5 of Last Week's Biggest Winners

It was a mixed week on Wall Street, with the Nasdaq moving higher and the Dow moving lower, but there were plenty of stocks really making some serious moves. Let's take a closer look at five of this past week's biggest scorchers.

Source: Barron's.

Let's start with Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The biotech soared on positive studies showing the effectiveness of combining two of its drugs for the treatment of patients with cystic fibrosis who also happen to have two copies of a rare genetic mutation. It may be a thin market to treat, but the likely high price of the combination could generate billions in revenue for Vertex if it's successful on the market. 

Glu Mobile moved higher after announcing developer support for the new Android TV platform that will take mobile games to the larger television screen. Android-based gaming consoles have gotten off to a slow start, but now the search giant behind the open-source operating system itself is throwing its weight behind the console gaming market. 

Two of Glu Mobile's biggest games -- Deer Hunter 2014 and Eternity Warriors 2 -- are now optimized for the larger screen experience. Earlier in the week, Glu Mobile also rolled out Kim Kardashian: Hollywood for iOS and Android. The game features the most popular Kardashian as she guides players in their quest to succeed in Tinseltown.

Organovo Holdings showed a healthy pulse after Roche's head of mechanistic safety offered up an encouraging opinion of Organovo's 3-D liver assay test at the 3D Cell Culture 2014 conference. His findings show that the test is able to distinguish between toxic and non-toxic compounds that are chemically similar. It's an encouraging third-party endorsement, and Organovo reiterated its goal to launch the 3-D liver assay test later this year. 

Inovio Pharmaceuticals was another winner. It started out the week announcing that it was initiating a clinical trial for its DNA immunotherapy product -- INO-3112 -- in treating HPV-associated cervical cancer. Biotech investors know that the clinical trial process is long and often ends in heartbreak, but the approval process for potentially promising drugs has to start somewhere. 

3D Systems also popped out in a terrific week for 3-D printing stocks where all three of the most actively traded players in this promising niche experienced double-digit percentage share gains. The week got off to a strong start on momentum from the prior week, wrapping up with Jefferies' issuance of a positive note on the booming growth prospects of industrial prototype creation. 3D Systems also introduced the iSense scanner for the iPad, turning the tablet into a mobile physical photography camera that plays nicely with its 3-D printer.

3D Systems has still taken a beating in 2014. The poster child for 3-D printing is trading 36% lower year to date. However, the stock has also showed signs of turning the corner, climbing 36% since bottoming out in April.