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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Check out the companies making headlines midday Thursday:
General Electric — GE rose 2.8 percent in trading after CEO Larry Culp expressed optimism about the company's struggling power business bouncing back in 2020 and 2021. While the company's 2019 outlook was worse than analysts expected, Culp's first forecast gave shareholders hope that GE's fortunes have begun turning around.
Facebook — Facebook shares dropped about 2 percent by midday Thursday after a widespread outage continued to affect millions of users across its platforms. A Facebook status page for developers listed the outage as lasting 22 hours Thursday at 10:30 am ET. The New York Times also reported that federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigations into data deals the company stuck with some of the globe's largest technology companies.
Snap — Shares of social media company Snap rallied more than 10 percent Thursday after one longtime skeptic upgraded the stock and told clients that it's set for outperformance thanks to better advertising sales. BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield now recommends investors buy the beat-up equity and thinks that the media sharing platform could see its shares soar 50 percent over the next 12 months.
Dollar General — The discount retailer fell more than 7 percent Thursday after reporting quarterly profits that missed Wall Street estimates. Dollar General also warned shareholders of lower-than-expected same-store sales growth in 2019.
Apple — Shares rose 0.7 percent after Cowen initiated coverage on the tech giant with an outperform rating and $220 12-month price target, which would represent a gain of more than 20 percent. Cowen said the iPhone segment makes Apple more like a safe bond than a stock and the mature business offers investors a stable outlook of future cash flow for the next five years.
Tailored Brands — Shares of Tailored Brands fell 24 percent after the company reported mixed fourth-quarter earnings. The retail company's same-store sales were down in the fourth-quarter, a trend which continued into the first-quarter of 2019. The company reported losses of 28 cents per share and revenues of $786 million. The company also reported a weak guidance for the first-quarter of 2019.
Take-Two —Shares of Take-Two Interactive fell 4 percent after Sony denied speculation that it was looking to acquire the videogame maker.
Genesco —Shares of Genesco fell 5.4 percent after the company reported lower-than-expected earnings. The company reported earnings of $2.18 per share, 15 cents lower than expected. The specialty retail company adjusted its 2020 fiscal guidance to $3.35-$3.75 from $3.91. The company missed revenue and comparable sales estimates.
—CNBC's Yun Li, Michael Sheetz and Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.
