24/7 Wall St. » VRX

Bausch + Lomb Nabs ISTA (ISTA, VRX)

Paul Ausick — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:52:14 +0000

Privately held Bausch + Lomb Inc. has made ISTA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ISTA) an offer it can’t refuse. The eye care company owned by private equity firm Warburg Pincus will acquire ISTA for $9.10/share, or a total of about $380 million.

Last December Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE: VRX) made a hostile offer of $6.50/share which it eventually raised to $7.50 with a target price of $8.50 provided that the due diligence was completed satisfactorily. ISTA said it would evaluate Valeant’s offer, but would keep its options open. Valeant later withdrew its offer.

The all-cash deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

ISTA’s shares are trading higher in the pre-market this morning, at $9.02 up about 7.6%.

Filed under: Drug companies, Mergers and Buy Outs, Pharmaceuticals Tagged: ISTA, VRX

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (SHLD, IPG, DNKN, AEP, URI, AES, BCPC, CHTR, CTB, EP, LOW, KWK, RIG, VRX, ATPG, CQP, DNDN, IMI, MVIS)

Paul Ausick — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:07:45 +0000

Stocks opened down this morning following on weakness in Europe following the G20’s refusal to provide additional funding to the IMF. But at the end of the first hour of trading, a good report on pending US home sales seemed to tip traders to the buy side. With about half an hour to go today, all major indexes are higher and the DJIA looks set to close above 13,000. Crude oil was lower today with WTI crude finished lower by -1.1% at $108.56/barrel, and Brent crude is trading down -1.06% at $124.14/barrel. Gold settled down -0.1% at $1,774.90/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down about 1.5 points to 12,981.51 (-0.01%), the NASDAQ rose more than 2 points (0.08%) to 2,966.16 and the S&P 500 rose 0.14% or nearly 2 points to 1,367.59.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Sears Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) maintained as ‘underperform’ at Credit Suisse; Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. (NYSE: IPG) raised to ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank; Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DNKN) started as ‘buy’ at Citgroup; American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) raised to ‘buy’ at Jefferies; and United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) started as ‘buy’ at Citigroup.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: The AES Corp. (NYSE: AES) is down -0.51% at $13.73; Balchem Corp. (NASDAQ: BCPC) is down about -17% at $29.52 after posting a new 52-week low of $29.35 earlier; Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) is up 0.2% at $63.55 after posting a new 52-week high of $64.39 earlier this morning; Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: CTB) is up nearly 14% at $17.81; El Paso Corp. (NYSE: EP) is up 1.8% at $27.65, a new 52-week high; Lowes Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is up 0.83% at $27.39; Quicksilver Resources Inc. (NYSE: KWK) is down -5.8% at $5.73; Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) is up 5.34% at $53.44; and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. (NYSE: VRX) is up 5.6% at $50.62.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

ATP Oil & Gas Corp. (NASDAQ: ATPG) is up nearly 20% at $8.63. The independent oil & gas company reported a fourth successful well at its Telemark Hub project.

Cheniere Energy Partners L.P. (AMEX: CQP) is up about 14% at $23.80 after posting a new 52-week high of $24.21 earlier. The liquefied natural gas company announced an investment from Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX). More coverage here.

Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) is down more than -20% at $11.83. The drug maker reported lower-than-expected revenues this morning. More coverage here.

Intermolecular Inc. (NASDAQ: IMI) is down more than -15% at $6.31 after posting a new 52-week low of $6.02. The semiconductor equipment and materials company’s stock is likely reacting to the bankruptcy filing by Japanese chipmaker Elpida.

