These 5 Stocks Are Kicking Off The Week With A Bang

Finding Dory Still Strong

Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS)‘s box office hits keep on coming as the ‘Finding Nemo’ sequel notched another $20.3 million at the box office this weekend to become the highest grossing animated film of all time in the U.S. Given the company’s wealth of blockbuster studio and franchise rights acquisitions, from Star Wars, to its Pixar studio, to its Marvel rights, it is safe to say that CEO Bob Iger certainly has the magic touch in terms of M&A. Disney will need its film division to remain strong to offset the secular decline at ESPN. The number of funds tracked by Insider Monkey with long positions in Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) fell by two quarter-over-quarter to 49 as of the end of March.

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) shares are down by just under 3% this morning after analysts at SunTrust downgraded the tech stock to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’. Among other things, the analysts don’t think an acquisition of Twitter is likely in 2016. Part of the reason for Twitter’s recent surge has been speculation that another company might acquire it, which was only grew after Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s acquisition of LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD). Twitter shares have steadily risen since that announcement, gaining 25% over the past month. In the long-term, the SunTrust analysts are still optimistic about the social media company’s potential. They currently have an $18 price target on the stock, only slightly above its current price. 27 elite funds in our system were bullish on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) at the end of March.

On the next page we find out why Barrick Gold, Cliffs Natural Resources, and Alcoa Inc are in the spotlight today. 

Barrick Gold Provides Long-Term Guidance

Although it had around $9 billion in debt at the end of the first quarter, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) President Kelvin Dushnisky believes the leading gold miner could reduce its debt burden to $5 billion in three years and be debt-free within ten years. The feat would be achieved through a combination of cost cuts, asset divestment, and gold future price gains. Barrick Gold currently has a goal of reducing its debt by $2 billion in 2016 and any potential acquisition would likely be funded with stock rather than additional debt. Barrick Gold reducing its debt burden would certainly be good news for bond holders. 49 elite funds were long Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) at the end of the first quarter, up by nine funds from the end of the previous quarter.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Cliffs Natural Resources Inc (NYSE:CLF) has a “strong desire to take over the existing Essar Steel Minnesota project if Cliffs is assigned the state mining leases.” Essar recently put its Minnesota mine into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and the state has nullified the company’s mining leases. Cliffs’ shares have surged by almost 300% year-to-date on a combination of better sentiment and short covering. 14 funds in our database were long Cliffs Natural Resources Inc (NYSE:CLF) at the end of the first quarter.

Last but not least, Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) is in the spotlight today as the company is expected to report its latest quarterly earnings after the market close. According to Yahoo Finance, analysts are expecting Alcoa to report EPS of $0.10 on revenue of $5.2 billion for the June quarter. If Alcoa beats or if future guidance is strong, the broader indexes could benefit, as Alcoa is typically considered a bellwether for the broader index. 37 funds that we track owned shares of Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) as of March 31, down by four funds from the beginning of the first quarter.

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