Here Is Why These Four Stocks Stand Out from the Crowd on Tuesday

All major U.S. stock indexes slide into negative territory in early trading on Tuesday, after having registered losses of over 1% on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched down into negative territory for the year this Monday, mainly owing to the increasing odds of seeing the Federal Reserve raise interest rates this year and growing worries about the sluggish global economy. Even so, there are several stocks that are pushing stock indexes higher today, so it is worthwhile to take a look at what has investors excited about these stocks. So let’s proceed with the discussion of the firm-specific news at four companies that have propelled investor interest.

photofriday/Shutterstock.com

Let’s start out by looking at what has pushed Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK)’s shares higher in today’s trading session. The biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company released stronger-than-expected financial results for the third quarter after the market close on Monday. The company reported consolidated revenues of $143.0 million, compared to $19.8 million reported in 2014. Its diluted earnings per share came to $0.25, compared with a net loss per share of $0.11 posted last year. Analysts had previously anticipated a net loss per share of $0.02 on revenues of $132.99 million. Following the release of this promising earnings report, the shares of Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK) have gained over 5% thus far in today’s trading session and are up nearly 5% year-to-date. The number of hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey with stakes in the company increased to 30 from 17 during the second quarter, hoarding 2.00% of its outstanding shares. Matthew Halbower’s Pentwater Capital Management acquired a 755,622-share stake in Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK) during the June quarter.

At Insider Monkey, we track hedge funds’ moves in order to identify actionable patterns and profit from them. Our research has shown that hedge funds’ large-cap stock picks historically underperformed the S&P 500 Total Return Index by an average of seven basis points per month between 1999 and 2012. On the other hand, the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds outperformed the S&P 500 Index by an average of 95 basis points per month (read the details here). Since the official launch of our small-cap strategy in August 2012, it has performed just as predicted, returning over 102% and beating the market by more than 53 percentage points. We believe the data is clear: investors will be better off by focusing on small-cap stocks utilizing hedge fund expertise (while avoiding their high fees at the same time) rather than large-cap stocks.

Moving on to the next winner of today’s session, Ocata Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:OCAT) has seen its stock skyrocket by 88% so far. This surge comes after the Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma announced an all-cash agreement on Monday to acquire Ocata Therapeutics at a price of $8.50 per share. The Boards of Directors of the two companies approved the agreement; hence, Astellas is set to purchase Ocata through its wholly-owned subsidiary Laurel Acquisition via a tender offer. The discrepancy between the current share price of the biotechnology company and the offer price is quite tiny, which points to the fact that the probability of a potential failure of this deal is relatively small. The aforementioned deal will assist Astellas in establishing its presence in ophthalmology and strengthen its position in cell therapy. The Japanese company anticipates that the acquisition will be completed by the end of the year. James Dondero’s Highland Capital Management may be one of the ‘winners’ should the acquisition take place, as it acquired a 898,867-share stake in Ocata Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:OCAT) during the June quarter.

The next page of the article discusses the firm-specific news that pushed the shares of SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN) and Atwood Oceanics Inc. (NYSE:ATW) higher today.