24/7 Wall St. » HS

24/7 Closing Bell (ORCL, RNOW, CAT, MCD, IVN, PAL, RGLD, MAT, SJM, SLE, CI, HS, ETN, LO, METR, NFLX, TXN, ADLR, MOBI, ASYS, SXCI, DRAM)

Paul Ausick — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 20:12:36 +0000

Stocks opened higher this morning, helped along by a host of merger announcements. Techs got boost when Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) said it would pay $1.5 billion for cloud-based customer service provider RightNow Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: RNOW). Strong earnings from Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) were among quarterly reports that gave markets a push higher as well. Investors are also buying on news from Europe that the EU’s takeover fund will be significantly expanded. Oil prices gained nearly 4% on an improved global economic outlook. The market gave back some gains late in the day on word that another downgrade of US debt may be coming if the Congressional supercommittee fails to deliver a budget agreement.The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up nearly 106 points to 11,914.75 (0.89%), the NASDAQ rose nearly 62 points (2.35%) to 2,699.44, and the S&P 500 rose 1.29% or nearly 16 points to 1,254.21.There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including a re-iteration of the ‘outperform’ rating for McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) at Credit Suisse. The brokerage maintained the company on its Focus List and lifted the stock’s target price to $104. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (NYSE: IVN) was started at ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse, as was North American Palladium Ltd. (NYSE: PAL). Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD) was raised to ‘outperform’ at National Bank.

We also want to call out some of the other mergers and acquisitions announced this morning. Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) acquired HIT Entertainment for $680 million. J.M. Smucker Co. (NYSE: SJM) is paying $350 million for the food service coffee and tea business of Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE). Today’s biggest deal has insurance company CIGNA Corp. (NYSE: CI) paying $3.8 billion for HealthSpring Inc. (NYSE: HS) as the insurance industry keeps on consolidating.

Here are today’s big post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Caterpillar’s shares are up nearly 5%, at $91.66; Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN) up about 4.5%, at $44.12; Lorillard, Inc. (NYSE: LO) down less than -0.5%, at $115.16 after missing EPS estimates this morning; Metro Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: METR) down nearly -8% after posting an EPS loss of -$0.41; Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) up more than 1.5% in anticipation of the company’s earnings release after the bell today; and Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) up more than 3.6% on expected earnings after today’s markets close.

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Adolor Corp. (NASDAQ: ADLR) is up about 132%, at $4.49, on news of its acquisition by Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST) for $190 million, or $4.25/share. Adolor’s 52-week trading range is $1.09-$4.53, and the high was set today, anticipating that the company will hit milestones in the acquisition offer that could add up to $35 million to the purchase price.

Sky-mobi Ltd. (NASDAQ: MOBI) is up 42%, at $5.55, on a strategic partnership with SINA Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA). Sky-mobi’s Maopao mobile social network will now be able to offer SINA’s Weibo.com microblog as a downloadable application.

Amtech Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASYS) is up more than 23%, to $11.25. The company, which makes manufacturing equipment for solar makers, is getting boost from today’s rise in solar stocks.

SXC Health Solutions Corp. (NASDAQ: SXCI) is down more than -20%, at $44.98. HealthSpring, which is being acquired by CIGNA, is one of SXC’s biggest customers, accounting for about a third of the company’s sales.

Dataram Corp. (NASDAQ: DRAM) is off more than -10%, at $1.10. Spot prices for dynamic RAM continue to weaken, a trend that caused Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) results to tumble last quarter.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: General Tagged: ADLR, ASYS, CAT, CI, DRAM, ETN, HS, IVN, LO, MAT, MCD, METR, MOBI, NFLX, ORCL, PAL, RGLD, RNOW, SJM, SLE, SXCI, TXN

Endless Mergers… More to Come! (CBST, ADLR, HS, CI, CVH, MAT, RNOW, ORCL, SLE, SJM, ANDS, NYX)

Administrator — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:24:45 +0000

Monday is called “Merger Monday” for a reason and this morning is a classic example of its namesake. We have seen multiple deals and news outstanding on pending deals. We recently noted that far too many companies in technology have been rumored as takeover targets, and not a single one of the deals announced was in the most recent technology rumor mill.

Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST) is pulling a rabbit out of its hat. Cubist was once believed to be a solid acquisition candidate when its share price was much lower, but now the company has come out and announced that it is acquiring Adolor Corporation (NASDAQ: ADLR) for about $190 million in a deal that could rise to $225 million if certain milestones are achieved. Adolor loves the price as the shares are up 129% at $4.40 today. That is above the $4.25 buyout price, but the possible upside for the milestones is why.

HealthSpring Inc. (NYSE: HS) is being acquired for $3.8 billion by CIGNA Corporation (NYSE: CI) in a $55 buyout offer in close to a 35% premium. Insurers continue to consolidate. Elsewhere in healthcare, Coventry Health Care Inc. (NYSE: CVH) was listed as one which could be acquired by Barron’s over the weekend and its shares are up almost 6% at $31.66 in conjunction with healthcare consolidation news and on hopes for more pin action.

Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT) is acquiring HIT Entertainment in a $680 million acquisition from Apax Partners and a private equity consortium. Mattel’s market cap is $9.6 billion. The deal locks up the Thomas & Friends toys.

Rightnow Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: RNOW) is much more well known ”right now” since Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) has announced a buyout of the company. This $1.5 billion purchase comes to $43.00 per share and the stock hit a new all-time high of $42.92. RightNow is in cloud-based customer experience software products and services.

