Check out the companies making headlines in the premarket Monday:
Caesars Entertainment, William Hill — Shares of Caesar’s were up more than 6% after the casino operator disclosed a cash offer of 2.9 billion pounds to buy London-based sports betting site William Hill. London-listed William Hill shares dropped more than 10%.
Snap, Spotify — An analyst at Guggenheim upgraded Snap to “buy” from “neutral,” and Spotify from “sell” to “neutral.” “Over the next 12 months, we expect the valuation scale will be tipped in favor of software, and as such, we view current software multiples as upside targets for our internet coverage,” the analyst said in a note. Both Snap and Spotify were up more than 3% in the premarket.
Virgin Galactic — Virgin Galactic shares popped 10% after Bank of America and Susquehanna initiated coverage of the spaceflight company with “buy” and “positive” ratings, respectively. Susquehanna said it sees Virgin Galactic “as an innovator of space technology with a truly unique offering that will allow civilians and professionals alike to access space for entertainment and research purposes.” Bank of America highlighted the company’s “nearly full vertical integration capabilities” in the assembly of spacecraft.
Chevron — Chevron was upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” by an analyst at Bank of America, who noted the company’s free cash flow can “can support fair value around $96 or 34% above current levels and with no need for any further recovery in oil prices.” Shares of the energy giant rose by 1.9%.
Pinterest — Pinterest shares were up 3.4% after Guggenheim initiated the social media company with a “buy” rating and a $48-per-share price target. That target implies a 20% upside from the stock’s closing price of $39.90 per share on Friday. In a note, the analyst said Pinterest is “recommendations and expanding content verticals, which we believe will increase the service’s utility and drive higher frequency.”
United Parcel Service — UPS was upgraded to “overweight” from “sector weight” by an analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, who said that capital deployment initiatives from the new CEO “combined with secular trends supporting domestic package growth, should aid margins and returns.”
Devon Energy, WPX Energy — Devon and WPX Emery shot up 13.4% and 14.6%, respectively, on news the two companies will move forward with a merger of equals. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year and will result in an enterprise value of about $12 billion for the new company.
Cleveland-Cliffs, ArcelorMittal — Shares of Cleveland Cliffs jumped more than 9% after the company announced it would buy essentially all of ArcelorMittal’s U.S. operations for about $1.4 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. ArcelorMittal’s U.S.-listed shares were up more than 9%.
Sina Corp.— Sina Corp., which owns Chinese social media platform Weibo, will be taken private by the company’s CEO in a deal valued at $43.30 per share or $2.6 billion. Sina shares were up more than 5%.