Why Investors Are Buzzing About Yum, Twitter, GM, RetailMeNot, and Array Biopharma Today

It’s a red day on Wall Street, as all three major indexes are lower. The Dow is off by over 130 points, the S&P 500 has fallen by 0.6%, and the Nasdaq index is 0.7% under Friday’s close.

Among the stocks that are grabbing traders’ attention and making headlines today are Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM), Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), RetailMeNot Inc (NASDAQ:SALE), and Array Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:ARRY). Let’s examine the catalysts associated with each stock’s move and see how the smart money is positioned in them.

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Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) is in the spotlight after its management raised the company’s quarterly dividend payment by 10.9% to $0.51 per share, giving the restaurant chain a forward yield of around 2.25%. In addition, Yum’s Board has also officially given its go-ahead to separate the company’s valuable China business, which is expected to occur after the market close on October 31. Stephen Mandel‘s Lone Pine Capital upped its stake in Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) by 560% in the second quarter to just under ten million shares.

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is off by 3% after analysts at Oppenhemier downgraded the stock to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Perform’, and set a price target of just $17 per share on it, well beneath the stock’s current price of nearly $22. Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein thinks that a potential acquirer, which most likely will be a media company, would likely not pay as much as the market thinks due to Twitter’s slow user growth, its declining user engagement metrics, and its poor product implementation. Given that cash-rich companies such as Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) are rumored to be interested, it remains to be seen whether Helfstein’s prediction will pan out. Of the 749 hedge funds that we track which filed 13Fs for the June quarter, 30 of them were long Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) at the end of the second quarter, up by three funds from the end of the first quarter.

On the next page, we’ll examine why General Motors, RetailMeNot, and Array Biopharma are commanding the spotlight this afternoon.

Traders are talking about General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) today after the company offered a buyout to 400, or 43%, of its 925 Cadillac dealers. Under the terms, GM will provide up to $180,000 in transition assistance for each of the dealers, many of which were unwilling to invest the capital necessary to better their dealerships to sell more Cadillacs. GM is offering the buyouts to restructure Cadillac’s brand to better compete against other luxury brand automakers. 65 funds in our database were long General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) at the end of the second quarter.

RetailMeNot Inc (NASDAQ:SALE) shares have crumbled by nearly 22% after Stifel Nicolaus downgraded the stock to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’, citing third-party data that shows RetailMeNot’s traffic trends deteriorating. Due to that data, the analysts are uncertain about the company’s growth outlook and have a $9 price target on the stock, which it has fallen under today. The number of funds in our system with holdings in RetailMeNot Inc (NASDAQ:SALE) rose by two during the second quarter to 17 at the end of June.

Array Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:ARRY) has surged by over 63% after a Phase 3 study of encorafenib plus binimetinib for BRAF-mutant melanoma met its primary endpoint of significantly improving progression-free survival compared to vemurafenib alone. In addition, the drug cocktail was generally well tolerated and the safety profile was consistent overall with prior clinical trial results. Due to the results, Array’s management has said that global regulatory submissions are planned for 2017. The smart money liked Array Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:ARRY) in the second quarter, as 17 funds that we follow were long 42.60% of the biotech’s float on June 30.

Disclosure: None