Sara Lee Corporation (NYSE: SLE) is a company that has been a rumored (and hoped for) buyout target for longer than one can easily recall in the food sector. The company is selling off the majority of its food service coffee and tea operations to J.M. Smucker Co. (NYSE: SJM) for about $350 million. Considering it is a $10.5 billion company by market capitalization, this is no real game-changer.

Elsewhere in M&A news, Anadys Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ANDS) is at a year high of $3.68 and it now has a formal class action suit filed against the merger where Roche is set to pay out $3.70 per share. This was a $10 and higher stock in 2006.

NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) and its Deutsche Bourse merger is still hanging in the wind. The merger has a hearing in the European Union on October 27 to address some of the concerns brought up by regulators. At $26.70 today, this is way down from the highs above $41.00 over the last year.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Healthcare, Mergers and Buy Outs, Software Tagged: ADLR, ANDS, CBST, CI, CVH, HS, MAT, NYX, ORCL, RNOW, SJM, SLE

The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Market Report (10/24/2011) Caterpillar And Kimberly Earnings, Oracle M&A

247wallst — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:44:10 +0000

CNN Money: Some M&A activity this AM: Cigna to acquire HealthSpring in $3.8B deal; Oracle is buying RightNow Tech in $1.5B deal. $CI, $HS, $ORCL, $RNOW

NYT: Sara Lee to Sell Coffee Group to J.M. Smucker

Reuters: Reuters: Caterpillar quarterly earnings rise 44 percent

WSJ: Caterpillar Profit Jumps

WSJ: Kimberly-Clark Cuts Forecast

Yahoo Finance: U.S. firms hold off hiring, but not many layoffs: poll

NYT: Saab Ends Agreements With Chinese Investors

MarketWatch: Oracle to buy RightNow for $1.5 billion; premium works out to about 20%

Yahoo! Finance: Wal-Mart ups the ante in holiday price matching

Douglas A. McIntyre

Filed under: Research Tagged: HS, ORCL, RNOW, SLE

Top Analyst Upgrades (EAT, DAI, ENR, HS, LEN, LNC, MGM, RTP)

247wallst — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:54:53 +0000

These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades we have seen from Wall Street early this Monday morning:

Brinker International (EAT) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
Daimler (DAI) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Energizer Holdings (ENR) Raised to Neutral at UBS.
HealthSpring (HS) Raised to Outperform at Wachovia.
Lennar (LEN) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Lincoln National (LNC) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
MGM Mirage (MGM) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Rio Tinto (RTP) Raised to Hold from Sell at RBS.

JON C. OGG

Posted in Analyst Calls Tagged: DAI, EAT, ENR, HS, LEN, LNC, MGM, RTP

S&P Index Change Candidates (DWA, HS, GMCR, FBTX, MLNM)

247wallst — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:56:36 +0000

We have seen several announcements out of Standard & Poors regarding index changes today, with the effective dates as follows:

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE: DWA) will now replace Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MLNM) in the S&P MidCap 400 after the close of trading on Thursday, May 8, as Millennium’s acquisition by Takeda is expected to close on or about that date.
HealthSpring Inc. (NYSE: HS) will now replace Franklin Bank Corp. (NASDAQ: FBTX) in the S&P SmallCap 600 after the close on Wednesday, May 7…. Franklin has a market cap of a mere $26 million and has the 600th worst weighting in the index.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) will replace Matria Healthcare Inc. (NASDAQ: MATR) in the S&P SmallCap 600 on a T.B.A. basis, pending Inverness Medical Innovations (AMEX: IMA) final approvals to acquire Matria.

As a reminder, traders that look at index additions and deletions generally like to focus on stocks that are coming in fresh into the S&P that were not a member of the S&P 1500 comprised of small-cap, mid-cap, and 500-Index members already.

Jon C, Ogg
May 5, 2008

Pre-Market Stock News (June 13, 2007)

247wallst — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 06:51:11 +0000

(AOB) American Oriental enters into a letter-of-intent to acquire an established plant based pharmaceutical company named Changchun Xinan Pharmaceutical Group for up to $30 million.
(CEN) Ceridian largest shareholder says the private equity buyout is underpriced.
(EBAY) eBay is still in court over this MercExchange LLC patent over its “Buy It Now” patent.
(F) Ford confirmed that it is reviewing sales of Jaguar and Rover; Goldman Sachs and others hired.
(GWR) Genesee & Wyoming reported a total carload decrease of 0.3%.
(GYI) Getty Images announced it has filed its 10-K for 2006.
(HS) Healthspring lowered guidance.
(LWSN) Lawson Software raised guidance to $0.05 to $0.07 EPS vs $0.04e.
(MAGS) Magal Security announced a new strategic partnership in Brazil for services providers.
(PAY) VeriFone Holdings announced it has been selected as the sole provider of electronic payment systems by the China Postal Savings Bank.
(POR) Portland General Electric announced the pricing of a 21 million share secondary at $26.00; seller is Enron Disputed Claims Reserve.
(SAPE) Sapient $0.07 EPS vs $0.01+e.
(SHLM) A. Schulman lowered guidance.
(SNY) Sanofi-Aventis diet drug all in one pill is being reviewed; already marketed as Acomplia in other countries.
(SSYS) Stratasys will replace LSS on S&P Small Cap 600 Index on June 14.
(TYC) Tyco will take a $500 Million pre-tax and $370 million after tax impairment charge for the sale of its Power Systems business.
(VLCM) Volcom will replace PXR on the S&P Small Cap 600 Index on June 15.

Jon C. Ogg
June 13, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.