Wednesday’s Pre-Market Look: Stocks In The News Before The Open

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at UBS with a price target of $98.
Salesforce.com (CRM ) and Microsoft (MSFT) were both rated ‘Outperform’ at Wells Fargo Securities.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) fell over 2% in pre-market trading after the stock was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at Deutsche Bank.

Citigroup (C) was rated a new ‘Sell’ at UB with a price target of $58.

Torchmark (TMK) was downgraded to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’ at Evercore ISI with a 12-month target price of $70.
United Continental Holdings (UAL) climbed almost 3% in after-hours trading after it reported its December load factor improved 10 bps to 83.1% and that revenue passenger miles in December rose +2.6%.

Merck (MRK) rose 4% in after-hours trading after the U.S. FDA granted priority review for its supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for Keytruda, plus chemotherapy, as primary treatment of patients with advanced lung cancer.

Achaogen (AKAO) rallied 7% in after-hours trading after Baker Brothers raised their passive stake in the company from less than 1% to 13.1%.

Parsley Energy (PE) fell 4% in after-hours trading after it announced a public offering of 20 million shares of Class A common stock.

MagnaChip Semiconductor (MX) gained almost 1% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 preliminary revenue of $180 million, higher than consensus of $177 million.

Ichor Holdings Ltd (ICHR) jumped 8% in after-hours trading after it reported Q4 preliminary sales of $131 million, above consensus of $118 million.

Veeco Instruments (VECO) slid 3% in after-hours trading after it announced a public offering of $200 million convertible senior notes due 2023.

Bluerock Residential Growth REIT (BRG) dropped 4% in after-hours trading after it announced a public offering of 4 million shares of Class A common stock.