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Patties of Beyond Meat Inc.’s plant-based burger Beyond Burger are cooked on a skillet.
Yuriko Nakao | Getty Images

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

Beyond Meat Shares of the alternative meat company surged around 10% after Bernstein double upgraded the stock to outperform from underperform. Beyond Meat’s stock is down nearly 40% since January, but Bernstein said sales should gain steam again as the economic reopening widens.

Virgin Galactic Holdings – Virgin Galactic shares jumped roughly 19% following the company’s Saturday spaceflight test. The test, which is a step forward for the space tourism company, had previously been delayed for more than six months. At one point on Monday the stock turned positive for 2021. 

AMC Entertainment Shares of the movie theater chain jumped about 12% after the company’s largest shareholder Dalian Wanda Group, a Chinese conglomerate, sold most of its stake in AMC. A Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday shows Dalian Wanda sold 30.4 million shares for about $427 million.

Dollar General Shares of the discount retailer fell 3% after Bank of America downgraded the stock to underperform from neutral. The firm said in a note that Dollar General tends to underperform when gas prices are high.

Norwegian Cruise Line Shares of the cruise operator popped about 3% in midday trading after the company announced plans to return cruising in the U.S. this summer.

HP The tech stock rose about 0.5% after Citi upgraded HP to buy from neutral. The firm said in a note to clients that demand for personal computers should remain strong post pandemic.

Moderna  Shares of Modera edged 1.6% higher after the pharmaceutical company announced a manufacturing agreement Saturday with South Korean biotech company Samsung Biologics. The move will enable Moderna to provide its Covid-19 vaccine outside of the U.S. starting in the third quarter of 2021, the company said.

— CNBC’s Maggie Fitzgerald, Pippa Stevens and Jesse Pound contributed reporting.

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