Here’s Why These Five Stocks Are Trading Higher Today

Broad markets are shaky today with NASDAQ trading in red territory. Major indices are oscillating between positive and negative trend on account of Deutsche Bank’s financial uncertainty. The German bank is said to be in dire financial condition.

Apart from macro issues, the markets are also affected by individual stock news. Some of the stocks showing gains in the morning session are Tile Shop Hldgs Inc. (NASDAQ:TTS), Harmonic Inc (NASDAQ:HLIT), Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT), Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:OPTT), and Myokardia Inc (NASDAQ:MYOK). This article will take a 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 700 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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Tile Shop Hldgs Inc. (NASDAQ:TTS)’s stock is currently trading nearly 10% higher after he company reported its inclusion to S&P SmallCap 600 index yesterday. The company will replace Epiq Systems Inc. and will be added to S&P SmallCap 600 GICS Home Improvement Retail Sub-Industry Index. The change will be effective after the close of trading on Friday, September 30. Earlier this week, the Shareholders Foundation Inc. reported that an investor in Tile Shop Hldgs had filed a lawsuit against certain directors of the company over alleged breach of fiduciary duties. Among the funds we track, 21 funds held $115 million worth of Tile Shop Hldgs Inc. (NASDAQ:TTS)’s stock in aggregate at the end of June, having amassed 11.30% of its float.

Harmonic Inc (NASDAQ:HLIT)’s stock has gained 25% on the back of the company’s yesterday announcement that it is entering a warrant deal with Comcast, which gives the latter the right to buy common shares of Harmonic, subject to fulfilment of sales and deployment milestones. The company’s president said that Harmonic is positioned to drive new growth for its stockholders. Comcast may acquire up to 7.8 million shares of Harmonic common stock for exercise price of $4.76 per share. The number of funds from our database long Harmonic amounted to eight at the end of June, while the total value of their holdings stood at $33 million and represented some 15% of its outstanding stock.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT) is 5% in the green after RBC Capital Markets’ Simos Simeonidis gave a bullish call on the company. Simeonidis maintained his ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock and boosted the price target to $108 from $83. Simeonidis expects the launch of Sarepta’s EXONDYS 51, a Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug, to be a successful one once the company has sorted reimbursement issues. However, he did note that reimbursement is not likely to become a major issue. The number of hedge funds tracked by us long Sarepta at the end of the April-June period stood at 20, holding $308.88 million worth of shares, which accounted for 35.40% of the outstanding stock.

Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:OPTT) stock has advanced by around 9% today, extending its gains for the year to more than 277%, although no significant news seem to stand behind the surge. Last week, the company announced a new contract worth $250,000 from the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Naval Research (ONR), which involves the design of a new mass-spring oscillating PowerBuoy for mission critical sensors. The company also said that the contract allows for two subsequent phases, valued together at nearly $750,000, dependent on certain conditions. These conditions include successful completion of phase one and additional ONR funding. The deal may also involve designing of the power conversion system and power generation system.

Myokardia Inc (NASDAQ:MYOK) stock is up by 7% after the company announced the pricing of its proposed common stock public offering of 3.8 million shares at a public offering price of $15.00 per share, before accounting for underwriting discounts. The underwriters are given a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 570,000 shares of common stock on the same terms and conditions. Six funds from our database hold about $35 million worth of Myokardia stock as of the end of June, which represents roughly 10.60% of Myokardia’s outstanding stock.

Disclosure: none