Premarket trading showed sharp losses for six stocks after a heavy slate of earnings and guidance updates. Shares opened materially lower as investors reacted to a variety of company-specific problems ranging from forward guidance reductions to sizeable earnings misses and concerns about execution.
Below is a rundown of the premarket price moves and the primary driver for each name:
- HUBS - Prior close $250.21, premarket $193.03, -22.9%: Guidance miss and slowing customer adds.
- APP - Prior close $417.80, premarket $338.99, -18.9%: Revenue miss and AXON AI underdelivery.
- FLNC - Prior close $14.23, premarket $12.27, -13.8%: Q3 revenue miss and slashed FY2026 guidance.
- FIG - Prior close $28.15, premarket $24.17, -14.1%: Post-IPO valuation reset on earnings.
- WDC - Prior close $519.17, premarket $438.80, -15.5%: Guidance that was only "okay" after a +190% YTD run.
- DAVE - Prior close $430.16, premarket $391.51, -9.0%: EPS miss of $2.93 despite a revenue beat.
HubSpot - Forward Expectations Reprice
HubSpot recorded an in-line quarter but the market punished the outlook. Net new customer additions were roughly 7,000 versus the 9,000 to 10,000 range analysts had expected, and management guided to a further slowdown to just 5,000 to 6,000 adds going forward. Net revenue retention was flat year-over-year rather than improving, which the company attributed to ongoing customer budget scrutiny. The combination of weaker customer additions and a lack of NRR improvement prompted a downgrade by Oppenheimer to Perform. The stock had already fallen about -49% over the prior year heading into the report, and the -22.9% premarket move reflects a sharp compression in forward expectations.
AppLovin - AI Execution Came Up Short
AppLovin beat on EPS, reporting $3.76, and posted an 84% EBITDA margin, but investors focused on other metrics. Q2 revenue was $1.92 billion, missing consensus by roughly $20 million. More damaging was management’s acknowledgment that improvements from its AXON AI model fell short of internal projections, raising questions about the core engine driving the bullish case. In response to results and outlook, Goldman Sachs trimmed its price target to $465 from $585 while keeping a Neutral rating, and Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to Equal Weight with a $357 target. AppLovin’s revenue guidance for Q3 was roughly in line at $2.055 billion to $2.085 billion, but in a market that had priced in perfection, an "in line" outlook read as disappointing.
Fluence Energy - Miss and Guidance Cut
Fluence delivered a Q3 revenue print of $649.8 million, well below a consensus near $806 million. GAAP gross margin deteriorated to 5.1% from 14.8% a year earlier, a decline the company linked to delays in contract manufacturing, costs tied to new-platform deployments, and upfront battery expenses. Management reduced FY2026 revenue guidance to $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion from a prior range of $3.2 billion to $3.6 billion, and said roughly $400 million of project deliveries would be pushed into FY2027. The company did report a record backlog of approximately $6.4 billion and quarterly order intake of $1.44 billion, nearly three times the year-ago level. The backlog supports future revenue potential, but with margins under pressure today, the market punished the near-term miss and guidance cut.
Western Digital - Good Results, High Expectations
Western Digital beat consensus on both EPS and revenue, reporting EPS of $3.56 versus an estimate of $3.29 and revenue of $3.75 billion versus $3.69 billion. Despite the beat, Q1 FY2027 guidance of $4.0 billion to $4.2 billion was only marginally above a $4.04 billion consensus, which disappointed investors after a year-to-date rally of about +193%. Insider selling of roughly $13.7 million over a three-month period without offsetting purchases drew attention, and Summit Insights downgraded the company to Hold, citing HAMR technology transition risks and potential margin headwinds in 2027. UBS reduced its price target to $525 from $560 and warned that the storage cycle may be cyclical rather than structural. The reaction illustrated a classic buy-the-rumor, sell-the-news dynamic where a strong run-up left little room for anything short of an outstanding outlook.
Dave Inc - Earnings Puzzle
Dave posted revenue of $170.8 million, essentially matching the $170.7 million estimate, yet EPS came in at $0.49, missing by $2.93 against a $3.42 consensus. The magnitude of the EPS shortfall suggests either a one-time charge or a material cost surprise within the quarter. The stock had climbed roughly +125% over the prior 12 months before this release, reducing tolerance for execution missteps.
Figma - Post-IPO Reset
Figma’s shares fell after a month-long pre-earnings run that had lifted the stock about +30%. The post-earnings move reflects a broader valuation reset for a recently public company. Wells Fargo maintained an Overweight rating and raised its price target to $501, while InvestingPro’s Fair Value estimate was cited at $22.76, underscoring a wide range of views on intrinsic value. The stock sits about -64% below its 12-month high, highlighting that an IPO hangover can persist even after short-term rallies.
Common Theme
Across these six names, a consistent pattern emerges: stocks that had experienced significant pre-earnings runs or were priced for perfection suffered asymmetric downside when results failed to meet elevated expectations. WDC, DAVE, APP and HUBS entered the reports with particularly high prior gains or valuation expectations, leaving little room for execution slippage or guidance that was merely "okay."
Investors reacted differently to each company’s specific issues, but the overarching lesson from this session was clear - when expectations are elevated, even solid results can disappoint.