Hot Stocks: BOOT earnings lift mall retailers; SCR jumps on PENN merger deal; FVRR drops on earnings

• Mall retailers got a boost Thursday. Earnings from Boot Barn eased fears that a renewed COVID slowdown might reverse momentum in the industry. The sector strength gave a lift to Zumiez, Children's Place and Shoe Carnival.
• Elsewhere, Score Media & Gaming Inc. was one of the day's standout gainers. A $2B merger deal with Penn National Gaming sparked a massive rally in the stock.
• HubSpot also posted a major gain on the session. Spurred by a standout earnings release, the stock recorded a double-digit rally and set a new 52-week high.
• Looking to some of the losers on the session, Fiverr International Ltd. suffered a sharp decline on guidance included in its quarterly report. The stock became one of the day's standout losers.
• Fastly, Inc. also dropped during the session. With earnings weighed down by a well-publicized outage during the quarter, the stock plunged to a new 52-week low.

Sector In Focus

• COVID concerns have lingered over the last several days,weighing down selected sectorstied to the reopening story. Thursday saw a reversal of this trend. Mall retailers rallied, as investors bet that worries of renewed COVID lockdown have become overplayed.
• Boot Barn served as a pivotal catalyst, followingstrong quarterly results released after the close Wednesday. The company's profit breezed by expectations and its revenue more than doubled from last year to reach $306.3M.
• On the news, shares of BOOT finished higher by 6.5%, ending the session at $88.83. During the day, the stock also set a 52-week high of $93.25.
• BOOT has now climbed about 300% since the same time last year.
• The better-than-expected results out of BOOT alsostirred interest in the sector in general. A general feeling that momentum remains in place for mall retailers, even with a bumpy post-COVID reopening, sparked gains in the space as a whole.
• ZUMZ and PLCE both climbed more than 5% on the session. SCVL advanced by 4.8%.

Standout Gainer

• Football season is around the corner. It's a great time for fans -- and an even better time for sports gambling.
• Penn National Gaming (PENN) will have even more to think about this fall than the NFL kickoff. On Thursday, the company announced a $2B deal to acquire Canadian sports betting service Score Media & Gaming Inc..
• The cash-and-stock dealwill swap each SCR share for $17 in cash and 0.2398 shares of PENN. The purchase price equates to $34 per share, based on PENN's 5-day volume-weighted average trading price.
• Based on the merger deal, SCR became one of Thursday's standout gainers. The stock finished higher by nearly 80%, closing at $32.64.
• SCR came public in February in an IPO priced at $27 a share, though it hasn't closed above that level since late March. Instead, the stock has spent much of its trading career well below that initial price, setting 52-week low of $12.95 in May.
• With Thursday's advance, the stock finished nearly 21% above its IPO price and more than 150% above its all-time low.
• Penn National Gaming also gained ground on the deal. The stock climbed 9% on Thursday to close at $72.26. The advance took shares back to levels they saw in late July.
• PENN remains well off a 52-week high of $142 reached in mid-March.
• Commenting on the proposed merger, Penn National (PENN) CEO Jay Snowden explained the heavy valuationas a bet on the long-term future of sports gambling. He said the company was looking well beyond 2022 to the growth he expects in the years to come.

Standout Loser

• The post-COVID reopening has been a boon for most companies. At the same time, the tight labor markets have caused cost complications for many firms, but at least hiring trends pointed to more consumer spending and generally higher demand.
• Unfortunately, Fiverr International Ltd. got caught on the wrong side of both those trends at once.
• The marketplace for freelance services reported better-than-expected results for its latest quarter. However, it issued weak guidance, as would-be freelancers turned away from the online service amid the booming post-COVID job market.
• On the news, FVRR dropped 24% during Thursday's session to finish at $175.06. This marked the stock's lowest close since mid-May.
• The FVRR earnings hada negative halo effect as well. Fellow freelance marketplace Upwork Inc. dropped 9.5% to end at $46.37. This was its lowest finish since early June.

Notable New High

• HubSpot reported Q2 non-GAAP EPS of $0.43, topping analysts' consensus by more than 33%. Revenue also beat expectations, rising by 53% to nearly $311M.
• HUBS jumped almost 12% on the earnings news, finishing the session at $660. Shares also set a 52-week of $660.99.
• The stock has now rallied about 70% year-to-date and sits more than 150% above its levels of a year ago.

Notable New Low

• Fastly, Inc. briefly became a matter of national concern in early June,when an outage at the companybriefly shut down such high profile websites as CNN and Bloomberg.
• For those with a calendar handy, you might notice that June is part of the second quarter. On Wednesday evening, the company released its Q2 results -- including the impact of that notorious outage.
• The results weren't good. The companymissed expectations with its earnings and revenue. It also issued weak guidance for the full year.
• Part of its soft forecast came about because of customerswho bolted in the wake of the outage.
• The disappointing earnings report sparked a sharp decline in FSLY, which dropped over 19% in Wednesday's after-hours trading. The stock remained weak on Thursday, though it cut its losses during the session and finished well off its lows.
• Even with the moderation, FSLY still closed the day with a 10% loss. The stock finished at $39.93 after setting a 52-week low of $33.87 during the day.