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. 

AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) is in the green in extended-market trading after Bank of America analyst Timna Tanners upgraded the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Underperform’ and hiked the bank’s price target to $8 from $4. Tanner believes U.S. steel prices could rise as her research shows that domestic scrap steel prices might rise $30-$40 per ton next month due to stronger demand. Due to that belief and the fact that the company is focused on more premium products, Tanners hiked her 2017 EPS estimate to $0.90 from the previous $0.55. Among the funds we track, 32 funds owned $221.39 million worth of AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS)’s stock, which accounted for 26.60% of the float on June 30, versus 17 funds and $81.75 million, respectively, on March 31.

According to Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB) is reportedly considering alternatives such as paying bonuses in the form of stock or shares of a non-core unit in lieu of cash to boost its capital levels. Given that the company gave its workforce bonuses of 2.4 billion euros, or $2.6 billion dollars last year, of which 51% was paid out immediately, Deutsche Bank could potentially save around 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) if management enacted the move and this year’s bonuses are comparable to 2015’s. According to our data, 15 funds were long Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB) at the end of June, up by five funds from the previous quarter.

Disclosure: None