Why Are These Five Stocks Rallying on Wednesday?

Another red day on Wall Street with all three indices declining by more than 1%, but shares of Mobileye NV (NYSE:MBLY), TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR), Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX), Yamana Gold Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AUY), and Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CNAT) are registering gains. So let’s take a closer look at the developments that sent these stocks higher and see the hedge fund sentiment towards them.

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The first on the list is Mobileye NV (NYSE:MBLY), whose stock is well in the green on news regarding the development of a new technology, Road Experience Management (REM), which, through real-time data source location and other high-definition data, will provide information for fully-autonomous driving. Moreover, the company has signed an agreement with Volkswagen AG to include the new technology into the Volkswagen’s fleet. It also plans to integrate REM into existing program launches of General Motors.

“We leveraged advanced artificial intelligence, used for creating environmental models from camera input, in order to create maps based on local coordinate systems while requiring very low bandwidth,” Prof. Amnon Shashua, co-founder, chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Mobileye was quoted as saying in a statement.

Among the funds we follow, 32 reported long positions in Mobileye NV as of the end of September, down by seven funds from a quarter earlier.

Second in our list is TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR), whose shares are up by around 5.5% today after the analysts at JPMorgan Chase upgraded the company to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’, while maintaining the price target at $25 per share (a 40% upside potential from the current price and 70% higher than the consensus price target). The analyst Mark Strouse added that in terms of the Sum-Of-The-Parts (SOTP) Valuation, the $25 price target includes $20 for the weapons business, with the remainder – for the company’s video segment. The upgrade is based on a proper risk-reward relationship, as well as new contracts.

During the third quarter, TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR) registered a decrease in popularity among the funds we track, with 15 investors holding long positions at the end of September, versus 18 funds a quarter earlier. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell‘s Arrowstreet Capital is the largest shareholder of the company among the investors we follow, with 1.39 million shares valued at $30.7 million as of the end of the third quarter.

Moving on, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) and Yamana Gold Inc. (USA) (NYSE: AUY), whose shares have advanced amid gold price growth on the back of financial, political and macroeconomic developments that caused investors seek refuge in gold. The precious metal is trading higher by around 1% on the COMEX today. In this way, the whole gold mining industry is trading higher, with the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GDX) up by some 2%.

In the third quarter, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) registered a decrease in popularity among the funds we track, with 40 investors holding long positions, versus 42 funds in the previous quarter. First Eagle Investment Management was the largest shareholder with 27.85 million shares, valued at $177.11 million at the end of September.

Yamana Gold Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AUY) also lost popularity in the third quarter, and, out of the 730 funds that we track, 16 funds reported shares in the last round of 13F filings, amassing 3.3% of the float. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson‘s Adage Capital Management has the most valuable position in Yamana Gold, worth $22.1 million.

Finally, among the gainers today is nano cap Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CNAT), which is trading higher on the back of positive results from its Phase 2 Study involving liver cirrhosis. The company’s product, emricasan, the first-in-class, orally-active pan-caspase inhibitor, showed a statically significant reduction in liver disease.

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CNAT) registered an increase in popularity among the funds we track, with 10 investors holding long positions at the end of September, compared to nine funds in the second quarter. Arthur B. Cohen and Joseph Healey‘s HealthCor Management is the largest shareholder with 1.01 million shares, valued at $4.49 million at the end of September.

Disclosure: none