Why Did These Stocks Jump Today?

While the stock market has been unable to maintain its rally today after a strong start, it is holding steady into afternoon trading as it looks to close out a second successive week of gains. Leading the charge today are four stocks from the tech and mining industries which have made big gains today. Let’s find out why the market has a taste for these stocks and whether retail investors own appetites should be whetted.

JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD)

• Investors with Long Positions (as of June 30): 75
• Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of June 30): $11.81 Billion
• Percentage of Shares Owned by Investors: 25.30%

One of the most popular stocks among the elite investors tracked by Insider Monkey, JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) has gained slightly more than 4% today. Investors appear to be buoyed by the Chinese online retailer’s ambitious push into, as well as collaboration with, other territories. In addition to making a move into the Russian market, JD.Com just launched German Mall, which will bring products from a host of top German brands to the online retailer’s service. It’s the latest such country-specific portal to be added to the service.

JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) was quite popular among the billionaire investors that we track, as well as ‘Tiger Cubs’ such as Chase Coleman and Stephen Mandel. Coleman cited in a recent Tiger Global investor letter that JD.Com has a huge advantage when entering new markets like the Russian one, given its “retail leapfrogging” ability, as it can quickly launch a service without many of the intermediary steps needed by a brick-and-mortar chain expanding into a new market. JD.Com is Tiger Global’s largest position, being valued at $2.39 billion on June 30.

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Yamana Gold Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AUY)

• Investors with Long Positions (as of June 30): 17
• Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of June 30): $76.16 Million
• Percentage of Shares Owned by Investors: 2.70%

Getting back to our stock analyses, let’s check in on Yamana Gold Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AUY), the first of two gold stocks to make the list. Yamana has gained over 5% to push its weekly gains to an impressive 33%, as gold prices make gains in tandem with the decline of the U.S dollar. The latter has fallen amid both weak U.S jobs data and the revelation that the Fed will likely delay an interest rate hike into early next year.

Yamana Gold Inc. (USA) (NYSE:AUY) shares were held by one more investor in our database on June 30 than on March 31, and while the value of their aggregate holdings declined by about 17.3% during the second quarter, shares declined by about 16% during that time, accounting for much of the dip. Phil Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management held an even 12.0 million shares of Yamana Gold on June 30, more than four-times greater than any other investor in our database.

Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX)

• Investors with Long Positions (as of June 30): 42
• Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of June 30): $1.64 Billion
• Percentage of Shares Owned by Investors: 13.20%

As with Yamana Gold, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) has also enjoyed a strong day and week, gaining 6.63% today and 16.44% this week. A stock we recently ranked as the top gold stock under $10 that was poised to explode, Barrick Gold has gained nearly 20% since the publication of that article. The stock was very popular among the investors in our database, who held 13.20% of its common shares after upping the value of their stakes by 17% during the second quarter, despite shares declining slightly during that stretch. First Eagle Investment Management holds 40.38 million shares of Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) after upping its stake in the stock by 39% during the second quarter.

GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO)

• Investors with Long Positions (as of June 30): 21
• Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of June 30): $485.28 Million
• Percentage of Shares Owned by Investors: 10.20%

Lastly is the action-wearable-camera maker GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO), which has enjoyed its first strong day in nearly a month after sentiment took a dive around mid-August. Shares are up by 8.59% in afternoon trading today, though they are still down slightly for the week. GoPro suffered a big dip on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) slashed its price target on the stock to $35 from $62, citing weak demand for the company’s new Session camera, its smaller alternative to some of its other wearable cameras. That weak demand led GoPro to cut the camera’s price to $299 from $399 recently.

Shares are now down by over 52% year-to-date despite solid growth observed in its latest earnings report, which sent shares up modestly after it was released in late-July. Revenue was up by 72% year-over-year to $419 million, profit stood at $35 million after losing nearly $20 million in the same quarter a year ago, and margins grew by 4.2 percentage points to 46.3%. Nonetheless, the belief is that there is limited growth potential for GoPro outside of its action-sports niche, which it has already conquered.

Sentiment was mixed towards GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) among the investors we follow, as while the total number with long positions declined from 25 during the second quarter, their collective holdings shot up from just $284.33 million. Donald Chiboucis’ Columbus Circle Investors was leading that charge of capital into the stock, opening a new 1.01 million-share position in it during the second quarter, valued at $53.01 million on June 30.

Disclosure: None