Why Galena Biopharma, Whole Foods, Ocean Power Tech, Actinium Pharma & Shopify Spiked Today

OPTT Shares Skyrocket On New Mitsui Agreement

Shares of Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:OPTT) have surged by some 280% on Wednesday, after the nano cap wave power company entered into a PB3 PowerBuoy lease agreement with Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding (OTCMKTS:MIESF). Although the deal, valued at $975,000, may seem small, it is important because it marks the company’s first commercial agreement with Mitsui, which played an important role in the development of the PowerBuoy. Despite its very small market capitalization, Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:OPTT) counted on some hedge fund support as of the end of the first quarter. Two funds in our database, Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, were long the stock, holding 41,570 shares and 19,374 shares, respectively, as of March 31.

Actinium Announces Positive Phase 1 Results

Another stock on the rise on Wednesday afternoon is micro cap Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc (NYSEMKT:ATNM), which gained as much as 6.8%, before settling around $1.95 – up 1.04% for the day. The surge was driven by the announcement of positive results from a Phase 1 study of the company’s Actimab-A, for the treatment of patients, over the age of 60, with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML). A Phase 2 trial -with revised protocol incorporating the latest findings- will start enrolling patients in the second half of the year. One of the largest stakes in Actinium among the funds we track was held by Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors, which last disclosed ownership of 19,717 shares. held as of the end of March.

Shopify Spikes Driven By Demandware Buyout

Finally, there’s Shopify Inc (NYSE:SHOP), which is up more than 5%, driven by news that salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) had acquired fellow e-commerce services company Demandware Inc (NYSE:DWRE) in a deal valued at $2.8 billion, or a 56% premium to Demandware’s Tuesday closing price. The purchase of Demandware triggered speculation about a possible takeover of Shopify; in fact, back in March, it was reported that Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was considering a buyout, in its search to strengthen its Google Apps offering. Shopify Inc (NYSE:SHOP) counted on the support of 14 hedge funds in our database by the end of the first quarter. Among them was Glen Kacher’s Light Street Capital, which declared holding 1.9 million shares, valued at more than $53.5 million on March 31.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.