MGT Capital Investments Inc. (MGT), Resolute Energy Corp (REN) & More: Why These Stocks Are Making Moves Today

The markets have snapped out of their losing streak today, being helped by positive quarterly earnings reported by Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). Retail sales also showed a 0.6% improvement in September, pulling the markets up.

Apart from that, the markets are also being affected by several individual stocks making moves today. Among them are MGT Capital Investments Inc. (NYSEMKT:MGT), Resolute Energy Corp (NYSE:REN), Terex Corporation (NYSE:TEX), ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:CTRV), and Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ:VIA). In this article, we’ll discuss the news pushing these stocks today and see how hedge funds have been trading them of late.

Through extensive research that covered the portfolios of several hundred large investors between 1999 and 2012, we determined that following the small-cap stocks that large money managers are collectively bullish on, can generate monthly returns nearly 1.0 percentage points above the market (see the details here).

MGT Capital Investments Inc. (NYSEMKT:MGT) stock has gained 21% today after the company announced the commercial release of its new security device, Sentinel, a product which has been designed by whitehat hackers and Executive Chairman John McAfee. MGT Capital Investments will start shipping orders within six-to-eight weeks. Each unit has been priced at $4,995, with an annual renewable contract. MGT Capital recently announced canceling its acquisition of D-Vasive and Demonsaw, though it has reached a tentative agreement to license or acquire the rights to the source code of the latter. Among the funds that we track, four held a total of $4.63 million worth of MGT Capital Investments Inc. (NYSEMKT:MGT) stock at the end of June, amounting to 5.10% of its outstanding stock.

Resolute Energy Corp (NYSE:REN) is trading up by nearly 8% today on the news that RSP Permian Inc (NYSE:RSPP) is buying Silver Hill Energy Partners in a $2.5 billion deal. The deal will be paid for with $1.25 billion in cash and 31 million RSPP shares. Resolute Energy recently agreed to pay $135 million for Firewheel Energy LLC, which has drilling rights to about 3,300 acres in the Permian Basin, one of the cheapest places to develop onshore fields in the U.S. Resolute Energy’s stock is now more than 640% in the green this year. The number of funds from within our hedge fund database long Resolute Energy Corp (NYSE:REN) stood at six at the end of June, with the total value of their holdings standing at $9.4 million.

We’ll run through three of the day’s other trending stocks on the next page.

Terex Corporation (NYSE:TEX) shares have climbed by over 5% today after it received a double ratings upgrade from Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. The firm’s rating on the stock  has been bumped up two notches to ‘Buy’ from the previous rating of ‘Underperform’. Bank of America’s price target on the stock was also hiked to $29 from $21. Bank of America stated that the company is likely to benefit greatly from the sale of its Material Handling and Ports Solutions to Konecranes for $1.3 billion, as it will provide the company with enhanced financial flexibility. Bank of America believes it’s possible that the company will divest the rest of its construction assets in the near future. 31 hedge funds in our database have long positions in Terex Corporation (NYSE:TEX) as of June 30, valued at $259 million. Those figures were far below the $489 million in Terex stock held by 38 hedge funds on March 31.

ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:CTRV) is currently trading 34% in the green on the news of positive interim results from its HBV drug, CMX157. For the first evaluation, patients treated with CMX157 experienced an average HBV viral load reduction of 99% compared to baseline. The observed antiviral activity for CMX157 is comparable to that observed in patients treated with Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD)’s Viread, even with a dose over 90% smaller. However, active tenofovir levels observed in patients’ blood was significantly lower with CMX157 than with Viread. None of the hedge funds that we track were shareholders of ContraVir Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:CTRV) at the end of June.

Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ:VIA) is trading marginally higher on the news that it has appointed three banking advisers to help it explore a merger with CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS), from which it split in 2006. The news follows Viacom forming a special committee last month to consider the proposal made by Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements, which owns 80% of the voting shares of each company. 41 hedge funds in our database held about $1.23 billion worth of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ:VIA) stock as of the end of June.

Disclosure: None