Shares of Ignyta, Inc. (RXDX, Financial) traded more than 70% higher on news that Swiss healthcare firm Roche will buy the company for $1.7 billion. Roche will pay $27 per share for Ignyta, representing a premium of about 74% to yesterday´s stock closing price. With the acquisition, the European company aims to broaden the oncology portfolio with the Ignyta, which has several drugs in early stage development.
Moreover, shares of Accenture plc(ACN, Financial) traded higher after the analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald are more bullish on the company, as they raised their price target $180 from $151, but maintained an Overweight rating. The price target adjustment follows first quarter results. The company reported EPS of $1.79 on revenue of $9.52 billion. It managed to beat earnings expectations by 12 cents and $260 million in revenue.
Shares of Cintas Corporation (CTAS, Financial) jumped more than 2% on the back of the company reporting its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2018, ended Nov. 30. The company posted an adjusted EPS of $1.31 on revenue of $1.61 billion, which represented a 26.8% increase from the figure reported a year earlier. Moreover, the company managed to beat EPS expectations by four cents, and revenue also beat consensus estimate by $20 million.
Moreover, the operating income was $235 million, an increase of 17.3% from the same trimester of the past year. Also, the company managed to return cash to shareholders. Scott D. Farmer, Cintas’ Chairman and CEO, said that “on December 8th, we were pleased to increase total shareholder return by paying an annual dividend of $1.62 per share, an increase of 21.8% over last year’s annual dividend. We have increased the annual dividend for 34 consecutive years.”
SMART Global Holdings, Inc. (SGH)traded 10% higher on Friday after reporting thirdquarter results yesterday. It recorded EPS of $1.05 on revenue of $265.4 million. The company managed to beat expectations in EPS by 13 cents and in revenue by $10.4million. The revenue growth was 66.6% year-over-year.
Iain MacKenzie, President and CEO´s Company, was pleased with the quarter results, with revenue, gross margin and EPS all exceeded the high end of their revised guidance for the first trimester. Also, for the future he visualizes Brazil as a key for improvement. A better outlook for the South American country plus a strong demand for higher density products from the OEM customers, led to a positive momentum for the company.
Disclosure: The author holds no position in any stocks mentioned.
