Investing.com -- U.S. stocks performed positively again this week as investors assessed a flood of corporate earnings and the latest news regarding tariffs and trade talks.
Here are Investing.com’s stocks of the week.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Microsoft was one of many tech giants that reported earnings this week, with the company topping profit and revenue expectations.
MSFT shares jumped more than 7% on Thursday.
Following the results, analysts at JPMorgan raised the bank’s target for the stock to $475 from $465.
“While MSFT continues to encounter some AI capacity constraints and scale motion speed bumps modestly restricting Azure growth, we see it planting the longer-term seeds for success across Security, Teams, Power Apps and now the forward-looking OpenAI / ChatGPT investments,” the firm wrote in a note to clients.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Meta also reported strong results this week, beating top and bottom line expectations.
Furthermore, the social media giant revealed plans to boost its capital expenditures this year to between $64 billion and $72 billion to increase its AI capacity.
“CEO Zuckerberg remains focused on the AI roadmap, raising elevated capex to accelerate development and bring more compute online,” Piper Sandler analysts said in a note reacting to the company’s results.
Apple
Apple beat consensus earnings and revenue expectations. However, while the iPhone maker authorized an additional $100 billion for its stock buyback program, it was down $10 billion from the same time last year.
Meanwhile, CEO Tim Cook said tariffs could add around $900 million in costs this quarter as the company shifts its supply chain to minimize the impact of the trade war.
“Given the tariff uncertainty, the company provided a limited framework for the June qtr,” UBS said in a note to clients. “Specifically, the company guided June rev growth of ‘low single to mid-single digits,’ roughly 100bps below our expectations.”
“The company also disclosed they did build some component inventory by increasing purchase obligations to mitigate cost headwinds from tariffs,” added the bank.
At the time of writing, Apple shares (NASDAQ:AAPL) are down more than 4% on Friday, in reaction to the earnings release on Thursday after the close.
Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY)
It was a disappointing week for Eli Lilly shareholders, with the stock plunging more than 11% on Thursday. However, it has clawed back some of those losses on Friday, currently up 3.6%.
Even so, the pharmaceutical giant’s lackluster earnings and guidance weighed significantly on the shares.
UBS commented that a “solid fundamental 1Q25 performance from LLY” was overshadowed by increasing concerns over pricing of the GLP-1 class, lower expectations from the company for orfo obesity, the withdrawal of tirzepatide’s HFpEF indication, and a Tech-on, Healthcare-off rotation.
Furthermore, the bank highlighted the announcement from Novo that CVS Caremark will prioritize Wegovy ahead of Zepbound on its formularies.
Even so, UBS analysts added that while they understand some of the concerns, they feel the 11% stock price decline on Thursday was an overreaction.
Hims & Hers
Hims & Hers Health shares closed over 23% higher on Tuesday after the telehealth group announced a "long-term collaboration" with Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) to offer the Danish firm’s blockbuster Wegovy obesity drug on its platform.
The company said Americans will have access to a bundled offering that includes all dose strengths of Wegovy.
In a note to clients after the announcement, TD Cowen said: “The partnership came as a surprise to us, but it is important for the platform as we think the branded GLP-1s at ~$1,800 vs. the average list price at ~$1,000+, and Liraglutide at $299 were not compelling options to consumers.”