Why These Stocks Are Trading Higher on Monday?

Stocks kicked off with a bullish trend on Monday morning after the long Easter weekend. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are up by approximately 0.31% and 0.26%, respectively. Among the notable stocks which are rising today include Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALDR), Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), ADT Corp (NYSE:ADT) and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc (NYSE:HOT). Let’s dig deeper and see why these stocks are trading higher today.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 790 hedge funds and other 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 more details about our small-cap strategy).

Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALDR)’s stock has surged by 17% after the company announced top-line data of ALD403, its drug for migraine. According to Randall C. Schatzman, the CEO of ALDR, the company has met the primary and secondary endpoints of Phase 2b ALD403 drug trial. At the end of the fourth quarter, 17 funds we track at Insider Monkey were bullish on Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ALDR), down from 23 funds a quarter earlier, while the total value their positions decreased to $235.21 million from $241.59 million and totaled 16.30% of the company’s stock. Billionaire Steve Cohen‘s Point72 Asset Management reported ownership of 1.28 million shares of Alder BioPharmaceuticals in its last 13F filing.

On Monday morning, UBS assigned a “Buy” rating to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A), with a price target of $244,500 per share. According to the analyst, Berkshire Hathaway’s relatively sloppy performance was due to problems in insurance and railroads. UBS says that Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) has structural advantages which will help it grow its earnings. At the end of the fourth quarter, 75 investors from our database held shares of Berkshire Hathaway with a total value of $19.3 billion, versus  69 investors and $19.4 billion, respectively a quarter earlier. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, managed by Michael Larson, owns approximately 74 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway.

ADT Corp (NYSE:ADT) recently announced the end of its “Go Shop period” without any bidders. The security equipment and automation company is proceeding with the acquisition by Apollo Global Management related funds. Henceforth, ADT Corp (NYSE:ADT) is expected to go private if shareholders approve its acquisition next month. The stock was trading at $41.27 per share this morning. During the fourth quarter, the number of hedge funds having long positions in ADT increased to 24 from 22, while the total value of their holdings increased to $232.12 million from $210.5 million. Wallace Weitz’s Wallace R. Weitz & Co. reported ownership of approximately 1.2 million shares of the company as of the end of 2015.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc (NYSE:HOT) is up this morning amid a bidding competition for its acquisition between Chinese consortium and Marriott International. The Chinese Anbang consortium’s offer stands at $82.75 per share all-cash, which dwarfs the bid by Marriot, which is valued at $79.53 per share. As of the end of December, 52 funds from our database hold shares of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, with a total value of $3.2 billion, which represented around 28% of the company’s outstanding stock. Among these funds, John Paulson of Paulson & Co reported ownership of approximately 1.1 million shares of the company.

Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE)’s stock has gained 14%, as a quick comeback after it closed on Thursday at a 15-year low. The company has announced a temporary suspension of stock contributions to the retirement saving plans, which will continue until the company is done with the financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. So far, Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE)’s shares have plummeted by 73% year-to-date. At the end of 2015, 50 funds that we track held shares of Sunedison, significantly down from 73 funds a quarter earlier. The total value of their positions also declined to $512.3 million from from approximately $1.0 billion. In this way, the funds from our database own around 31.80% of Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE)’s outstanding stock as of the end of 2015. Among them, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital owns approximately 18 million shares of the company.

Disclosure: none