Four Stocks Trending on M&A Deals; Which Ones You Should Follow Hedge Funds Into?

Meanwhile, Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) and Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) are also in the limelight today as the firms’ shares edged lower on news that they will be divesting more business units to help move their proposed merger forward, particularly to get approval from antitrust authorities. The companies said that they plan to sell Halliburton’s expandable hangers business and Baker Hughes’ core completions business, sand control business in the Gulf of Mexico, and offshore cementing businesses in Australia, Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, Norway and the United Kingdom. Previously, Halliburton announced that it would sell its fixed cutter and roller cone drill bits, directional drilling, and logging while drilling and measurement while drilling units. The two firms said that the companies which are being sold produced $5.2 billion in revenues in 2013.

It should be noted, however, that hedge funds we track were bullish on both Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) and Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) during the second quarter. The number of hedge funds long Baker Hughes increased by six to 73, and the value of their holdings went up by 8.30% to $4.59 billion, despite an almost 3% decline of the stock. This brings hedge fund ownership to over 17% of Baker Hughes by June 30. At the end of the second quarter, Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Capital owned 23.25 million shares of Baker Hughes shares. Hedge funds liked Halliburton even more, as the number of investors in the company increased by nine in the second quarter to 69, while the total value of their holdings surged by 40.79% to $4.21 billion, despite a 1.85% decrease of the stock price. Hedge funds ended the second quarter owning 11.50% of all Halliburton shares. ValueAct was also Halliburton’s largest shareholder by the end of the second quarter, owning 37.52 million shares. ValueAct started amassing shares  of Halliburton in February to push for the merger with Baker Hughes.

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