Mastercard reported fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday morning.The company posted fourth-quarter net income of $2.8 billion, or $2.97 a share, compared with $2.5 billion, or $2.62 a share, in the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, Mastercard MA, +1.05% earned $3.18 a share, whereas it earned $2.65 a share on the metric a year before. Analysts were looking for $3.08 a share.Mastercard’s revenue increased to $6.5 billion from $5.8 billion and matched the FactSet consensus view. The company saw a 10% in ...

Biogen Inc. BIIB, -0.18% said Wednesday that it will halt the development and commercialization of its Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, which drew intense scrutiny of its U.S. regulatory approval process due to concerns about whether its benefits outweighed its risks. The drugmaker said it will continue to advance Leqembi, the Alzheimer’s treatment granted full approval last year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and will accelerate development of other potential new treatments. The decision to discontinue ...

Shares of Boeing Co. BA, -2.31% edged 0.2% higher in premarket trading Wednesday, after the aerospace and defense giant reported fourth-quarter results that beat expectations, amid strength in its commercial airplanes business. The company did not provide a 2024 outlook. Net losses narrowed to $2.22 billion, or $3.67 a share, from $4.94 billion, or $8.30 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, such as pension-related costs, core per-share losses of 47 cents beat the FactSet loss cons ...

Boston Scientific Corp.’s stock BSX, +0.18% jumped 5.8% early Wednesday, after it beat estimates for the fourth quarter and offered upbeat guidance for 2024. The Marlborough, Mass.-based medical technology company posted net income of $504 million, or 34 cents a share, for the quarter, up from $126 million, or 9 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding special items, the company had EPS of 55 cents, ahead of the 51 cent FactSet consensus. Sales rose 14.9% to $3.725 billion, well ahead of the $3 ...

The fast-paced growth of the generative artificial intelligence (AI) sector has put it on course to start consuming the same amount of electricity each year by 2027 as was used by the entirety of Spain in 2022, new modeling by Morgan Stanley shows. The rapid expansion of the Generative AI industry is set to see its power usage grow at rates of 70% each year, from under 15 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2023 to heights of 224 TWh by 2027 – in sums close to the 230 TWh used by all of Spain throughout 2022. Morgan St ...

Novo Nordisk on Wednesday said its fourth-quarter profit surged by nearly two-thirds, driven by the popularity of its weight-loss drugs that have made it Europe’s largest company.Novo Nordisk NVO, said its profit rose 62% to 21.96 billion kroner ($3.19 billion), as sales climbed 37% to 65.86 billion kroner. Its operating profit came in 5% ahead of a company-compiled consensus, while sales were 4% ahead of estimates.Novo Nordisk shares NOVO.B, +1.54% rose 2% in early Copenhagen trade, and the stock has soare ...

Walmart Inc. shares rose 1% in the extended session Tuesday after the retail giant announced a 3-for-1 stock split. The decision is part of Walmart’s WMT, +0.33% “ongoing review of optimal trading and spread levels and its desire for its associates to feel that purchasing shares is easily within reach,” the company said. As of late Tuesday, Walmart’s stock ranked as the 175th-highest in price, and was the 17th-largest Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA component. Based the new split-adjusted price, it would ...

A Delaware judge late Tuesday voided Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk’s $56 billion compensation package, siding with the shareholder plaintiff and calling the process to arrive at that eye-watering number “deeply flawed.” “Musk had extensive ties with the persons tasked with negotiating on Tesla’s behalf” and the package’s working group included people “beholden to Musk,” Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick wrote. The judge also called the package, granted some five years ago and, ...

Global snacks giant Mondelez International Inc. late Tuesday called for slower growth this year, hedging that its outlook comes amid “greater-than-usual volatility as a result of geopolitical uncertainty.”Mondelez MDLZ, +0.82% said it expects net revenue growth between 3% and 5% for 2024; the maker of Oreos, Ritz crackers and other popular snack and candy brands grew slightly more than 14% last year. Mondelez earned $950 million, or 70 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $585 million, or 42 ...

Videogame maker Electronic Arts Inc. saw a modest uptick in gaming demand during the holiday season, helped by gains in its “EA Sports FC” soccer franchise, but signaled a slowdown in a key demand metric for its fourth quarter. Executives said they expected fiscal fourth-quarter net bookings, a gauge of physical and digital sales, of between $1.625 billion and $1.925 billion. EA EA, -0.74%, when it reported fourth-quarter results last year, said net bookings were $1.946 billion, results that were boosted by ...