Here’s Why These Five Stocks Are in the Spotlight

While the second trading week of the fourth quarter is officially over, several major stocks are trending over the weekend, including Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ:FRGI), Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), and Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA).

In this article, we are going to take a closer look at the latest developments that put these stocks in the spotlight. In addition, we will assess the smart money sentiment towards each company

At Insider Monkey, we track around 750 hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on, can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see the details here).

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Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares rose and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) retreated after the Financial Times reported that the former was no longer interested in acquiring the social media company. According to Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Twitter “wasn’t the right fit” due to “many different reasons”. Salesforce shareholders are no doubt breathing a sigh of relief due to those remarks as a combination of the two might not have yielded enough synergies to justify the premium paid.

To many investors, Salesforce had seemed like Twitter’s most likely buyer due to Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) both ruling out a bid. Now that Salesforce has also ruled out a purchase, it remains to be seen if there are any plausible companies/entities that could bid for Twitter. Many traders are now bracing for Twitter’s third-quarter earnings report and are hoping that CEO Jack Dorsey’s live streaming strategy will successfully turn the company around. Among the funds we track, 30 held shares of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and 60 were long salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) on June 30.

Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ:FRGI) rallied on Friday after the New York Post reported that that the company has notified potential buyers that it wants to sell itself. Fiesta currently operates around 336 eateries and is said to have drawn some interest from various PE firms. Activist Bradley Radoff’s JCP Investment Partnership reported a 6.2% stake in Fiesta on September 19. Sahm Adrangi‘s Kerrisdale Capital also owned 333,156 shares in Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc (NASDAQ:FRGI) at the end of June, up by 110% on the quarter.

On the next page, we find out why Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Ariad Pharmaceuticals are trending.