Benzinga's Daily Brief On Trending Tickers For Feb. 22, 2022: Tesla, GameStop, Lexicon And More

Benzinga’s “Daily Brief On Trending Tickers” highlights top-searched tickers from around the web and uses the Benzinga Pro platform to highlight recent news items possibly impacting those stocks.

The data on the trending tickers is compiled from a list of most-discussed tickers on the popular Reddit forum WallStreetBets.

Using the Benzinga Pro Newsfeed, traders and investors can quickly search for recent news on a stock and make a decision about why a stock might be moving on today.

Tesla TSLA The 2018 conflict that involved the SEC and CEO Elon Musk made headlines Monday morning. Musk is accusing the Securities and Exchange Commission of leaking information about a federal investigation in order to retaliate against him for public criticism of the federal financial regulators. In a letter on Monday to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, Musk attorney Alex Spiro wrote: “It has become clearer and clearer that the Commission is out to retaliate against my clients for exercising their First Amendment rights—most recently by criticizing the Commission on the public docket and by petitioning this Court for relief.”

GameStop GME Last week, U.S. authorities launched an investigation into alleged illegal trading tactics by short sellers. GameStop investors, mainly in the communities dedicated to the stock on Reddit, claim that GameStop’s trading performance has been illegally manipulated by short sellers. The news of the investigation has livened up sentiment among investors, who were expecting some action to be taken by U.S. authorities. The investigation is still in its early stages and nothing has been proven yet, nor has anyone been charged.

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals LXRX On Jan. 3, the company announced the submission of a new drug application to the FDA for sotagliflozin.The NDA is seeking approval for the marketing and sale of sotagliflozin to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death and hospitalization and urgent visits for heart failure in adult patients with type 2 diabetes with either worsening condition or additional risk factors irrespective of left ventricular ejection fraction.The regulatory body has a 60-day filing review period to determine whether the NDA is complete and acceptable for filing.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals IONS This drug discovery and development company is expected to post quarterly earnings of 80 cents per share in its Feb. 24 report, which represents a year-over-year change of 132.8%. Revenues are expected to be $337.52 million, up 16.4% from the year-ago quarter.

Advanced Micro Devices AMD Multiple industry insiders and Twitter users have speculated that TSMC has run into several snags with its upcoming N3 process node. Hence, AMD may have to fabricate its Ryzen 8000 Zen 5 processors and Radeon RX 8000 RDNA 4 graphics cards on TSMC's 4 nm process. Previous reports suggested that there are several multibillion-dollar companies lined up to get a piece of TSMC's N3 node. Intel, in particular, has shown great interest, as has Apple and MediaTek.

Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR The data analytics firm reported strong earnings last week, yet the stock is down a whopping 16% over the last five trading days. Following the company's fourth-quarter results, the stock price hit a fresh 52-week low. Management has made it clear that it has a very specific and well-thought-out roadmap for growth. As the company hires more salespeople and continues investing in the commercial sector, Palantir's use cases should grow across different industries worldwide.

Ark Innovation ETF ARKK On Friday, Ark purchased 694,584 shares of Roku ROKU, worth $78.1 million as of Friday’s close; 82,488 shares of Zoom, worth $10.5 million; 40,384 shares of Sea, worth $5.2 million; and 65,057 shares of Roblox RBLX worth $3.2 million. Roku is the No. 3 holding in Cathie Wood's flagship Ark Innovation ETF, and Zoom is No. 4.

Forestar Group Inc FOR Moody's Investors Service upgraded Forestar Group Inc.'s Corporate Family Rating (CFR) to Ba3 from B1, Probability of Default Rating (PDR) to Ba3-PD from B1-PD and senior unsecured rating to Ba3 from B1. The outlook was revised to stable from positive. Moody's also maintained the company's SGL-2 Speculative Grade Liquidity Rating. The rating upgrade reflects Moody's expectation for continued strong operating fundamentals for this year and next, and for further improvement in Forestar's credit profile, including higher revenue and profitability, as well as good execution.

Apple Inc AAPL Apple's first event of the year may be just weeks away. The tech giant typically hosts three to four events every year, usually including a spring event, a summer developer conference and one or two more events in the fall. The fall events are often held in September and October, and tend to feature new iPhones and Apple Watch upgrades, while the October event typically features new Macs and iPads.

Nvidia NVDA The chip maker reported fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 16 that beat analyst expectations. Adjusted earnings per share came in above analyst forecasts, rising 69.2% year-over-year. Nvidia's revenue also came in above consensus estimates, up 52.8% compared to the year-ago quarter to a new quarterly record of $7.6 billion.