Morning Buzz: Apple (AAPL), Sequenom Inc. (SQNM), MOL Global (MOLG), Taser (TASR)

Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares tumbled in early trade Wednesday as the technology giant returns to court for the second day in Oakland, California, defending itself against allegations of abusing a monopoly position in the digital music player market. The case could cost Cupertino about $ 1B if it loses.

In other Apple news this morning, the company has been issued a patent for a design that prevents an iPhone from breaking when dropped.

AAPL shares recently lost $0.25 to $114.38. The stock is up more than 48.64% year-over-year and has gained roughly 46.04% year-to-date. In the past 52 weeks, shares of the iPhone maker have traded between a low of $70.51 and a high of $119.75.

Apple shares closed Tuesday at $114.63. The name has a total market cap of $672.29B.

Sequenom Inc. (SQNM) is a big mover this pre-market session, as its shares are up nearly 27% to $3.86. The surge came after Illumina, Inc. (ILMN) and Sequenom, Inc. announced an agreement to settle all pending infringement claims and other disputes with Verinata Health, Inc. The parties will pool their owned and in-licensed intellectual property directed to noninvasive prenatal testing [NIPT], including patents that will remain the subject of ongoing interference proceedings.

“The patent pool established through this agreement eliminates confusion over intellectual property rights and provides a single point of contact for those wishing to license this intellectual property for NIPT testing,” said Jay Flatley, CEO for Illumina.

Illumina will make a $50 million upfront payment to Sequenom as part of the overall agreement.

Sequenom Inc., currently valued at $357.96M, has a median Wall Street price target of $5.00 with a high target of $7.00. In the past 12 months, shares of the provider of genetic analysis solutions for the molecular diagnostic have traded between a low of $1.95 and a high of $4.17 with the 50-day MA and 200-day MA located at $3.07 and $3.37 levels, respectively. Additionally, shares of SQNM trade at a P/E ratio of -0.45 and have a Relative Strength Index (RSI) and MACD indicator of 52.30 and +0.03, respectively.

SQNM currently prints a one year return of about 19.61% and a year-to-date return of around 30.34%. Shares of Illumina Inc. gained $1.12 to $189.29 in recent trading.

MOL Global, Inc. (MOLG) shares are up close to 32% to about $4.76 in pre-market trading Wednesday. This is on the heels of Tuesday’s rally of more than 92%. Not seeing any news to account for today’s move. That said however, it’s worth noting the name has fallen from $9.00 over the past few weeks after announcing that the CFO resigned for personal reasons after several months on the job amid a delay in reporting quarterly results. Momo players seem to be pushing ticker right now, creating a squeeze.

On valuation measures, MOL Global shares have a t-12 price/sales ratio of 1.97 and a price/book for the same period of 37.56. EPS is $0.09. The Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based company has a market cap of $246.39 million.

Shares of the e-payment solutions provider for online goods and services in Southeast Asia are down 55.16% since their lackluster debut in October.

Taser International (TASR)’s stock plunged more than 4% to $22.35 in pre-market trade after JP Morgan (JPM) downgraded the name to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Overweight.’

Taser International Inc. shares are currently priced at 63.08x this year’s forecasted earnings compared to the industry’s 12.16x earnings multiple. Ticker has a PEG and forward P/E ratio of 1.92 and 49.66, respectively. Price/Sales for the same period is 7.77, while EPS is $0.37. Currently there are 4 analysts that rate TASR a ‘Buy’, 1 analyst rates it a ‘Sell’. TASR has a median Wall Street price target of $22.00 with a high target of $24.00.

In the past 12 months, shares of the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company have traded between a low of $10.46 and a high of $24.44. Shares are up 46.98% year-to-date, compared with an 15.27% gain in the S&P 500.

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