NQ Mobile Soars On $80 Million Buyback Plan

NQ Mobile Inc. (NYSE: NQ) soared more than 25 percent after the company unveiled an $80 million buyback to be paid for using existing cash.Shares of the mobile Internet services provider in China had been under heavy pressure since last week when the company released disappointing results and said it will sell its FL Mobile unit in a stock deal valued between $570 million and $630 million.Just prior to NQ's buyback announcement Tuesday, Topeka analyst Frederick Ziegel cut his price target on the company by 74 percent to $8.50.But Ziegel maintained a Buy rating because he said the company's share price was roughly equal to its available cash.Ziegel said he'd expected a change in direction for NQ in 2014. "But we didn't expect the magnitude of the shift and the short-term impact on profitability."Ziegel cut his 2015 earnings estimate for NQ to $0.30 cents a share, from $1.66 cents a share.JG Capital Corp.'s Henry Guo told Bloomberg recently that NQ's FL Mobile unit was "the sector which actually brought money" and its planned sale "means that there is nothing left in the tank" to make its shares attractive.Short seller Carson Block, who first accused the company of fraudulent accounting more than a year ago, attempted last week to query management during an analysts' conference call about the resignation of its co-chief executive Henry Lin.Block, who had misrepresented his identity, was cut off from the call, but NQ said Lin's departure earlier this month was for "family reasons" unrelated to the company.NQ Mobile changed hands recently up 25 percent at $4.32. In the year to date its shares are down more than 70 percent.