Why Are These Stocks Shining Bright Today?

Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW), Fitbit Inc. (NYSE:FIT), Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP), Team Health Holdings LLC (NYSE:TMH), and Amsurg Corp (NASDAQ:AMSG) are trending today on a spate of news. Let’s take a closer look inside the headlines and see what has investors so excited about them.

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Weight Watchers International, Inc. (NYSE:WTW) is up by another 30% following yesterday’s 105% rally on optimism that Oprah Winfrey’s recent purchase of 6.36 million shares and seat on the company’s board will help ramp up revenue and profits for the company. We suspect short covering is also playing a big part too, as 27.5% of Weight Watchers International’s float is short. At some point, the rally will retrace, although currently it’s good times for Weight Watchers’ shareholders, including Winfrey herself, who has made over $60 million on her investment already.

Shares of Fitbit Inc. (NYSE:FIT) are up by 6.4% today after the company announced that Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS), Aon Service Corporation, and Gonzaga University are among the more than 20 enterprise clients Fitbit has picked up in the last four months. Barclays will be providing more than 75,000 of its employees in the U.S and U.K with the option of buying a Fitbit device at a subsidized price. Although the news is certainly positive and enterprise support will increase demand, we believe the 6% push today may be an overreaction. Shares remain very volatile ahead of the company’s December 15 lockup expiration.

Hedge funds seem to be underweight Fitbit Inc. (NYSE:FIT). Of the 730 elite funds we track, 27 owned worth $249.92 million of the company’s stock (representing 3.20% of the float) at the end of June. This compares to the 33.9% of the float that is short. John Griffin‘s Blue Ridge Capital owns 3.5 million shares, while Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management LLC owns 500,000 shares. Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management owns 350,000 shares.

On the next page, we’ll analyze why Team Health Holdings, Amsurg, and Corbus Pharmaceuticals are trending.

Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRBP) has rallied by 10.91% in afternoon trading after the FDA granted Orphan Drug Designation for Resunab, the company’s investigational new drug for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, and also put Resunab in the Fast Track development program. An orphan drug designation provides a seven-year marketing exclusivity period against competition, among other incentives, while a fast track designation expedites the review process for drugs. Resunab is currently in Phase 2 multi-center trials.

Team Health Holdings LLC (NYSE:TMH) is up by 14% in afternoon trading after Amsurg Corp (NASDAQ:AMSG) offered to acquire the company for $11.49 in cash per share and 0.768 AmSurg shares for each TeamHealth share. The offer is worth a cumulative value of $71.47 per Team Health share based on AmSurg’s closing price on Monday. Together, the two companies would have a network of over 1,200 healthcare facilities and around 20,000 clinicians. According to Team Health investor relations, management has rejected the deal, however, stating that the proposal undervalues the company and contains significant risk in its execution as well.

TeamHealth management complained that the offer is the same one that AmSurg put forth previously. Given the rally, investors are expecting a new bid from AmSurg, although there is no guarantee that the merger will ever occur.

Disclosure: None