Last week's gains weren't enough for stock investors, as several major U.S. market benchmarks reached all-time record levels again on Tuesday. Favorable economic data lifted the entire market higher, but a few stock-specific stories also added to the good news on Wall Street today. In particular, Barnes & Noble (BKS), JD.com (JD -0.69%), and TIBCO Software (TIBX.DL) posted impressive gains in today's session.
Barnes & Noble climbed 9% after a report in Barron's over the weekend suggested that the bookseller's stock could double over the next year. The bullish argument notes that if you split out the Nook e-reader business from its traditional retail book-selling business, you might be able to create a more attractive combination of stock spinoffs. Growth investors might look to Nook as having greater potential, while the legacy bookstore business could return capital to investors through dividends. With major investors having gotten out of the stock, recent selling pressure could finally dissipate, allowing Barnes & Noble stock to return to more typical earnings multiples.
Chinese e-commerce stock JD.com gained 14% on its third day of trading after its IPO last week. With shares now up more than 20% from their initial offering price of $19, JD.com looks like a success story waiting to happen. Yet JD.com faces a host of strong competitors in the online-retail space in China, and as more of the big-name players in the industry start to go public in the future, it'll be tough for the company to hold its own against its competition. China still faces questions about its economic health, and although JD caters to customers around the world, the success of China is important to the stock's long-term prospects.
TIBCO Software rose 6% amid speculation that the provider of business-intelligence software and virtualized infrastructure services might become a takeover target. Reports from Germany suggested that enterprise-software giant SAP could be interested in buying out TIBCO Software, and given the big demand for enterprise-based IT lately, the reports don't seem incredible. Still, with TIBCO having recently announced the expansion of a partnership with one of SAP's rivals, it might be awkward to move forward with a buyout bid. Nevertheless, as M&A activity rises generally, you can expect more deals involving tech companies to get done.
