Morning Buzz: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Twitter (TWTR), NewLink Genetics (NLNK)

Shares of Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) are lower by $1.30 to $28.92 in pre-market trading on Tuesday after the company said its board had approved a $3 billion share buyback program. The program does not have an expiration date.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise will become a separate publicly traded company in November.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) dropped $0.97 to $95.02 in pre-market trading after it reported fiscal results for the third-quarter.

In its quarterly report, the world’s biggest maker of health care products said it earned $1.49 per share, well above the $1.45 per share analysts were expecting. Revenue fell 7.4% year-over-year to $17.10 billion, below views for $17.46 billion.

For FY15, JNJ provided EPS guidance of $6.15 – $6.20 versus consensus of $6.18 per share. Separately, the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company announced a $10 billion share buyback program, citing a strong balance sheet.

Johnson & Johnson shares have fallen 6.18% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P has gained 7.44%. The stock has dropped 2.45% in the last 12 months.

Twitter, Inc. (TWTR) shares surged to $2.43 in pre-market trading after the social-media company said Tuesday that its board has approved a restructuring and reduction in force plan of up to 336 employees, constituting approximately 8% of the company’s global workforce.

“The restructuring is part of an overall plan to organize around the company’s top product priorities and drive efficiencies throughout the company,” Twitter said in a SEC filing disclosing the layoffs. “The company intends to reinvest savings in its most important priorities to drive growth.”

The layoffs come just about a week after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was appointed permanent CEO promising big changes for the the social media company. In connection with the announcement of a restructuring, Twitter also said it sees Q315 revenue and adjusted EBITDA at or above the high end of the previously forecasted ranges of $545 million to $560 million and $110 million to $115 million, respectively.

Shares of NewLink Genetics Corp (NLNK) are spiking 11% pre-market on data showing NewLink Genetics’ IDO inhibitor indoximod reverses tumor-associated suppression in pre-clinical models. The company said that a peer-reviewed article in Cell Reports offers new insight demonstrating that the tumor indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) pathway is a central regulator of both local and systemic immunosuppression and resistance to immunotherapy in melanoma.

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