Microvision Inc. (NASDAQ: MVIS) is down more than -16% at $3.28. The laser display company reported very poor earnings this morning.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. Federal Reserve governor Elizabeth Duke and Cleveland Fed president Sandra Pianalto are giving speeches. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

8:30 a.m. – Durable goods orders
9:00 a.m. – S&P Case-Shiller housing price index
10:00 a.m. – Conference Board consumer confidence index
10:00 a.m. – Richmond Fed manufacturing index
10:00 a.m. – State Street investor confidence index
11:30 a.m. – 4-week Treasury bill auction

Paul Ausick

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire Tagged: AEP, AES, ATPG, BCPC, CHTR, CQP, CTB, DNDN, DNKN, EP, IMI, IPG, KWK, LOW, MVIS, RIG, SHLD, URI, VRX

November Share Buybacks Already Nearing $30 Billion (ALL, AIG, CBS, FIS, PFE, RAI, SBUX, SYY, TMO, VIA, VRX, PKW)

Administrator — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:57:30 +0000

Some companies just want to keep bringing on new share buybacks whether they work or not. Some are to stop dilution from acquisitions or employee stock options, while others are to reduce the float and to boost earnings per share. Many investors (and companies) consider buybacks an alternative (or replacement) to dividends.

We have tracked only the large buyback announcements made this month in the following companies: The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL); American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG); CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS); Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (NYSE: FIS); Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE); Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI); Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX); Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY); Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (NYSE: TMO); Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA-B); and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX).

As far as how share buybacks in general matter for stocks, you can always play the buyback leaders via the PowerShares Buyback Achievers (NYSE: PKW), and it is almost exactly in the middle of its 52-week trading range. Those buybacks outlined below do not include the many $150 million, $100 million, and lower buybacks. The tally all said and done here so far in just the first half of November of 2011: over $27 billion!!!

The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) is trying to tell shareholders they are in good hands because the announcement over the next 18 months is that it would repurchase up to $1 billion in common stock. The market cap today is just over $13 billion.

How can American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) have a share buyback program? It announced in early November that it would buy back up to $1 billion in stock. The $43 billion in market cap is one thing, but the amount of shares still owned by Uncle Sam (or taxpayers) is huge. Actually, maybe this supports the stock value for us all!

CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) added to its prior plan and has authorized the repurchase of up to $1.5 billion in stock. The current market cap is $16.5 billion, so we’ll leave it up to you to decide if this buyout matters or not.

Fidelity National Information Services, Inc. (NYSE: FIS) announced on November 1 that it was approving for up to $500 million in share buybacks over the next two years. This compares to $7.4 billion in market capitalization.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) recently expanded its buyback program and it is now authorized to repurchase up to $7 billion worth of common stock. This is a huge amount but it sounds small when you consider a $151 billion market cap.

Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) this week announced a $2.5 billion share buyback plan which is good for the next two and a half years. This is more than 10% of the company’s stock as the market cap is $23 billion. Institutions own 46% of Reynolds.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) recently added to its prior buyback plan with up to 20 million shares. This is more than $850 million at current prices, which compares to a market cap of $32.5 billion.

Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY) recently boosted its dividend but it also announced that it would repurchase up to 20 million shares of common stock. This represents about $550 million today and its market cap is just over $16 billion.

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (NYSE: TMO) recently added $750 million to its prior buyback plan and its market capitalization is $18.5 billion. The company had only $25 million remaining under a prior buyback and the new buyback is over the course of a year because it expires on November 9, 2012.

Viacom, Inc. (NYSE: VIA-B) must want to try to take itself private. The market cap is just under $25 billion, but the company recently announced with its positive earnings report that it is expanding its buyback to $10 billion. While this was an expansion of a prior plan, $10 billion is a massive sum.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX) is a bit odd. While it announced that it would spend up to $1.5 billion repurchasing securities, this was listed as a buyback of stock and/or debt. Its market cap is $13.25 billion today.

