Saudi Aramco (2222.SR)
Oil giant Saudi Aramco said it plans to pay $31 billion (£24.7 billion) in dividends despite a fall in first-quarter profit as the Gulf kingdom continued to cut production.
The Saudi state-owned company reported first-quarter net profit of 102.27 billion riyals (£27.7 billion), down 14.5% from 119.54 billion riyals in the same period in 2023.
Aramco said the decline was mainly due to lower crude oil sales.
The world’s largest oil exporter currently produces about 9 million barrels per day (bpd), well below its production capacity of 12 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ members agreed to voluntary production cuts, on top of the 2 million barrels per day cut the organization agreed to in order to drive up prices.
read more: BP’s profits fall to $2.7 billion as oil prices fall
The company announced a base dividend totaling $20.3 billion in the first quarter and a performance-based dividend of $10.8 billion in the second quarter.
The Saudi government, which directly owns about 82.2% of Aramco, relies heavily on the company’s payments, including royalties and taxes.
Nvidia (NVDA)
Nvidia was trending higher in pre-market trading as fellow tech giants mentioned increasing investments in AI infrastructure in their earnings calls.
Nvidia’s H100 GPU costs more than $40,000 and enables AI technologies that power ChatGPT, Anthropic, and other generative AI platforms.
Elon Musk said during Tesla’s (TSLA) earnings call that the electric car maker will more than double its H100 GPU chips by the end of the year.
The partnership with Mercedes-Benz (MBG.SG) is expected to strengthen Nvidia’s presence in self-driving cars and other automotive electronics.
The company plans to release a next-generation AI chip later this year (though it hasn’t been reported yet).
Palantir (PLTR)
Palantir shares fell as much as 9% in after-hours trading after the defense technology company reported weaker-than-expected guidance.
The company, which builds big data and artificial intelligence software for governments and businesses, reported first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $0.08, in line with expectations. He made $634 million in sales, slightly more than his expected $615.8 million.
read more: FTSE 100 LIVE: European stocks rise as earnings season arrives
Adjusted operating profit was $226 million, well above Palantir’s estimate of $196 million to $200 million.
Looking ahead, Palantir expects its current quarter revenue to fall between $649 million and $653 million, compared to LSEG’s forecast of $653 million. The company expected full-year sales of $2.68 billion to $2.69 billion, below the LSEG consensus estimate of $2.71 billion.
The stock is up 47% since the beginning of the year.
Disney (DIS)
Disney is scheduled to report second-quarter results before the U.S. bell this Tuesday, the first since the media giant avoided a high-profile proxy battle with activist investor Nelson Peltz. This will be a financial report.
Wall Street experts expect the company to post a profit of around 3.6 billion pounds in the six months to March, thanks in part to its cost-cutting programme. This would be the best performance in six years.
For the second quarter of 2023, the company is expected to report earnings per share of $1.10 on revenue of $22.12 billion ($21.82 billion), according to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The biggest focus will once again be on increasing the number of subscribers to the company’s flagship streaming service, Disney+.
Disney+ is expected to have 4.71 million subscribers, down 4.0 million in Q2 2023.
Disney stock has been on a tear since the beginning of the year, rising about 30% compared to the S&P 500 Index (^GSPC), which rose 10% over the same period.
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