Tuesday was an up-and-down day on Wall Street as investors tried to get their bearings during what has been an especially tough month for the stock market. With trade concerns lingering and broader worries about the global economic environment weighing on sentiment, investors have had difficulty figuring out how to position their portfolios in ways that both protect them from potential losses but leave them able to benefit if the bull market continues. Several individual companies had good news that sent their shares higher. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +3.36%), SeaWorld Entertainment (SEAS +2.31%), and Beyond Meat (BYND 4.24%) were among the top performers. Here's why they did so well.
AMD lifts off on product launches
Shares of Advanced Micro Devices jumped 10% after the maker of semiconductor chips announced a number of new products that should bolster its growth. Over the weekend, AMD got an extremely favorable reception at the Computex trade show in Taiwan after presenting updates to its popular Radeon and Ryzen line of chips. Product advances like 7-nanometer manufacturing and a mainstream 12-core processor showed that AMD is serious about taking a leadership role in the industry, and a new graphics processor is set to stand up to competitors like NVIDIA and bolster AMD's reputation in GPUs. Some analysts reacted favorably to the news, boosting their views on the stock, and shareholders reaped the rewards.
Image source: Getty Images.
SeaWorld makes a big move
SeaWorld Entertainment saw its stock soar nearly 17% following news of a substantial capital investment. Pacific Alliance Group, which had held a significant stake in SeaWorld, sold two large blocks of stock. SeaWorld bought back $150 million worth of PAG's position, acquiring 5.6 million shares in the process. Meanwhile, Hill Path Capital purchased a larger 13.2 million share block, which took its stake in SeaWorld all the way up 34.5%. Many shareholders had worried about how committed PAG was to its position, especially given that the shares had been pledged to back a loan. Now, SeaWorld can count on continued support, and Hill Path will have greater say in company operations with seats on the board of directors.
Beyond Meat goes beyond the U.S.
Finally, shares of Beyond Meat gained 8%. The maker of plant-based alternatives to popular meat products announced that it was going abroad, having expanded a partnership with Netherlands-based company Zandbergen World's Finest Meat. Under the deal, Beyond Meat's products will get produced at the Dutch company's facility to be constructed in the Netherlands. Stock analysts weighed in with positive comments about Beyond Meat's prospects, arguing that even after a big jump in the stock price, the meat-alternative maker has a reasonable valuation and could still have a lot of growth ahead of it.
