money Paramount, Meta, Intuitive Surgical: Trending Tickers
Skydance Media CEO David Ellison is reportedly seeking to buyout control of National Amusements — the parent company of Paramount Global (PARA) — from President Shari Redstone alongside other investors, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Mizuho analysts raise Meta Platforms' (META) price target to $470 per share from $400.
Lastly, shares of medical equipment maker Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) are jumping after showcasing better-than-expected preliminary fourth-quarter revenue figures.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
Video Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
- Next up, let's get to some today's top trending tickers. I'm going to start here with shares of Paramount. They're basically just flat right now, slightly down. That's after a "Wall Street Journal" report that Skydance Media investors are in talks to gain control of Paramount's parent company. If successful, investors would then reportedly try to merge Paramount Global with Skydance.
So this one was interesting, in a name we've actually spoken a lot about. And some interesting characters in here as well we have to talk about. So we know Shari Redstone, whose family, obviously they control Paramount Global. She's received interest, right, for the movie studio. But I think what's different here and this wrinkle is the "Journal" is saying that Skydance Media CEO David Ellison is now talking about this all-cash bid for Paramount's parent National Amusements.
JULIE HYMAN: Right.
- How will David raise the money? Apparently from Skydance investors. And dad will also apparently help out as well. Dad, in this case, being billionaire Larry Ellison.
JULIE HYMAN: Right.
- I didn't know about the Ellison-Ellison connection here.
- You didn't see the resemblance there, really?
JULIE HYMAN: I mean--
- No, you don't see it?
JULIE HYMAN: Now that I look at the picture, yes, I do see it. But what's interesting is that Paramount is obviously very much in play. And it seems like it's up to Shari Redstone, what she wants to do with this. And she doesn't seem in any rush to get it done because we've been talking about it for a couple of months now and what might end up happening with this.
It's also interesting to me that Paramount shares-- I think that they moved on this report initially. And we just showed them.
- They're not doing much doing.
JULIE HYMAN: They're not doing a heck of a lot right now. There you go. You got a little spike on that news. And then they went right back down. So I don't know if that means that the market doesn't think this is likely, that they don't know what to make of the parent company potentially being in play. What would be the implications for Paramount? I think we still have a lot of questions.
- And we've had different headlines on this. Too, remember, it was David Zaslav, of course, CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery, because we had those reports just last month that he was meeting with Paramount CEO Bob Bakish, discussing the merger too. So a lot of different headlines and reports here.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. Well, let's talk about Meta also. I mentioned communication services higher today, in part because of Meta. Mizuho analyst James Lee raising the price target on the tech giant from 400 to 470. He does say, maintain a buy rating. And by the way, just by way of context here, the average price target on the stock is about 385. So he is way above where the Street is on this name.
And among other things, what he's looking for here, he likes messaging, which I thought was interesting. He says, messaging is an attractive optionality, and that WhatsApp could incrementally increase Meta's revenue base by a third over time. So that was an interesting part of his thesis about the company.
- Yeah, very interesting. You know what I was more interested in today, though, if I'm being totally honest? Zuck posting on Facebook.
JULIE HYMAN: About the cows?
- Love the cow post. Shared a post on Facebook, says he's now started raising cattle on his Hawaiian ranch on a diet of macadamia meal and beer, all grown and focused on his ranch, by the way. He's keeping it local. And I just love this version of Zuck. It's Hawaii. It's raising cattle. He's challenging Elon Musk to cage fights. It's a brand new guy in charge over there.
JULIE HYMAN: I'd really like to know what a drunk cow is like.
- Do you get drunk on beer? I don't-- on that-- I don't know.
JULIE HYMAN: Of that size--
- I don't know.
JULIE HYMAN: --an animal that size. And they process food differently. So I don't know, through the stomachs, do they-- does the alcohol even get to them?
- And why macadamia meal?
JULIE HYMAN: So obviously, would you-- should we be booking an animal husbandry expert now to speak about these issues.
- I'd rather be booking a trip to the Hawaiian Zuckerberg estate. This is, I mean really--
JULIE HYMAN: I don't know if that's on the cards for us, Josh.
- Aim high, aim high, Julie. Finally, Intuitive Surgical, let's get to this one, last ticker rising higher today after the medical equipment maker reported preliminary revenue for the fourth quarter that topped estimates coming in at 1.93 billion. Street was closer to 1.87 billion. So by the way, Intuitive Surgical hits a 52-week high in today's trade, medical equipment maker. This was preliminary revenue for Q4. But they beat what the Street expected.
They are scheduled, by the way, to formally report these results, I guess, on January 23. 19 buys on this, 11 holds, 2 sells, and it sounds like analysts broadly liked what they heard today.
JULIE HYMAN: Mm-hmm. Yeah some of the analysts, like Stifel's Rick Weiss saying, if you go back to 2015, the company's initial procedure growth guidance range has actually been conservative. So you're looking at this forecast today. The Street likes it. But even some on the Street view it as low and that they could come in and beat here. I mean, so another thing to point out here is that Intuitive Surgical is really kind of a pioneer in the surgical robot business.
And so analysts like those over at Leerink are saying that basically, the fact that it has been first to market creates high potential switching costs for hospitals. In other words, if you've got the Intuitive Surgical, if you've got their Da Vinci robots, then it's difficult to switch away from that system to something else.
- Well, it's one to watch, certainly.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, most definitely. It was up 27% last year. And that 52-week high that you mentioned, I don't think it's quite a record high, if I'm not mistaken. But it has done well, certainly, over the past year.
