Trending Stocks: Twitter, Alphabet, AK Steel, Deutsche Bank, and More

Traders are watching crude today after the American Petroleum Institute reported a build of 4.8 million barrels, a sum substantially larger than analyst estimates of 1.5 million barrels.

Among the securities that traders are watching include Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS), and Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB). Let’s find out why the five companies are in the spotlight and see what the smart money investors from our database think about them.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 750 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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Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) shares are up this pre-market after Betaville reported that Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) is said to potentially be interested in buying the social media company again (perhaps the recent merger announcement between AT&T and Time Warner was enough to spur a change in Disney’s decision making). In addition, Betaville also stated that its sources had said that “both companies agreed on takeout price late last week”. However, some analysts on the Street remain unconvinced. Alan Gould of Brean Capital reiterated his opinion that a deal would not be likely given that an acquisition wouldn’t make sense financially speaking and would not fit with Disney’s historic M&A strategy. Of the 749 funds in our database, 30 investors held shares of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and 44 were long Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) at the end of June.

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in the spotlight after Bloomberg reported that the Internet giant’s fast internet initiative will undergo a staff change of sorts. Craig Barratt, the head of the unit that is in charge of Google Fiber, is on the way out, and around 9% of the division’s workforce, or around 130 people, will be let go. Some analysts think one reason for the change is that Google Fiber’s economics haven’t been as rosy as previously thought, and another reason is that Alphabet has achieved its goal of speeding up internet connections already (as the company’s entry into the sector has caused competitors to offer faster offerings). Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management inched up its stake in Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2% to over 1.01 million class C shares during the third quarter.

On the next page, we see why AK Steel Holding Corporation, and Deutsche Bank AG (USA) are trending.