Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

Omnicom and Publicis to Merge. 

Omnicom Group (OMC) and Publicis Groupe (PGPEF) have agreed to merger that creating the world’s largest advertising firm valued at $35.1B. Publicis Chief Executive Maurice Levy said "This is a new company for a new world," and went on to say "It will be able to face the exponential development of new internet giants like Facebook and Google, changing consumer behavior, the explosion of big data, as well as handle the blurring of roles of all the players in the market." Under the deal, Publicis shareholders will receive one newly issued ordinary share of Publicis Omnicom Group for each Publicis share they own, plus a special dividend of 1.00 euro per share. Omnicom shareholders will receive 0.813 newly issued ordinary shares of Publicis Omnicom Group for each Omnicom share they own, together with a special dividend of $2.00 per share.

Upgrades:

Abbott Labs (ABT): ResearchTeam raised their target price from Reduce to Hold.

Apple (AAPL): ResearchTeam raised their target price from Reduce to Hold.

Bank of New York Mellon (BK): Guggenheim raised their rating from Neutral to Buy.

Harley Davidson (HOG): S&P raised their rating from *** Stars to **** Stars.

Hormel Foods (HRL): Credit Suisse raised their rating from Neutral to Outperform and raised their target price from $39.00 to $46.00.

Downgrades:

Cadence Design Systems (CDNS): ResearchTeam lowered their rating from Hold to Reduce.

Expedia (EXPE): Lazard Capital lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral. Pre-market: 47.85 +0.65 (1.38%)

ING Groep NV (ING): BTIG lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral.

Microsoft (MSFT): Atlantic Equities lowered their rating from Overweight to Neutral and lowered their target price from $35.00 to $33.00. Pre-market: 31.45 -0.17 (-0.54%)

Ryder Systems (R): ResearchTeam lowered their rating from Hold to Reduce.

Tower Watson (TW): ResearchTeam lowered their rating from Accumulate to Hold.

T. Rowe Price (TROW): RBC Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Sector Perform and lowered their target price from $82.00 to $80.00.

Coverage Initiated:

Smith & Wesson (SWHC): Dougherty initiated coverage with a Buy and target price of $14.00. Pre-market: 11.12 +0.05 (0.45%)

Earning Reports:

Franklin Resources (BEN): Reported EPS of $0.86 beating estimates by +$0.01. Pre-market: 49.26 +0.60 (1.23%)

Hertz Global (HTZ): Reported EPS of $0.45 in-line with estimates. Pre-market: 26.10 -0.79 (-2.94%)

Loews Corp (L): Reported EPS of $0.69 missing estimates by -$0.10. Pre-market: 48.70 +2.65 (5.75%)

Tenneco (TEN): Reported EPS of $1.10 beating estimates by +$0.01. Pre-market: 49.90 +1.16 (2.38%)

Wynn Resorts (WYNN): Reported EPS of $1.51 missing estimates by -$0.06. Pre-market: 129.60 -1.38 (-1.05%)

Markets: 
Futures at 7:00: Dow -0.17%. S&P -0.21%. Nasdaq -0.15%. Crude +0.53% to $105.25. Gold +0.83% to $1332.90. U.S. 10 Year -4/32 2.584%

Europe: London +0.30%. Paris +0.32%. Frankfurt +0.26%. 

Asia: Japan -3.32% to 13661. Hong Kong -0.54% to 21850. China -1.72% to 1976. India -0.78% to 19,593.