Premarket movers: FICO sinks while Summit, AAR and CarMax rise

Investing.com - U.S. stock index futures hovered around the flatline on Tuesday after soaring bond yields dented Wall Street in the prior session, as investors looked ahead to a fresh batch of economic data.

By 06:07 ET, Dow futures had fallen 40 points, or 0.1%, while S&P 500 futures were mostly unchanged. Nasdaq 100 futures had risen 32 points, or 0.1%.

Here are some of the biggest premarket U.S. stock movers today:

Summit Therapeutics surged 17.1% after AstraZeneca agreed to make a $2 billion strategic equity investment in the biopharmaceutical company.

The investment will support a collaboration combining Summit’s flagship bispecific antibody, ivonescimab, with AstraZeneca’s oncology pipeline. Under the agreement, AstraZeneca will acquire convertible preferred shares at a price equivalent to $18.36 per common share, representing a 10% premium to Summit’s five-day volume-weighted average price.

Fair Isaac tumbled 15% after the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced changes to mortgage pricing that will introduce competition to FICO’s longstanding role in the mortgage credit-scoring market.

FHFA Director Bill Pulte said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will consolidate their separate pricing matrices into a single unified grid. The new framework will incorporate VantageScore alongside the traditional FICO Classic score, raising concerns about the potential impact on demand for FICO’s scoring products.

CarMax rose 3.7% in premarket trading after the used-car retailer reported fiscal second-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations on both revenue and earnings.

CarMax reported earnings of $1.16 per share for the quarter ended Aug. 31, compared with analyst expectations of 68 cents. Revenue reached $7.88 billion, topping forecasts of about $7.06 billion.

Total net revenue increased 19.5% to $7.9 billion, while combined retail and wholesale unit sales rose 14.7% to 387,735. Comparable-store used-unit sales increased 13%.

AAR Corp. surged 6.9% after the aviation aftermarket specialist announced an agreement to acquire a 65% controlling interest in MRO Holdings at an implied enterprise value of $4 billion.

The transaction comes alongside a strong fiscal first-quarter earnings report. AAR reported adjusted diluted EPS of $1.49, above the analyst consensus of $1.31, while revenue of $918 million topped expectations by about $38 million and increased 24% year over year.

Netflix rose 1.4% after Deutsche Bank upgraded the streaming giant to Buy from Hold and set a $95 price target.

The upgrade comes after a sharp multi-month decline that has left Netflix near the lower end of its 52-week range. Deutsche Bank’s move contrasts with recent caution from other analysts, including HSBC, which downgraded the stock to Hold last week citing weakening subscriber engagement, and Wells Fargo, which issued a sell-equivalent rating earlier this month.

AbCellera Biologics gained 2.1% after JPMorgan initiated coverage of the biotech with an Overweight rating and a $17 price target.

The initiation comes as AbCellera transitions from a platform-focused antibody discovery business toward a clinical-stage company with a developing pipeline and upcoming potential catalysts. The shares touched a new 52-week high of $14.23 in premarket trading.

Q32 Bio rose 9.4% ahead of a key clinical data presentation at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress in Vienna, which begins Sept. 30.

The company said new 36-week results, along with initial data from a 16-week off-drug period from Part B of its SIGNAL-AA trial, will be presented. The study is evaluating bempikibart in patients with severe or very severe alopecia areata, giving investors a near-term clinical catalyst to watch.

Bloomin’ Brands climbed 2.7% after JPMorgan upgraded the casual dining operator to Neutral from Underweight and more than doubled its price target to $13 from $6.

The upgrade followed a private meeting between JPMorgan analysts and executives from Bloomin’ Brands and Outback Steakhouse. The analysts highlighted signs of improvement at Outback and noted that the chain’s average unit volume of about $4.1 million leaves room to close the gap with stronger competitors in the casual steakhouse segment.

Original Article

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