Why Kingtone (KONE) Has Skyrocketed By 304% Today, Plus 4 Other Stocks Making Noise

U.S stocks are sliding on Thursday, along with oil, which is tumbling due to rising inventories. The Euro was also down as the European Central Bank decided to abstain from unleashing any further stimulus measures. Among the stocks posting large moves in Thursday trading are Kingtone Wirelessinfo Solutions Hldg Ltd (NASDAQ:KONE), F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB), Yadkin Financial Corp (NYSE:YDKN), Interpublic Group of Companies Inc (NYSE:IPG), and Encana Corp (USA) (NYSE:ECA). Let’s take a look at the events behind the movement in these stocks and see what the funds in our database think about these companies.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 765 hedge funds and other institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year (see more details about our small-cap strategy).

Kingtone Spikes After Ocean Power Tech Offering

Let’s start with Kingtone Wirelessinfo Solutions Hldg Ltd (NASDAQ:KONE), a nano-cap mobile enterprise solutions company whose stock has surged by more than 300% in trading today. While most news outlets are not reporting any news related to the company, the Benzinga Pro terminal shows that shares were halted “on Second Circuit Breaker” in the late morning. Later, the terminal reported that Kingtone’s spike was related to news about Ocean Power Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:OPTT)’s public offering. Ocean Power announced a best efforts public offering of common stock and warrants earlier today, though it’s unclear how that relates to Kingtone Wirelessinfo Solutions.

Only one fund in our database was long Kingtone Wirelessinfo Solutions Hldg Ltd (NASDAQ:KONE) at the end of the first quarter of this year: Renaissance Technologies. The quant fund founded by Jim Simons disclosed ownership of 11,380 shares of the company as of March 31.

F.N.B. and Yadkin Both Tumble On Merger News

Next up is F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB), which has lost more than 10% since the market opened today, even though it posted a top and bottom-line beat this morning. The company delivered EPS of $0.22 and revenue of $208.57 million for the quarter, beating estimates by $0.01 and $4.17 million, respectively. What seems to be driving the stock’s decline is the announcement of the company’s acquisition of Yadkin Financial Corp (NYSE:YDKN) in a $1.4 billion deal that values the latter at $27.35 per share. Shares of Yadkin are also down, by about 4.75% this afternoon, trading around $24.70, a rare case where the shares of a company being acquired don’t rally.

As of the end of the first quarter, F.N.B. Corp (NYSE:FNB) counted 12 hedge fund supporters in our database, while Yadkin Financial Corp (NYSE:YDKN) counted 13. One fund that held stakes in both of these companies on March 31 was, once again, Renaissance Technologies, which declared owning 769,896 shares of Yadkin and 339,118 shares of F.N.B as of the end of March.

We’ll check out two of the day’s other trending stocks on the next page.

IPG Slips On Revenue Miss

Shares of Interpublic Group of Companies Inc (NYSE:IPG) are trading down by more than 6.1% on Thursday, following the announcement of the company’s second quarter financial results. EPS of $0.33 per share was in-line with the Street’s consensus estimate, but revenue of $1.92 billion fell short of expectations of $1.93 billion, partly on the back of FX headwinds.

“Despite increased macro uncertainty, the tone of the business remains sound,” CEO Michael Roth stated. “We therefore continue to believe that we will deliver at the high end of our original 3% to 4% organic growth target for the full year, as well as expand operating margin by 50 basis points or better.”

37 funds in our database were long Interpublic Group of Companies Inc (NYSE:IPG) at the end of the first quarter, holding about 20% of the company’s float. Noteworthy positions were held by Harris Associates and Paul Singer’s Elliott Management, which held 16.6 million shares and 15.6 million shares of the stock respectively on March 31.

Encana Surges On EPS Beat

Finally, there’s Encana Corp (USA) (NYSE:ECA), which has risen by more than 7.5% today, driven by strong second quarter results. Before the bell this morning, the company posted EPS of $0.10, $0.19 ahead of expectations, thanks to reduced drilling costs across its main assets. “By reinvesting savings and modestly increasing capital, we are adding 50 percent more drilling and completions activity to our 2016 program,” CEO Doug Suttles explained.

Among the funds that we keep track of, 28 disclosed long positions in Encana Corp (USA) (NYSE:ECA) as of the end of the first quarter. The largest institutional shareholder of record on March 31 was Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, owning a position of 80.58 million shares.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned in this article.