Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Hormel Foods — Shares popped 13.3% after the food processing company beat fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue expectations. It posted earnings of 41 cents per share, excluding items, on revenue of $3 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet had called for earnings of 34 cents per share on $2.91 billion in revenue. The company said it expects continued growth in its food service business and improvement in its international segment. Monster Beverage — Shares rose about 5% after the energy drink maker posted strong January sales and gross margin expansion, despite reporting in-line adjusted earnings and a slight revenue miss for the fourth quarter, per FactSet. Morgan Stanley and RBC raised their price targets for the stock on Thursday. C3.ai — The artificial intelligence software stock advanced more than 24% after C3.ai posted a narrower-than-expected adjusted loss per share of 13 cents. The company’s revenue also beat Wall Street’s expectations. Chemours — Shares fell more than 33% after the chemicals company placed its chief executive, chief financial officer and principal accounting officer on leave and said it was conducting an internal review to look into potential “material weaknesses” in its financial reporting. The company also delayed its fourth-quarter earnings report. Okta — Shares rallied 20% after Bank of America Securities double upgraded the identity management company to buy from underperform. The bank believes Okta’s full-year guidance is overly conservative and could drive upward estimate revisions through the year. Bank of America also increased its price target to $135 from $64, suggesting nearly 55% upside from Wednesday’s close. Birkenstock — Shares of Birkenstock, a newly public footwear maker, jumped more than 6% after the company reported a 22% year-on-year jump in revenue fueled by higher pricing and rising U.S. demand. Best Buy — Shares gained 3% after the consumer electronics retailer reported quarterly results that beat analysts’ expectations. Best Buy reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $2.72 per share, greater than the $2.52 LSEG estimate. Revenue of $14.65 billion also exceeded consensus estimates of $14.56 billion. Snowflake — Shares plunged nearly 20% after the cloud data company posted disappointing product revenue guidance for the first quarter and announced that Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman is retiring. Morgan Stanley also downgraded the cloud stock to equal weight. Paramount Global — Shares climbed nearly 3% after the media company posted a surprise quarterly profit . Paramount’s streaming platform Paramount+ reached 67.5 million subscribers during the latest quarter, a net increase of 4.1 million. The company did miss revenue expectations for the fourth quarter, however. Pure Storage — Shares jumped more than 22% after the data storage company posted stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and upbeat first-quarter guidance. The company’s earnings came out at 50 cents per share, after adjustments, for the period, and its revenue was $790 million. AMC Entertainment Holdings — Shares declined nearly 12% after the movie theater operator posted a wider loss than expected. However, fourth-quarter revenue of $1.1 billion did top LSEG estimates of $1.05 billion. Figs — Shares slid more than 16% after the apparel company posted disappointing fourth-quarter sales and said its chief financial officer is leaving in April. Figs’ revenue was $145 million, while analysts surveyed by LSEG had predicted $150 million. Celsius Holdings — The energy drink maker climbed nearly 19%, and hit an all-time high on the heels of a stronger-than-expected earnings report. Celsius posted 17 cents in earnings per share on $347.4 million in revenue for the fourth quarter. Analysts polled by LSEG predicted earnings of 15 cents per share and revenue of $331.5 million. Duolingo — Shares jumped as much as 22% after the educational technology firm exceeded fourth-quarter estimates and also gave strong first-quarter and full-year revenue forecasts. Duolingo posted earnings of 26 cents per share on revenue of $151 million, which came out above analysts’ expectations of 17 cents per share on revenue of $148 million, according to LSEG. — CNBC’s Alex Harring, Yun Li and Michelle Fox Theobald contributed reporting.
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