Why These 4 Stocks Have Started the Week Off on the Right Foot

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The markets have continued to tumble in the second week of 2016, with all major U.S stock indexes now down today after a mild rally earlier in the day. Despite the general decline in equities, a few stocks are bucking the 2016 trend and trading up today. Among them we can count Nevro Corp (NYSE:NVRO), Community Health Systems (NYSE:CYH), AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAG), and Tenet Healthcare Corp (NYSE:THC), and we’ll take a look into what’s driving the surges in these company’s stocks and what the hedge funds in our database think about these companies.

In the eyes of most traders, hedge funds are assumed to be underperforming, old investment tools of the past. While there are more than 8,000 funds in operation at present, Insider Monkey looks at only the aristocrats of this group, around 730 funds. Contrary to popular belief, Insider Monkey’s research revealed that hedge funds underperformed in recent years because of their short positions as well as the huge fees that they charge, not because they are not good at picking stocks on the long side of their portfolios. Hedge funds did in fact manage to outperform the market on the long side of their portfolios (see the details here).

Let’s commence with Nevro Corp (NYSE:NVRO), a small-cap medical device company that hit a 52-week high on Monday, before settling around $69.20, up by almost 7%. The surge was triggered by the announcement of the company’s preliminary fourth quarter financial results. Management now expects revenue in the range of $32.6 million-to-$33.1 million, up from $9.7 million in the same quarter of last year, and ahead of the Street’s expectations.

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Nevro Corp (NYSE:NVRO) seems to be gaining in popularity among the hedge funds in our database. As of the end of the third quarter of 2015, 21 of them held long stakes in the company, up by more than 10% quarter-over-quarter. A fund that seemed particularly bullish was Kevin Kotler’s Broadfin Capital, which almost quadrupled its holding over the third quarter, lifting it to more than 1.6 million shares worth roughly $74.5 million.

Next up is Community Health Systems (NYSE:CYH), which had gained nearly 10% today on high trading volume before giving back much of those gains later in the day. Although there was apparently no specific catalyst on Monday in terms of news, the small-cap hospital company announced last Friday that it was expecting to complete the spinoff of its Quorum Health Resources segment by June, rather than in the first quarter of 2016, as was originally projected.

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Unlike Nevro Corp (NYSE:NVRO), Community Health Systems (NYSE:CYH) saw hedge fund interest decline over the latest reported quarter. Among the hedge funds that we track, 59 disclosed long positions in the company; while this figure is quite high, it is still lower than the 61 funds betting on the firm at the end of the second quarter of 2015. Interestingly, however, these 59 investment firms own more than 23% of Community Health Systems’ total shares, with Larry Robbins’ Glenview Capital holding over 10% (or about 12.09 million shares) of that total outstanding stock.

On the next page we will take a look at why AMAG Pharmaceuticals and Tenet Healthcare Corp are surging in afternoon trading.

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