Why Rigel Pharmaceuticals, American Airlines, Facebook, and More Are in the Spotlight

Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) has surged by 7% after Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) announced that the two companies have mutually agreed to extend the end date of their merger to January 27, 2017 from October 27, 2016. Walgreens Boots Alliance previously agreed to buy Rite Aid for $9 in cash per share. The deal hasn’t closed yet due to the need for the Department of Justice to give it the thumbs up. By delaying the merger end date, the two companies buy more time to satisfy the conditions that the Department of Justice may set on the deal. Walgreens’ management remains optimistic that the deal will go through. 50 funds owned shares of Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) at the end of the second quarter, while 67 were long Walgreens.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) has retreated by 24% after the biotech announced disappointing data from the second of two late-stage, Phase 3 clinical trials investigating fostamatinib for the potential treatment of adults with certain types of immune thrombocytopenia. According to the company, the trial failed to achieve its primary endpoint, in contrast to the results of the first trial, which showed a statistically valid respond rate. The number of funds in our system with holdings in Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIGL) rose by one during the second quarter to 19 at the end of June.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) investors can sleep a little easier after Heather Bellini of Goldman Sachs said that her research showed “no material pushback” from ad buyers over the company’s previous video ad measurement fiasco, in which Facebook may have overstated the average viewing time of videos in previous years. According to her research, Facebook’s CPMs are likely in a range of negative 3% to up by 5% sequentially. Bellini expects EPS of $1.02 on sales of $7.05 billion for the company’s third quarter, the results of which will be released on November 2, and has a $162 price target on the stock. Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management lowered its stake in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) by 1% in the third quarter to 238,099 shares at the end of September.

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