Executive Shuffling, Bullish Write-ups, and Analyst Rating Changes: Here’s Why These 5 Stocks Are Trending

Crude futures are 2% lower today as traders take profits on the huge run-up from $40 per barrel. Further hurting crude sentiment this morning is the news that Iraq plans to increase its exports.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at five stocks that traders are talking about today, which are Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW), Office Depot Inc (NASDAQ:ODP), Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS), and Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT). In addition to finding out why these stocks are turning heads we’ll use the latest SEC filings to see how the smart money in our database has been trading each stock.

While there are many metrics that investors can assess in the investment process, the hedge fund sentiment is something that is often overlooked. However, hedge funds and other institutional investors allocate significant resources while making their bets and their long-term focus makes them the perfect investors to emulate. This is supported by our research, which determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor to beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

Analyst Downgrades Monster Worldwide

Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW) is 3% in the red today after analysts at Avondale Partners downgraded the stock to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’. The analysts also lowered their price target on the stock to $3.40 per share, $0.27 below the stock’s current price. Hedge fund sentiment towards Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE:MWW) was relatively stable during the second quarter. Of the 749 funds that Insider Monkey tracks, 19 funds were long the stock at the end of both the first and second quarter.

Office Depot CEO to Retire

Office Depot Inc (NASDAQ:ODP) is slightly lower today after the company announced that its CEO, Roland Smith, will step down by the end of the first quarter of 2017. Mr. Smith tried to sell Office Depot to Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLS) during his tenure, only to be blocked by the government over antitrust concerns. Now that the attempted merger, which temporarily put the company’s cost cutting and productivity initiatives on the backburner, is behind it, Office Depot Inc (NASDAQ:ODP) can now resume its focus on cutting costs and increasing returns on capital. 47 funds in our database were long Office Depot at the end of the second quarter, down from 58 that were long the stock at the end of the first quarter.

On the next page we’ll examine the latest news on Zoetis, Valeant, and Mattel.

Zoetis CFO Switches Teams

According to the Wall Street Journal, Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) may be getting a new CFO by the name of Paul Herendeen. Mr. Herendeen, incidentally, was the CFO of another of Valeant Board member Bill Ackman’s favorite stocks, Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS). During his tenure at Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS), Mr. Herendeen successfully cut costs and increased productivity. Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) bulls hope that he will be able to do the same at Valeant, which needs to increase profitability and enact stronger accounting measures.

As previously mentioned, Bill Ackman‘s Pershing Square is a big shareholder of both companies, with holdings of around 21 million shares in both Valeant and Zoetis at the end of June.

Bullish Write-up at Barron’s For Mattel 

Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) is the beneficiary of a mild “Barron’s Bounce” today, as its shares are up by 1% in a flat market. According to a Barron’s write-up over the weekend, Mattel shares could rally by as much as 20% over the next 12 months as the company’s overhaul of its Barbie franchise begins to pay dividends. The financial magazine cites an upcoming Barbie movie that could potentially juice merchandise sales as one of the reasons to be bullish on Mattel. In addition, Barron’s likes how Mattel trades for a sub-20-times 2018 EPS multiple and sports a 4.6% dividend yield. 34 funds that we track were long Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) at the end of the second quarter, down by three quarter-over-quarter.

Disclosure: None