Tuesday’s Headline Makers: Ralph Lauren, Axiall, Godaddy, More

The markets remain bullish on Tuesday, as the S&P 500 has nearly risen to its all-time high. Investors are watching several stocks closely today, including Ralph Lauren Corp (NYSE:RL), Axiall Corp (NYSE:AXLL), United Natural Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNFI), Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB), and Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY). Let’s find out why these stocks are trending today and analyze hedge fund sentiment towards them.

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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Ralph Lauren to Cut Jobs, Close Stores  

Ralph Lauren Corp (NYSE:RL) has plunged by more than 6% this morning after the company said that it would cut jobs and close some of its stores during its Investor Day event today. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Ralph Lauren CEO Stefan Larsson said that the company will cut 1,000 jobs and close 50 stores. Ralph Lauren also announced that it expects to incur restructuring charges of around $400 million in the 2017 fiscal year, which ends April 2. For the first quarter of that 2017 fiscal year, which is ongoing, the firm expects a revenue decline in the mid-single-digit range.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2016, 30 hedge funds in our database had stakes in Ralph Lauren Corp (NYSE:RL) worth approximately $405 million. Legg Mason Capital Management, now a part of ClearBridge, owns 762,316 shares of the company.

Lotte Chemical Submits Bid for Axiall Corp

Axiall Corp (NYSE:AXLL) shares have surged by nearly 10% this morning after a regulatory filing revealed that South Korea’s Lotte Chemical Corp has submitted a bid to acquire the Atlanta-based chemicals company. Axiall has rejected two unsolicited bids from Westlake Chemical Corporation (NYSE:WLK) so far this year, that were valued at $20 per share and $23.35 per share respectively.

Out of nearly 766 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 36 funds were bullish on Axiall Corp (NYSE:AXLL) as of the end of March. Carl Tiedemann and Michael Tiedemann‘s TIG Advisors owned more than 1.8 million shares of the company on March 31.

We’ll discuss why United Natural Foods, Biogen and GoDaddy are making headlines today on the next page.

United Natural Foods Beats Estimates

United Natural Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNFI) has pushed more than 13% into the green today after reporting better than expected third quarter of fiscal year 2016 results. The Providence, Rhode Island-based food company posted EPS of $0.76, easily topping analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.66. Revenue for the quarter came in at $2.13 billion, narrowly missing the consensus mark of $2.16 billion. For the full 2016 fiscal year the company expects its EPS to be in the range of $2.47 to $2.53, versus the estimates of $2.38. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management is one of the 61 hedge funds that had a stake in United Natural Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:UNFI) as of the end of March.

Biogen’s Drug Fails to Meet Endpoints

Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB)’s stock has plunged by more than 11% on Tuesday after the company announced that the Phase 2 study of its multiple sclerosis drug, Opicinumab, was unable to meet its primary and secondary endpoints. In a statement, Biogen’s Chief Medical Officer Alfred Sandrock, said that the company continues to analyze the results in preparation for the next study, due to the complexity of the dataset. 64 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey owned around $3.1 billion worth of Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB) shares as of the end of the first quarter.

Godaddy Downgraded by Citigroup

Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY) is in the spotlight today after Citigroup downgraded the company to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ in a research report issued to investors on Tuesday. The firm has a price target of $35 on shares of the Arizona-based web hosting company, suggesting upside of under 10%. Shares are down by 3% in morning trading following the downgrade. The Citi analysts cited a near-term slowdown in margin expansion and growth for the company as prompting the ratings downgrade. A total of 22 hedge funds in our system were long Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY), with the total worth of their investments clocking in at around $1.2 billion. Jim Davidson, Dave Roux and Glenn Hutchins’ Silver Lake Partners was the biggest of those 22 shareholders with more than 36.7 million shares of the company.

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