Novo Nordisk, Charter & Cox, Take Two: Trending Tickers

Yahoo

16-05-2025

Novo Nordisk's (NVO) CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is set to step down.
Charter (CHTR) and Cox Communications announce a merger in a $34.5 billion deal.
Take Two (TTWO) forecasts weak 2026 bookings as the delayed release of "Grand Theft Auto 6" is expected to weigh on the company.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here.
Now time for some of today's trending tickers. We're watching Novo Nordisk, Charter Communications and Take 2. First up, Novo Nordisk announcing that its CEO is stepping down. The weight loss drug maker citing recent market challenges and the CEO is expected to stay in the role for a period of time to ensure a smooth transition. Shares moving lower on this news down by about three and a half percent here. Uh, we do know that this is going to be a uh, period of transition supporting that smooth transition to new leadership. A search for large large Jorgenson's successor ongoing. Uh, and many of our Yahoo Finance faithful will also remember that this was our 2023 Yahoo Finance Company of the Year.
Yeah, and it's certainly been a fall from grace. The company had that sort of first mover advantage when it comes to weight loss drugs, but we're now seeing consumers really switching to uh, Lily through their Lily direct program for example, and some other competitors in the space. While Novo continues to sort of struggle here. They have been trying to kind of regain their lead and create other avenues for revenue through other drugs, but they just haven't been able to make that work here. And so you see given the shares have lost nearly 60% since their peak last summer. We're now seeing of course, the CEO exit the shares down about 3% at the moment. Well next up, Charter Communications and Cox Communications agreeing to merge, combining two of the biggest cable providers in the United States. The deal valuing Cox at 34 and a half billion dollars here including some debt. The combined company would be the top broadband operator in the US, as I said, increasing Charter subscriber base by more than 20%. And I think that's in part why you are seeing this mild move to the upside pre-market here, positioning the uh, Charter to be able to compete more in an environment when we continue to see these convergences happening.
Yeah, that's exactly what they're talking about within the release for the company as well. In this combination augmenting their ability to innovate, provide high-quality competitively priced products, outstanding customer service, millions of homes and businesses. At the end of the day, the environment is changing quite rapidly here. And some of the takeaways that uh, investors should be looking for going forward from this point, especially when it comes to the consummation of this deal and coming over the finish line in full. Uh, Wall Street and how they're going to be looking at this. $4 billion in cash in consideration for the transaction. Cox Enterprises is going to get $4 billion in cash, $6 billion notional convertible preferred units in Charter's existing partnership. And then additionally, they're going to get about three uh, 33.6 million common units in Charter's existing partnership as well. Implied value there of about 11.9 billion dollars here. So, um, I think we're looking for this and this total enterprise value. Have this adjusted EBITA trading at a 6.44 times multiple. Um, and that's based on a few of the existing 2025 factors that they've already laid out. Also here, let's talk about Take 2 Interactive here for all the gamers out there. Take 2 interactive topping quarterly sales estimates boosted by its latest basketball game and Grand Theft Auto Online, GTA Online. But the video game company is forecasting 2026 bookings below expectations, the delay of its highly anticipated GTA 6, Grand Theft Auto, expected to weigh on results here. You're taking a look at shares of Take 2 Interactive here pre-market. They're up by about 1%. Um, the last time a GTA was released, uh, Russell Wilson was winning Super Bowls.
That's exactly right, Brad. You know, that's the kind of commentary I love. Because the only thing that I had to add to the conversation was some sports commentary from my house, which is that, you know, Take 2 is the 2K operator. So people love that who are close to me. Um, but it's all about Grand Theft Auto 6. I think that this is a stock that tends to move off of whether or not this game is going to be released sooner rather than later. So for those investors in our audience listening in on Take 2, I just really try to get some information about when GTA 6 is coming out. And that's potentially what's going to be able to move the stock price despite the uh, forecast here for that game release. We are still seeing shares up a little over 1% at the moment. For our audience, you can scan the QR code below to track the best and worst performing stocks with Yahoo Finance's trending ticker's page.