ZION, VRX, GSK, BW, PEET, DDRX, GMCR Popular Stocks
U.S. stocks rose Monday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 125 points to 10443, the S&P 500 climbed 14 points to 1105 and the Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 27 points to 2173.
Zions Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ:ZION, $14.30, +$1.75, +13.94%) announced plans to swap about $140 million of preferred shares for up to 7 million common shares as the company looks to boost common-equity levels. The offer, while a nearly 50% discount to face value, is close to a 25% premium to where the preferred shares were trading Friday. The company also said it would hedge part of its securities portfolio to make it more asset sensitive, which an analyst said will have a significant tax benefit to the bank.
The renamed Valeant Pharmaceuticals International has (NYSE:VRX, $32.13, -$1.15, -3.46%) stabilized itself and found profits in its motley portfolio of specialty drugs following a shareholder takeover. This year, some investors have gotten rather excited over a prospective drug for epilepsy–which Valeant and partner GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE:GSK, $42.05, +$0.52, 1.25%) just submitted for regulatory approval, sending Valeant shares doubling since March, to a recent $33. But shares of the company could fall by up to a third if Valeant’s new epilepsy drug doesn’t find a profitable niche to offset declining royalties from its hepatitis C treatment, Barron’s warns.
Brush Engineered Materials Inc. (NYSE:BW, $18.56, +$1.00, 5.69%) shares rose after Sidoti analyst Charles Murphy boosted the rating to buy from neutral. Murphy told Dow Jones that the stock is oversold, and a majority of Brush’s businesses are now moving in the right direction. “It was tripped up in the third quarter on some execution stuff that I think has been resolved,” Murphy said. He added Brush has fixed some quality issues in its advanced materials business.
Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. (NASDAQ:PEET, $33.94, -$4.06, -10.68%) proposed to raise the size of its deal for Diedrich Coffee Inc. (NASDAQ:DDRX, $33.33, +$7.34, 28.23%) to $32 a share in cash and stock, or $265 million, after rival Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR, $64.99, -$0.02, -0.03%) proposed buying the company for $30 a share.
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