Morning Buzz: Google (GOOG), Symantec (SYMC), Novavax (NVAX), JA Solar (JASO)

Shares of Google Inc. (GOOG) are higher by 5.25% to $667.00 in pre-market trading on Tuesday after the search giant announced plans for a new public holding company named Alphabet, Inc. The new structure, which will replace Google Inc. as a publicly-traded entity and report distinct financial results, will include only search, ads, maps, apps, YouTube and Android and the related technical infrastructure, the company said in a filing with the SEC.

Google was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Stifel following the announcement. PT is set at $850/shr.
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Shares of Symantec Corporation (SYMC) are up $0.55, or 2.40%, at $23.49, after the company this morning said it will sell its Veritas data storage business to The Carlyle Group for $8 billion in cash. The cybersecurity software maker also announced first quarter 2016 earnings results.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based firm handed in earnings of $0.40 per share on revenue of $1.50 billion, missing Wall Street EPS estimates of $0.43 per share on revenue of $1.53 billion.

SYMC currently prints a one year loss of about 2% and a year-to-date loss of around 10%.
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Shares of Novavax, Inc. (NVAX) are up $1.27, or 11.35%, at $12.46, after the company this morning announced positive top-line data from Phase 2 clinical trial of RSV F vaccine. Novavax also reported second quarter 2015 EPS loss of ($0.08) after the close on Monday, compared to the consensus estimate of ($0.09). Revenues increased 69.5% from last year to $14 million. Analysts expected revenues of $9.9 million.
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JA Solar Holdings (JASO) shares are up almost 6% to $8.30 in pre-market trading on Tuesday after the company reported strong fiscal 2015 second quarter earnings results that beat analysts’ estimates.

For the quarter ended June 30, the firm posted earnings of $0.27 per share on revenues of $436.8 million, up 11.9% from a year ago. Analysts were expecting EPS of $0.15 on revenues of $398.65 million.

YoY growth in revs was due to strong shipments to key markets like China, the company noted.

“As we continue into the second half of the year, we expect industry demand to remain relatively strong, especially in China,” CEO Baofang Jin said in a press release. “We are focused on capturing greater market share in emerging markets, particularly in India and the Americas.”

On valuation measures, JA Solar Holdings Co. Ltd. ADR shares, which currently have an average 3-month trading volume of 1.29 million shares, trade at a trailing-12 P/E of 8.20, a forward P/E of 5.48 and a P/E to growth ratio of 1.30. The median Wall Street price target on the name is $10.50 with a high target of $19.00. Currently ticker boasts 2 ‘Buy’ endorsements, compared to 4 ‘Holds’ and 1 ‘Sell’.

JASO currently prints a one year loss of 10.60% and a year-to-date loss of 4.27%.

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