Here’s Why Traders Are Buzzing About These Five Stocks Today

The S&P 500 and other indexes plunged on Wednesday afternoon dragged by a weaker dollar, as investors are shifting their attention to the Fed after concerns over a Brexit faded slightly.

Among the stocks trending today are Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL), E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD), Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN), and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Let’s analyze why each stock is in the spotlight and see what investors tracked by us think about them.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 730 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).

Walt Disney Takes On Chinese Infringers

Less than a week after it opened Shanghai Disneyland, Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) is taking several Chinese firms to court over potential copyright infringement issues. According to Disney, three Chinese firms took several elements of Disney’s ‘Cars’ movie and incorporated them into their own film, ‘The Autobots’. The stakes for Disney are high. China’s box office is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the world and Disney can’t afford for its movies to be infringed upon. Among the funds we track, 49 funds owned shares of Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) at the end of the first quarter, down by two funds from the previous quarter.

United Continental Aims to Increase Profitability

United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) is in the spotlight after the airline said it will consider changing how it uses its eight hubs at large airports to increase profitability. United Continental shares have retreated by 21% year-to-date as rising crude prices and increased industry capacity weigh on bullish sentiment. If United can increase its efficiency, traders might away the stock with a higher forward multiple than its current 5.5 times next year earnings estimates. Overall, 61 investors in our database owned shares of United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) at the end of the first quarter.

On the next page, we examine E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co, Priceline Group, and Facebook.

Du Pont Dives Into Start Ups

E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD) is teaming up with Bayer, Finistere Ventures and two other companies to form a $15-million accelerator fund that will invest in early-stage ag-tech startups. Although the fund is relatively small by VC standards, it could help boost returns for Du Pont by unlocking tech breakthroughs as the science in the sector continues to progress. The investment made by DuPont in the VC fund is also the first time the company has invested in the ag-tech start-up scene. Of the 766 elite funds we track, 32 funds amassed $3.24 billion worth of E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD)’s stock, which accounted for 5.90% of the float on March 31, versus 35 funds and $3.38 billion, respectively, on December 31.

Analysts Give the Thumbs Up to Priceline 

Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) shares are up after analysts at Barclays upgraded the stock to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal Weight’ and raised their price target to $1,500 from $1,300. The analysts think the travel website portal’s current valuation reflects too much pessimism about Priceline’s future prospects. Shares of the company have been stuck in a trading range for several years and have gained just 5% year-to-date. A total of 87 funds among those we track owned shares of Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ:PCLN) at the end of the first quarter, up by two funds from the previous quarter.

Facebook Ramps Up Spending on Live Video

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has made deals with almost 140 celebrities and media companies to produce videos for the company’s live video-streaming feature. The deals will pay the video creators in excess of $50 million in aggregate and include prestigious names such as CNN, Vox Media, and the New York Times as partners. Other participants include celebrities such as Russell Wilson and Gordon Ramsay. If Facebook’s live feature takes off, the company could have more inventory to sell lucrative video ads on. At the end of March, 164 funds owned shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), making the social media company the second most popular stock among the funds we track after Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN).

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