Here’s Why United Continental, Cirrus Logic, Viacom and Two Other Stocks are Moving Today

It’s a quite day on the Street with Dow Jones and S&P 500 slightly in the green as investors await the upcoming Brexit vote on Thursday.

Among the stocks on investors’ radars today are United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL), Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI), Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB), Emergent Biosolutions Inc (NYSE:EBS) and Cirrus Logic, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRUS). Let’s see why these stocks are trending today and what hedge funds think of these companies.

While there are many metrics that investors can assess in the investment process, 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 beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see more details here).

Ronnie Chua / Shutterstock.com

United Continental Reveals Plan to Boost Profitability

United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL)’s stock has gained almost 4% after the company outlined its plans to boost profitability through cost and efficiency measures. The Chicago-based airline company plans to increase its revenue and slash expenses by a combined $3.1 billion by 2018. United Continental also said its fare metric will be at the higher end of prior guidance in the second quarter. Among the funds we track, 61 funds owned shares of United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL) at the end of March, down from 73 a quarter earlier. Paul Reeder and Edward Shapiro’s PAR Capital Management owns around 14.38 million shares of the company.

Supreme Court Trashes EU Lawsuit Against Reynolds American

Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI)’s stock has inched up after the US Supreme Court rejected a European Union lawsuit that accused the North Carolina-based cigarette maker of running a money-laundering network related to drug smuggling into Europe. The ruling says that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Acts do not apply to claims related to overseas actions.  The EU has been after Reynolds American and its American subsidiaries for around a decade, alleging that the company is in cahoots with organized crime groups, which launder money and smuggle drugs into Europe. With ownership of 15.19 million shares, Neil Woodford’s Woodford Investment Management is one the 39 hedge funds from our database having stakes in Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI) at the end of the first quarter.

On the next page, we discuss why Viacom, Emergent Biosolutions and Cirrus Logic are in the headlines today.