Here Are 4 Surging Stocks To Keep An Eye On Today

U.S stocks are enjoying a breather today, after having already fallen by roughly 6% so far this year. The advance in oil prices is the highlight of the day, with oil giants helping the Dow go up by 200 points by mid-morning. In this article we’ll take a look at some of those leading gainers: Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM), BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP), Infosys Ltd ADR (NYSE:INFY) and Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd (NYSE:BSI). We’ll also check in on how the world’s top investors have been trading these stocks recently.

An everyday investor doesn’t have the same resources and capabilities to analyze different publicly-traded companies as hedge funds do. This is why it is a good idea to see what stocks hedge funds like the most and try to imitate some of their bullish moves in an attempt to reap market-beating returns. At Insider Monkey, we follow the activity of several hundred of the best-performing hedge funds as part of our strategy. We analyze their 13F filings and use the data to see what stocks they are collectively bullish on. Through extensive research we have determined that the best approach to outperform the broader indices is to follow hedge funds into their top small-cap ideas. In our backtests, a portfolio of the 15 most popular small-cap stocks generated monthly alpha of 81 basis points, versus 0.7 percentage points posted by hedge funds’ top large- and mega-cap picks (see more details here).

The management of Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM) has offered an update on their status and investors like what was said, pushing the stock higher this morning. Although the company expects a slow first quarter of 2016, they expect business to pick up and believe the current year will be a better one than 2015 on aggregate. Taiwan Semiconductor’s founder and chairman Morris Chang said that he would not stick to his previous pledge of 10% growth, due to the troubles in the Chinese economy, but he believes sales and profit growth will be somewhere between 5% and 10% for the year. The stock ended 2015 more or less where it started it – around the $22.50 level – and has fallen by more than 6% so far this year.

Hedge fund sentiment towards Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM) slightly improved during the third quarter, as the number of long positions increased to 32, from 27 at the end of June. Billionaire Ken Fisher was bullish on this stock, having increased his investment by 4% during the quarter. In its latest 13F filing, Fisher Asset Management reported ownership of 27.5 million shares of the semiconductor company.

Shares of BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP) are also on the rise this morning, following news of the company’s plans to reduce its global workforce in response to falling oil prices. The stock of the British giant is also being helped by a modest increase in oil prices today, currently up by a little over 1%. The company said it plans to cut its workforce by approximately 20% over the next two years, with the majority of cuts expected in 2016. The falling oil prices have negatively affected the stock, pushing it down by more than 20% in 2015. Today, however, shares have surged by nearly 5% in the first hours of trading.

Israel Englander thought it wise to buy BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP) during the third quarter, having initiated a position in the stock. His fund Millennium Management held 3.83 million shares according to its latest quarterly filing. During the third quarter, the number of top funds invested in British Petroleum increased to 35 from 33 a quarter before, however they owned just 1% of the company’s outstanding shares.

The next page has the latest activity concerning Infosys and Alon Blue Square Israel.

Its latest financial report has provided a positive boost for shares of Infosys Ltd ADR (NYSE:INFY), which are up by roughly 7% this morning. The Indian outsourcing company has raised its full-year guidance after reporting better-than-expected results for its third quarter of fiscal year 2016. Revenue for the three months ended December 31, grew by 15.3% to 159.02 billion rupees ($2.36 billion), while profit stood at 34.65 billion rupees ($517 million), beating estimates of 33.5 billion rupees. Infosys said that it expects full fiscal year 2016 revenue to grow by 8.9%-to-9.3% in dollar terms, up from previous estimates of 6.4%-to-8.4%.

Hedge funds are not particularly interested in Infosys Ltd ADR (NYSE:INFY), with only 19 of the funds we track having reported a long position in the stock as of the end of September. Cliff Asness is among those optimistic about the prospects of the company, having boosted his stake by 12% over the third quarter. His fund AQR Capital Management held 13.2 million shares of Infosys at the end of September.

Shares of Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd (NYSE:BSI) have skyrocketed on reports that the company has been handed a lifeline to sort out a potential takeover deal. The parent company of the Mega supermarket chain in Israel has been in poor financial form of late, raising fears of bankruptcy. The company recently announced an agreement with several creditors to postpone payments on some of its bonds. Shares are currently trading up by more than 75% today.

Only one of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey was holding a position in Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd (NYSE:BSI) at the end of the third quarter, that being Jim Simons‘ quant fund Renaissance Technologies. The fund disclosed ownership of 3,490 shares as of the end of September.

Disclosure: None