Walmart Slumps, Dayforce Rises, Cracker Barrell Sinks

On this edition of Stock Movers:

- Walmart (WMT) shares fell after profit missed expectations for the first time in three years, overshadowing higher sales. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 68 cents for the second quarter, six cents lower than what Wall Street expected. The world’s largest retailer cited a rise in insurance claims, legal charges and restructuring costs as factors weighing down its profit. Walmart shares dropped as much as 4.4% in New York trading at 9:31 a.m., their biggest decline since May 15. Through Wednesday’s close, the stock had gained nearly 14% this year, outpacing the 8.7% advance of the S&P 500 Index.

- Dayforce (DAY) shares are up after Thoma Bravo agreed to buy the human resources software provider in what is set to become one of the investment firm’s largest-ever deals. The private equity giant will pay $70 a share in cash for Minneapolis-based Dayforce, according to a statement Thursday. The price represents a roughly 32% premium to Dayforce’s stock price on Aug. 15, the last trading session before Bloomberg News reported that a deal was in the works. The deal values Dayforce at $12.3 billion including debt and includes a significant minority investment from a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Dayforce shares rose as much as 3.9% in premarket trading in New York on Thursday to hit the offer price, before giving up some of the gains. The stock closed the previous session roughly 3% higher at $67.40, giving the company a market value of about $10.8 billion.

- The slide in Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc.'s (CBRL) shares deepened today as a conservative backlash to the restaurant chain’s logo change intensified across social media. Shares of the Southern-inspired casual dining operator, known for its homestyle cooking, fell as much as 15% as negative posts, including one from Donald Trump Jr. after the market close the prior session, flooded X. The notable drop follows Cracker Barrel’s announcement Tuesday that it would be removing the image of an old man leaning against a barrel from its logo, leaving just the words Cracker Barrel. The stock pared losses to end the session down 7.2% — the fifth consecutive day of declines.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News, The.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves in
the stock market. Harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let's take a look at some of the stocks on
the move today.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
Joining us now is Bloomberg News Cross Asset reporter Emily Graffeo.
You're looking at shares of Walmart. We've been talking about
this all day. What's going on there?

Speaker 4 (00:26):
I know, I hope you guys aren't like sick of
talking about Walmart. Maybe everyone on Wall Street is, But yeah,
I mean, this was really the big earnings of potentially
the week.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Walmart ticker WMT.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
The stock drop, that's kind of why I think it
grabbed everyone's attention today. It was the second worst performer
in the S and P five hundred. It was the
biggest INJRO day drop since March. In the shares they
actually closed down about five percent. It was a rare
profit miss, so they missed expectations on profit for the
first time.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
In three years.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
And then the big question with Walmart was like, we
have all these tariffs potentially, how is that going to
trickle down to retail companies? And actually it seems like
the company itself is absorbing the tariffs more than them
passing them on to the consumer. So if you read
our Bloomberg News story, it says tariffs have started to
materialize at Walmart in higher prices, but the impact has

(01:24):
been limited. Prices rose one percent in the US during
the quarter, So you would have expected if the company
was really passing the cost of tariffs onto consumers, you'd
say a much bigger number than just one percent.

Speaker 5 (01:36):
Okay, So that's Walmart for US. Day Force is also
a company that you're watching.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
Day Force is a human resources software provider like back
office for I guess every business.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
The ticker is day A.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
It's also in the S and P five hundred. It
was Oh is it getting no?

Speaker 5 (01:55):
I mean if it gets bought out and taken private?

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:58):
Oh? Yes, that will be it will be gone. It
will be gone. And that's exactly why it was up.
It was up two percent today. It's up about thirty
percent over the last four days. And this is all
on deal news. Toma Bravo will take them private for
seven dollars a share in cash. And then we also
got news that now Goldman Sachs is getting involved. They
committed a six billion dollar debt financing package to support

(02:21):
the acquisition. So this is just like very big names
on Wall Street.

Speaker 5 (02:26):
What I think is so interesting about this is our
Bloomberg News team with the scoop earlier this week about this,
and that's the day that you saw the stock close
twenty six percent higher. Tuesday, it fell, then Wednesday it
was up by three percent. Today by two point four percent,
So a lot of the upside was earlier in the
week before that. Thoma Brov actually talked about that.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yes, yes, so the price the seventy dollars a sharing
cash represents a roughly thirty two percent premium to the
price before Bloomberg News had scooped that this deal was
in the works.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
I want to get to what has been a really
interesting story that we've been talking about today. Yes, Cracker Barrel,
tell us what's going on there and why we saw
the client sitting and.

Speaker 5 (03:09):
No, we are not bored of talking about talking about
I still don't get it.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
I saw this story and I was like, oh, like,
BusinessWeek is going to love this. Cracker Barrel ticker CBRL.
It was down as much as fifteen percent today close
the day down seven percent. It's because they're redesigning their logo.
And by the way, the stock has fallen for the
last five days.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
They're redesigning their logo logo. They're like stripping.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
Out every element that made cracker barrel that kind of
old farmhouse esthetic and they just made it this very
modernized cracker barrel logo. It's just like the text and
like a yellow circle. Now this has become politicized.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Donald J. Trump weighed in on x about the changes, but.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
I don't true Junior or Donald or the asident.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
I'm sorry, sorry, Donald Trump Junior, excuse me, Oh my gosh.
Maybe the president will also weigh in, and so, of
course it's now becoming politicized.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
But we don't even need to focus on that. I
think we should focus on the fact that they remodeled,
they changed their logo.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
People on social media are really upset, and the shareholders
obviously don't.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Like the change.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
I mean, I think people get so used to just
having something that they're used to, right, So I think
maybe that's not Everyone loves change, and we're seeing that
reflected here in the trade.

Speaker 5 (04:28):
But it doesn't affect the company's stock price. I mean,
there are we talked about this, people are going, well,
Michael Halen and Bloomberg Intelligence has a note oubt and
he says, it's not like what happened with Nanheuser Busch
and the marketing stuff earlier, Like this is not going
to affect the company for an extended period of time.
But still the stock has been taken ahead.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
The commentary has also been that they feel as though
this may appeal to younger audiences, ditching the rock and chair.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
Okay, so it's just a logo.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
People a logo are very upset.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
No, but it's tim It's not just the load remodeled
their interiors about a year ago.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
So this is part of a broader rebrand.

Speaker 4 (05:02):
And you look at what people are saying on Reddit
on our Cracker Barrel, because Cracker Barrel has really intense
stands saying what in the world is this They took
They basically took down all the farmhouse choch keys.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
They added these like bright fluorescent lights that I mean,
I wouldn't want to go in there.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
Someone else said, I've been going to Cracker Barrel for
forty nine years since i was a kid with my grandmother.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
And like it's just the redesign they don't approve with that.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
The Stock Movers Report from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with
us throughout the day for the latest roundup of companies
making news on Wall Street and for the latest market
moving headlines. Listen to Bloomberg Radio Live, catch us on YouTube,
Bloomberg dot com, and on Applecarplay and Android Auto with
the Bloomberg Business app.