Most of the major market indices took a hit last week, with the Nasdaq Composite leading -- err, bleeding -- the way with a 2.5% slide.
It wasn't all bad news, though. There were a handful of salmon fish swimming upstream, artfully dodging the savage bear claws.
Let's take a closer look at five of this past week's biggest scorchers.
Company |
March 11 |
Weekly Gain |
My Watchlist |
---|---|---|---|
Green Mountain Coffee |
$58.86 |
41% |
|
Primo Water |
$14.04 |
32% |
|
RC2 |
$28.31 |
31% |
|
Pharmasset |
$63.97 |
29% |
|
Atlas Energy |
$21.12 |
27% |
Source: Barron's.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters took off after Starbucks
Primo Water spiked after it warmed up to a Keurig-esque play. The purified bottle water provider announced that it was entering the home carbonation market by acquiring Omnifrio. Keurig has its K-Cups. Omnifrio has its S-cups. The system is a cross between Keurig and SodaStream's
RC2 chugged higher after agreeing to be acquired by Japanese toymaker Tomy for $27.90 a share in cash. RC2 makes wooden Thomas the Tank Engine play sets and other playthings for infants and toddlers. The stock wound up closing higher than Tomy's proposed buyout price, so investors appear to be anticipating a bidding battle or a sweetened offer. It doesn't always play out that way, though.
Pharmasset was off to the races after the biotech received encouraging news on its potential hepatitis treatment. A whopping 94% of patients taking a combination of Pharmasset's two oral hepatitis C drugs had undetectable levels of virus after just two weeks in an early clinical trial.
Finally, Atlas Energy was the New York Stock Exchange's biggest winner after an upbeat update call, a Morgan Stanley analyst upgrade, and a guidance hike combined to move the energy company higher.
It was a great week for these five stocks. Now let's see if they're up for an encore.
Which of these five stocks do you think will continue to move higher? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.