Why Are These Four Stocks Hot on The Market on Wednesday?

Four stocks jumped into the green territory by midday on November 11 on the back of an Initial Public Offering, the involvement in legal matters, as well as the disclosure of the financial results for the last quarter. Let’s take a closer look at the developments behind the performance of these four stocks, which include Advanced Accelerator Applications S.A. (NASDAQ:AAAP), Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX), SunOpta Inc. (NASDAQ:STKL), and Glaukos Corp. (NYSE:GKOS). We’ll also look at the sentiment of top hedge funds in our database over these stocks.

An everyday investor does not have the time or the required skill-set to carry out an in-depth analysis of equities and identify companies with the best future prospects. Thus a retail investor is better off to monkey the most popular stock picks among hedge funds by him or herself. But not just any picks mind you. Our research has shown that a portfolio based on hedge funds’ top stock picks (which are invariably comprised entirely of large-cap companies) falls considerably short of a portfolio based on their best small-cap stock picks. The most popular large-cap stocks among hedge funds underperformed the market by an average of seven basis points per month in our backtests, whereas the 15 most popular small-cap stock picks among hedge funds outperformed the market by nearly a percentage point per month over the same period between 1999 and 2012. Since officially launching our small-cap strategy in August 2012 it has performed just as predicted, beating the market by over 53 percentage points and returning over 102%, while hedge funds have collectively underperformed the market (read more details here).

Shares of Advanced Accelerator Applications S.A. (NASDAQ:AAAP) surged by 44.38% by midday on Wednesday, a day after pricing its initial public offering of 4,688,000 American Depositary Shares at a price of $16.00 per ADS. The ADSs, which represent 9,376,000 of the company’s ordinary shares, have begun trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market today. The company also granted the underwriters a 30-day over-allotment option to buy up to 703,200 additional ADSs.

Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX), which provides business process and document management solutions worldwide, gained 4.11% in light trading. The company inched up the charts Wednesday after the arrest of four people related to a toner cartridge scam, the Wesh.com reported on November 10. The scam was rooted to RBM Imaging, an authorized reseller, which was found to be buying bulk toner from Xerox and reselling the product in an unfair manner. By the end of June, 30 hedge funds in our database held 3.50% of the outstanding stock of Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX).

SunOpta Inc. (NASDAQ:STKL) has risen by 7.77% in below-average trading, after posting results for its third quarter ended October 3. The company’s revenues mildly declined to $306 million during the most recent quarter, compared to $307.9 million from the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA was down to $16.8 million, compared to $18.8 million in the same period last year. Earnings from continuing operations jumped to $664,000, compared to a loss of $460,000 in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, earnings attributable to SunOpta Inc. (NASDAQ:STKL) were $314,000, compared to a loss of $384,000 reported a year earlier.

“We had an in-line quarter on an adjusted basis, and we believe performance will improve as we realize the benefits of the foundation we have built. Looking ahead, we are making good progress in our Consumer Products business, the integration of Sunrise Growers and reaping the benefits of the significant investments we have made in future growth,” SunOpta President and CEO Rik Jacobs said.

A total of 15 funds, out of 730 in our database, held 23.80% of the company’s outstanding stock at the end of June.

Glaukos Corp. (NYSE:GKOS), which identifies itself as an ophthalmic medical technology company, jumped 17.27% in active trading after slumping further in losses as it ended the third quarter of 2015.  The company’s net sales grew to $19 million in the third quarter this year, but Glaukos booked a net loss of $2.1 million – which widened slightly from the $2.0 net loss the same quarter in 2014. As an outlook, the company said it expects 2015 full-year net sales to be in the range of $70.5 million to $71.5 million.

“Glaukos has delivered another quarter of record performance that demonstrates the momentum building behind our first-in-class iStent technology as an elegant solution for managing intraocular pressure associated with glaucoma,” Glaukos President and CEO Thomas Burns said.

At the end of the second quarter, a total of nine funds among those we follow held 11.40% of the company’s outstanding stock.

Disclosure: none.