Here’s what’s hot in the market today: SFN Group, Medco Health Solutions and Express Scripts all stayed in play on Friday. Sino-Global shipping got a big boost after securing a new partnership in China. Datalink was busy following strong Q2 earnings while Harmonic sank after missing analyst expectations for the second quarter.
SFN Group (NYSE: SFN) saw its second straight day of unusually high trading with nearly 4 million shares exchanged compared with average volume of just above 1 million shares. Randstad Holdings announced on Wednesday that it would acquire the workforce provider, becoming the third largest human resources provider in the U.S. Shares held steady below $14.
Medco Health Solutions (NYSE: MHS) also saw a second day of high volume trading following the announcement that Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) would acquire the company. More than 8 million Express Scripts shares were exchanged while nearly 7 million shares of Medco were traded. MHS rose more than 3% and was trading around $66. ESRX rose more than 3% to just above $57 by midday.
Sino-Global Shipping (NASDAQ: SINO) was up more than 12% to trade above $7 on nearly 2 million shares. The shipping company announced Wednesday that it entered a strategic agreement with COSCO Container Shipping to expand its operations in China.
Datalink (NASDAQ: DTLK) rose 4% to about $9.25 on more than 300,000 shares traded. The business infrastructure provider reported second quarter earnings on Wednesday, trouncing analyst estimates with EPS of 19-cents, compared with analyst expectations of 11-cents.
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT), the high definition video equipment and service provider, fell 5% on more than 1 million shares. The drop to $6.25 came after Harmonic reported its second quarter earnings, turning in EPS of 9-cents, below estimates of 11-cents. The company also lowered its third quarter guidance, expecting between $130 — $140 million where analysts were predicting $146 million.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.
