Front Runners: ShoreTel (SHOR), Cleco Corporation (CNL), Vitae Pharmaceuticals (VTAE), Twitter (TWTR)

ShoreTel (SHOR) rose more than 19% to $7.75 in midday trading Monday after rejecting an offer by Mitel Networks Corp. (MITL) to acquire the company for about $540 million, or $8.10 per share in cash. The offer represents a 24% premium to ShoreTel’s closing pps from Friday, and a 30% premium to ShoreTel’s enterprise value. Mitel said it made its offer public after ShoreTel rejected an earlier proposal sent on Oct. 2 and refused to engage with the company.

“We are disappointed that the ShoreTel Board has rejected our proposal and refused to engage with us. Mitel continues to believe that the proposal offers ShoreTel shareholders an attractive premium,” Mitel president and CEO Richard McBee said in a statement.

ShoreTel, Inc, currently valued at $486.93M, has a median Wall Street price target of $10.00 with a high target of $12.50. Approximately 2,27M shares have already changed hands compared to the stock’s average daily volume of 385,265.

In the past 52 weeks, shares of Sunnyvale, California-based business communication solutions company have traded between a low of $5.73 and a high of $9.81 with the 50-day MA and 200-day MA located at $6.51 and $6.78 levels, respectively. Additionally, shares of SHOR trade at a P/E ratio of 2.29 and have a Relative Strength Index (RSI) and MACD indicator of 71.31 and +0.47, respectively.

SHOR currently prints a one year return of about 1.88% and a year-to-date loss of around 29.85%.

Cleco Corporation (CNL) shares are up nearly 11% to $53.29 after the company agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets for about $4.7 billion, including $1.3 billion of assumed debt.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, the group will pay $55.37 in cash for each share of Cleco, representing a premium of about 15% to CNL’s closing price-per-share of $48.27 on October 17, the last trading day prior to announcement.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2015.

Cleco Corporation gained $5.11 in recent trading. Approximately 2,301,111 shares have already changed hands compared to the stock’s average daily volume of 533,457 shares.

On valuation-measures, shares of Cleco Corporation have a trailing-12 and forward P/E of 21.01 and 19.76, respectively. P/E to growth ratio is 2.58, while t-12 profit margin is 13.00%. EPS registers at $2.54. The company has a market cap of $3.22B and a median Wall Street price target of $52.50 with a high target of $58.00.

On trading-measure, CNL has a beta of 0.62 and a short float of 3.08%. In the past 52 weeks, shares of Pineville, Louisiana-based utility provider have traded between a low of $44.70 and a high of $59.21 with its 50-day MA and 200-day MA located at $52.11 and $53.27 levels, respectively.

CNL currently prints a one year return of about 7.36% and a year-to-date return of around 5.14%.

Vitae Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (VTAE) shares are higher this morning following the name’s sell-side lock-up expiration.

Amid the expiration, investment analysts at JMP Securities initiated coverage on shares of Vitae with a ‘Market Outperform’ rating and $15.00 price target. Separately, Stifel Nicolaus also initiated coverage on VTAE with a ‘Buy’ rating and $14 price target.

Vitae shares recently gained $0.67 to $6.97. JMP and Stifel’s target price suggest a potential upside of about 115.20% and 100.86%, respectively, from the names’s current pps.

In the past 52 weeks, shares of Fort Washington, Pennsylvania-based company have traded between a low of $5.41 and a high of $8.48.

Shares of Twitter, Inc (TWTR) are up $1.89, or 3.87%, at $50.65 following a price target increase to $63 from $62 at Topeka Capital. The firm said in a report this morning they remain positive on the shares, both near-term into 3Q and longer-term. The firm also said it believes the micro-blogging platform can close the monetization gap with its peer group.

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