Why Disney (DIS), Amedica (AMDA), Cvent (CVT), UniPixel (UNXL), and Repros Therapeutics (RPRX) Are Spiking Today

After the OPEC countries participating in the Doha meeting this weekend failed to reach a deal to limit oil production, crude prices fell heavily on Monday. However, stocks are on the rise as one of the busiest weeks of the earnings period kicks off. Among Monday’s gainers are Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), which is driving the consumer sector and the Dow, as well as Amedica Corporation (NASDAQ:AMDA), Cvent Inc (NYSE:CVT), UniPixel Inc (NASDAQ:UNXL) and Repros Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:RPRX), all of which are trading up in the early afternoon. Let’s take a look into the events that have pushed these stocks higher today and see what the funds in our database think about the companies in question.

At Insider Monkey, we track more than 785 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).

Investors Go Bananas About ‘The Jungle Book’

Let’s start with Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), one of the most important gainers today. The stock is up by roughly 2.65% this afternoon after the successful debut of the company’s latest film ‘The Jungle Book’ over the weekend. The movie dominated the weekend box office, bringing in roughly $103.6 million in U.S and Canada box office receipts, outpacing its nearest competitor by more than $83 million. Following such a strong opening, analysts at Pivotal Research decided to upgrade the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’, raising their price target on it to $121 from $104 in the process.

Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) is quite popular among the hedge funds that we follow, counting 51 supporters at the end of the fourth quarter. The largest shareholder in our database was Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, which disclosed ownership of 8.64 million shares of the company valued at more than $852 million as of March 31.

Amedica Sets Foot in China

Next up is Amedica Corporation (NASDAQ:AMDA), which is trading up by roughly 38.6% on Monday afternoon on more than 13-times its average daily trading volume. The spike was triggered by the company’s announcement that it has inked a partnership with Shandong Weigao Orthopedic Device Company Limited for the exclusive distribution and sale of its silicon nitride spinal implants in China. The deal stipulates minimum annual purchase requirements of 20,000 units in year-one and the minimum will increase gradually towards 50,000 units by year-six.

Only four funds among those we track were long Amedica Corporation (NASDAQ:AMDA) at the end of 2015. Among them was Sander Gerber’s Hudson Bay Capital Management, which declared holding 3.77 million shares worth $423,000 as of December 31. It should be noted that following a 1:15 reverse stock split in January, Hudson Bay’s stake should amount to roughly 251,131 shares now.

We look at the strong gains witnessed in three other stocks today on the next page.