Here’s Why These Five Stocks Are Advancing on Monday

The US market is trading up on Monday, following European markets, which spiked up on news about new polls showing that support for Brexit has fallen, and more people are now behind the idea of the UK remaining a member of the European Union.

Among the US-traded stocks that are surging on Monday are Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO), Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), Globalstar, Inc. (NYSEMKT:GSAT) and Lpath, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPTN). So, let’s take a look into the events behind the move of these stocks, and into what the hedge funds in our database think about the companies in question.

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Marathon Oil To Acquire PayRock Energy

Let’s start with Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO), whose stock has gained around 9.6% on Monday afternoon after the company announced it will acquire PayRock Energy Holdings from venture capital firm EnCap Investments, for $888 million. The move will allow to “expand the quality and scale of Marathon Oil’s existing portfolio in one of the best unconventional oil plays in the U.S. [Oklahoma],” Marathon’s CEO Lee Tillman explained.

Among the funds we track, 33 were long Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) at the end of the first quarter of 2016, up from 27 in the previous quarter. Among the newcomers were Stuart J. Zimmer’s Zimmer Partners, which acquired more than 14 million shares (or about $156 million in stock) during the first quarter, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management, which initiated a stake comprising 10.33 million shares over the January-March period.

Freeport-McMoRan Up On Oil Rebound

Next up is Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX), which is up by almost 6% today, helped by a rebound in oil prices, which rose more than 2% on Monday, with July contracts getting close to $50 a barrel. As of the end of the first quarter, 34 funds in our database are long Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX), down from 37 funds a quarter earlier. As it is widely known, Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital LP owns the largest stake among institutional investors; the firm last disclosed ownership of 104 million shares, worth more than $1 billion by March 31.

On the next page we will look into three more large gainers.