Takeover chatter won't be enough to keep Twitter (TWTR) shares moving skyward, as the social media giant may be overvalued vs. peers.
At least that's what Oppenheimer analyst Jeff Helfstein said in a Monday investment note, downgrading Twitter shares to Underperform from Perform, and adding on CNBC's "Squawk Alley" that a takeover valuation may already be priced in to Twitter's stock price.
"Number one, we look at what competitors trade at, number two, you look at the fundamentals of the business and the bottom line is we all know that user growth is slowing," he added.
Twitter shares were roughly flat in midday trading after climbing more than 20% Friday on rumors that Salesforce (CRM) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) may be in the hunt with a takeover bid. (Alphabet shares are held in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS charitable trust.)
Pharmaceutical shares were largely down across the board Monday, as Big Pharma investors braced for tonight's presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, who appear to be in agreement over cracking down on industry price hikes in the wake of Mylan's (MYL) exorbitant increases on its life-saving allergy treatment EpiPen.
Shares of struggling drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) , which has been specifically targeted by Clinton this year for "predatory pricing," and Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP) , which said CEO Rajiv De Silva is resigning Monday, were each down more than 6% in midday trading.
Meanwhile, surging oil prices helped buoy oil-and-gas stocks Monday afternoon, as prices of crude climbed about 3.7% to $46.11, based on industry benchmark West Texas Intermediate. Rising prices failed to lift the general market, however, with the Dow Jones Industrials and S&P 500 each down about 0.8% in midday trading.
Shares of Transocean ( RIG) , a member of Real Money's Stressed Out watch list, were among the best-performing in the S&P 500, with crude prices lifting shares of the Swiss offshore driller about 5% in midday trading.
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There was the 'momentum play' on Monday and not much else as portfolio managers resisted temptation to increase risk exposure.
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