscal first-quarter results that management paired with a bullish outlook for the remainder of the year. The company booked a 5% decrease in sales, but that decline was actually a good sign since it was powered by customers enthusiastically signing up for subscription contracts. Autodesk is nearly done transitioning its business to a recurring, term-based model, having added 233,000 new customers to its subscription plan.
"We're executing well and making significant progress on our business model transition as evidenced by our first quarter results," co-CEO Andrew Anagnost said in a press release. "Broad-based strength across all subscription types and geographies led to another record quarter for total subscription additions and a fantastic start of the new fiscal year," co-CEO Amar Hanspal stated.
The improving demand led management to issue a bullish forecast for the coming quarter that calls for revenue of $488 million to $500 million. Consensus estimates, meanwhile, were aiming for just $488 million of sales. Over the full year, the company believes it will grow its recurring revenue base by 24% to 26% as its subscriber figures climb by between 600,000 and 650,000. That should put the company in a better position to begin generating positive net income for the first time in three fiscal years.