Company	$ (Millions)
Allstate	$1,000
AIG	$1,000
CBS	$1,500
FNIS	$500
Pfizer	$7,000
Reynolds	$2,500
Starbucks	$850
Sysco	$550
Thermo Fisher	$750
Viacom	$10,000
Valeant	$1,500
November’s Tally	$27,150

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Activist Investor, Compensation, Corporate Governance, Dividend, Economy, Editor's Picks, Insider Activity, Large Cap Stocks, Mergers and Buy Outs, Stock Buybacks Tagged: AIG, ALL, CBS, FIS, PFE, PKW, RAI, SBUX, SYY, TMO, VIA, VRX

August’s New Massive Stock Buybacks… Over $30 Billion (LOW, CVS, CELG, COV, INTU, DISCA, HRS, LMT, RSG, LOW, ABC, MXIM, ANR, AVT, JAH, LUV, STJ, ECL, IPG, FRX, ACE, CLF, CTSH, KBR, NWL, VRX, AKAM, AOL, DLB, URBN, ACM, CHTR, MYGN, PFG, HSIC)

Administrator — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:00:52 +0000

The pace of stock buyback announcements in the month of August was almost unbelievable. The pace was stronger at the start of the month when earnings were still coming in droves, but the number of newly announced buyback plans and the extended or expanded buyback plans remained high throughout the entire month. Many companies announce share buybacks and never spend much on the actual plan. Today, these companies are by and large actually living up to their promises. These are The August Buyback Kings….

We would normally group these alphabetically, but not today. We grouped these in order of size and then we used an alphabetic order when it came to the same size of a buyback announcement. The first group is the billions of dollars.

We then grouped the stocks by size again from the under $1 billion down to $500 million, and then we grouped the buybacks of under $500 million down to $200 million. Usually we would cut the list off at buybacks of the $100 million and higher but the list was already too big so we cut the Buyback Kings off at $200 million for August. Lastly, we have a chart at the very end tallying it all up…. Some $28.7 billion for just the $200 million and higher in new or expanded buyback announcements. There were literally dozens of other buybacks that were closer to the $100 million mark and many more that were less than that.

The $1 billion and higher alone which were announced in August were as follows: Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW); CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE: CVS); Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG); Covidien plc (NYSE: COV); Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU); Discovery Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA); Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS); and Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT).

Filed under: Dividend, Shareholder Issues, Stock Buybacks Tagged: ABC, ACE, ACM, AKAM, ANR, AOL, AVT, CELG, CHTR, CLF, COV, CSCO, CTSH, CVS, CVX, DISCA, DLB, ECL, FRX, HRS, INTU, IPG, JAH, KBR, LMT, LOW, LUV, MXIM, MYGN, NWL, NWSA, PFG, RSG, STJ, URBN, VRX, XOM

Key Stocks To Watch This Coming Week, The Unusual Suspects (ADP, CSX, FVE, GILD, LYV, LULU, RMBS, REGN, RIMM, SIRI, P, SIX, VRX)

Administrator — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:40:39 +0000

The upcoming week is not very active on the earnings front but we do have some key events to watch for individual equities and companies. This our cast of “The Unusual Suspects” for the week ahead.

We are reviewing events or ongoing news in shares of Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADP), CSX Corporation (NYSE: CSX), Five Star Quality Care Inc. (NYSE: FVE), Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD), Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV), Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU), Rambus Inc. (NASDAQ: RMBS), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN), Research-in-Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM), SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI), Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P), Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: SIX), and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX).

Inside each preview we have shown what the news or upcoming event is, given price indications, and added color on each if applicable. Also, we had ten top analyst calls of the week that are carry-over events from last week and we also have a full detailed earnings calendar with previews for the top ten companies reporting earnings this coming week in separate articles.

Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NYSE: ADP) announced on Friday evening that its board of directors had raised its share buyback plan with an additional 35 million shares of common stock on top of about 15 million shares remaining under the previous buyback plan. If executed entirely, this would be about 10% of its entire stock’s float.

CSX Corporation (NYSE: CSX) is set to split 3-for-1 on Thursday after it declared that split in early May. This is one of the many pending and current splits, a trend we are seeing more of than we have in years. Shares closed at $73.48 Friday and the 52-week range is $46.51 to $80.42.

