These Stocks Moved the Most Today: GM, Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, D.R. Horton, Philip Morris, Kohl’s, and More

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Stocks traded mostly higher Tuesday as Wall Street waded through earnings reports from a number of big U.S. companies. The Nasdaq Composite declined after finishing at a record high Monday.

These stocks made notable moves Tuesday:

General Motors dropped 8.1%. The auto maker reported second-quarter operating profit of $3 billion and earnings of $2.53 a share on sales of $47.1 billion. Wall Street expected an operating profit of $2.9 billion and earnings of $2.33 a share on sales of $46.3 billion. Guidance for the full year was unchanged. General Motors said tariff impacts in the latest second quarter amounted to $1.1 billion.

Coca-Cola declined 0.6%. While second-quarter adjusted earnings topped analysts’ estimates, revenue of $12.5 billion narrowly missed expectations of $12.6 billion, and unit case volume fell in most regions during the quarter. The beverage giant said it would release a new product sweetened with cane sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup, days after President Donald Trump indicated the company had “agreed to do so.”

Lockheed Martin sank 11% after the defense contractor’s second-quarter earnings declined in a period that included a number of one-time charges. Lockheed reported earnings of $1.46 a share on sales of $18.2 billion. Included in the second quarter were charges amounting to $1.7 billion, or $5.83 a share.

Northrop Grumman jumped 9.2% as second-quarter earnings topped Wall Street estimates. The defense company posted earnings of $8.15 a share on sales of $10.4 billion; analysts had expected earnings of $6.84 on sales of $10.1 billion. Northrop’s earnings in the latest quarter included a gain of $1.04 a share from the sale of a training business.

D.R. Horton, the biggest home builder in the U.S., surged 17% after reporting fiscal third-quarter earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street estimates. The company said it “closed more homes than the high end of our guidance range, while maintaining a home sales gross margin of 21.8%.”

Sherwin-Williams declined 0.4% after the maker of paints and coatings missed second-quarter earnings expectations and lowered its full-year guidance.

Philip Morris International was down 8.4% even as the maker of cigarettes and smoke-free products reported second-quarter earnings that topped expectations and raised its full-year guidance. Coming into Tuesday, the stock has gained 39% this year.

Kohl’s was up 38%. The gains may be due to a short squeeze, when a number of bets against the stock start going bad. So-called short sellers make money when shares of their target company go down in price. But when the share price rises, they may be forced to buy the stock to cover their bearish bets. If the price continues to rise, more short sellers may be forced to buy the stock, increasing the share price even more. Kohl’s came into July with 53 million shares shorted, or about 47% of shares outstanding, according to FactSet.

Opendoor Technologies fell 10% after the company, which buys and sells homes, closed up 43% at $3.21 on Monday. At one point during the session, shares soared as high as 121% to $4.97. The stock rose for six consecutive trading days and rallied 312% over that span, according to Dow Jones Market Data. An endorsement from activist investor Eric Jackson, founder of EMJ Capital, has helped lead to an explosion of retail interest in the stock.

Agilysys, the hospitality software provider, declined 4.7% after posting fiscal first-quarter earnings that fell from a year earlier. Adjusted profit of 33 cents a share missed analysts’ estimates of 36 cents.

Medpace Holdings soared 55% after the clinical research company reported better-than-expected second-quarter profit and raised its full-year outlook. Medpace said net new business awards were $620.5 million in the second quarter, up 13% from a year earlier.

Earnings reports were expected after the closing bell Tuesday from Texas Instruments, SAP, Intuitive Surgical, and Capital One Financial.

Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com and Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com