Monday was a mixed day on Wall Street, with various industry-specific impacts pushing stocks in different directions. The aerospace industry suffered on bad news concerning production of the 737 MAX aircraft, but more broadly, most investors seemed content to wait and see how quarterly earnings results look when companies start releasing them later this week. Some stocks saw solid gains despite the somewhat choppy moves in the overall market. Sony (SONY -0.33%), AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC), and Coherus BioSciences (CHRS -4.46%) were among the top performers. Here's why they did so well.
Could Sony be the latest activist investor target?
Shares of Sony rose 8% after the global entertainment giant became the subject of reports surrounding possible interest from activist investors. In particular, Dan Loeb of Third Point Capital is seen as having built up a position in Sony, and those looking at the situation have speculated that the possibility of dividing Sony into separate components could allow it to maximize the value of its movie studio, semiconductor and electronics, and financial businesses. Shareholders haven't been too happy with Sony's performance lately, and so a shakeup from Loeb or his peers could well be the catalyst that the company needs to get itself moving forward again.
Image source: Sony.
AMC reaps big rewards from Avengers
AMC Entertainment Holdings saw its stock climb 9% following favorable analyst comments about the launch of ticket pre-sales for the latest installment in the Avengers franchise. Last week, AMC had announced that Endgame had become the top movie ever for pre-sale ticket revenue, topping previous first-day pre-sale records by 50%. That prompted analysts to weigh in today, with B. Riley upgrading the stock from neutral to buy on the news. The theater operator has worked hard to improve its business condition, with recent debt restructuring that gives it more time to digest the expensive upgrades it's made to its locations. With what could be a much stronger box office year in 2019, AMC has the potential to build momentum from here.
Coherus looks for a blockbuster
Finally, shares of Coherus BioSciences climbed 7%. The biotech company said that preliminary sales for its Udenyca biosimilar version of Amgen's Neulasta for the first quarter of 2019 came in between $36 million and $38 million. With Udenyca having gotten introduced just in early January, the launch appears to have gone reasonably well. Nevertheless, that's a drop in the bucket compared to the billion-dollar annual sales rates that many following Coherus expect from Udenyca by the mid-2020s -- and those hopes explain why shareholders have high expectations for Coherus' growth prospects in the years to come.
