Why These Five Stocks Opened to Big Gains This Morning

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM)’s shares are rallying by more than 20% today, on the back of the company releasing its financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2015.  For the quarter, the company reported EPS of $0.72 on revenue of $579.16 million, beating EPS expectations by $0.10 and revenue estimates by $10.44 million. Akamai’s guidance for the first quarter was also slightly better-than-expected. The company anticipates revenue of between $554 million and $570 million and EPS in the range of $0.61 to $0.64, while analysts were estimating $567.1 million in revenue and earnings of $0.61 per share. Moreover, the company announced a $1 billion buyback authorization valid through December 31, 2018. Consequently, Craig Hallum and B. Riley are both more bullish on Akamai today, as they upgraded the company to a ‘Buy’ rating. On the other hand, analysts at Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, and FBR & Co. all lowered their price targets on the stock, to $75, $60 and $42, respectively.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) lost popularity in the third quarter of 2015, as out of the 730 funds that we track, 37 funds held shares of the company on September 30, accounting for 7.8% of the float, down from 39 funds on June 30. Clifton S. Robbins‘ Blue Harbour Group was the largest shareholder of Akamai Technologies in our system, holding a $256.9 million position at the end of September.

Lastly, shares of Hess Corp. (NYSE:HES) are up by 3% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the company to “Conviction Buy” from “Neutral”, along with a price target of $59, suggesting the stock has 52.5% upside potential from its close yesterday. The bank highlighted the exploration and production company’s opportunities among its peers in Guyana and the Gulf of Mexico. Paul Singer‘s Elliott Management was the largest shareholder of Hess Corp in our database as of September 30, with 17.80 million shares valued at $891.1 million.

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