Afternoon Movers: Sandisk, Starbucks, Groupon

Broader US equity markets traded higher today, with the S&P 500 Index trading up approximately 0.5%. These three stocks saw significant price movements in today's trading:

: This semiconductor manufacturer rose more than 5% today after announcing two deals today to provide devices for

and

. Even with today's price rise, SanDisk is still trading approximately 32% lower year to date. Much of the stock's year to date decline occurred during the weeks surrounding its disappointing April 19th earnings release. In this release, the company described how weakened demand for its products will likely hurt its first half performance, but that the company expects to “reemerge stronger” for the second half of the year.

: Shares of this coffee and baked goods retailer traded more than 2% lower today after the company announced an acquisition of the parent company of La Boulange, a California based chain of bakeries, for $100 million. Starbucks said it intends to make La Boulange's products available in Starbucks stores. According to La Boulange's

website

, the bakeries offer pastries, breads and sandwiches. If Starbucks were to offer these baked products in its stores, the company may be able to increase lunch and dinner traffic relative to that of the morning coffee crowd. However, investors might believe that La Boulange's baking expertise did not justify the $100 million price tag, given today's price decline. Or, investors might have viewed the acquisition as a signal that Starbucks lacked internal growth opportunities.

: Groupon's stock price increased more than 7% today after the company's lock-up period for inside investors ended last Friday, June 1. Today's increase followed a decline of around 8.9% yesterday. Today's increase could be a related to The Benchmark Company's release of a positive note about Groupon, with a price target of $20.00 vs Groupon's current price near $9.60. One analyst noted that Groupon has been especially susceptible to price fluctuations from headlines, and that this trend may continue for the short term.