The stock market remained mixed on Wednesday morning, continuing a string of days in which strong performance in high-growth stocks has led to disparities among the major stock market indexes. As of 10:30 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI 0.69%) was down 22 points to 35,338. However, the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.20%) climbed 7 points to 4,530, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 1.59%) rose 87 points to 15,346.
A couple of stocks enjoyed even larger gains than that, as investors reacted positively to their most recent earnings reports. Anaplan (PLAN) and PVH (PVH 2.80%) are in very different industries, but both stocks managed to post double-digit percentage gains to start off the month of September.
Image source: Getty Images.
The right plan for Anaplan
Shares of Anaplan were up 13% on Wednesday morning. The cloud-native business performance software provider saw continued interest in its platform, helping to bolster its second-quarter financial results.
Anaplan's numbers were impressive. Total revenue jumped 36% from year-ago levels on a 35% rise in subscription revenue. Anaplan's remaining performance obligations under current contracts jumped 29% year over year to $906 million, representing more than six quarters' worth of revenue at current run rates. Adjusted losses more than doubled to $0.09 per share, but that was still better than the $0.14 per share loss that most of those following Anaplan had anticipated.
Enterprise resource planning is a tough business, and giants like Oracle, Microsoft, and SAP are far larger with more resources than Anaplan. However, Anaplan has been able to hold off much larger competitors by being nimble, combining cloud computing and artificial intelligence to provide connections within client organizations. Meanwhile, Anaplan constantly innovates to add more functionality to its platform.
Even with today's gains, Anaplan shares are still below their February highs by a sizable margin. Nevertheless, with the company building forward momentum, it might not be too much longer before Anaplan joins the large crop of software-as-a-service stocks reaching all-time record levels.
PVH makes its stock look stylish
Elsewhere, PVH shares were up almost 15%. The company behind well-known apparel brands like Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, and Van Heusen reported exceptionally strong results in the second quarter and pointed to better results for the remainder of the year.
PVH's surge reflects its rebound from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales increased 46% to $2.31 billion, led by a 77% rise in wholesale revenue stemming largely from Europe. Gross margin levels jumped nearly 2 percentage points to 57.7%, and inventory levels remained attractively low, showing high demand for PVH's products. Direct-to-consumer revenue jumped 19% even as digital commerce plateaued in the wake of economic reopening in many parts of the world. Earnings came in at $2.72 per share on an adjusted basis, up more than 20 times from $0.13 per share a year ago.
PVH's brands saw consistently strong performance. Calvin Klein rose 56%, led by a 75% rise in North America. Tommy Hilfiger sales were up 41% year over year.
In light of these good results, PVH boosted its guidance for the remainder of the year. It now expects 2021 adjusted earnings of $8.50 per share, up by $2 from its previous forecast. With consumers rushing to spend after pandemic-imposed austerity, the retail industry looks like it's bouncing back sharply.
