Amgen Stock Was a Winner in the Third Quarter. These Solar Shares Weren’t.

Top Performers

Amgen

(ticker: AMGN) was the best-performing stock in the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

 

in the third quarter, rising 21%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Shares of the biotechnology company received a boost after

Amgen

posted better-than-expected second-quarter earnings and revenue. The company also increased its forecast for revenue for 2023.

Arvind Sood, vice president of investor relations, said during the company’s earnings call back in August that Amgen “continued down the path of strong unit volume growth during the quarter that led to an improved outlook for the rest of the year.”

Then on Sept. 1, the Federal Trade Commission reached a deal with Amgen that approved the company’s $27.8 billion acquisition of

Horizon Therapeutics

(HZNP), with restrictions meant to limit the possibility of reduced competition to the biopharmaceutical industry.

Zions Bancorp

(ZION) was the top performer in the

S&P 500,

rising 30%. Second-quarter earnings at the lender beat Wall Street estimates as deposits rebounded. The rebound came after regional banks earlier in the year took a hit following the shutdowns of Silicon Valley Bank and

Signature Bank
.

Citi analyst Keith Horowitz this week initiated coverage of Zions with a Buy rating. Horowitz said he expects the stock will benefit from a potential third-quarter outperformance to net interest income relative to expectations, plus subsequent positive revisions to the bank’s forecasts to that profitability metric.

Morgan Stanley analyst Manan Gosalia downgraded shares of Zions to Underweight from Equal Weight on Wednesday, but wrote in a research note that “after a 70%+ rally from May lows, ZION is now trading in-line with peers after having consistently been at a discount for the majority of 2023.”

American depositary receipts of

PDD Holdings

(PDD) led the

Nasdaq 100

in the quarter with a gain of 42%. The owner of online marketplace Temu reported second-quarter earnings of $1.44 a share on revenue of $7.2 billion, while Wall Street had expected $1 a share from revenue of $5.95 billion.

Shares of the Chinese company also benefited from a Bloomberg report in September that said Beijing was considering relaxing rules that limit foreign ownership in domestic publicly traded companies.

Bottom Performers

Walgreens Boots Alliance

(WBA) fell 22% in the third quarter and was the worst-performing stock in the Dow. The stock has declined 41% this year.

The retail pharmacy chain slashed its full-year profit outlook in June after it said demand for Covid-19 tests had dropped.

The stock took in a hit in July after Walgreens announced the departure of Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe. It fell further after Walgreens announced Sept. 1, that Chief Executive Rosalind Brewer was stepping down from the role she held since 2021.

SolarEdge Technologies

(SEDG) was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 during the quarter, tumbling 52%. Like other solar panel makers, the company has been hit as rising interest rates have made homeowners hesitate to borrow for expensive projects.

SolarEdge said in August that it expected third-quarter revenue of between $880 million and $920 million, lower than Wall Street estimates at the time of $1.05 billion.

Enphase Energy

(ENPH), a maker of microinverters that convert sunlight hitting solar panels into usable power, also got clobbered. It was the Nasdaq 100’s worst stock, falling 28%.

The company issued third-quarter revenue guidance that was below Wall Street consensus as solar-power demand declined.

Seaport Research Partners analyst Tom Curran, however, recently upgraded shares of Enphase to Buy from Neutral. He said the solar industry should begin to recover in 2024 as interest rates cool, suggesting that investors should get in on the stock early following a year of declines “to catch the sunrise.”

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com