Trending Stocks: Diplomat Pharmacy, Facebook, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, and More

Although the broader markets are still down/flat due in large part to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s disappointing earnings report, the indexes have nevertheless made a comeback of sorts as the latest EIA numbers of a drop of 0.6 million barrels gave a boost to energy related names.

Among the other securities that are also capturing investors’ attention today are Diplomat Pharmacy Inc (NYSE:DPLO), Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG), AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), and Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA). Let’s analyze the various reasons each stock is trending and dig into SEC filings to determine hedge fund sentiment toward the stocks.

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Diplomat Pharmacy Inc (NYSE:DPLO) shares are down by 12% after the company announced that its CFO, Sean Whelan, will step down on December 31. In addition, Whelan will also relinquish his board seat at that time as well. Although Whelan cited wanting to spend more time with family as reason for his action, analyst David Larsen of Leerink said in a note that he thought the timing of the resignation seemed unusual and made him more cautious of the third quarter results due next week. Larsen is nevertheless bullish long term and maintains his ‘Outperform’ rating. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management cut its stake in Diplomat Pharmacy Inc (NYSE:DPLO) by 16% in the second quarter to 700,000 shares at the end of June.

Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) is in the green today after CLSA analyst Caroline Levy upgraded the consumer staple to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Underperform’. Levy also hiked her price target to $95 from $90, citing P&G’s solid long term growth prospects given management’s years of hardwork in shoring up efficiency in the giant. Levy estimates that P&G’s organic sales growth will clock in at 3-4% and its earnings growth will come in at 8-9% through 2018. Of the 749 funds we track, 56 amassed $5.54 billion worth of Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG)’s stock, which accounted for 2.50% of the float on June 30, versus 59 funds and $5.17 billion, respectively, on March 31.

On the next page, we examine AT&T, Facebook, and Ariad Pharmaceuticals.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is in the spotlight after the stock was downgraded to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Overweight’ at Barclays. The firm’s analyst Amir Rozwadowski also cut his price target to $39 from $45, saying that while the purchase of Time Warner is a bold move, the synergies of the deal won’t be immediate and investors will have to be calm while the deal works its way through the regulatory approval process (some traders see the odds of regulatory approval as 50/50). Hedge funds were slightly more optimistic on AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) in the second quarter as our data shows the number of funds with holdings in AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) rose by four quarter-over-quarter to 55 at the end of June.

Analyst Kevin Rottinghaus of Cleveland Research weighed in on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) today, saying that he sees upside to the social media company’s third-quarter earnings and revenues given the tight ad inventory, strong e-commerce, and retail DPA adoption. Rottinghaus’ research leads him to conclude that ad pricing is moving higher and he expects Facebook to post EPS of $1.02 for the third quarter, versus the consensus estimate of $0.96. Not surprisingly, Rottinghaus has a ‘Buy’ rating on the stock. A total of 148 funds tracked by us owned shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) at the end of the second quarter, down by 16 funds from the previous quarter.

Although Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) is currently in the cross hairs of some unwanted attention from the media and the Capitol Hill for its drug pricing, William Blair analyst Katherine Xu isn’t all that concerned, as the analyst bumped up her price target on the stock to $15 from $12. Xu bases her estimate on peak global sales of Iclusig eventually coming in at $1.1 billion, up from her previous estimate of $900 million. In addition, Xu thinks that there is a 90% probability of success for brigatinib for a certain form of non-small-cell lung cancer, and that the drug could eventually achieve peak sales of $790 million (up from her previous estimate of $640 million). The analyst estimates that Iclusig is worth $9 per share, and brigatinib is worth $6 per share. Despite the price hike, shares of Ariad are slightly  in the red today as some traders remain concerned about unwanted headline risks. The number of funds from our database with holdings in Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) inched up by one quarter-over-quarter to 27 at the end of June. Those 27 funds held around 23.1% of Ariad’s float.

Disclosure: none