Friday, March 29, 2024
Homemarket insiderEarly movers: MDLZ, ZTS, YHOO, GIS, VRX, PIS, JBLU, UAL & more

Early movers: MDLZ, ZTS, YHOO, GIS, VRX, PIS, JBLU, UAL & more

Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

Mondelez — The snack giant's stock jumped nearly 5 percent in premarket trading after Bloomberg reported that Kraft-Heinz was planning to acquire it. Mondelez declined CNBC's request for comment, but sources said the firm is unaware of any takeover approach by Kraft-Heinz.

21st Century Fox — The media giant formalized its bid for Sky, with Fox offering a 40 percent premium for each Sky share. Fox had first approached Sky about a possible takeover bid last week.

General Mills — Analysts at RBC Capital Markets downgraded the cereal and yogurt maker's stock to "sector perform" from "outperform," and reduced its price target to $69 from $73 per share, citing declining volumes. "In our view, a 300bp acceleration in US measured channel volume declines over the last three months will likely limit EPS upside and growth — both historically important to stock erformance," RBC said in a note.

Yahoo — Shares of the former tech giant fell about 3.5 percent before the bell, a day after announcing it had identified a new breach that occurred in August 2013 and involved data associated with more than 1 billion user accounts.

Eli Lilly — Eli Lilly reaffirmed its 2016 and 2017 guidance, adding it has the potential to launch 20 new products by 2023. Shares of the pharmaceutical company rose 4 percent in premarket trading.

Zoetis — Analysts at Piper Jaffray resumed coverage of the animal health firm's stock with an "overweight" rating and a $61 price target. "We continue to expect a challenged environment and now with livestock margins under pressure, but we like the resilience of the animal health industry despite volatile end markets in livestock," Piper said in a note.

Archer Daniels Midland — Analysts at Stifel resumed coverage of Archer Daniels Midland's stock with a "hold" rating and a $46 price target, citing improving margins within certain segments and cost savings, "offset in part by continued pressure on grain merchandising and transportation margins, as well as an oversupplied ethanol market."

JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, PNC, BB&T — These are just a few U.S. banks that raised their prime rate on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve increased short-term interest rates for the second time in a decade. The prime rate is the rate at which individual banks lend to their most creditworthy customers, including large corporations.

Pier 1 — The retailer's stock spiked around 20 percent after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results and raising its full-year guidance. "Sales trends rebounded in the second half of November, following the election, which enabled us to deliver third quarter results well ahead of our forecast," CEO Alex Smith said in a statement.

Apogee Enterprises —The manufacturing firm posted earnings per share of 78 cents and sales of $274.1 million, beating earnings estimates of 77 cents per share and a sales forecast of $272.9 million. The company also raised its earnings outlook for 2017.

Marathon Oil —Analysts at Instinet downgraded the exploration and production company's stock to "neutral" from "buy," citing valuation concerns. "The recent strength in the energy market and in MRO specifically has driven the stock to within 5 percent of our revised $19 target," Instinet said in a note. However, Instinet also raised its price target on the stock to $19 from $15.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals — The embattled pharmaceutical firm had its stock downgraded to "equal weight" from "overweight" at Morgan Stanley. "Our thesis that Valeant's business would stabilize and asset sales would enhance value has not materialized. We move to the sidelines as we await future corporate updates. Lowering PT from $25 to $17," Morgan Stanley said.

JetBlue, United Continental — Barclays initiated coverage of the two airline stocks with an "overweight" rating, citing "material upside" within the stocks. "Our Top Pick is UAL given management's targets to generate best-in-class profitability," Barclays said.

—CNBC's Anita Balakrishnan and Reuters contributed to this report.

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