Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Moderna — The biotechnology firm rose nearly 11% after it said it agreed to pay up to $2.25 billion to settle a lawsuit with Biopharma Corp. and Genevant Sciencesa over a Covid vaccine patent. Ross Stores — Shares popped 7% after the off-price retailer reported better-than-expected fourth quarter financial results that showed its sales are rising. The company’s earnings came in at $2.00 per share, topping analysts’ consensus estimate of $1.9, per FactSet. It also brought in $6.64 billion in revenue, well above the $6.42 billion expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Ross Stores’ sales rose 12.2% to $6.64 billion year over year. CrowdStrike Holdings — Shares rose roughly 1% after the cybersecurity firm issued strong forward guidance for the first quarter and full year. The company expects to notch earnings of between $1.06 and $1.07 per share excluding some items on revenue of $1.36 – $1.364 billion in the first quarter. That’s largely above analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.35 billion in revenue and $1.06 earnings per share, per FactSet. For the full year, CrowdStrike expects to bring in earnings of $4.78 – $4.90 per share excluding some items versus a consensus of $4.80. Crypto stocks — Crypto companies’ shares advanced as bitcoin rose nearly 4% to above the $70,000 level for the first time in more than two weeks. Coinbase was up about 5%, while Strategy and Gemini Space Station rose 6% and nearly 3%, respectively. Abercrombie & Fitch — Shares edged down more than 2% after the apparel retailer reported mixed fourth-quarter results. The company posted earnings of $3.68 per share, excluding some items, versus the $3.57 per share expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Its revenue was in line with analysts’ estimate at $1.67 billion. Abercrombie & Fitch also issued lackluster forward guidance, seeing first-quarter earnings between $1.20 and $1.30 per share, well below analyst expectations of $1.45 per share. The firm also projected lower-than-expected revenue growth. Box — The company, a content management provider, beat fourth-quarter earnings and revenue expectations and gave strong guidance for the current quarterly period. Box reported earnings of 49 cents per share, on an adjusted basis, and revenue of $306 million for the fourth quarter. Analysts polled by LSEG expected fourth-quarter earnings of 34 cents per share on $304 million in revenue. Shares advanced nearly 5%. GitLab — The software stock dipped nearly 9% after GitLab’s fiscal 2027 guidance came out lower than was expected. The company guided its fiscal year revenue to between $1.099 billion and $1.118 billion, compared with the $1.12 billion LSEG estimate. Fiscal year adjusted earnings ranging should range between 76 cents and 80 cents per share, falling short of the $1.05 per share estimate. — CNBC’s Pia Singh contributed reporting.
