10X Volume Spike Alert in Verint (VRNT)

Verint Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNT) is showing nearly a 10X volume spike alert in the first 75 minutes of trading.  The WSJ noted that buyout shops are interested in it and Comverse assets in an acquisition.  Verint shares are up 14.85% at $29.62 on 751,000 shares as of 10:46 AM EST.  The average volume here is a mere 82,000 shares and the 52-week trading range was $13.70 to $28.00 before today’s new high of $31.31.

Tech buyout hope continues… Verint provides “actionable intelligence solutions and value-added services worldwide” to capture, distill, and analyze underused data and information sources, such as voice, video, and unstructured text.

JON C. OGG

Powered By iWebRSS.com

DryShips Wins Drilling Contract

DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is up 7.61% in pre-market trading this morning to $4.81.  This move follows news that the company a Letter of Award for exploration drilling offshore West Africa.  The contract is estimated to be worth $135 million.

DryShips has traded 786,439 shares so far this morning at 8:35 AM EST.  The gain comes during a 52-week range of $3.28 to $7.62.

-Michael B. Sauter

Powered By iWebRSS.com

Decline In Adobe Software Demand

Adobe Systems Incorporated (ADBE) is down 20.52% this morning to $26.18 in pre-market trading after the company announced that demand for its product from Japanese and U.S. education customers had been weaker than usual.  At 8:35 AM EST Adobe has traded 4,533,702 shares, compared with the company’s daily average of 9,209,300 shares.  This drop in share price comes during a 52-week range of $26.01 to $38.20.

The company expects current-quarter revenue in its creative solutions business, which contains Creative Suite 5, to be either flat or slightly down.

-Michael B. Sauter

Powered By iWebRSS.com

Vivus Weight Loss Drug Effective Over Two Year Period

Vivus Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) is up 9.55% to $6.77 in pre-market trading following an announcement that the company’s experimental weight loss drug, Qnexa, helped overweight people lose an average of 11.4% of their body weight after two years in a clinical trial for the drug.  Vivus has already traded 460,503 shares, which is a significant number for pre-market trading, compared with their daily average of 5,387,870.  This move also comes during a 52-week range of $4.69 to $13.68.

Vivus is an American biopharma company.  They currently offer MUSE, a treatment for erectile disfunction. The FDA is scheduled to make a decision on Qnexa’s application by October 28, 2010.

-Michael B. Sauter

Powered By iWebRSS.com

Avanir Moves On Potential FDA Approval

Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVNR) was up 6.43% this morning to $24.33 as a PDUFA decision date of October 30 for the company’s drug, AVP-923, draws close, implying potential FDA approval.  At 8:35 AM EST Avanir had already traded 4,600 shares, compared with the company’s average of 1,527,350.  This move comes during a 52-week range of $1.65 to $3.73.

AVP-923 is usedfor the treatment of psuedobulbar affect in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis.

-Michael B. Sauter

Powered By iWebRSS.com

Oracle Reports Rising Software Sales

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) was up 3.98% this morning in pre-market trading to $26.37 following news that software sales had increased 25% for the company.  At 8:35 AM EST the company had already traded 1,018,675 shares, compared with the daily average of 29,926,200.  This move also came during a 52-week range of $20.10 to $26.63.

Oracle is a technology company the works in both hardware and software.  The company’s quarterly earnings and revenue forecasts also beat out Wall St. expectations.

-Michael B. Sauter

Powered By iWebRSS.com

FDA Approves New Drug From Savient

Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVNT) shot up this morning in pre-market trading on news that the US FDA has approved the company’s gout drug, called Krystexxa, for patients who do not respond to conventional therapy.  At 8:35 AM EST shares were up 27.24% to $18.78 and 1,032,537 shares have already been traded.  This beats the average volume of 798,131 shares, and also exceeds the company’s 52-week range of $11.20 to $16.62.

-Michael B. Sauter

Powered By iWebRSS.com

Is Radware For Real? (RDWR, HPQ, IBM)

Radware Ltd. (NASDAQ: RDWR) almost felt like an enigma wrapped in a riddle today, but a 38.4% gain to $38.59 on more than a 60-times normal volume spike is too impossible to ignore.  Options trading was very elevated in the SEPT-2010 and DEC-2010 options was off the charts.

A Barron’s blog piece claimed that the Tel Aviv, Israel company, in unsourced fashion, is possibly going to be bought by Hewlett Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) or IBM Inc. (NYSE: IBM).  The value was offered up as $945 million or some $45.00 per share.

Shares hit a 52-week high of $39.46 before closing up 38.45 at $38.59 on more than 9 million shares.  Average volume is not even 150,000 shares.  Keep in mind that the prior 52-week trading range was $10.77 to $28.24.

Radware was under $10 just as recently as August-2008. Shares have not been this high since the tech bubble days of 2000.  Debunking a deal on price alone is often unfair, but the realization on September 14, 2010 that this could be a nice fit for a buyout to compete more in a consolidating tech world is a bit late  and it is with too much premium compared to when these companies could have all been bought for a song.

JON C. OGG

Powered By iWebRSS.com

Level 3 Offering Fall-Out (LVLT)

Level 3 Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) is getting clobbered, and much harder than what you might expect considering the history of this company.

Last night came an announcement from the company that it is offering $175 million in Convertible Senior Notes due 2016 in an underwritten offering, and it will give underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional $26,250,000 to cover over-allotments, if any.

BofA Merrill Lynch is listed as the sole book-running manager, Citi is the lead manager and Deutsche Bank Securities and Morgan Stanley are listed as co-managers.

