Sirius XM, Tellabs: Early Volume Plays

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Several stocks trading near $5 were poised to move on above-average volume during Tuesday's session.

Sirius XM (SIRI) rose by 3 cents, or 4.7%, to 71 cents in the premarket session after Lazard Capital Markets analysts initiated coverage of the stock with a buy rating and a $1 price target. The firm highlighted Sirius XM's falling costs, loyal subscriber base of 18.5 million, and entrenched growth. Lazard also said that rising cash flow will make refinancing debt maturities in 2013 easy. The 50-day average daily volume for Sirius is 22.4 million, according to the Nasdaq.

Tellabs (TLAB) gained 33 cents, or 5.6%, to $6.23 in the premarket session after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings of 9 cents a share, better than the Thomson Reuters average estimate of 7 cents a share. Revenue fell 4.7% from a year ago to $389 million, which was slightly below consensus. Looking ahead, Tellabs offered in-line revenue guidance for the first quarter, adding that it will cut about 200 jobs over the next five quarters. The 50-day average daily volume for Tellabs is 7 million shares.

MDRNA (MRNA) jumped by 16 cents, or 16.5%, to $1.13 in the premarket session after the company said the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China issued a patent for the use of nucleic acids to treat cancer. The 50-day average daily volume for MDRNA is 1.59 million shares.

YM BioSciences (YMI) was poised to open sharply higher after the company said it received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for two ongoing Phase II nimotuzumab trials at U.S. clinical sites. One of the two trials is in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who are ineligible for curative treatment and being treated palliatively and the other in patients with brain metastases from NSCLC. The three-month average daily volume for YM BioSciences is 251,000, according to Yahoo! Finance.