Wall Street Pit’s Midday Market Gainers: PLCM, SOHU, TZOO, IGT, APP

Shares of Polycom Inc. (PLCM) spiked 14 percent to $60.16 at the start of trading Monday after the supplier of video-conference systems said first-quarter profit was $0.48 a share on revenue of $344 million, excluding some items, beating the $0.42 average estimate by the Street. The co. also forecast a strong second quarter. Polycom had its pps target raised to $60 from $55 at RBC Capital Markets – following earnings results. Shares of PLCM, are currently up $6.95, or 13.37%, to $58.85. Volume has exploded with nearly 3.8 million shares already trading hands compared to a daily average volume of 1.1 million shares. Day’s range: $56.42 – 52wkh $60.19.

Sohu.com (SOHU) advanced as much as 10 percent Monday to $104.01 after the Chinese internet portal posted a 34 percent gain in earnings in Q1 to $1.01 a share, beating the $0.97 consensus number. Net income for the quarter was $55.2 million. Total revenue for Sohu.com, which competes with Sina Corp. (SINA) and NetEase.com, Inc. (NTES) , increased 35 percent to $174.4 million from $129.5 million. Sohu said it expects Q2 revenue of $188 million-$193 million, up from $146.1 million in the same period last year. The co. also projected second-quarter earnings per share to be between $1.13 and $1.18, up from $0.96 a year earlier. Volume of 4.3 million SOHU shares is already 2x higher than the daily average (3m) volume of 1.4 million shares. Sohu trades at a trailing P/E of 28.84, a forward P/E of 18.77 and a PEG ratio of 1.50.

Travelzoo Inc. (TZOO) shares climbed 8.09 percent to $103.80, the highest intraday pps since December 2004. Chris Loughlin, chief executive officer of the New York-based Internet travel marketer, one of the most heavily shorted companies in the Street, told CNBC this morning that he’s seeing an upswing in travel “around the globe.” Volume has exploded with 1.2 million TZOO shares already trading hands compared to a daily average volume of just 663,550 shares. Day’s range: $96.56 to a new-52wkh $103.80. Short interest accounts for nearly 35.10% of TZOO’s float, or 5.50 million shares. Travelzoo was upgraded to Buy from Hold at The Benchmark Company, which raised the co.’s price target to $123 from $66 a share. The brokerage firm said TZOO’s Internet travel advertising growth is holding firm, aided by strong subscriber growth in Europe.

International Game Technology (IGT) shares gained 13% to $18.41 after the maker of slot machines reported a second-quarter GAAP income of $70 million, or $0.23 per share, compared to $26 million, or $0.08 per share, in the same quarter last year, topping the average analyst estimate by 2 cents. Total revenues for the second quarter increased 1% to $492 million compared to $487 million for the same quarter last year. The median Wall Street price target on the shares of IGT is $20.00 with a high target of $22.00. Ticker day’s range: $17.06 – $18.41 on 7.6 million volume vs 4.1 million 3m daily average.

American Apparel Inc. (APP) is surging 10 percent to $1.37 in midday trading, the highest intraday since Jan. 21. Strength attributed to a Bloomberg report stating that a group of Canadian investors agreed to inject about $45 million into the flailing t-shirt retailer, to help prevent it from bankruptcy. As part of the agreement, the investors will right away give American Apparel $15 million, and during the next two quarters will maintain the right to buy nearly one-third of the co.’s shares at $0.90 each. American Apparel Inc. gained 11 cents to $1.35 at 11:29 a.m. New York time on the AMEX.

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