Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), Summit Therapeutics PLC (ADR) (SMMT) & More: A Look at Five Stocks on the Move Today

Markets have opened at shaky note with major indices treading on margin. International Monetary Fund declared the global economic recovery to be ‘weak and precarious.’ The fund also lowered its outlook for 2017, sending further jitters to the markets.

Apart from the global news, the markets are also strongly affected by stocks making major moves. Some of the stocks showing substantial moves today morning are Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE:DAL), Summit Therapeutics PLC (ADR) (NASDAQ:SMMT), AstraZeneca PLC (ADR) (NYSE:AZN), BP Plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP), and Truett-Hurst Inc. (NASDAQ:THST). This article will look at the news behind these stocks.

The smart money sentiment is an important metric that can be used to assess the long-term profitability of a stock. While there are thousands of stocks trading daily on the market, taking a look at what hedge funds think about certain companies can narrow down the search significantly. At Insider Monkey, we track more than 740 hedge funds, whose 13F filings we analyze as part of our small-cap strategy. Our research has shown that imitating a portfolio that includes the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds can outperform the market by as much as 95 basis points per month on average (see more details here).

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Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE:DAL)’s stock is in the green after the company said its consolidated passenger unit revenue (PRASM) fell by an annual 3% in September. It added that it also faced a supply-demand imbalance in the Transatlantic region and headwinds from prior year Yen hedge gains.  Among the funds we track, 94 funds held $4.65 billion worth of Delta’s stock in aggregate at the end of June, having amassed 16.60% of its outstanding stock, compared to 97 investors that held $6.93 billion worth of stock a quarter earlier.

Summit Therapeutics PLC (ADR) (NASDAQ:SMMT) jumped by over 90% on the back of the announcement that the company has entered into a collaboration and licensing deal with Sarepta Therapeutics. The deal involves Duchenne muscular dystrophy pipeline of Summit Therapeutics, which stands to receive $40 million in upfront payment, with milestone related payments of up to $522 million. The company will also receive royalties from the net sale proceeds of the drugs. The number of funds from our database long Summit Therapeutics amounted to three at the end of June, unchanged over the quarter, while the total value of their holdings advanced to $16 million from $13 million during the second quarter.

AstraZeneca PLC (ADR) (NYSE:AZN) stock is trading lower on the news of its Brilinta drug test failure. The company reported that the drug’s Phase 3 clinical trial failed to show a benefit over the older blood thinner clopidogrel for treating peripheral artery disease. The same drug had failed another test earlier this year in March as well. In other news, Aralez Pharmaceuticals inked an agreement with AstraZeneca via its subsidiary Aralez Pharmaceuticals Trading DAC, which involves commercial rights to generic Toprol-XL, which is a beta-blocker for the control of high blood pressure, chest pain and heart failure (see more details). A total of 24 funds from our database have positions in AstraZeneca with a total value of $542 million as of the end of June.

BP Plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP) is in the spotlight after it reported that its Clair offshore field is still closed following an oil leak on October 2. BP said that the field will remain closed until it finds conclusive reasons behind the leak. The leak lead to 95 metric tons of oil flowing into the sea. A total of 40 investors tracked by us amassed around $1.76 billion of BP stock at the end of June, compared to 34 funds holding stock worth $685 million in aggregate a quarter earlier.

Truett-Hurst Inc. (NASDAQ:THST)’s stock has plunged by over 8% amid news about the appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer. Earlier today, the company said Evan B. Meyer had been appointed as the new CFO, effective October 26. Meyer will replace Paul Forgue. Truett-Hurst Inc. (NASDAQ:THST) is a nano-cap company engaged in production and sale of wine and other wine-based alcohol beverages. Due to its small size, none of the funds tracked by us held shares at the end of June, although it’s important to mention that Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors both closed their positions during the second quarter.

Disclosure: none