Brocade, Madison Square Garden: After-Hours Trading

Shares of Brocade Communications(BRCD) ticked lower in late trades on Friday following a report that The Blackstone Group(BX) is no longer in talks to purchase the company.

Bloomberg is reporting the buyout firm is shying away from pursuing a deal because the run-up in the stock has made the price too rich. Brocade shares have advanced nearly 12% year-to-date as of Friday's close at $5.68. Brocade shares were last quoted at $5.62, down 1%, on volume of nearly 60,000, according to Nasdaq.com. The stock has ranged from a high of $7.30 on June 3 to a slow of $3.18 on Aug. 8 in the past year. The Bloomberg report said Blackstone and Francisco Partners were discussing a deal for Brocade, which is slated to report its fiscal first-quarter results on Feb. 21. The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters is for earnings of 13 cents a share in the January-ended period on revenue of $542.4 million. At current levels, Brocade, which makes networking equipment, has a market cap of $2.58 billion, and the stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 9.8X. Wall Street is mostly on the sidelines though with 24 of the 30 analysts covering the shares at either hold (20) or underperform (4), and the 12-month median price target sitting at $6. Check out TheStreet's quote page for Brocade for year-to-date share performance, analyst ratings, earnings estimates and much more.Madison Square Garden Jeremy Lin has apparently worked another wonder with Madison Square Garden(MSG) reportedly reaching terms on a settlement of its dispute with Time Warner Cable(TWC) late Friday. The deal comes ahead of the Lin and the New York Knicks battling the New Orleans Hornets later this evening. The Knicks are on a seven-day winning streak since Lin was inserted into the starting line-up against the New Jersey Nets on Feb. 4, and shares of MSG have rallied roughly 10% as the wins have piled up. Late Friday, multiple media reports said an agreement was in place to bring the MSG channel back to Time Warner Cable customers. Reuters said the deal was confirmed by a spokesperson with Time Warner, but didn't offer specific details. MSG shares were last quoted at $32.95, up 10 cents, on volume of less than 5,000, according to Nasdaq.com. The stock is up 11.3% since the start of 2012, hitting a new 52-week high of $33.49 in intraday action on Friday. Check out TheStreet's quote page for Madison Square Garden for year-to-date share performance, analyst ratings, earnings estimates and much more.-->To contact the writer of this article, click here: Michael Baron. >To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints