Major Movers on January 8; YUM, MON, TLLP, FIO, GME, PERI, TISI

Shares of Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) slumped 4.58 percent, at last check. The parent company of brands such as KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell said that its sales in China will fall more than expected. The Company said that same-store-sales in KFC stores will decline as the government reviewed country’s poultry supply. Meanwhile, Wall Street firms have slashed their rating on the stock. Jefferies cut its price target on stock by $2 to $$68, Susquehanna downwardly revised its price target to $65 from $69, and UBS slashed its Price target to $69 from $73 while S&P Capital lowered its price target by $1 to $78.

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Athenahealth to Acquire Epocrates (ATHN, EPOC)

athenahealth Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN), a provider of online services to hospital and doctors, announced on Monday that it has agreed to acquire Epocrates Inc. (NASDAQ: EPOC), a maker of mobile health applications, in a deal estimated at $293 million, as the Watertown-based company looks to expand its traction in electronic records and gain a leading iPhone application.

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Major Movers on January 7; ES, ILMN, NFLX, CBMX, VVUS, AMZN, NCT, BIDU, NSM, ZNGA

Shares of EnergySolutions Inc. (NYSE: ES)  surged 8.28% to $3.72 after the company announced that it agreed to be acquired by  a subsidiary of Energy Capital Partners II, LLC  in a deal estimated at  $1.1 billion. According to the deal, each shareholder of EnergySolutions will get $3.75 in cash for each share of common stock. The deal represents a premium of 20 percent over the average closing price of Energysolution’s stock in previous 30 days ended January 4 2013.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) shares plunged 7.66 percent after Roche Holding Chairman Franz Humer confirmed in an interview that the Company does not hold any plans to acquire the gene-sequencing-specialist.

Shares of movie steaming company Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) climbed nearly 1.5 percent after the company announced a licensing agreement with Warner Bros. Television Group.

CombiMatrix Corporation (NASDAQ: CBMX) rallied on Monday. The stock gained almost 15 percent after the developer of cancer diagnostics and testing services for developmental disorders said that it anticipates higher-than-expected year-over-year growth in volume in prenatal testing for the fiscal fourth quarter and full year.

Shares of VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) climbed 10.50 percent on Monday after the company reported that prescription of  anti-obesity drug Qsymia, its key product, jumped almost 68 percent for a four week period ended December 21,  compared to preceding four week period. The number of prescriptions in the latest period comfortably beat analysts’ expectations. The drug manufacturer said that it shipped 12,978 prescription of Qsymia in December up from 7,749 prescriptions in the four week period, ended November 23.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares gained around 3.30 percent after Morgan Stanley upwardly revised its rating on the stock to “overweight” from “neutral”.

Newcastle Investment Corp. (NYSE: NCT) shares leaped almost 5.50 percent on Monday. Newcastle Investment said that it intends to make a public offering of 40 million shares of common stock. The company also said that it plans to offer underwriters the option for 30 days to buy up to an additional 6 million shares of common stock.

Baidu.com Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) shares fell almost 3 percent  after analyst at Barclays slashed its rating on the stock t to” Equalweight”, citing concerns  over earnings , lack of footprint in mobile computing, and Qihoo’s (QIHU) search success. Barclays which started its coverage on Baidu from October 2011 with “outperform” rating, cuts its price target last August.

Shares of Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. (NYSE: NSM) jumped 11.50 percent after it entered in a deal to buy $215 billion worth residential mortgage servicing rights from Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).

Shares of social gaming company Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) gained on Monday after the company confirmed that it has shuttered 11 of the 13 worst performing titles. Earlier in October 2012, the Company had said that it will pull-out underperforming13 titles by the end of January 2013 as it looked to slash costs and enhance efficiency as well as profitability by diverting resources in developing new titles.  The Company has lost significant number of gamers for its once popular titles published in the Facebook platform due to growing competition from other gaming companies as well as lack of visibility in mobile.

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings to Acquire Mortgage Servicing Assets from Bank of America; Shares Surge (NSM, BAC)

Shares of Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. (NYSE: NSM), a non-bank residential mortgage servicer with a range of services across the residential mortgage product spectrum, are soaring in trading today after the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary signed a definitive agreement with Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) to acquire mortgage servicing assets.

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Eli Lilly’s Fiscal 2013 Outlook Betters Street’s Estimate (LLY)

Pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) edged up on Friday after the company said that fiscal 2013 earnings will beat Street’s estimate despite the fact that  two of its key drugs will lose U.S. patent protection during this year.

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Progress Software Shares Surge on Q4 Results (PRGS)

Shares of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a global enterprise software company offering a portfolio of real-time software solutions, are soaring in trading today after the company reported its fourth-quarter financial results.

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Major Movers on January 4; CSTR, MOS, LULU, ROVI, FINL

Shares of Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR), a provider of automated retail solutions, are down sharply in early trading today. At last check, CSTR shares were trading 6.13% lower at $48.86 on volume of 22,327. The stock fell to an intra-day low of $48.80 today.

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Major Movers on January 3; FDO, RIG, MLNX, HRL, MASI, LXK

Shares of Family Dollar Stores Inc. (NYSE: FDO), a Matthews, North Carolina-based company operating a chain of over 7,400 general merchandise retail discount stores in 45 states, are sinking in trading today. At last check, FDO shares were trading 11.96% lower at $56.38 on above average volume of 11.88 million. The stock hit an intra-day low of $53.03 earlier today.

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