Tesla, Paychex, Mullen Auto: Trending tickers
Tesla (TSLA) stock is trending after it was reported that CEO of Ark Invest Cathie Wood is buying shares of the company for the first time in months. In addition, Wood is expected to speak to Elon Musk on X spaces Thursday afternoon.
Shares of Mullen Automotive (MULN) are rising after delivering an additional 38 class 3 vehicles to Randy Marion Automotive. The company has been down almost 100% year-to-date and recently announced a reverse stock split.
Paychex (PAYX) stock is dipping after reporting second-quarter results, missing Wall Street expectations on revenue. The company claims this was due to economic headwinds and revised its full year guide for 2024 for 10-11% adjusted EPS growth.
Yahoo Finance Anchors Josh Lipton and Julie Hyman break down the latest with these companies.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Video Transcript
JOSH LIPTON: We are going to look at some of today's trending tickers. Let's start with Tesla capturing the attention of Cathie Wood as ARK Invest purchases Tesla stock for the first time in months. Shares of the EV maker are trading higher in today's trading session. Now, you have spoken to Cathie Wood about her--
JULIE HYMAN: I have. She had been selling Tesla shares throughout the year, but she was pretty firm that it was not because she had any fundamental qualms about Tesla as a company. It was more just, sort of, portfolio construction and that she was moving things around, lightening in some of her outperformers, rebalancing her portfolio. So that was basically what was happening.
Also, I should mention, apparently, Cathie is set to speak to Elon Musk today on a X Spaces. It sounds so weird. Twitter, two syllables was a lot easier.
JOSH LIPTON: I would Tune up that one, yeah.
JULIE HYMAN: Twitter X Spaces, whatever it is, that's happening today at 5:00 PM. So that should be an interesting conversation between the two of them. You know, but I guess it's a little bit of a vote of confidence here that she's coming back in, or whether it's portfolio construction changes again, or if it's just her doubling down on her fundamental case for Tesla. But we were just talking about superlatives and Tesla as a stock, sort of, over the past few years has been lagging the S&P 500. There was a fun feature in Bloomberg that, kind of--
JOSH LIPTON: That was a great piece.
JULIE HYMAN: --looked at how Tesla has been doing.
JOSH LIPTON: Well, yeah, so I think their point was three years ago, it was this week, Tesla starts trading in the SPX, the S&P 500. And over that period, as they note, the SPX has basically trounced Tesla. I mean, it's a lackluster three-year return. Now, it's about, as always, it's about time frame and starting point.
JULIE HYMAN: Yes, sure.
JOSH LIPTON: I mean, the fourth century, as Bloomberg of course rightfully points out, that shares had soared in 2020.
JULIE HYMAN: Yes, exactly. And ending here up a little bit, but we'll see if it has an outperformance to the S&P over the long return.
JOSH LIPTON: And this year, up about 100%.
JULIE HYMAN: Yes, so as you say, timing is important. It depends on when you bought it if you bought it. Let's talk about a much smaller electric vehicle manufacturer, Mullen Automotive rising after delivering 38 class III vehicles to Randy Marion Automotive Group. The vehicles apparently have been invoiced for $2.5 million and investors perhaps optimistic that this marks a step forward in Mullen's production ramp up.
Mullen has been on my mind and it was on our trending ticker page today ever since we talked to the StockTwits CEO earlier in the week. And he said this stock has been the top trending ticker for them for the whole year. The stock has almost lost all of its value this year.
JOSH LIPTON: Yeah, it's crushed.
JULIE HYMAN: They just announced a reverse stock split and the CEO came out in a letter and tried to defend it. But basically, it was to keep it from being delisted that typically that kind of move is made. But people are really interested in this company.
JOSH LIPTON: And remember, short-seller Hindenburg Research?
JULIE HYMAN: Yes.
JOSH LIPTON: It was last year they called the company an EV hustle. Stock was valued at around 600, right? So that is-- you would call that a successful short, Julie, I think.
JULIE HYMAN: You would. So maybe that's why it trends, right? And it is our top trending ticker right now. Maybe that's why it's trends because people are shorting it, I guess, some people?
JOSH LIPTON: Or it's kind of like you just like to watch the carnage. Maybe that's what they like to talk about.
JULIE HYMAN: Maybe, yeah. Yeah, maybe that.
JOSH LIPTON: Yeah, like you have to always stop the car accident.
JULIE HYMAN: Yes, rubbernecking. Yeah, exactly.
JOSH LIPTON: Finally, Paychex shares take a hit as second quarter revenue misses Estimates. Payroll services provider sees a slowdown in quarterly revenue growth. So this one, we're going to call it mixed results, Julie.
Sounds like Q2 profit beat. They reported 108 versus 107 on the bottom line. It was the top line they did just mix expectations.
CEO was talking here about how the macro environment, he used the word stable for small and midsize businesses. But he also did point out, listen, to some of the headwinds. He knows his customers are facing challenges.
He talked about both the cost and access to growth capital, finding talent. And then looking ahead for fiscal '24, they did revise up their guide. They're now looking for adjusted EPS growth, 10% to 11%, but they did get whacked today.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, some of the analysts here are saying that it was mixed second quarter revenue performance, revenue missed, earnings per share beat that they were focusing on here. Paychex, obviously, is going to be a company that we're going to watch closely as we watch the unemployment rate next year from a macro perspective. And then from a micro perspective, it's going to be important for what this company is going to do because it tracks pretty closely to what's going on in the broader economy and the labor market.
JOSH LIPTON: Yep, good one to watch.
