Why These Five Stocks Are in Spotlight on Monday

The US stock market is trading higher on Monday on the back of rallying oil prices and speculations regarding a stimulus program by the Chinese government to prop up the country’s economy. Meanwhile, traders also digest a report from The Federal Reserve Bank, which revealed that the factory activity in New York slowed in early August, and manufacturers in the state cut jobs.

Among the stocks that investors are watching today are SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY), Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc (NYSE:MAA), Post Properties Inc (NYSE:PPS), Kingold Jewelry Inc (NASDAQ:KGJI) and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AUPH). Let’s find out why these stocks have investors buzzing and see how hedge funds are positioned towards them.

At Insider Monkey, we track more than 765 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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SYSCO Corporation Posts FQ4 Earnings

SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY)’s stock moved 2.1% in the green today after the company posted fiscal fourth-quarter results, surpassing bottom-line estimates. The Texas-based food products company posted adjusted EPS of $0.64 on $13.60 billion revenue, versus the consensus estimates of $0.61 in EPS on $13.68 billion in revenue. Net income rose to $215.67 million, or $0.38 per share, from $73.03 million posted in the same quarter last year.  SYSCO’s CEO Bill DeLaney said in a statement that in fiscal 2016, the company made progress on its three-year plan of financial objectives. The company experienced strong local case growth and improvement in gross profit during the year, Mr. DeLaney added. Among the funds we track, Donald Yacktman’s
Yacktman Asset Management and Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital reported holding 14.83 million shares and 5.60 million shares of SYSCO Corporation, respectively, as of the end of June.

Mid-America Apartment Communities to Buy Post Properties

Investors are watching Post Properties Inc (NYSE:PPS) following news that it would be acquired by Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc (NYSE:MAA) for about $3.88 billion. The merger would create the biggest multifamily apartment real estate investment trust by units, having a market cap of about $17 billion. According to the terms of the definitive agreement, Post Properties shareholders will get 0.71 Mid-America Apartment shares for each share of Post Properties they own. The companies said in a joint statement that the synergy would help in cutting $20 million a year in costs and other operating efficiencies. Shares of Post Properties Inc (NYSE:PPS) skyrocketed above 8%, while Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc (NYSE:MAA) plummeted by more than 5% so far today on the back of the news. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies held 418,500 shares of Post Properties and 758,162 shares of Mid-America Apartment Communities heading into the third quarter.

We will discuss activity surrounding Kingold Jewelry and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals on the next page.