Check out the companies making the biggest moves midday: Akamai Technologies – The cloud computing company gained 5% after announcing a seven-year contract and $11.6 billion deal with Anthropic on Thursday. Akamai also issued a warrant that gives Anthropic the right to buy up to roughly 5% of the company’s shares at an exercise price of $111.33 each. Atlas Energy Solutions — The oilfield and energy logistics stocks rallied 17% after the company said that two of its subsidiaries “executed separate cost reimbursement agreements with a leading frontier AI lab.” Genius Sports — The sports data and technology stock jumped 13% after JPMorgan initiated coverage with an overweight rating . The bank highlighted Genius’ “scarce combo of diversified above-market growth, strong execution, improving profitability/ [free cash flow], and attractive valuation.” Twilio – The cloud platform provider with a focus on marketing tumbled about 6%. HSBC slashed its rating to a sell equivalent. “We retain a premium for Twilio’s AI optionality, but see negative risk reward post recent rally,” wrote analyst Sameer Lam, adding the stock looks expensive compared to “better quality alternatives” like Microsoft and Salesforce. People Inc – Barry Diller’s company, which also owns “Food & Wine” and “Southern Living” magazines, saw shares jump 10%. Late Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported , citing people familiar, that MGM Resorts is weighing a bid to purchase the publishing giant. The news comes after People withdrew its proposal to buy the casino operator. MGM last traded lower by 2%. Scholastic – Shares for the publisher of children’s books slid 9% after the company posted a loss in the fiscal first quarter. Scholastic reported an adjusted loss of $3.63 per share, compared to the $2.52 per share loss in the year-ago period. Revenue of $216.8 million reflected a 4% decline from a year earlier. Costco Wholesale — Shares were up 2.7% after the company reported better-than-expected results for the fiscal fourth quarter. Costco earned an adjusted $6.60 per share on revenue of $95.72 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG expected a profit of $6.53 per share on revenue of $94.86 billion. Microsoft — The software giant’s shares perked up 3% after Microsoft rolled out a refreshed Copilot app in a bid to challenge Anthropic’s Claude and get more of its enterprise customers to pay for the tools. Meta Platforms — The owner of Facebook and WhatsApp tumbled more than 3% as traders cashed in on the stock’s recent rally. The stock is on track for a 12% weekly gain powered by the booming popularity of its consumer artificial intelligence product Muse. — CNBC’s Nick Wells and Darla Mercado contributed reporting.
