Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Estee Lauder — The beauty company slipped nearly 2% after Bank of America downgraded the stock, citing headwinds in its China market. Softening U.S. demand is also weighing upon shares, the firm added. Applied Materials — The semiconductor equipment company’s shares dipped 1.8% despite posting better-than-expected third-quarter earnings. Applied Materials earned $2.12 per share, excluding items, on $6.78 billion in revenue for the period, while analysts polled by LSEG forecasted $2.02 per share in earnings and $6.67 billion in revenue. JD.com — Shares of the Chinese e-commerce group added 3% after reporting a second-quarter revenue beat, driven by price cuts that attracted conscious consumers. JD.com’s second-quarter profit rose 73.7% to 9.36 yuan per share, excluding items, while analysts polled by LSEG expected 6.07 yuan per share. Microchip Technology — Shares rose 2.4%. Piper Sandler upgraded the semiconductor stock to overweight from neutral, saying the shares are poised to surge more than 20% on “numerous growth levers.” Amcor — Shares of the packaging company dipped 3% after disclosing that sales declined more than expected in the June quarter. Amcor reported $3.54 billion in sales for the quarter, below the $3.57 billion expected by analysts, according to StreetAccount. Bayer — Bayer shares jumped more than 11% after the German life sciences company said it won a legal victory over claims that exposure to its Bayer’s Roundup weed and grass killer led to cancer, and that the company violated state law by failing to add a cancer warning to the Roundup label. H & R Block — Shares of the tax services company popped 8.4% after it announced dividend hike and $1.5 billion buyback. H & R Block also exceeded earnings expectations and forecasted fiscal-year results above expectations. The company earned an adjusted $1.89 per share on $1.06 billion in revenue during the fiscal fourth quarter, higher than the expected adjusted earnings of $1.74 per share on $1.03 billion in revenue, according to FactSet. Coherent — The electronic manufacturing stock gained 3.1% after its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings topped expectations. Coherent earned 61 cents per share, excluding items, on $1.31 billion in revenue for the quarter, while analysts polled by FactSet called for 60 cents a share and $1.28 billion, respectively. — CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Sarah Min and Hakyung Kim contributed reporting.