Five Star Quality Care Inc. (NYSE: FVE) is expected to have a secondary offering of up to 10 million shares mid-week, with all of the shares expected to be sold by the company. Shares were pounded on the announcement of the deal with a drop from $7.20 before to $6.27 on the day of the news and then to close out the week at $6.10. Its market cap is only about $220 million share its 52-week trading range is $2.72 to $8.95.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) disclosed a subpoena from the Department of Justice on Friday after the close, which included requests for documentation on testing of nearly all its products. The wording also noted “criminal” on top of civil in the subpoena. If Gilead was Lucille Ball, it would have “splaining” to do. Surprisingly, shares were only down a little more than 2% at $39.40 after the close on the news. Its 52-week range is $31.73 to $42.93.

Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: LYV) was up 6% Friday on word that Liberty’s John Malone and Live Nation CEO Irving Azoff were in talks to possibly take Live Nation private. At $10.92, its 52-week trading range is $8.17 to $12.48, but this stock stalled out at $16.00 in April-2010 and has been dead since.

Filed under: Calendar, Editor's Picks, The Week Tagged: ADP,, CSX, FVE, GILD, LULU, LYV, P, REGN, RIMM, RMBS, SIRI, SIX, VRX

M&A Watch: Biotech Deals Keep Rolling, Who Is The Next Buyout Target? (TEVA, VRX, CEPH, CRA, ALXN, DNDN, CBST, HGSI, UTHR, CADX, AMAG, SGMO)

Administrator — Mon, 02 May 2011 23:46:51 +0000

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: TEVA) has trumped Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX) after it agreed to acquire Cephalon Inc. (NASDAQ: CEPH) in a $6.8 billion deal. The merger will give the mostly-generic Teva a portfolio of candidates in biotech drugs targeting cancer, pain, inflammatory diseases and more.

Teva’s $81.50 offer per share in cash may seem like a low premium of only about 6% to the closing price on Friday, but this is about 12% higher than Cephalon’s earlier $73 per share offer. More importantly, this is nearly a 40% premium to Cephalon’s pre-merger offers. The boards of directors of Teva and Cephalon have each voted in favor of this merger. What we are most curious about is simple… Which biotech and small pharmaceutical companies will be next to be acquired?

Celera Corporation (NASDAQ: CRA) is one we felt made sense for genomics, particularly when you consider that so much of Celera was raw cash. At that time of the deal, we also updated several other genomic possible targets.

Cephalon was noted as a possible buyout target even back at the end of January, and we gave a list with explanations on each of the following and more: Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN); Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN); Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI); Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST); United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR); Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CADX); AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAG); and Sangamo Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO). Details with explanations on that full list here.

Foreign buyers have an advantage of preying on US companies due to the incredibly weak U.S. Dollar and drug companies are looking to bolster sagging drug pipelines. The deals will continue, but the real risk for biotech investors is that there will be very few quality companies with real earnings left to invest in.

Not all of these other companies will be acquired. Some are too expensive though others offer a buyer a significant pipeline and emerging drug boost… for those willing to pay up.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Biotech, Drug companies, Mergers and Buy Outs, Pharmaceuticals, Rumors Tagged: ALXN, ANAG, CADX, CBST, CEPH, CRA, DNDN, HGSI, SGMO, TEVA, UTHR, VRX

Top Active Trader Alert Stocks (CEPH, NLST, VRX, VVTV)

247wallst — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:54:23 +0000

Active traders and day traders have many stocks to choose from this Wednesday morning. We are tracking news and moves in shares of Cephalon, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEPH), Netlist, Inc. (NASDAQ: NLST), Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX), and ValueVision Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVTV).

Cephalon, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEPH) is up 30% on heavy volume to $75.84, relative to a 52-week range of $54.15-$21.76. Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX) has made a bid for the company for $5.7 billion. Valeant is also up 17%.

Netlist, Inc. (NASDAQ: NLST) is up 12% on moderate volume before the market open to $2.71, within a 52-week range of $1.81-$3.90.

