Check out the companies making headlines before the bell. Moderna — Shares of the biotech company rose nearly 11% after the company said it agreed to pay up to $2.25 billion to settle a lawsuit between BioPharma Corp. and Genevan Sciences Inc. over a patent dispute over its coronavirus vaccine. Ross Stores — Shares soared 7% after the off-price retailer reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results that showed increased sales. The company’s earnings per share were $2.00, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.9, according to FactSet. Revenue was $6.64 billion, well above the $6.42 billion expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet. Ross Stores’ sales increased 12.2% year over year to $6.64 billion. CrowdStrike Holdings — Shares rose about 1% after the cybersecurity company released strong forward-looking guidance for the first quarter and full year. The company expects first-quarter sales of $1.36 trillion to $1.364 billion and earnings per share, excluding certain items, of $1.06 to $1.07. This is significantly higher than analysts’ consensus estimates for revenue of $1.35 billion and earnings of $1.06 per share, according to FactSet. CrowdStrike expects full-year earnings of $4.78 to $4.90 per share, excluding certain items, compared to a consensus of $4.80. Crypto Stocks — Stocks of crypto companies rose as Bitcoin rose nearly 4% to surpass the $70,000 level for the first time in more than two weeks. Coinbase is up about 5%, while Strategy and Gemini Space Station are up nearly 6% and 3%, respectively. Abercrombie & Fitch — Shares fell more than 2% after the apparel retailer reported mixed fourth-quarter results. Excluding certain items, the company’s earnings per share were $3.68, compared with analysts’ estimates compiled by FactSet of $3.57. Sales matched analyst estimates of $1.67 billion. Abercrombie & Fitch also issued a lackluster outlook, with first-quarter earnings of $1.20 to $1.30 per share, well below analysts’ expectations of $1.45 per share. The company also expected sales growth to be lower than expected. Box — The content management provider beat fourth-quarter revenue and revenue expectations and provided strong guidance for the current quarter. Box reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 49 cents on revenue of $306 million. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected fourth-quarter earnings of 34 cents per share on revenue of $304 million. The stock price rose nearly 5%. GitLab — Software stocks fell nearly 9% after GitLab’s fiscal 2027 guidance came in lower than expected. GitLab. The company expected fiscal year revenue in the range of $1.099 billion to $1.118 billion, compared to the $1.12 billion expected by analysts compiled by LSEG. LSEG said it expects adjusted earnings for the fiscal year to be in the range of 76 cents to 80 cents per share, below its forecast of $1.05 per share. —CNBC’s Pia Singh contributed reporting.
