3D Systems PARTNERING with NAMII and 4 Stocks Hitting 52-Week Highs

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL): Jurors are expected to deliberate during the week in order to reach a verdict in the Apple-Samsung(SSNLF) patent case, reports The New York Times. If Apple is victorious, rival companies will probably make smartphones and tablets looking very different from Apple’s devices, the newspaper adds. A Samsung win may mean that Apple competitors will continue making and selling products with a similar appearance to the iPhone and iPad, the publication added. The shares closed at $665.15, up $17.04 or 2.63% on the day. They have traded in a 52-week range of $354.24 to $648.19.

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Agrium Inc. (NYSE:AGU):  The following statement has been released by JANA Partners LLC in response to a filing made today by Agrium: “This is more of the same from Agrium’s board and management: talking down their own stock price to avoid an honest debate about unlocking full shareholder value and twisting themselves into knots trying to reconcile their past comments with their current obstructionist position. The truth, however, is simple: Agrium’s stock price has dramatically underperformed its pure play fertilizer peer CF Industries and a composite of its true pure play retail comparable peers over a multi-year period, regardless of the short-term performance of the company’s stock this year. This is due to a combination of factors including Agrium’s conglomerate structure, operating underperformance in Retail, high costs, and lack of true retail distribution experience on the board. While it is not surprising that management would quibble with some of the numbers in our analysis given their inside knowledge of the company, absolutely nothing they have said substantively refutes these larger points…There is little that is new, but much that is profoundly troubling, in the company’s increasingly desperate comments. We look forward to continuing our discussion with shareholders based on the facts, with the goal of unlocking Agrium’s true value creation potential for all shareholders.” The shares closed at $101.16, up $1.27 or 1.27% on the day. They have traded in a 52-week range of $60.15 to $100.69.

Coventry Health Care (NYSE:CVH) along with Aetna (NYSE:AET) announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which Aetna is to acquire Coventry in a transaction valued at approximately $7.3 billion, which includes the assumption of Coventry debt. The acquisition is predicted to add about 4 million medical members and 1.5 million Medicare Part D members to Aetna’s membership. On a pro forma basis, the transaction increases Aetna’s share of revenues from Government business to more than 30 percent from 23 percent currently. Beneath the terms of the agreement, which were approved by each company’s board, Coventry stockholders are to receive $27.30 in cash and 0.3885 Aetna common shares for each Coventry share. Aetna expects to finance the cash portion of the transaction with a combination of cash on hand and by the issuance of approximately $2.5 billion in new debt and commercial paper. Excluding both transaction and integration costs, the transaction is expected to be modestly accretive to Aetna’s operating earnings per share in 2013, 45c accretive in 2014 and 90c accretive in 2015. The shares closed at $42.04, up $7.1 or 20.32% on the day. They have traded in a 52-week range of $25.78 to $36.04.

3D Systems Corp. (DDD) has announced its intentions to partner with the administration’s National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, or NAMII. This is a federal initiative to enhance the US industry’s competitiveness, re-localize manufacturing via technology, create new jobs and increase exports. The shares closed at $41.38, up $0.56 or 1.37% on the day. They have traded in a 52-week range of $12.78 to $41.75.

Ebay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY): McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) has begun testing a new payments system at 30 of its restaurants located in France allowing customers use the fast food chain’s mobile app to both order and pay for meals, according to Reuters. The transactions would be powered by EBay’sPayPal. The shares closed at $46.40, down $0.47 or 1% on the day. They have traded in a 52-week range of $27.12 to $47.05.

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