Markets

Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Deere, Chewy, Dropbox & more

John Deere & Co. wheel loaders sit outside at Martin Equipment in Rock Island, Illinois.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading on Friday:

Deere — Shares of Deere popped 8.7% after the tractor-maker reported better-than-expected results for its fiscal first quarter. The company reported $1.63 in adjusted earnings per share and $6.53 billion of revenue for the quarter, topping analyst expectations of $1.25 in earnings per share and $6.409 billion of revenue, according to Refinitiv. CEO John May said the results "reflected early signs of stabilization in the U.S. farm sector."

T-Mobile — Shares of the mobile carrier fell 0.75% in midday trading after announcing in a joint statement with Sprint that they've agreed to give Deutsche Telekom a higher ownership stake in their new combined company. SoftBank, which owns the more than 80% of Sprint, will see an exchange ratio of 11 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile share, the companies said.

Dropbox — Shares of Dropbox surged more than 22%, surpassing its 2018 IPO price of $21 for the first time since September after the cloud software company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results. Dropbox earned 16 cents per share in the quarter, versus 14 cents per share as expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv. Revenue also beat expectations. CEO Drew Houston said the company now aims to be profitable by the end of 2020.

Chewy — Chewy climbed more than 4.8% after RBC Capital Markets upgraded the stock to outperform from sector perform. The firm's analyst said in a note to clients that the company could see significant improvement in its gross margins this year, bringing the e-commerce company closer to profitability. RBC has a price target of $38 per share for the stock, which is about 25% higher than where shares are currently trading.

Virgin Galactic — Virgin Galactic dropped 6% as speculative trading in the space tourism stock continued, with above-average trading volume once again. Wells Fargo strategists called out Virgin Galactic's "parabolic" move, as shares have more than tripled since the year began, and said that brokerages shift in October to zero-fee trading may have planted the seeds that made the stock's dazzling rally possible.

— CNBC's Yun Li, Michael Sheetz and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.

Subscribe to CNBC PRO for exclusive insights and analysis, and live business day programming from around the world.