5 of Last Week's Biggest Winners

What's better than momentum? Mo' momentum. Let's take a closer look at five of this past week's biggest scorchers.

Source: Barron's.

Let's start with Zeltiq Aesthetics. Zeltiq's CoolSculpting may seem like a racket. Can a machine really freeze off fat cells from your love handles? Reviews have been mixed, but a growing number of dermatologists and diet centers are starting to look into the non-invasive device, and it's starting to pay off for Zeltiq financially. Earlier this year, Zeltiq was targeting just 10% in top-line growth. That doubled to 20% a few months ago, and it doubled again this past week to 40% after another blowout quarter.

J.C. Penney is also sculpting something cool, treating believers to a rare weekly pop. An ITG Investment Research analyst note boosted its forecast for revenue and same-store sales for its latest quarter. This doesn't mean J.C. Penney's turning things around. The comps target is merely going from a decline of 6% to a dip of 4%. It doesn't see the struggling department store chain actually gaining more shopping activity than it had during last year's horrible run. However, at least it's not as bad as ITG initially feared now that it has 11 weeks of data to consider. 

LINN Energy moved higher after drawing closer to completing its merger with Berry Petroleum. LINN scheduled a conference call for this Wednesday, and while that will be a day after the merger deadline, a filing with the SEC shows that is nothing new to add to the acquisition. If there was still a red flag here, it probably would've been noted in the upstream operator's SEC filing. It wasn't.

LifeLock unlocked a big week of gains after delivering strong quarterly results. Revenue climbed 33% in its latest quarter, proving that we're not getting any less paranoid in this age of NSA snooping and website hacking. LifeLock provides identity-theft protection services in a subscription platform. Adjusted earnings also blew past Wall Street expectations. Interest in LifeLock's safeguards has been consistently growing, with the company rattling off 34 consecutive quarters of sequential gains in net subscribers. 

Alcatel-Lucent made a strong connection with investors after reporting that sales climbed by a better-than-expected 7% to $5.1 billion. The global seller of telecommunications gear also posted a narrowing deficit. Alcatel-Lucent's CEO also offered up a rosy outlook, pointing out that his company is seeing " the first positive signs of our new operating model in our day-to-day business."