Morning Movers 3/18: Sun Micro (JAVA) Surges On Possible IBM Deal, Darden (DRI) Up On Solid Results and Gudiance

March 18, 2009 10:25 AM EDT

StreetInsider.com Morning Movers:

Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: JAVA) 66% HIGHER; reports from the Wall Street Journal IBM (NYSE: IBM) in talks to buy the company for at least $6.5 billion in cash to acquire Sun, which is a 100% premium to yesterday's closing price. MORE

Lear Corp. (NYSE: LEA) 30% HIGHER;Reaches Agreement With Lenders to Amend its Primary Credit Facility. MORE

Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. (NYSE: MRX) 18% LOWER; Teva (Nasdaq: TEVA) announced that the FDA has granted final approval for the Company's Abbreviated New Drug Application to market its generic version of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation's acne treatment Solodyn.

Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) 17% HIGHER; reports Q3 EPS of $0.80, ex-items, above the consensus of $0.68,. Revenues came in at $1.8 billion, versus the consensus of $1.81 billion. Darden's Board declared a quarterly dividend of 20 cents per share.  Issues favorable guidance. MORE

MGM MIRAGE (NYSE: MGM) 13% LOWER; reports a Q4 loss of $4.15 per share, or earnings of $0.10 ex-items vs. consensus for $0.14 profit. Revenues were $1.62 billion vs. $1.71 billion consensus. The Company does not expect to be in compliance with these financial covenants at March 31, 2009 and is working with lenders. MORE

Actuant (NYSE: ATU) 10% LOWER; reports Q4 EPS of $0.09, 5 cents below the analyst estimate of $0.14. Revenues for the quarter were $300 million, versus the consensus of $315.57 million. Actuant sees Q3 EPS 12c to 20c versus consensus of 29 cents. Actuant sees Q3 revenue $300M to $320M versus consensus of $361.09 million

Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE) 9% HIGHER; Higher on possible IBM/JAVA deal. Also reported earnings.

General Mills (NYSE: GIS) 9% LOWER; reports Q3 earnings of $0.79 per share, ex-items, below the consensus of $0.88. Revenues came in at $3.54 billion, versus the consensus of $3.54 billion. General Mills sees FY09 EPS of $3.87-$3.89 versus prior guidane of $3.83-$3.87 and the consensus of $3.94.

BMP Sunstone (Nasdaq: BJGP) 10% HIGHER; reports Q4 non-GAAP EPS of $0.09 compared to a loss of $0.17 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2007. Q4 revenues increased to $36.6 million, from $9.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Lincoln National Corp. (NYSE: LNC) 9% LOWER; Bank of America downgrades to Underperform

Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RTP) 7% LOWER; risk Rio Tinto's deal with China's Chinalco (NYSE: ACH) isn't approved after Australian lawmakers moved to vote for an inquiry into last month's $19.5 billion funding deal amid growing criticism.

Guess? (NYSE: GES) 6% HIGHER; reports Q4 EPS of $0.67 ex-items, 16 cents better than the analyst estimate of $0.51. Revenues for the quarter were $561.1 million, versus the consensus of $528.60 million. Guess sees Q1 EPS of $0.26-$0.30, after $0.04 impact from European revenue shift, versus the consensus of $0.34. Guess? sees Q1 revenues of $425-$445 million, versus the consensus of $480.7 million. Guess? is not providing specific guidance for the full year due to volatility in the global economy.

Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) 6% HIGHER; CEO Ken Lewis, said the embattled megabank could pay back its $45 billion in government capital by late this year or early next year depending on the economy. MORE

Sohu.com Inc. (Nasdaq: SOHU) 6% LOWER; announced that its massively multi-player online role-playing games subsidiary Changyou.com Limited has filed a registration statement on Form F-1 with the SEC for an IPO of American Depositary Shares. MORE

MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET) 5% HIGHER; Bank of America upgrades to Buy

Frontier Oil Corp. (NYSE: FTO) 4.8% LOWER; Bank of America downgrades to Underperform

NetApp, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP) 3.8% HIGHER; Higher on possible IBM/JAVA deal

NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) 3.6% HIGHER; Higher on possible IBM/JAVA deal

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) 3.6% HIGHER; Higher on possible IBM/JAVA deal

Akamai Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM) 2.8% HIGHER; Higher on possible IBM/JAVA deal

GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK) 2% LOWER; Goldman adds to Sell list

Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO) 1.5% HIGHER; Bank of America upgrades to Buy

Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) 1% LOWER; scraped its $2.3 billion takeover bid for China's Huiyuan Juice, after the China Ministry of Commerce (MOC) declined to approve the transaction saying it would be negative for competition. MORE

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