Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
Pfizer – The drugmaker is buying Array Biopharma for $48 per share in cash, or $11.4 billion, including debt. That’s a 62% premium over Array’s Friday close. Array specializes in treatments for diseases where there is a large unmet need, as well as cancer drugs.
Boeing – Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg told reporters at the Paris Air Show that it will take time to win back the confidence of its customers following the two fatal crashes involving the 737 Max jet. He also said the company had failed to communicate properly with regulators and customers about problems with a cockpit warning system.
Lockheed Martin – Lockheed executive Greg Ulmer said he is not concerned that the proposed merger of Raytheon and United Technologies would affect the F-35 program or put pressure on its profit margins. Ulmer is program manager for the F-35.
Walt Disney – Disney was downgraded to “in-line” from “outperform” at Imperial Capital on a valuation basis, with the stock up nearly 26% since the “outperform rating was put in place in November.
Deutsche Bank – Deutsche Bank plans to create a so-called “bad bank” to hold billions in non-core assets, according to Reuters. The move is said to be in conjunction with an overhaul of the bank’s trading operations.
Alibaba – Alibaba is proposing an eight-for-one stock split, in a move designed to increase flexibility in capital raising. The proposal will be brought up at the China e-commerce giant’s July 15 annual meeting.
Deere – R.W. Baird upgraded Deere to “outperform” from “neutral.” Baird said the bad weather which has driven up the price of corn and other commodities will also spur demand for farm equipment.
Keane Group – Keane and rival oilfield services firm C&J Energy announced an all-stock merger of equals, valuing the combined company at $1.5 billion excluding debt.
Goldman Sachs – Goldman will combine four of its units that invest in private companies into one new operation, according to The Wall Street Journal. The paper said the newly created unit would be nearly as big as KKR and about one third the size of Blackstone.
Target – Target said its registers are back online after outages over the weekend that prevented shoppers from making purchases on Saturday, and some from using credit cards on Sunday. The retailer said neither incident was caused by a cyberattack.
Papa John’s – Papa John’s dismissed KPMG as its auditor and hired Ernst & Young. Earlier this year, KPMG had said the pizza chain did not maintain effective control over its financial reporting.
FedEx – China’s state news agency Xinhua said the country’s investigation into FedEx should not be seen as retaliation for trade tensions between the U.S. and China. China launched a probe over parcels intended for telecom giant Huawei delivered to the wrong address.
Symantec – Symantec was upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” at Mizuho Securities, citing the cybersecurity software maker’s valuation after the stock fell 31 percent since the beginning of 2018.
Keurig Dr Pepper – BMO Capital upgraded the beverage maker’s stock to “outperform” from “market perform,” saying the stock’s valuation discount to its non-alcohol peers is now too large to ignore.