Monday, June 25, 2012

This Morning: ComScore Previews FB’s Charms; Citi Upbeat on Networking

Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:

Shares of Facebook (FB) are up $1.19 cents, almost 5%, at $27.50 this morning, adding to gains in pre-market trading, perhaps helped by positive news flow this morning, as Internet ratings firm comScore (SCOR) said next week it plans to publish findings about the effectiveness of marketing on the site called “The Power of Like 2: How Social Marketing Works.”

The study purports to show that “Facebook earned media is having a statistically significant positive lift on people�s purchasing of a brand.”

Another Internet stock doing well this morning is Yahoo! (YHOO), whose shares are up 15 cents, or 1%, at $15.51 after Bernstein Research‘s �Carlos Kirjner raised his rating on the shares to Outperform from Market Perform, writing that “We believe Alibaba Group’s agreement to purchase half of Yahoo!’s 42% stake at a minimum guaranteed price of $7 billion (pre-tax) establishes a likely floor for the valuation of Yahoo!’s stake.”

In other news, the Nasdaq OMX‘s plan to reimburse some exchange members because of glitches on Facebook’s first day of trading on May 18th was attacked by competitor NYSE Euronext, according to a report this morning by Bloomberg’s Steven Sloan and Nina Mehta.

NYSE claims the terms of the $40 million reimbursement fund are is “unfair because a portion of the proposed compensation package is a discount on future trading fees, which may boost Nasdaq�s market share at the expense of competitors.”

Despite the broad weakness in the market — the Nasdaq is off a fraction of a percent at 2,828.39 — some networking stocks are up, including Juniper Networks (JNPR), up 26 cents, or 1.6%, at $16.83, and Riverbed Technology (RVBD), up 12 cents, or 0.7%, at $17.18 after Citigroup’s Kevin Dennean initiated coverage of them with Buy ratings, writing that despite the maturity of the enterprise data networking market, there are still “growth opportunities” in selling to telcos as they build out their networks. Dennean also starts Cisco Systems (CSCO) and F5 Networks�(FFIV) at a Buy, though their shares are trading down at present.

Shares of Nokia (NOK) are up 13 cents, almost 5%, at $2.96, apparently boosted by talk of a takeover, or at least some kind of M&A speculation.

Shares of Google (GOOG) are down $1.48, or 0.3%, at $576.75 after the European Union’s lead antitrust official, Joaquin Almunia said the company has until early July to say how it will change its business practices to satisfy Europe’s investigation into the company’s dominant search position, as reported by Reuter’s�Sebastian Moffett.

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