Here’s Why Traders Are Buzzing About These Five Hot Stocks

Paypal’s Top and Bottom Lines Beat Estimates

Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) reported an excellent first quarter and its stock has gained 3% so far today. For the time period between January 1 and March 31, PayPal reported earnings of $0.37 per share on revenue of $2.54 billion, beating analysts expectations by $0.02 per share and $40 million, respectively. Transaction revenue jumped by 17% year-over-year to $2.24 billion, while the company’s other value-added services unit saw sales rise 37% year-over-year to $306 million. Paypal is guiding for second quarter EPS in the range of $0.34 to $0.36 and full-year adjusted EPS in the range of $1.45 to $1.50, which are in-line with analyst estimates. Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital LP owned more than 46 million shares of Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) at the end of December.

M&A Activity in Healthcare Sector

According to a press release, Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) has agreed to acquire St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) for $46.75 in cash and 0.8708 shares of Abbott common stock for every share of St Jude. That translates to a total value of $85 per share and represents a total equity value of around $25 billion. The combined company would have a leading pipeline that will deliver a steady stream of new medical devices across the diabetes, vision, cardiovascular, and neuromodulation spaces. Abbott management expects the acquisition of St Jude to be accretive to adjusted earnings per year in the first full year after closing and to deliver annual pre-tax synergies of $500 million by 2020. Abbott will issue $3 billion of stock on the secondary market to re-balance its capital structure. 39 elite funds held Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and 41 held St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) at the end of December. St Jude’s shares have soared 27%, while Abbott’s stock has plunged by around 7%.

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