Stocks: Dow leader P&G rises, ASML falls, SoFi soars after bank charter approval

Yahoo Finance's Jared Blikre reports on three trending tickers: P&G, ASML, and SoFi.

Video Transcript

KARINA MITCHELL: Here with some of the biggest market movers, let's bring in our Yahoo Finance's Jared Blikre, who's been watching it all. Jared, I want to start with P&G, it is a Dow leader with better than expected results and a positive outlook.

JARED BLIKRE: That's right. Usually, we don't kick off the hour with a consumer staple but we will in this case. And let's go to the YFi Interactive, I'm going to sort by performance and you can see, indeed, Procter & Gamble is the Dow leader. And let's just get a two-year look so we can see what it's done throughout the pandemic because this is the biggest day for it, stock is up 3.7% as you can see on your screen, but that's enough to be the most since I believe April of 2020.

So let's get to some of the analyst commentary, I think the key line here is that the company was able to maintain their EPS forecasts, that means that they're not getting squeezed on margins, and they have some pricing power. So here's Jefferies, they are recommending the stock with a buy, price target of $185. You can see that's about $23 above the current price. There was some concern from investors ahead of the results at the tough cost-- that the tough cost environment that would cause the company to trim its EPS outlook, however, it didn't happen.

Instead, PG remarkably reaffirmed its EPS guidance of 3% to 6% growth, which now reflects $1.10 per share headwind from commodities, freight, and FX versus prior and initial guidance of $0.90 to $0.70 respectively. So really absorbing some of those higher costs there. Also saying-- this is Jefferies again saying, PG's portfolio momentum was evident in the strong second quarter of results. We believe PG's higher core sales reaffirmed EPS guide should be good enough to drive shares higher today.

Also, Truist recommends the security with a hold price target of $145, that's a bit lower than the current price. And they are saying the sales boost was largely expected, didn't expect pricing actions to be fully offsetting the margin pressure. So net-net another strong quarter for the company, though share price reflects business momentum. So a couple of different outlooks there, this is a consumer staple, you don't expect them to necessarily be leaders but in this defensive environment guess what? Consumer staples, that is the number one sector today.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, want to talk some chip stocks now. And I know that shares of the Dutch chipmaker ASML, wow, that's a lot of red on that screen, they're under some pressure today. I mean, I know they landed a pretty big contract from Intel recently but I guess that's not helping the stock any.

JARED BLIKRE: That's right. It's important to note that this is a chip company but they make the materials and the devices that actually manufacture. So Intel is a company-- is a customer of theirs, Taiwan Semi is a huge customer, so is Samsung. So they supply the parts for some of the biggest chipmakers on Earth. And therefore, they're a pretty important bellwether.

So let's go through what Wells Fargo is saying, and I'll get some other commentary as well. They're saying while the first-quarter outlook comes as somewhat of a disappointment surprise or disappointing surprise, our initial view of the ASML print is positive. This is a messy print but the company's strong growth outlook is clear.

Evercore, which recommends it with an outperform, they're saying, this is a very mixed quarter with fast shipments a clear source of volatility, the first-quarter outlook is a bust. But this is entirely a timing-related issue. The firm remains positive on the stock. But you can see this is a company it's not one of the high flyers like in Nvidia, different kind of company. So apples to oranges but it has been flagging sideways I'd say over the last probably six months or so and just kind of looking for support at that 700 level, guys.

KARINA MITCHELL: OK. And then finally, Jared, SOFI shares soaring today after being granted a bank charter.

JARED BLIKRE: That's right. This comes from the OCC and the Federal Reserve. And this is a big deal, this means that the company is going to be able to tap the liquidity at the Fed. And if there's ever another emergency and those emergency lending facilities are open, they can benefit from those Federal Reserve spigots. Let me put a max chart on here, for SOFI. This is a company that has had a little bit of trouble after some really initial enthusiasm around their IPO a couple of years ago, it really faded and you can see they've traded basically sideways ever since. And just came down, tested that low that we saw close to their IPO day. And they've rebounded slightly.

So here's what SOFI-- here's what Jefferies is saying about the move, they recommend the stock with a buy, price target of $26, that's almost twice the current price. They're saying the approval is a clear positive catalyst and demonstrates the confidence of the OCC and Federal Reserve in their business model. The change will improve SOFI's flexibility to hold [? off its ?] on their balance sheet when appropriate, improve its cost of funds through acceptance of deposits, and allow SOFI the opportunity to offer more products to its customer base. So for a personal finance company, kind of the Holy Grail here, finally getting that banking charter, guys.