Walgreens leadership, Trimble-AGCO deal, Carnival earnings: Trending tickers

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) shares are trading higher on a Bloomberg report that the pharmacy retailer is considering former Cigna executive Tim Wentworth for CEO. Walgreens announced the surprising departure of CEO Rosalind Brewer earlier this month. Analysts at Raymond James upgraded Trimble (TRMBL) shares to "outperform" after the company announced it was selling $2 billion worth of tech assets to AGCO (AGCO). AGCO CEO Eric Hanostia told Yahoo Finance Live that the deal will help build its "mixed-fleet" opportunity. Carnival (CCL) shares traded lower after reporting third quarter results that topped analyst estimates, but fourth quarter guidance disappointed.

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Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: And we start with Walgreens Boots Alliance. The shares higher today following a Bloomberg report that the company is considering a former Cigna Group executive, Tim Wentworth, to be the next CEO. Walgreens has been searching for a new chief after it announced the abrupt departure of Rosalind Brewer from the position earlier this month. And Ros Brewer had really tried to beef up Walgreens, sort of broader health care bona fides to compete against CVS. CVS has been sort of the clear leader in that area. Wentworth, obviously, coming from an insurer, and he had been at Express Scripts as well-- might be the one to help Walgreens further in that direction.

- Yeah, and then Rosalind, so when she departed, of course, that was an abrupt departure. It took a lot of people by surprise. She did try to move them into, as you said, kind of a bigger player in the health care space, acquire the urgent care providers, but that stock, Julie, of course, has been a mess. I mean, it's down about 40% so far this year. But maybe investors taking some page of optimism here. Maybe they get a tested veteran in there into the C-suite, changes some things.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, that seems to be what it is, a little relief there being felt in the shares.

- Yep, for sure. All right, shares of Trimble and AGCO in focus. That's following news that AGCO will acquire an 85% stake in Trimble's agricultural products business. Companies say the joint venture is meant to better serve farmers worldwide with mixed fleet precision agriculture solutions. Trimble also hired today on the back of an upgrade from Raymond James to outperform from market perform. We have the AGCO CEO coming on later, excited about that interview.

Lots of questions for him. What does it mean for competition in the marketplace, I think is a huge one. What's it really mean for farmers? And also his stock, Julie, has not been a performer. It's down about 10% for this year. So also just interesting to get his take on what gets investors excited again about owning that name.

JULIE HYMAN: Right, and the buzzword here is precision agriculture, right, is how can farmers be more efficient with what they are doing. Precision agriculture has a lot to do with using technology in order to get the best yield from farms. And I've spoken to Eric Hansotia, the CEO of AGCO, before. And that's one of the things he's already emphasized. And now this Trimble acquisition of these assets is aimed at further improving that. It's interesting that Trimble itself is rising for a second day after this acquisition.

And Raymond James pointing to what they say is their long-term favorable thesis on the stock and the evolution to a, quote, "more software recurring revenue centric mix." They also talk about less cyclicality for Trimble, which is interesting, because that's also one of the things that AGCO talked about as being a benefit of this deal. So that's something else that we can ask the CEO about.

- Can't wait for that interview. That's a good one.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, should be good. And then another-- speaking of another interview that we're looking ahead to and another mover that we're watching, Carnival shares in the red today after the company reported third quarter earnings. The cruise line topping expectations, but fourth quarter guidance looking like a concern for investors.

The company said it does expect a wider than expected loss of between $0.10 and $0.18 a share in the final quarter of the year, part of that having to do with fuel costs going higher. We've been hearing that a lot from the airlines as well. Obviously, when oil goes up, translates into all kinds of higher costs for companies that depend on the fuel.

- Yeah, remember, this one, too, has been a rocket ship. So a lot of good news was priced in there. But yeah, I mean, it was the guidance, your adjusted EBITDA guidance 800 to 900, and the Street was closer to 950. Challenges like those higher fuel costs for sure weighing on there.