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 United Online. The provider of online connectivity as well as the parent company of Classmates.com and loyalty shopping pioneer MyPoints moved nicely higher after posting revenue that exceeded the high end of its earlier guidance. United Online took a beating a couple of weeks ago after discontinuing its once chunky dividend, and spinning off floral giant FTD exposes some of the shortcomings of its legacy businesses. However, beating even a bar that's set low is always welcome. 

Inovio Pharmaceuticals announced that its CEO will present at the Cowen and Company 34th Annual Health Care Conference in Boston early next month. These conferences often give young medical companies a chance to shine, and Inovio certainly qualifies, as it generates buzz for its potentially promising synthetic vaccines that are in various stages of clinical testing and development. A pair of Seeking Alpha articles also talked up Inovio's prospects. 

Spirit Airlines took off after posting better-than-expected earnings in its latest quarter. Spirit has won a fair amount of fans for its low rates, but there are also plenty of haters out there who despise how the budget carrier charges fees for things that most airlines offer with their fares. 

Rite Aid hit highs last seen 13 years ago, after expanding its distribution partnership with McKesson in a deal that includes both generics and branded medications. Rite Aid's CEO claims that the deal will help it achieve supply-chain efficiencies and generate more cash flow. That sounds like just what the doctor ordered for the drugstore chain that has already bounced back with several quarters of profitable results. 

Finally we have InterOil on the move, after the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported that a deal was in place to acquire the company for roughly $85 a share. The source tells the story that an agreement has already been reached with a company that owns nearly 20% of the InterOil shares. This is naturally all speculation until we get an actual announcement.