The June 30 balance sheet showed some $443 million in cash and the company still lists over $6.223 billion in long-term debt. As far as a use of proceeds, that is for general corporate purposes including working capital, capital expenditures and the potential repurchase or redemption of its 5.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2011 and other existing indebtedness from time to time.  Level 3′s market cap is listed as $1.93 billion before the effects of any added dilution.

Shares are being hit by more than 11% at $1.03 on more than 800,000 shares and the 52-week trading range is $0.95 to $1.77.

JON C. OGG

Powered By iWebRSS.com

Ironwood Sees Progress For New Drug

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IRWD) is up 16.98% at 8:35 AM EST this morning to $11.40 on reports that there have been positive late-stage clinical trials for the company’s new drug for treating irritable bowel syndrome and constipation.  The company has already traded 5,234 shares in premarket trading, compared with their daily average of 201,364.  This gain comes during a 52-week range of $8.90 to $15.03.

Ironwood is a biopharma company the creates drugs used for therapeutic needs.  They are based out of Cambridge, MA.

Powered By iWebRSS.com

A123 Jumps With Opening of New Plant

Lithium ion battery manufacturer A123 Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: AONE) has opened up the largest plant of its kind in North America, aided in part by the Obama Administration stimulus package. As of 8:39AM EDT, the stock was up 10.05% to $8.10, which is close to the bottom of AONE’s 52-week range of $6.32 to $28.20. The stock has traded 108,437 shares in volume, with an average daily volume of 2.45 million shares.

-Michael B. Sauter

Powered By iWebRSS.com

Lululemon Doubles Second Quarter Profit, Stock Rising

Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) released second quarter earnings yesterday. The Vancouver-based women’s athletic retail company posted a quarterly revenue increase of 56%. Premarket, shares of LULU were up 9.4%, with 31,000 shares traded (average daily volume is 800,000.) The stock, which is currently at $39.53, is trading close to the top of its 52-week range of $21-$46.49.

-Michael B. Sauter

Powered By iWebRSS.com

Skechers Volume Explosion on Stock Implosion (SKX)

Skechers USA Inc. (NYSE: SKX) is getting railroaded today on massive trading volume.  Susquehanna Financial Group cut its analyst rating on the shoe-maker down to “Neutral” from “Positive.”

What is amazing is that shares opened positive on the day and then around 1PM EST shares fell of a cliff.  The stock at 2:52 PM EST has seen 11.8% drop to $23.21 versus yesterday’s close of $26.34 and versus today’s high of $26.85.  There have also been a whopping 5.8 million shares traded.  The average volume is 1.875 million shares and the 52-week range is $16.39 to $44.90.

You don’t normally see a firm rating from Susquehanna take out more than 10% from a share price because its analyst team doesn’t like what it sees.  The firm noted that there was a significant increase in discounts on sales over Labor Day and that slow units ales are also being seen.  More importantly, low valuations should limit the downside risks per the research.

Almost 12% of a drop is not exactly a “limited downside” scenario.

JON C. OGG

Powered By iWebRSS.com

A Petering-Out in Brocade? (BRCD, DELL, HPQ, PAR, CSCO)

Seven days is enough… Maybe. That is what traders decided today in Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD).  With all of the Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) action in the 3PAR, Inc. (NYSE: PAR) from the bidding war, Brocade has been thought of as one of the GO-TO takeover names.  After all, this is networking and storage that would allow any buyer to have a lower-cost provider jump to protect its datacenter business revenues from Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO).

The price to beat today was $5.92, but was not meant to be.  Shares opened up at $5.97 Wednesday for nearly a 1% gain and the high was up 2% at $6.04 on an intraday basis.  That was short-lived and every round of buying was met with sellers taking profits with shares closing down 0.8% at $5.87.  The trading volume was 18.4 million shares, still above average but not on average with the last four days.  Here is hoe Brocade has traded of late, with today breaking that seventh straight gain:

JON C. OGG

Powered By iWebRSS.com

ZymoGenetics Continues Projectory In Premarket

ZymoGenetics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZGEN) skyrocketed this morning in premarket trading after it was announced that the company would be purchased by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. for $885 million.  At 8:35 AM EST the biopharmaceutical company is up 83.58% to $9.73 and has already traded 5,999,021 shares.  This is clearly a huge gain, especially considering the company’s average volume of 385,512 shares.

This move comes during a 52 week trading range of $3.70 to $7.31, making this the highest stock price in quite some time.

-Michael B. Sauter

Powered By iWebRSS.com

With Hurd As New Pres, Oracle Jumps Pre-Market

IT appears that morning traders seem to approve of Software giant Oracle Corporation’s (NASDAQ: ORCL) acquisition of former Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd. As of 8:41AM EDT, the stock is up $1.64 (7.16%) to $24.56. ORCL has already traded 1.91 million shares, with an average daily volume of 25.2 million.

Hurd resigned from HP recently after a fiasco involving sexual harassment charges and account inaccuracies.

-Michael B. Sauter

Powered By iWebRSS.com

Mariner: Explosion/Fire Causes Volume Explosion (ME, APA, BP)

Mariner Energy, Inc. (NYSE: ME), which is being acquired by Apache (NYSE: APA), has just seen an exponential volume surge due to the sticky nature of any offshore drilling accidents after the BP plc (NYSE: BP) disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  Mariner’s spokesperson on CNBC said that a fire took place about an hour ago, and that the oil well(s) around the area have been shut in and that all personnel have safely been evacuated.  The company believes that there is no oil leaking nor that any has spilled in the area.

Update 12:30 EST: It turns out that this was a production platform that was not in production.

At 12:10 PM EST there have been over 24 million shares traded hands versus 4.4 million shares on average.  The stock fell to nearly $20 during the panic selling, but now shares are down “only” 2% at $22.85.  The 52-week trading range is $11.35 to $26.32.

JON C. OGG

Powered By iWebRSS.com