Why Synacor, Atlas Air, Tutor Perini and EP Energy Are Up By Double-Digits Today

U.S stocks, which were up on Thursday until the early afternoon, driven initially by a spike in oil prices and energy stocks, are now slightly down, ahead of this Friday’s U.S jobs data announcement. However, as usual, a few stocks are moving up sharply, largely on earnings reports. Among them are Synacor Inc (NASDAQ:SYNC), Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAWW), Tutor Perini Corp (NYSE:TPC), EP Energy Corp (NYSE:EPE), and Masimo Corporation (NASDAQ:MASI). Let’s check out why these stocks are surging today and see what the funds in our database think about these companies.

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Synacor Doubles on New Yahoo Deal

Let’s start with Synacor Inc (NASDAQ:SYNC), which is up by more than 118% today on roughly 270-times its regular trading volume, on the news that AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) has decided to terminate its 15-year-old hosting partnership with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), moving most of its business (except for email services) elsewhere. Under the new scheme, Synacor will host AT&T’s web and mobile portals, which could result in approximately $100 million in annual revenue for Synacor, starting in 2017. It should be noted that, as of Wednesday afternoon, the company’s market cap had still only reached $42.3 million.

As with most nano-caps, Synacor Inc (NASDAQ:SYNC) did not count many hedge fund supporters at the end of the fourth quarter of 2015. Among the firms in our database, only two were long the stock at that time. Phil Frohlich’s Prescott Group Capital Management held 1.18 million shares of the company as of March 31.

Atlas Air & Amazon Ink a New Deal

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAWW) is also up on a new deal with a major company, following the signing of a new agreement with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Under the terms of the deal, Atlas Air will provide the online retailer with air cargo services through its 20 Boeing 767-300 converted freighters. In addition, the contract stipulates that Amazon was given warrants to acquire 20% of Atlas Air’s stock, at a price of $37.50 per share, with an option to purchase an additional 10%. Shares of Atlas Air have gained about 27% today.

At the end of 2015, 14 funds in our database were long Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAWW), holding 9% of its outstanding shares.

We’ll dive into three more stocks and their gains today on the next page.

Tutor Perini Spikes on Earnings Beat

Shares of Tutor Perini Corp (NYSE:TPC) are trading up by 27.75% on Thursday afternoon following the announcement of the company’s first quarter financial results. After the market closed on Wednesday, the small-cap construction company reported earnings of $0.31 per share, beating the Street’s consensus by $0.12. Revenue of $1.09 billion fell $50 million short of expectations however. Finally, the company reiterated its full-year guidance, with management anticipating EPS of $1.90-to-$2.20, on revenue of $5.1 billion-to-$5.6 billion for the year.

Tutor Perini Corp (NYSE:TPC) also counted 14 hedge fund supporters among those that we track at the end of 2015. William Harnisch‘s Peconic Partners LLC was the largest shareholder in this group, having declared a holding of 947,927 shares of the company as of December 31.

EP Energy Also Rises on Strong Results

Next up is EP Energy Corp (NYSE:EPE), which is also up greatly, by about 26%, in Thursday trading, driven by its first quarter financial results. The small-cap E&P company delivered EPS of $0.19, helped by lower costs and ameliorated operational performance, while the consensus had called for nearly flat EPS of just $0.01. While revenue of $224 million fell short of expectations, other aspects of its balanced sheet were strong, including free cash flow of $122 million, liquidity gaining a net $250 million, and annual interest expenses being cut by $50 million, mostly on the back of debt repurchases.

By the end of 2015, EP Energy Corp (NYSE:EPE) counted 18 hedge fund backers among those that we track. One of the largest stockholders of record was Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, which held 6.93 million shares of the company worth more than $30 million as of December 31.

Double-Beat For Masimo

Finally, there’s Masimo Corporation (NASDAQ:MASI), the only stock in this list that is not up by double-digits on Thursday. However, the company’s shares are by no means lagging, as they are up by more than 9% in the afternoon hours, driven by the top and bottom-line beats that the company delivered on Wednesday afternoon. EPS of $0.53 and revenue of $171.17 million came in $0.10 and $5.92 million above the consensus estimates, respectively. In addition, management boosted its full-year guidance to $677 million in revenue, up by $7 million in relation to its previous estimate, and to $1.83 in EPS, up from a previous outlook of $1.69.

There were 23 hedge funds in our database with long positions in Masimo Corporation (NASDAQ:MASI), a small-cap medical technology company, at the end of 2015. Their combined stakes accounted for more than 6% of the company’s total shares.

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