(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)US stocks were trading with gains on Friday as investors remained optimistic about economic recover amid the "quadruple witching," the simultaneous expiration of four types of futures and options contracts.
Below we highlight few stocks that dominated the headlines on Friday.
Procter and Gamble (NYSE:
PG): Shares of the consumer giant rallied $1.82 or 3.28% to $57.35 after Citigroup analyst Wendy Nicholson upgraded the shares of consumer giant to buy from hold and raised her price target to $66 from $54. "With P&G perhaps having played nice for a bit too long - having raised prices with the hopes of boosting category profitability and yet losing market share as competitors did not fully follow - P&G is readying itself to become more aggressive in order to win back lost market share," Nicholson wrote in a research note to client. Last week, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based company said that it expects to report fiscal 2010 earnings in the range of $3.99 to $4.12 a share. The earnings guidance includes a one-time gain of 44 cents a share from the sale of its pharmaceutical business as well as related earnings dilution of 10 cents to 12 cents a share. The consumer giant expects to earn in the range of 95 cents to $1.00 a share in fiscal first quarter and said that it expects second-quarter organic sales growth of 1% to 4%. Analysts, on average, were looking for a profit of $3.80 a share for fiscal 2010 and 96 cents a share for the first quarter. For fiscal year 2010, P&G confirmed previous guidance for organic sales growth of 1% to 3%. It also said that it is slashing prices and boosting promotions across nearly 10% of its household brands. Through these measures, it hopes to revive sales growth and boost market share. The company currently owns 24 brands that generate more than $1 billion in sales a year.
Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:
ARNA): Shares of the company rose sharply in midday trade on Friday after Arena executives said on a conference call that they believe recently-released clinical trial results for their anti-obesity drug lorcaserin were positive and strong enough to win U.S. regulatory approval. Earlier, Arena stocks were trading with deep losses in the morning on concerns that the Phase III data did not meet the Food and Drug Administration's approval standards. Arena plans to file for U.S. regulatory approval by the end of the year. Shares soared over 14%.
Huntington Bancshares Inc.
