Pre-Market active stocks
Gainers
- Hostess Brands (NASDAQ:TWNK) stock soared more than 15% after Reuters reported that Jif peanut butter producer JM Smucker (NYSE:SJM) is close to a $5 billion agreement with the owner of Twinkies snack cakes.
- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock climbed 6% after Morgan Stanley raised the electric car manufacturer’s stance to ‘overweight’ from ‘equal weight,’ saying it a top buy because its dedicated supercomputer, Dojo, can contribute up to $500B to the company’s enterprise value.
- Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) stock jumped 5.2% on Monday after the chipmaker announced a new contract with Apple to supply 5G components to the iPhone maker until at least 2026.
- Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) stock jumped 2.8% after Deutsche Bank upgraded the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) spinoff to ‘buy’ from ‘hold,’ predicting a short-term comeback of more than 25%.
- The shares of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) increased 1.2% after the Wall Street Journal claimed that Facebook’s parent company is working on a new artificial-intelligence system that will be as powerful as the most advanced model given by OpenAI.
- Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares increased 1.1%, reversing a nearly 6% drop last week due to China’s limitations on iPhone usage for government officials, ahead of Tuesday’s new product announcement, which is expected to reveal the next iPhone.
- Boeing (NYSE:BA) stock increased 0.9% after the White House announced a $7.8 billion contract with Vietnam Airlines to purchase 50 737 Max planes from the planemaker.
Losers
- Brunswick (NYSE:BC) stock fell 2.1% after JPMorgan downgraded the recreational boat manufacturer from ‘overweight’ to ‘neutral,’ citing concerns about high borrowing rates impacting consumer demand and surplus inventory.
- ADRs in Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) slumped 0.8% after the Chinese e-commerce giant said that exiting CEO Daniel Zhang will also stand down as head of its cloud unit. This was a surprising move because Zhang was supposed to manage Alibaba’s cloud unit as the company prepares to split into six divisions in the coming months.
Insider Trades
1-800-FLOWERS.Com The CFO purchases roughly $200,000 in stock.
William Shea, Chief Financial Officer & SVP of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM (FLWS), declared the acquisition of 30,000 common shares on 09/07/23 at an average price of $6.34 per share.
The total buying price was $190,200.
Shea now owns 274,883 common shares as a result of her most recent acquisition.
The CEO of Foot Locker purchases $100,000 in stock.
Foot Locker (FL) President and CEO Mary Dillion disclosed the acquisition of 5,510 common shares on 09/08/23 at $18.17 in a Form 4 filing with the SEC.
The purchasing price was $100,116.70.
Dillion now owns 27,649 shares indirectly and 115,388 directly as a result of the most recent acquisition.
Deals
Enbridge will pay Dominion Energy $14 billion for three utilities.
According to InvestingPro, Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) agreed to buy EOG, Questar, and PSNC from Dominion Energy (NYSE:D) for a total of $14 billion, which includes $9.4 billion in cash and $4.6 billion in assumed debt.
Enbridge’s foothold in the US utility sector will be expanded through the purchases, which include gas utility businesses in Ohio, North Carolina, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. Enbridge’s gas utility division will become the largest in North America following the acquisition.
Following the announcement, Enbridge stock dropped more than 5% on Wednesday.
WestRock and Smurfit Kappa have agreed to merge.
Smurfit Kappa Group and WestRock (NYSE:WRK) verified rumours of talks about becoming “Smurfit WestRock.” The new business would be formed and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with operations in the Americas based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Smurfit WestRock’s ordinary shares will be listed on the NYSE following the merger, with the goal of eventually being included in US equities indexes. Smurfit Kappa’s present premium listing on the London Stock Exchange may be replaced by a normal listing, and the company may also be delisted from Euronext Dublin.
Truist believes Alteryx might be acquired for $44 per share.
Truist Securities restated its Buy rating and $40.00 price target on Alteryx (NYSE:AYX) following news that the company is negotiating a deal with Qatalyst Partners.
Alteryx, according to the company, has valuable core technological assets in the self-service data preparation market. With the current industry focus on making data and analytics more accessible through AI, the firm believes Alteryx’s technology will be relevant whether the company continues as an independent entity or combines with another company in the developing IT landscape.
Truist believes that any acquisition may occur at a valuation that suggests a share price of around $44.
The stock market finished the week up more than 18%.
Thoma Bravo plans to take NextGen Healthcare private.
Thoma Bravo has agreed to buy Nextgen Healthcare (NASDAQ:NXGN) for $23.95 per share in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in Q4/23, subject to typical closing conditions such as shareholder approval and needed regulatory approvals.
Following the completion of this transaction, NextGen Healthcare will become a privately held firm.
NextGen stock finished the week up more than 22%.
Earnings Calendar
Monday, September 11
- Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Casey’s General Stores (CASY), and Bowlero Corp. (BOWL)
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ell suffers as a result of a downgrade by Barclays.
Dell Technologies (NYSE:DELL) shares tumbled 3% before the bell on Thursday after Barclays downgraded the firm to Underweight from Equalweight, with a $53.00 price target.
Cloudflare began at Underperform.
Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) has been added to BofA Securities’ coverage with an Underperform rating and a $52.00 price objective.
Crocs (NASDAQ:CROX) shares were down more than 2% in pre-market trading today after B.Riley downgraded the firm to Neutral from Buy and reduced its price objective to $101.00 from $125.00.
Verint Systems (NASDAQ:VRNT) was downgraded from Outperform to Perform by Oppenheimer.
Following the company’s announced Q2 EPS and sales misses, as well as dismal full-year forecasts, shares fell more than 17% pre-market today.