Coverage of technology company Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has been initiated by analysts at Monness Crespi & Hardt with a neutral rating and a price target of $605 a share. The price target on the stock represents a potential upside of 12% from its Friday closing price. In other company news, Google's Nest acquired Colorado-based smart home hub startup Revolv for an undisclosed amount, the startup announced late on Friday. The acquisition represents Nest's second acquisition since Google acquired it in January. In June, Nest acquired home security camera manufacturer Dropcam for $555 million. In Monday's morning session, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares were up 0.5% at $542.55, with a 52-week range of $502.80 - $604.83.NanoViricides Inc (NYSEMKT:NNVC), a nanomedicine company developing anti-viral drugs, said Monday it reached an agreement with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases under which some anti-Ebola nanomedicine drug candidates recently developed by NanoViricides Inc (NYSEMKT:NNVC) will be evaluated by USAMRIID scientists in their BSL-4 facilities for activity against the deadly Ebola virus. USAMRIID, located at Fort Detrick, Maryland, is the lead medical-research laboratory for the U.S. Biological Defense Research Program, and plays a key role in national defense and in infectious-disease research. The company said it recently developed and is now synthesizing test quantities of its nanoviricide drug candidates against Ebola that it believes could lead to a successful therapeutic."These drug candidates are designed to mimic the host cell receptor onto which the Ebola virus binds to cause an infection," it said. "The site at which the virus binds does not change, in spite of mutations. Thus the company believes that its drug candidates would continue to work in spite of field mutations in the virus. This is unlike vaccines, antibodies, siRNA, antisense, and several other therapeutic modes, which a virus can readily overcome due to mutations it acquires in the field."NanoViricides noted it previously had developed anti-Ebola drug candidates that demonstrated the validity and potential of its approach, based on cell culture and animal testing conducted at USAMRIID in a BSL-4 facility, but the company "had to de-prioritize further development of anti-Ebola drug candidates in order to focus on the development of its lead drug candidate, Injectable FluCide, being developed for the treatment of hospitalized patients with influenza."Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) shares edged lower Monday morning, after photo-sharing services provider Twitpic said in a Friday blog post that its domain and photo archive would be acquired by the social network. Twitpic founder Noah Everett said the deal will keep user "photos and links alive for the time being," and "since Twitpic's user base consists of Twitter users, it makes sense to keep this data with Twitter." Twitpic noted, however, that the site will operate in "read-only mode" as users won't be able to add any new photos or data. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) shares were off 0.3% at $49.80 in recent Monday trading, in a 52-week range of $29.51 to $74.73.
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