Uber introduces changes to ride-share features, VF Corporation reports earnings miss

Yahoo Finance Live examines several of today's trending stocks, including Uber's ride-share change to cut down on wait times and gas fees, VF Corporation's retail sales, and AbbVie's earnings miss amid litigation on its opioid drug.

Video transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: All right, it's Triple Play time, and I'm kicking us off with my pick, which is pharmaceutical giant AbbVie. Now they had an earnings beat and a slight revenue miss on Friday, but revenue boosted by better than expected sales of its very lucrative immunology drug, Humira, at $5.4 billion. The stock, though, as you can see there, down just about 4%.

Now, Humira is the world's best-selling drug, but analysts at FactSet expect those sales to drop to $12.7 billion next year from $21 billion this year. And that's as a biosimilar or copycat version of Humira is set to arrive in January.

And add to that the $433 billion Democratic spending package that was brokered this week. Now, that actually includes a plan to negotiate lower prices of the costliest drugs. And keeping an eye also, AbbVie also setting aside $2 billion. And that's for a potential settlement involving Allergan's past sales of opioid products. So that also there coming back to haunt AbbVie as well. Seana.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, Rachelle, that bill you mentioned will allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with some of these pharmaceutical giants, something that, to no surprise, the pharmaceutical industry has long opposed. Senate Democrats are saying they want to vote on this bill very quickly. Polling has showed there is support from both sides, historically speaking, for Medicare to be able to pressure these pharma companies to lower drug prices. But we'll see whether or not this actually gets passed.

All right, my play is VF Corp. Revenue for the quarter up 3%. Sales getting a boost from its North Face brand, with sales up 31% there, and an 8% jump in Timberland revenue. Now, gains there helping to offset a 7% drop that the company saw from its Vans revenue. Now, the stock is under pressure because of the margin guidance. You can see shares off just about 8%. The retailer lowering its outlook for the full year.

And COVID, Dave, remains a challenge for the company. Executives warning in the earnings release that it expects ongoing disruptions to the business due to COVID-19. We can see some concerns there, a lot of that over the margin guidance there. Full year outlook lowered. Shares off just about 8%. So it was an OK quarter [INAUDIBLE].

DAVE BRIGGS: OK, and always looking for recessionary fears in some of the comments. And their CEO says he does see softening leading to changing behavior among consumers being forced to be more choiceful and cautious in their spending, but also adding they don't have a whole lot of exposure to the lower end of the market. But certainly seeing some people begin to cut back.

My play is Uber with high gas prices still impacting drivers significantly. The ride hailing app unveiling changes aimed at attracting more drivers. With the update, drivers across the US will be able to see exactly how much they'll earn and exactly where they'll be going before accepting a trip. Drivers will also be able to see more than one trip at one time by using a new feature called Trip Radar.

Now, Uber says the changes will also help lower wait times for you, the rider. We'll talk about that in a sec. Uber reports earnings on August 2. Shares mostly flat today. They are down 47% year to date.

Rachelle, I would actually take issue with that. I would think, now, it could be a lot harder to find a ride if you are going a short distance. Drivers are going to shop for the right ride. And they're probably not going to pick you if it doesn't fit exactly where and how they want to go. I think it's gonna be a lot more difficult to get a ride unless you have a perfectly profitable one for the driver. I think this is gonna be difficult.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: I think it is gonna be difficult. And not just for short distances, but, say, perhaps you don't live in a desirable neighborhood or you're not going to a desirable neighborhood, perhaps Uber drivers will say, look, I just don't want to bother with that. And you'd hate to think that perhaps other people wouldn't be able to get a ride somewhere or get somewhere safely if, you know, drivers are picking and choosing. But, obviously, you have driver safety and customer safety to balance as well.

SEANA SMITH: I always say that Uber should roll out something where drivers are only allowed to refuse a certain number of rides because you're right, Dave, they do have access to that type of information. They are going to pick the rides that are more profitable for them. It could cause longer wait times. I'm not sold on what Uber is saying, at least just yet. But I think there needs to be something implemented where they can only reject a certain number of rides per day.

DAVE BRIGGS: Lyft not making these changes yet, so we'll see how it impacts their competitor.