Here’s Why Alphabet Inc (GOOG), Vale SA (ADR) (VALE) & Three Other Stocks Are Among Trending Names on Wednesday

Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) is again in the headlines after agreeing to purchase Akarna Therapeutics, this time for $50 million in cash and various success-based sales, regulatory, and development milestones. Akarna’s lead drug candidate, AKN-083, is a potential treatment for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Allergan previously paid a massive premium (of a sum up to $1.695 billion) to buy Tobira Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TBRA), which also showed promising potential in terms of R&D for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and other liver diseases. With the increasing occurrence of obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases among the populace, Allergan’s management expects NASH to become one of the next “epidemic-level chronic diseases” over the coming years and they are reacting accordingly. Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) was one of the smart money’s favorite stocks in the second quarter, with 131 out of around 750 funds tracked by Insider Monkey reporting stakes as of June 30.

Last but not least, InterOil Corporation (USA) (NYSE:IOC) founder Phil Mulacek has given up on his opposition to Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM)‘s purchase of the company he created. Mulacek had been opposed to the purchase because he thought InterOil’s board could have extracted better terms. According to Bloomberg, Exxon may have been willing to pay a substantially higher price back when Mulacek was the CEO in 2013 (of around 3x the final number). Given the lower crude and LNG prices, the lower final price is totally understandable, however. Mulacek said:

“They’ll win the vote. We’re dissenting. I was there when Exxon was offering a lot more. That was a very fair and equitable deal for both companies.”

According to our records, 22 funds had a bullish position in InterOil Corporation (USA) (NYSE:IOC) and 60 investors were long Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) at the end of June.

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