Stocks On The Move: WOOF, SEEL, PLUG
3:16 pm Wednesday, August 24th, 2022
While Americans may love their furry friends, that sentiment failed to deliver for Petco (NASDAQ:WOOF) and its second-quarter earnings report, sending WOOF stock plunging Wednesday morning. Shares slipped 6% earlier today before extending losses to about 8% in the early afternoon. Petco disappointed Wall Street, missing expectations for the top and bottom lines. Adding insult to injury, management cut its full-year outlook. For Q2, Petco posted net income of $14.35 million, or 5 cents per share. This figure contrasted sharply and unfavorably with the year-ago quarter’s result of $75.11 million, or 28 cents per share. In addition, Petco’s adjusted per-share earnings came out to 19 cents, below FactSet’s consensus target of 22 cents.
Psychedelics stocks, like Seelos Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SEEL), Scisparc (NASDAQ:SPRC) and Bright Minds Biosciences (NASDAQ:DRUG), are taking off today. This morning, it was announced that the Michael J. Fox Foundation selected Seelos for a grant to assist in the company’s gene therapy candidate for Parkinson’s disease (PD), SLS-004. The foundation is the largest nonprofit funder for PD research and has contributed more than $1.5 billion since its inception. PD is the world’s second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder, and there are currently no options on the market to cure or prevent the disease. Seelos’ SLS-004 utilizes “CRISPR-dCas9 gene editing to modulate the expression of the SNCA gene.” The expression is believed to be a significant risk factor for PD.
Today, investors are intensely focusing in on hydrogen stocks. A range of hydrogen-related companies are surging, with Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) and FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ:FCEL) each gaining around 10% at their intraday highs. A number of catalysts appear to be driving these outsized moves in hydrogen stocks. Notably, a potentially significant deal between Canada and Germany, which involves the shipping of green hydrogen to Europe’s biggest economy, has investors excited. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed a non-binding partnership with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday. This deal is expected to commence in 2025, with a five-year window of commitment.
