Thursday was another lackluster day on Wall Street, and investors seemed generally content to wait for various market themes to play themselves out before making aggressive moves to add to positions or take money off the table. The European Central Bank decided to leave interest rates alone, and partly in response, several major international markets fell slightly. Yet U.S. investors seemed focused on events in the nation's capital, and without any earth-shattering revelations from Capitol Hill, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all stayed relatively close to the unchanged mark.
Yet several individual stocks had news that helped push their shares higher. Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX 2.12%) , Hudbay Minerals (HBM 4.52%), and Comtech Telecommunications (CMTL 0.81%) were among the best performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so well.
Valeant makes a sale
Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals climbed 9%. The pharmaceutical company said that it would sell off its iNova Pharmaceuticals division, reaping $930 million in cash in the deal. Various funds from private equity companies Pacific Equity Partners and Carlyle Group will purchase iNova, and for Valeant, the move continues the efforts it has made to divest non-core assets to raise cash and reduce debt. As Valeant CEO Joseph Papa put it, "The sale of iNova is part of the company's ongoing efforts to both simplify our operating model and strengthen our balance sheet." Valeant still has a substantial amount of debt outstanding, but today's sale helps the company make incremental progress toward its eventual goal of a more manageable level of indebtedness.
Image source: Getty Images.
Hudbay makes progress on Rosemont
Hudbay Minerals stock gained 11% after getting positive news concerning the company's Rosemont Project in Arizona. Hudbay said that the U.S. Forest Service had issued a Final Record of Decision with respect to Rosemont, concluding a long process that included more than a dozen hearings, over 1,000 studies, and roughly eight months of public comment producing 36,000 comments. The Forest Service record now allows Hudbay to move forward with the next phase of the administrative process, in which it will complete a mine plan of operations and work toward getting a water permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The base metals miner is now a step closer to getting a modern mine done, and investors are equally optimistic that the project could produce good results for Hudbay going forward.
Comtech makes a connection
Finally, shares of Comtech Telecommunications surged almost 19%. The telecom company reported its fiscal third-quarter financial results, in which Comtech saw a 3% rise in revenue and reversed a year-ago loss with a profit of $0.19 per share. In addition, the company said that based on its existing order backlog and what it expects in the immediate future, the fiscal fourth quarter will produce the highest net sales and adjusted pre-tax operating income for 2017. There's still some uncertainty about Comtech's future, but most of it involves huge potential upside from large multiyear contracts that the telecom company hopes to win. If any of that business comes in, then things could look a lot better for Comtech in the months and years to come, helping it build on positive momentum from past quarters.