ValueVision Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVTV) is down 7.5% premarket on very light volume to $6.35, relative to a 52-week range of $1.41-$7.67. The company announced a public stock offering after close yesterday.

Filed under: Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert Tagged: CEPH, NLST, VRX, VVTV

The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Stock Market Report 6.21.2010 The Wisdom Of Crowds

247wallst — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:25:20 +0000

Twitter has, by most estimates, 100 million members, which makes it one of the largest social networks in the world. All major media companies are on Twitter and some have more than one million Twitter users. It raises the question of whether there is wisdom in crowds.

24/7 Wall St. will look at the Twitter posts at Reuters Biz, WSJ, Financial Times, CNN Money, MarketWatch, CNBC, and 24/7 Wall St. each day to see which stocks are most frequently mentioned. It is clear that in this area of social media these tweet are a sign of which companies the Twitter universe is interested in. These financial sites are followed by a combined 625,000 Twitter users which makes them a sizeable sample of Wall St.’s interests. In some cases, we will publish the actual tweets from the sites.

Among the most tweeted stocks on market aggregator Top Stock Tweets are GBPUSD, AUDUSD, BP plc, Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), Affymax, Inc (NASDAQ: AFFY), Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (NYSE: VRX), Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), and Verizon Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: VZ).CNN Money: Apple 2.0: A $109-million weekend for Steve Jobs http://bit.ly/cYoW2f $AAPL

Reuters Biz: Barclays bosses to take stand in Lehman row http://link.reuters.com/xym23m

Bloomberg: Democrats Use BP Oil Spill to Push Energy Bill, Republican McConnell Says $BP #climate http://ow.ly/213T8

CNBC: BP Looking at Bond Offering or Bank Loan to Raise $4 Billion-$5 Billion, Not $10 Billion, CNBC Has Learned http://bit.ly/8ZmqBK

DailyFinance: Will Dell Dump Microsoft for Google’s Chrome Browser? http://bit.ly/aDSVot

FT: Beijing allows modest rise in renminbi: The Chinese currency is permitted to appreciate modestly in the first day … http://bit.ly/bZ1p3d

Douglas A. McIntyre

Sponsor: 5 best investments for 2010 – The next nine months represent a bold new era for investors.

Filed under: Research Tagged: AAPL, AFFY, AUDUSD, BP, DIS, GBPUSD, Twitter, VRX, VZ

The 52-Week Low Club

247wallst — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:41:17 +0000

Fremont General (FMT) Mortgage company debt rating cut. Falls to $1.81 from 52-week high of $17.30.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) Drops on downgrade. Drops to $10.35 from $18.82.

Nordstrom (JWN) Retailers keep hurting. Drops to $33.71 from 52-week high of $59.70.

Merrill Lynch (MER) CEO gone. Big losses. Drops to $53.86 from 52-week high of $98.68.

Citigroup (C) CEO gone. Bigger loses. Drops to $35 from 52-week high of $57.

Novacea (NOVC) Drug trial blows up. Falls to $2.21 from 52-week high of $17.25.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) Problem with one of its drugs. Downgraded by analyst. Falls to $22.92 from 52-week high of $45.38.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The 52-Week Low Club

247wallst — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:10:10 +0000

Assured Guaranty (AGO) Small bond insurance company. Wall St. hates bonds. Drops to $17.79 from 52-week high of $31.99.

AMBAC (ABK) Big bond insurance company in world where bonds are bad. Down to $26.96. The 52-week high was $96.10.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) Quarterly loss. Falls to $11.61 from 52-week high $19.15.

MBIA (MBI) Bond insurance company. Dead in the water. Down to $36.92 from $76.02 high for last year.

Citigroup (C) Down to $38.13 on possible dividend cut. From 52-week high of $57.00.

Smith Micro (SMSI) Rough quarter. Down to $10.65 from 52-week high of $21.20

Douglas A. McIntyre