Here’s Why These Stocks Are on Investors’ Radars Today

Markets are trading higher today as investors are less worried over an interest rate hike in the nearest future. In addition, the market was boosted by a number of M&A deals.

In this article, we are going to discuss one of the mergers announced today, particularly, the one between Agrium Inc. (NYSE:AGU) and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (NYSE:POT). Moreover, we will take a closer look at the latest news surrounding SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY), Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), and Cemex SAB De CV (NYSE:CX), as well as we’ll present what the smart money investors in our database think about each company in question.

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 more details about our small-cap strategy).

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Let’s start with SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY), which has announced raising $305 million through its second cash equity transaction. The company entered into the transaction with a private investment fund affiliated to Quantum Strategic Partners Ltd and advised by billionaire George Soros‘ Soros Fund Management LLC. The deal involves equity investments in solar projects as well as a fully amortizing, 18 year loan syndicated to five institutional investors, SolarCity said in a statement. Among the funds we track, 26 funds held $140 million worth of SolarCity’s stock in aggregate at the end of June, having amassed 3% of its outstanding stock, compared to 23 investors that held $105 million worth of shares a quarter earlier.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) is in the spotlight amid reports that the company together with Oil Search each agreed to acquire 40% stakes in two exploration licenses from a company owned by Cnooc Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:CEO). The value of the transaction was not revealed. Moreover, Reuters has reported that Qatar Petroleum might join Exxon Mobil to acquire a multibillion-dollar stake in the Mozambique gas business of Italian group Eni. The number of funds from our database long Exxon Mobil Corporation remained unchanged at 60 during the second quarter, but the total value of their holdings surged to $3.01 billion from $2.05 billion.

On the following page, we are going to take a closer look at Cemex and discuss the merger between Agrium and Potash Corporation.