Adobe, Orexigen: After-Hours Trading

Adobe Systems(ADBE) was a standout gainer in Tuesday's extended session as shares of the graphics design and publishing software maker gained nearly 5% following a penny beat in its latest quarter.

The company, whose products include Acrobat and Photoshop, also gave a pretty bullish outlook for the current period, saying it sees non-GAAP earnings of 57 to 64 cents a share for its fiscal fourth quarter ending in November. The current consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters is for a profit of 58 cents a share in the quarter.

See if (ADBE) is in our portfolio

The stock was recently changing hands at $26.41 in after-hours action, up 7.2% on volume of more than 1 million. The 2.2% upside surprise marked the eighth straight quarter that Adobe topped Wall Street's expectations. At current levels, Adobe shares are trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 9.7X, below the S&P 500's 12.1X ratio. The company is still struggling to generate meaningful revenue growth, posting a slight sequential decline in the most recent quarter as product sales, which make up roughly 80% of its revenue, fell year-over-year. Orexigen Therapeutics Shares of Orexigen Therapeutics(OREX) soared nearly 90% in late trades to $2.77 on volume of more than 1.3 million on news that U.S. regulators have agreed to allow the company to conduct a potentially shorter follow-up clinical trial for its previously rejected obesity drug Contrave. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected Contrave last February, citing concerns about the risk the drug posed to the cardiovascular health of patients. FDA told Orexigen that Contrave would not be re-considered for approval without the company running a large, expensive and time-consuming study to assess the drug's heart-safety risk. Orexigen appealed the FDA's decision and Tuesday announced that it had won some concessions from regulators. Orexigen is still required to conduct a follow-on heart-safety study of Contrave, but FDA will allow the company to resubmit for approval if an interim analysis of the safety study comes back clean.The news gave a late lift to shares of Vivus(VVUS), which has an obesity drug in phase III trials; and Arena Pharmaceuticals(ARNA), which is developing Lorcaserin for weight management. Vivus' stock was last quoted at $8.95, up 4%, on volume of nearly 200,000, while Arena's stock jumped 14.6% to $1.65 with roughly 675,000 shares changing hands.

Oracle

Database software giant Oracle(ORCL) impressed with its latest earnings report after the close, shrugging off global economic worries to post solid first-quarter results.

The company brought in revenue of $8.43 billion and earnings of 48 cents a share, up from $7.5 billion and 42 cents a share in the prior year's quarter. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were looking for sales of $8.35 billion and earnings of 46 cents a share. Oracle saw its new software license sales grow 17% during the first quarter, a figure which delighted the company's management. "This strong organic growth coupled with disciplined business management enabled yet another increase in our operating margin in Q1," explained Oracle CFO Safra Catz in a statement released after market close. The company's operating cash flow was $5.4 billion, up from $3.8 billion in the same period of last year, she added.Oracle shares were up 3.3% to $29.29 in late trades with volume above 4.2 million. Based on a regular session close at $28.35, the stock was down nearly 7% so far in 2011. --

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints

No comments:

Post a Comment