Why These Five Stocks Are in Spotlight Today?

The US stock market is mixed on Monday intraday trading, with Dow Jones in the red, dragged by the declines registered by Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) and Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX). Meanwhile, several stocks are making headlines today, including Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX), Depomed Inc (NASDAQ:DEPO), Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP), and JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD). This article takes a closer look at the events that surround these five stocks today and assesses the hedge fund sentiment towards each one of them.

At Insider Monkey, we follow around 800 smart money investors, whose 13F portfolios we analyze to determine how they collectively are trading thousands of stocks. By focusing on the small-cap space, we identify 15 stocks that we use as part of our investing strategy (see more details here).

The healthcare sector has been buzzing today on the back of M&A news. The New York Post reported that  Depomed Inc (NASDAQ:DEPO) and Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) may relaunch their merger plans. According to a The Post’s undisclosed sources, Horizon Pharma might relaunch its bid for Depomed, if the latter is forced to explore its sale. Activist Jeff Smith of Starboard Value accumulated a nearly 10% stake in Depomed Inc (NASDAQ:DEPO) and has launched a proxy fight in order to reshuffle the board and push for a transaction (see details). Last year, Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP) made a $3.0 billion offer to acquire Depomed Inc (NASDAQ:DEPO), but the bid was rejected. Aside from Starboard Value, Anders Hallberg and Carl Bennet’s HealthInvest Partners AB initiated a stake in Depomed during the first quarter and reported holding 200,000 shares in its last 13F filing. In Horizon Pharma PLC (NASDAQ:HZNP), Michael Hintze’s CQS Cayman LP initiated a stake containing 60,000 shares during the first quarter.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock was trading in the green territory for the largest part of the day, but is currently slightly down. Earlier today reports emerged that CEO Tim Cook plans a trip to China later this month. China has become one of Tim Cook’s more frequent destinations lately, but this trip caught media’s attention due to the timing. Apple has recently lost a trademark ruling in the country and its latest financial results disappointed investors with weakening iPhone sales. Recently, billionaire activist Carl Icahn said he sold out his fund’s position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) due to concerns regarding the company’s performance in China. On the other hand, billionaire Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management held 11.32 million shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at the end of March and will most probably be the largest shareholder among the funds we track (it was trailing Icahn Capital last quarter).

Let’s head to the next page, where we are going to take a closer look at the latest developments that put Freeport-McMoRan and JD.com in the spotlight today.

Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX) have plunged by over 10% after the company said it had agreed to sell its stake in the Democratic Republic of Congo-based copper mine Tenke Fungurume for $2.65 billion. The stake will be sold to China Molybdenum and will allow Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX) to repay some of its debt. Analysts consider the value of the deal to be fair, but investors became concerned over the company’s situation, since the mine was considered as one of Freeport’s most important copper assets. Icahn Capital was one of the largest shareholders of Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX) at the end of 2015, holding 104.0 million shares. So far in the current round of 13F filings, Murray Stahl‘s Horizon Asset Management reported holding 146,955 shares of the company.

JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD)’s stock has slid by around 7% so far today on the back of the company posting revenue of $8.27 billion for the first quarter, up by 47% on the year, but below the estimates of $8.33 billion. The company’s earnings of $0.02 per ADS were in line with estimates. For the current quarter, JD.com expects sales in the range of $9.85 billion to $10.16 billion. JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) remains affected by the slowdown in Chinese economy and, including today’s losses, the stock has lost 27% year-to-date. There were 78 investors from our database long JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) heading into 2015 and they held nearly 39% of the outstanding stock.

Disclosure: none