(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)US stocks were trading with strong gains Wednesday afternoon as better-than-expected economic data boosted sentiment.
Below we highlight few stocks which witnessed heightened activity today.
Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:
APC): The company announced Wednesday that it has made a deepwater discovery offshore Sierra Leone. Company executives said on a conference call that while they couldn't quantify the size of the find, they drill when there are opportunities for 150 million barrels of oil equivalent with a chance for a billion barrels. Anadarko said it had less than a 25% chance of success at Venus B-1 exploration well in West Africa. Anadarko operates the Venus well with a 40-percent working interest. Co-owners in the discovery include Woodside (25-percent working interest), Repsol (25-percent working interest) and Tullow (10-percent working interest). The Woodlands, Texas-based Anadarko holds interests in almost 8 million acres across 10 blocks and operates seven of them. Shares soared over 9%.
Adobe (NASDAQ:
ADBE): Late on Tuesday, the world's biggest maker of graphic-design software said that it was buying Web analytics firm Omniture (NASDAQ:
OMTR) for about $1.8 billion. The acquisition is expected to equip Adobe with tools that will let its customers to monitor the way people use Adobe's content-creation software. The purchase will contribute to earnings, excluding some costs, in the next fiscal year, Adobe said. However, the deal has left many experts puzzled. It is being said that immediate gains in sales and cost savings gains will likely be minimal. Moreover, analysts are pointing out that since Omniture's profit margins are lower than Adobe's, the deal doesn't make much sense. Shares of the company were down almost 7% in midday trade on Wednesday.
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:
AMZN): Shares of the online retailer soared on Wednesday after Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Justin Post lifted his rating on the stock to "Buy" from "Neutral" and raised his price target goes to $103, from $95 saying that "potential e-commerce acceleration is underestimated more in Amazon's estimates than in other e-commerce stocks." He said further that Amazon has built sustainable competitive advantages in e-commerce, including customer loyalty, distribution infrastructure and technology investment.
