Match Group, Juniper- HPE talks, Illumina: Trending Tickers

Activist investor Elliot Management has taken a $1 billion stake in Match Group (MTCH), owner of top dating apps like Tinder, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Juniper Networks (JNPR) is close to a $13 billion acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) to augment its AI capabilities, per WSJ sources.

Shares of gene sequencing giant Illumina (ILMN) closed Tuesday higher after beating preliminary fourth-quarter revenue estimates under new CEO Jacob Thaysen. 2023 brought major upheaval for Illumina after failed efforts to acquire cancer testing firm Grail spawned regulatory disputes.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith.

Video Transcript

JOSH LIPTON: Well, meanwhile, let's get to some trending tickers here. And we'll start with Match Group, owner of dating apps, such as Tinder. Shares rising after Elliott Management poorly building a roughly $1 billion stake in the company. So that's the headline here. Match on the move today.

The Journal is saying Elliott Investment Management built this stake. Apparently, Paul Singer and the crew there, they have plans, Julie, to get this stock moving higher. We don't know what those plans are just yet based on these reports. Will they be nominating directors? We don't know that either.

If you look at the stock, it's kind of tough-sledding. It's down about 10% in the past 12 months. Obviously, lots of competition. And then also, we've just heard these stories about the kids, the youngins maybe not as interested in the dating apps, Julie, as they might once have been.

JULIE HYMAN: You know, and we both met our partners IRL, as the kids say, which I'm still a fan of that, old-fashioned the way maybe. I mean, when you talk about how the stock is performed, indeed it has been disappointing. Remember, this used to be owned by IAC, Interactive Corp. It started trading on its own, I believe, back in 2021, if I'm not mistaken, and traded it over $150 a share at one point.

Now, today, it's trading at about $39 a share. So you can see where a company like Elliott would want to maybe see some opportunities to boost that up. It is a lot bigger than the other dating apps in terms of market cap, in terms of number of users, in terms of the suite of other apps. It owns OkCupid, for example, as well. So we'll see what kind of opportunities Elliott's looking for here.

JOSH LIPTON: Now, we should mention not a single sell on this name on the Street, by the way. Not a single one. And it could be worse. If you check out rival Bumble, by the way, that stock's down about 30% in the past 12 months. So there you go.

JULIE HYMAN: Not great anyway you slice it, I suppose. Let's to talk about the big M&A, potential M&A story that we have been watching today. And that's Hewlett-packard. According to reports, Hewlett-packard Enterprise on the verge of acquiring Juniper Networks. That move would come as HPE looks to accelerate its AI product rollout.

The Wall Street Journal reporting a deal could be unveiled sometime this week. And we're talking about around $13 billion. That's the number that both the journal and Bloomberg have put here on what HPE might pay for Juniper. Investors don't seem too thrilled about it. And HPE, the shares down pretty sharply on the day. Of course, Juniper shares have been surging here.

I think of Juniper mostly, as we talked about earlier, maker of switches, maker of routers. They have an AI business called Mist AI, which is--

JOSH LIPTON: I love that dramatic flair you just gave that. Yeah, no, that sold it. That sold it.

JULIE HYMAN: All people can-- we've got a chart up, so they can see the mist-- whatever this hand gesture is for mist. Anyway, so Mist uses--

JOSH LIPTON: Now, I just think of that whenever you talk about AI, though. That's the problem.

JULIE HYMAN: Mist, that has more to do with Mist than the AI part. Anyway, it uses AI and machine learning to optimize user experiences around wireless access, whatever that means exactly. But whatever it is, HPE wants it.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah. I mean, analysts who cover the names, it was interesting, because they did think the deal when they crunched the numbers could make sense. That $13 billion for Juniper would be fairly reasonable valuation, in their opinion. That from a financial perspective, they again, based on their estimates, they could see how the deal could be accretive.

But to your point, this is all about IA. Juniper, best known for the hardware, the switches, and the routers. But they do have this AI business they bought in 2019. It's growing fast. It's this AI-based wireless platform. And perhaps, that's what HP CEO Antonio Neri now has his eyes on. The Journal says if it's going to happen, we could hear about it soon maybe this week. So look for headlines.

JULIE HYMAN: Juniper shares have not been doing very well, so-- for quite a long time.

JOSH LIPTON: They haven't. But when you read through the analyst notes to another question they had for Juniper is, why now, though? What triggered it? Because they actually-- the analysts say, they actually are seeing strength in their enterprise market. So another interesting question. Why now? Yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. All right. Let's talk Illumina, shall we?

JOSH LIPTON: Go ahead.

JULIE HYMAN: All right. Shares of biotech company Illumina popping in today's trading session. The company posting preliminary fourth-quarter revenue that did top expectations. One analyst over at Cowen saying this is a good start under the new CEO Jacob Thaysen.

And it's important that there's a new CEO, because last year was a drama-filled year for Illumina. It came under activist pressure as well from Carl Icahn, who wanted it, the company, to not buy back Grail, a unit that it had had owned and then spun off and then bought again. And then it ended up by the end of the year dissolving that buy, right? The CEO, who had been the CEO, left, Thaysen took over. A lot happened.

JOSH LIPTON: There's a lot of soap operas. So then you did have this new CEO Jacob Thaysen. And he was CEO back in September. Because the other CEOs, to your point, there was this kind of abrupt departure. And it was amid the proxy fight and the regulatory headaches. Even with today's pop, though, by the way, the stock still, I mean, it's looking tough here. You're still down about 30% in the past 12 months.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. But even so, they came out with this preliminary revenue. $1.12 billion is what Illumina is now talking about. $1.07 billion is what analysts had been looking for. So again, people looking for some relief. And the company, you know, we should point out, and our Anjalee Khemlani was covering it, the JP Morgan Health conference going on in San Francisco, and you tend to get a lot of announcements from health care related companies in this time that do push around the stock. So we'll be watching.

This is something that came ahead of a presentation they made out there. And so we could potentially get more of those.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah. So it sounded like, Julie, so basically it was the Q4 beat to your point. And the full-year sales, they're going to decline but decline less than what they figured when they last spoke, yeah.