Twitter, Ionis, Biogen, and More: Here’s Why These Five Stocks Are Making Headlines

Wall Street is in bull mode today as the Dow Jones index is up by over 250 points, and the Nasdaq and S&P are each more than 1.7% in the green. Given that the FBI cleared Hillary Clinton over the email matter, many traders evidently think the odds of a Clinton Presidency are now higher.

Among the stocks that are in the green today are Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB), and Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IONS). Let’s take a closer look at why the five stocks are moving higher and analyze hedge fund sentiment towards each of 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).

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Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is 3% in the green after rumors resurfaced that the company could still sell itself. According to Betaville editor Ben Harrington, although his information is “very much speculation”, his sources say that the likes of Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) and others have put forth offers in the low $20’s in terms of feelers. Given that AT&T recently agreed to buy Time Warner, it’s not surprising that there are rumors that another media company might take a second look at Twitter.

According to our database of 749 funds which filed 13Fs for the June quarter, 30 were long Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) at the end of June, while 44 owned stakes in Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS).

Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) shares are up by 0.7% after Will Green of Stephens hiked his price target on the stock to $225 from $205 per share and reiterated his ‘Overweight’ rating on them. Green believes Pioneer has one of the best balance sheets among E&Ps in the Permian and that the company has the inventory to power its long-term growth goals. Green also likes how Pioneer has hedged some of its production to reduce risk. 74 funds in our database owned $3.56 billion worth of Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) shares on June 30, which accounted for 14.40% of the float.

On the next page, we’ll find out why traders are piling into Biogen and Ionis Pharmaceuticals today.