Monday Headlines Being Dominated by Facebook, Pfizer, Symantec, More

With the markets on edge over a potential Brexit and the FOMC meeting scheduled for this week, the coming days may be more volatile than expected. Among the stocks buzzing today are Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LFC), Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), and BioScrip Inc (NASDAQ:BIOS). Let’s take a closer look at why and see how the hedge funds in our database have been trading these equities of late.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 765 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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Facebook Turns on Safety Check

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) activated its safety check feature for the first time after 50 people were killed at a gay nightclub in Orlando this weekend. The feature allows people on Facebook to alert friends and family that they are safe in times of crisis. The feature is expected to prove useful for future events such as earthquakes or tornadoes. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s safety check illustrates how the company is innovating and leading the way in the social media sector. Of the 766 elite funds that we track, 164 were long Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) on March 31, owning $14.54 billion worth of its shares. Those shares are off by 1.2% in morning trading.

China Life Insurance Plays Both Sides

China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LFC) is in the spotlight after the insurance company agreed to invest $600 million into Didi Chuxing, making the insurer one of the key investors in the Chinese ride sharing app’s current round of fundraising, which is expected to amount to over $3.5 billion and value the company at more than $25 billion. China Life’s investment is noteworthy because the insurer had previously invested in Uber China. Didi is currently the undisputed ride-sharing leader in China, while Uber is the undisputed leader elsewhere. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies owned around 420,000 shares of China Life Insurance Company Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:LFC) at the end of March.

On the next page we examine the latest regarding Symantec Corporation, Pfizer, and BioScrip.