Trending tickers: Tesla, Meta, Spotify and Reckitt Benckiser

Tesla (TSLA)

Tesla shares surged nearly 10% in premarket trading, despite a revenue miss for the first quarter of 2024, a steep decline in profits, and a recall of its most recently released car.

The electric vehicle (EV) maker said on Tuesday it had made $1.13bn (£910m) over the first three months of the year, compared with $2.51bn a year earlier.

The company said it would “accelerate the launch of new models… including more affordable models” with production starting next year.

Read more: FTSE 100 LIVE: European stocks higher as London hits fresh intraday record high

Tesla announced it plans to cut more than 6,000 jobs at its sites in Texas and California.

Facebook owner Meta will report first-quarter financial results after the US market close this Wednesday.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect that Meta earned $4.32 per share during the first quarter on $36.1bn in revenue, compared to $2.20 per share a year earlier on $28.6bn in revenue.

Watch: Tesla, visa, mattel report earnings

In February, Meta posted adjusted fourth-quarter earnings per share of $5.33 on revenue of $40.1bn. Wall Street had expected adjusted earnings of $4.94 per share and revenue of $39bn.

Meta stock is up over 130% in the past year, over 39% since the start of the year, driven by the artificial intelligence boom.

Spotify (SPOT)

Spotify Technology reported fiscal first quarter earnings on Tuesday that beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines.

The music streaming company reported net income of €197m on €3.6bn in revenue in the three months to the end of March. In the same period a year ago, it lost €225m on €3bn in revenue.

Much of Spotify's profits were driven by its podcast business. Gross margins rose to 27.6% in the quarter, up from 25.2% a year earlier.

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Spotify has raised prices to boost revenue and experimented with different subscription plans.

Spotify currently has 615 million users, with the number of premium subscribers rising by 14% in the first quarter to 239 million, in line with estimates.

Reckitt Benckiser (RKT.L)

The consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser led gains on the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) on Wednesday, after it beat analysts’ forecasts.

Increased sales volumes of brands like Dettol, Durex and Finish helped it improve revenues by 1.5% to £3.7bn during the first three months of the year, which was higher than the 0.9% analysts had expected.

Reckitt’s like-for-like sales in the past three months rose 1.5%, while analysts had expected 0.9% growth.

Chief executive Kris Licht said:” We continue to benefit from carryover pricing and consumers trading up to our premium innovations.”

Like-for-like sales at its nutrition arm fell by 9.9% to £591m, which more than offset growth of 7.1% at its hygiene arm and 1% at its health arm.

Read more: FTSE 100: Lloyds sees profits drop by 28%

Concerns about its baby formula business has put it under the spotlight. Shares have plunged by more than a quarter since an Illinois jury ruled Reckitt had failed to warn about the risks of necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) from its milk-based Enfamil Premature 24 product.

Adam Vettese, analyst at the investment platform eToro, said: “To say Reckitt Benckiser has had a tough year would be a significant understatement with the price plummeting almost a third since February off the back of poor Q4 results and litigation facing their baby formula brand. With that said, many shareholders may well have been bracing for impact this morning but in fact the results offer a timely reprieve.”

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