Morning Buzz: Planar Systems (PLNR), Tableau Software (DATA), Sierra Wireless Inc. (SWIR), American Capital (ACAS)

Shares of Beaverton, Oregon-based Planar Systems Inc. (PLNR) advanced to $3.70 at the close yesterday in New York and have risen nearly 51% in pre-market trading Thursday, after the manufacturer of electronic display products reported fiscal Q4 revenue and EPS that beat Wall Street’s expectations. Planar said it earned $0.14 per share, $0.05 better than estimates of $0.09. Revs jumped more than 17% y/y, to $53.6M versus the $48.55M consensus.

The company also issued upside guidance anticipating revenue in Q1’15 to range between $55M and $58M, which would represent total revenue growth of 36% to 43% compared to Q1’14. Non-GAAP net income for 1Q’15 is expected to range between $0.15 and $0.18 per share, compared to $0.05 per share in the 1Q’14.

Following the company’s solid results, analysts at Needham upgraded PLNR to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ and set target price at $7 implying 90% expected return from the stock’s previous close.

Planar Systems shares are currently priced at 57.81x this year’s forecasted earnings compared to the industry’s 17.03x earnings multiple. Ticker has a PEG and forward P/E ratio of 0.64 and 9.02, respectively. Price/sales for the same period is 0.46 while EPS is $0.06. Currently there are 2 analysts that rate PLNR a ‘Buy’, while 1 rates it a ‘Hold’. No analysts rates it a ‘Sell’. PLNR has a median Wall Street price target of $3.90 with a high target of $4.30.

PLNR is up 80.49% year-over-year, and 45.67% year-to-date.

Shares of Tableau Software, Inc. (DATA) surged 10% in pre-market trading Thursday after the name was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Sector Perform’ from RBC Capital Market. The firm also increased its price target on the shares to $100 from $78 saying it feels the analytics software provider reported one of the best September prints with significant upside to all metrics.

DATA shares recently gained $7.75 to $84.25. In the past 52 weeks, shares of Seattle, Washington-based firm have traded between a low of $52.02 and a high of $102.37. Shares are up 19.53% year-over-year, and up 10.98% year-to-date.

Shares of Sierra Wireless Inc. (SWIR) rallied 20% to $31.80 in pre-market trade after the provider of cellular wireless solutions released its earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported Q3 (Sep) EPS of $0.24 per share, $0.11 better than estimates of $0.13. Revenue for Q3’14 was $143.3M, an increase of 27.6% compared to $112.3M in Q3’13.

SWIR shares recently gained $5.46 to $32.00. The stock is up more than 49.69% year-over-year and has gained roughly 9.81% year-to-date. In the past 52 weeks, shares of Richmond, Canada-based company have traded between a low of $15.50 and a high of $30.55.

Sierra Wireless Inc., which closed Wednesday at $26.54, has a total market cap of $836.01M.

American Capital, Ltd. (ACAS) is one of today’s notable pre-market movers, up as much as 9 percent. The gain comes after the Bethesda, Maryland-based private equity and asset management firm announced today that its board has unanimously approved plans to split into three companies.

American Capital says under the plan the company will transfer most of the corporation’s investment assets to two newly established business development companies (“BDCs”), with estimated equity of $3 billion, and having American Capital, with roughly $1 billion of equity, continue primarily in the asset management business. It is contemplated that American Capital will spin off the new BDCs to its shareholders, resulting in three, publicly-traded companies.

“We believe that this transaction should be of significant benefit to our shareholders,” Malon Wilkus, Chairman and CEO of American Capital said in a statement. “Separating our robust asset management business from our investment assets and allocating our investments between two distinct investment strategies will better tailor our businesses to the investment interests of our shareholders.

ACAS shares recently gained $1.34 to $16.00. The stock is up more than 2.37% year-over-year, and has lost roughly 6.27% year-to-date.

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