350% Gainer Highlights 5 of Today’s Hottest Stocks

Wall Street is in the red today, as the markets await the first results of the meeting of the Federal Reserve that begins this afternoon. European stock markets remain weak, as do commodity prices and Asian stocks, where the markets fell after the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy steady and offered a gloomier view of the country’s economy. However, there are several stocks gaining today, some of which are Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM), Mead Johnson Nutrition CO (NYSE:MJN), Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CPXX), Childrens Place Inc (NASDAQ:PLCE), and HD Supply Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:HDS). In the following article, we will examine why investors are buying these stocks and also examine the latest hedge fund activity in them.

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Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM)’s stock has opened nearly 40% higher on the back of the company posting its financial results for the fourth quarter and full 2015 year. For the quarter ended December 31, Solazyme, now known as TerraVia, reported a revenue decline of 28.3% year-over-year to $10.4 million. Its loss grew to $0.32 per share, though this was smaller than expected. In addition to its quarterly and full year results, the food, nutrition and specialty ingredients company announced an agreement with Unilever plc (ADR) (NYSE:UL). The multi-year global supply contract allows Unilever to purchase renewable algae oils for use in personal care products and is expected to represent a total income of more than $200 million for Solazyme during its term. The agreement comes after last week’s announcement that Solazyme is refining its business to focus on food, nutrition and specialty ingredients, leveraging the power of its platform transformational innovation algae and renaming itself Terravia.

Among the funds we track, Solazyme Inc (NASDAQ:SZYM) was not very popular, with only six funds reporting long positions equal to 8.0% of the company’s shares as of the end of December. John Burbank’s Passport Capital was the top shareholder of the stock in our database, with 6.00 million shares held on December 31.

Second on our list of some of the day’s biggest gainers is Mead Johnson Nutrition CO (NYSE:MJN), whose shares are up by 9% after it was reported that the company is working with Lazard regarding a potential merger, after news that European rivals Nestle and Danone expressed an interest in acquiring the company. This is not the first time the company has been discussed as a potential acquisition target.

Of the 785 elite funds that we track, 38 funds were long Mead Johnson Nutrition CO (NYSE:MJN) on December 31, with their positions amounting to 7.10% of the company’s float. Among the bulls is Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management, with a holding of 1.76 million shares.

The second page has the details on three more stocks, including one that is up by over 300% today.

Next up is Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CPXX), with shares of the biopharmaceutical company being up by an astounding 360% after the announcement of surprisingly positive results from a Phase 3 trial for its lead drug VYXEOS (cytarabine:daunorubicin) Liposome for Injection (also known as CPX-351), for the treatment of patients with high-risk (secondary) acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The patients who were receiving VYXEOS showed an improvement in overall survival (OS) compared with the standard-of-care regimen of cytarabine and daunorubicin known as 7+3. For this group, patients experienced an average OS of 9.56 months versus 5.95 months. The data will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2016 Annual Meeting in Chicago in mid-year. As a consequence, analysts at Roth Capital are more bullish on the company today, as they raised their price target on it to $22 per share from $18 per share.

Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CPXX) was not overly popular among the investors in our system, as a total of three investors reported long positions as of the end of December, amassing 3.0% of the company’s outstanding stock. First Eagle Investment Management was one of those three, with a holding of 612,600 shares.

Next on our list of gainers is Childrens Place Inc (NASDAQ:PLCE), whose shares have surged by 5% after the company reported fourth-quarter EPS of $1.19, beating analysts’ estimates by $0.08 per share. The company’s revenue of $498.54 million meanwhile was in-line with the Street’s estimates. In the same period of the prior year, the largest pure-play children’s specialty apparel retailer posted a profit of $0.94 per share on $479.2 million in revenue. For fiscal year 2016, Childrens Place expects that adjusted net income per diluted share will be in the range of $4.00 to $4.10, including between $1.00 and $1.06 in the first quarter of 2016.

Our data shows hedge funds were growing more bullish on Childrens Place Inc (NASDAQ:PLCE), with 17 of the smart money investors in our database reporting stakes in the company as of the end of the fourth quarter, up from 12 funds long the stock on September 30. Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates owned a stake of 1.84 million shares at the end of December.

Last but not least, HD Supply Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:HDS) has jumped by 5% after it reported fourth-quarter EPS of $0.27 on revenue of $1.65 billion. HD Supply’s revenue beat expectations by $20 million and amounted to 7.1% year-over-year growth. Moreover, the largest industrial distributor’s operating income improved by 8% to $130 million, while adjusted EBITDA increased by 8% to $167 million during the period.

45 funds were long HD Supply Holdings at the end of the fourth quarter, down from 54 funds long the stock at the close of the third quarter. John Griffin‘s Blue Ridge Capital held 8.28 million HDS shares on December 31.

Disclosure: None