US stock futures pointed higher on Tuesday morning as investors await Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen’s testimony in the Senate.
Some important companies which are making headlines today are Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR). Let’s find out why these stocks are moving today and analyze the hedge funds sentiment towards them.
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William Ackman Releases a Video Against Herbalife
Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) is in the spotlight today after billionaire investor William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management released a video against the company on Monday showing its, what Ackman calls, “predatory recruiting practices”. Mr. Ackman says that this is the first of many videos to come against the global nutrition company. Pershing Square has previously published several examples of Herbalife’s top distributors’ aggressive tactics that allegedly mislead new recruits. U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently doing a probe into the practices of Herbalife. Herbalife has rejected the allegations by Mr. Ackman, who also made a huge short bet against the stock. Out of nearly 766 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 37 funds were bullish on Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) at the end of the first quarter. Vinit Bodas’ Deccan Value Advisors owns around 95.55 million shares of the company.
Tesla Motors May Start Production Factory in Shanghai
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) inched up in premarket trading today after a report published by Bloomberg claimed that the electric car maker is in talks with a Chinese investment firm for a joint venture in China to build a factory for local production in the country in a deal that may be worth around $9.0 billion. According to a person familiar with the matter, cited by Bloomberg, Tesla has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Jinqiao Group, a Shanghai government-owned company. The report quoted several analysts who think that this venture could make Tesla’s electric vehicles more competitive against its luxury brand rivals like BMW and Audi. As of the end of the first quarter 2016, 39 funds from our database hold long positions in Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), up from 29 funds a quarter earlier. Daniel Benton‘s Andor Capital Management owns 500,000 shares of the company.
On the next page, we will discuss the reasons of today’s moves by Boeing, Facebook and Murphy Oil Corporation.
