Keep an Eye on These 4 High-Flying Stocks Today

Shares of Affymetrix, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFX) are up by approximately 50% after the company announced that it will be taken over by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) for $1.3 billion. As a result, Affymetrix shareholders will get $14 per share, which represents a 52% premium over Friday’s closing price. The deal is expected to close by the end of the second quarter and Thermo Fisher is expecting its earnings to increase by $0.10 per share in the first year following the close of the deal.

Hedge funds’ confidence in Affymetrix, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFX) was boosted during the third quarter, with the number of long positions increasing to 24 by the end of September. Samuel Isaly and Orbimed Advisors were poised to gain the most from the takeover among the elite funds we follow, having reported ownership of 7.51 million shares at the end of the third quarter.

Acorn International, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:ATV) has skyrocketed by more than 150% this morning on news that the company is set to implement a share buyback program. The company’s board of directors has approved a buyback program of up to $2 million worth of American Depositary Shares (ADS) during the next 12 months. Acorn also said it will use its cash balance to finance the program. Investors have poured into the stock during the first hours of trading, helping the stock easily cover its 25% slump since the start of the year prior to today.

At the end of the third quarter, only two of the funds that we track reported a stake in Acorn International, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:ATV). Satyen Mehta‘s Neon Liberty Capital Management reported a position that amassed 223,043 Acorn shares as of the end of September, while Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group held 11,672 shares.

Disclosure: None