Bolstered by a spate of mergers and acquisitions activity, stocks kicked off the new week in strong fashion after stumbling for three consecutive weeks.
Oil jumped 3.8%, helping lift the S&P 500 to a gain of nearly 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial rose 1% while the Nasdaq Composite posted its best day in several weeks with a gain of 1.2%.
A revival of Merger Monday explains why Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ANAC), Memorial Resource Development Corp (NASDAQ:MRD) and Tribune Publishing Co (NYSE:TPUB) are three of today’s best stocks.
Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc (ANAC)
Shares of Anacor Pharmaceuticals surged 57.2% on about 15 times the average daily volume after Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, agreed to buy ANAC for $5.2 billion.
California-based ANAC makes skin treatments and is currently testing an experimental eczema treatment. If approved, ANAC’s eczema treatment would be the first new treatment for that disorder to come to market in over 15 years, according to the Associated Press.
PFE is paying over $99 a share for ANAC, a 55% premium to ANAC’s Friday closing price.
Memorial Resource Development Corp (MRD)
Oil and gas producer Memorial Resource Development rose 3% on more than 10 times the average turnover after rival Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) said it will acquire MRD for $3.3 billion, excluding MRD debt of $1.1 billion.
The deal, which is all equity, values MRD at $15.75, a 17% premium to the stock’s closing price Friday.
RRC’s deal for MRD is expected to close in the second half of this year. Both companies are based in Texas.
Tribune Publishing Co (TPUB)
Newspaper publisher and media conglomerate Tribune Publishing climbed nearly 23% on almost quadruple the usual volume after rival Gannett Co Inc (NYSE:GCI) raised its acquisition offer for TPUB to $15 a share.
GCI’s new offer for TPUB values the company at $864 million, including debt.
GCI’s initial offer for TPUB, revealed last month, was $12.25 per share. The new offer for TPUB is nearly double the stock’s closing price on April 22, the day before GCI made its TPUB offer public.
At the time of this writing, Todd Shriber did not own any of the aforementioned securities.
