These three health care stocks have consistently outperformed the S&P in recent weeks and have earned the attention of big institutional buyers, signaling that even more upside could be ahead.
In the search for companies that have outperformed in a persistent way, we ran a screen on stocks from the health care sector looking for those that have seen a streak of days in which the stock beat the S&P 500 benchmark over the last month and few days of underperforming the S&P 500.
In other words, long winning streaks and short losing streaks, as measured by a ratio of the longest winning streak to the longest losing streak. (That’s a mouthful, we know).
We then screened these stocks for those that have also seen significant net institutional buying over the current quarter. Although past performance is no guarantee of future results, winning streaks may indicate upward momentum and positive sentiment.
The below list is sorted by net institutional purchases as a percentage of share float.
Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OPTR) focuses on discovering, developing, and commercializing hospital specialty products worldwide and has a market cap of $729.76 million.
Net institutional shares purchased over the current quarter come in at seven million, which is 16.56% of the company’s 42.26 million-share float. The stock’s longest winning streak over the last month was seven days, while the longest losing streak was three days, or a win streak/lose streak ratio of 2.33.
The stock is a short squeeze candidate, with a short float at 15.87% (equivalent to 8.3 days of average volume). The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 22.44% over the last week.
Here is a daily chart:
Click to Enlarge
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|pagebreak|Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMPE) develops drugs for metabolic, eye, kidney, inflammation, and central nervous system diseases and has a market cap of $253.88 million.
Net institutional shares purchased over the current quarter come in at 1.1 million, which is 8.18% of the company’s 13.44 million-share float.
The stock’s longest winning streak over the last month was five days, while the longest losing streak was one day, or a win streak/lose streak ratio of 5.0.
The stock is a short squeeze candidate, with a short float at 7.93% (equivalent to 10.47 days of average volume). The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 7.8% over the last week.
Here is a recent daily chart:
Click to Enlarge
Threshold Pharmaceuticals Inc. (THLD) engages in the discovery and development of drugs targeting the microenvironment of solid tumors for patients living with cancer and has a market cap of $85.36 million.
Net institutional shares purchased over the current quarter come in at 1.2 million, which is 4.31% of the company’s 27.81 million-share float.
The stock’s longest winning streak over the last month was six days, while the longest losing streak was one day, or a win streak/lose streak ratio of 6.0.
The stock has had a couple of great days, gaining 15.23% over the last week.
Here is a recent daily chart:
Click to Enlarge
By the Staff at Kapitall.com
