Why Kite Pharma, Rice Energy, BlackBerry, and More Are Trending

On the second day of the week, crude traders are eagerly anticipating today’s API release and the latest word from the informal OPEC/Russia meeting in Algeria. However, crude futures are currently lower today as it now seems likely that a deal won’t be reached during the meeting.

Among the stocks that traders are also keeping a close eye on today are Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE), Rice Energy Inc (NYSE:RICE), Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO), BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), and SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX). Let’s find out why each stock is trending and use the latest regulatory filing data to determine how the smart money was positioned in each stock on June 30.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 750 hedge funds and 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. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see the details here).

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Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE) shares have surged on the back of positive top-line results from a pivotal trial assessing the efficacy of its lead drug candidate KTE-C19 in treating patients with aggressive non-hodgkin lymphoma. According to the company, an interim analysis of the study met the primary endpoint in terms of objective response rate. The company plans to present more data at an upcoming scientific meeting. Of the 749 hedge funds that we track which filed 13Fs for the June quarter, 19 of them had a long position in Kite Pharma Inc (NASDAQ:KITE), down by four funds from the March 13F period.

Rice Energy Inc (NYSE:RICE) is in the red after the E&P announced that it has entered into a purchase and sale agreement to buy Vantage Energy for around $2.7 billion, including the assumption of debt. With the purchase, Rice Energy will be acquiring around 85,000 net core Marcellus acres, along with rights to 52,000 and 37,000 net acres in the deeper Utica and Barnett Shales respectively. Rice Energy expects the transaction to be immediately accretive and credit-enhancing, and to expand the high return inventory of drilling locations by 66%. In addition, Rice Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:RMP), which has gained over 6% today, will buy the acquired midstream assets from Rice Energy for $600 million. To finance the purchase, Rice Energy has also announced the commencement of an underwritten public offering of 40 million shares of common stock along with granting underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 6 million shares. Andreas Halvorsen‘s Viking Global established a new position of over 12.6 million shares in Rice Energy Inc (NYSE:RICE) during the second quarter.

On the next page we’ll examine why Thor Industries, BlackBerry, and SYNNEX Corporation are trending.

Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) earned $1.57 per share on revenue of $1.29 billion for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2016, beating the consensus estimates by $0.24 per share and $20 million, respectively. Revenue rose by 21.7% year-over-year and its consolidated recreational vehicle backlog more than doubled to $1.2 billion from the year-ago period. For the full fiscal year, diluted EPS from continuing operations was $4.91, up by 29.6% year-over-year, while revenue surged by 14.4% to a record $4.58 billion. As for outlook, Thor expects double-digit revenue growth during its fiscal 2017. 23 funds in our system owned $213.72 million worth of Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) shares at the end of June, which accounted for 6.30% of the float.

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is in the spotlight after its CEO, John Chen, said that the company is two-thirds of the way to successfully completing its turnaround. Chen stepped in as CEO in 2013 to try and make BlackBerry profitable again after a long stretch of losses. Chen said, “We have made investment over a billion-plus, all in software, all in security, and now we need to execute it.” BlackBerry shareholders certainly hope Chen is right. Shares of the company are down by 15% year-to-date. In terms of hedge fund sentiment, not as many funds held shares of the tech company by the end of the second quarter. According to our data, the number of funds that we track with holdings in BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) fell by four during the quarter to 20 at the end of June.

SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX) shares are in the green after the company reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter of fiscal 2016. For the period, SYNNEX earned $1.73 per share, beating estimates by $0.17. Revenue was $3.67 billion, up by 10.2% year-over-year, and $180 million ahead of the consensus estimate. In terms of fiscal fourth quarter projects, SYNNEX expects adjusted EPS to be in the range of $2.06-to-$2.11 and revenue to be in the range of $3.83 billion-to-$3.93 billion. 13 funds in our database owned shares of SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE:SNX) at the end of the second quarter.

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