Thursday’s Top Trending Tickers: MSFT, VOD, LB, BMRN, GLW

The U.S stock market is green across the board as positive reigns ahead of crucial jobs data to be announced tomorrow. Some of the stocks that investors are monitoring closely today include BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN), L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB), Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD). Let’s find out why investors’ interest has been piqued and see what the collection of elite hedge funds in our system think of these companies.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors allocate significant resources while making their bets and their long-term focus makes them the perfect investors to emulate. This is supported by our research, which determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see more details here).

Roche Considering Acquisition of BioMarin Pharmaceutical

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) shares have skyrocketed by just under 8% this morning after a report published on Betaville claimed that Swiss healthcare giant Roche Holding AG is considering the acquisition of the California-based rare disease drug company. The source said that Roche was “quite close” to making a formal bid to acquire Biomarin, but that the Brexit referendum’s aftermath temporarily tarnished the plan. The report claimed that Roche is expected to offer around $130-to-$150 per share to BioMarin should it proceed with its takeover plans.

A total of 44 hedge funds in our database were shareholders of BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) at the end of the first quarter. Julian Baker and Felix Baker’s Baker Bros. Advisors had amassed about 4.81 million shares of the company as of the end of March.

L Brands Sales Rose in June

L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB) is in the spotlight this morning after the company reported a rise in same-store sales for the month of June. The Ohio-based personal care and beauty products company reported a 6% jump in comparable-store sales, dwarfing the consensus estimate of a 2.1% rise. However, the company expects sales to decline in July, which has put a damper on the strong June results. Shares of L Brands have slipped by 0.86% in morning trading. As of March 31, Alex Snow’s Lansdowne Partners owned around 8.59 million shares of L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB).

On the next page we’ll discuss the movement witnessed in the shares of Corning, Microsoft and Vodafone this morning.

Goldman Sachs Upgrades Corning Incorporated

Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW)’s stock has gained just under 2% in early Thursday trading after investment firm Goldman Sachs upgraded the company to ‘Conviction Buy’. The firm is bullish on the glass and ceramics manufacturer due to a positive outlook of the overall glass industry. At the end of the first quarter of 2016, 31 funds in our database of 766 actively-reporting funds were bullish on Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW). Among them was John A. Levin’s Levin Capital Strategies, which owned approximately 13.26 million shares of the company.

Microsoft’s Cloud and Business Services Under One Platform

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is making headlines today after it announced that it will combine its CRM and ERP cloud products into a single bundle called Microsoft Dynamics 365. The bundle, which is due to be launched this fall, will package apps for sales, enterprise, finance and customer service, allowing companies to use Microsoft’s personal assistant Cortana, as well as other business intelligence and customer service tools through one platform. It is yet another effort by the company to revitalize its Cloud and enterprise business. Microsoft’s stock is up by 0.27% in morning trading.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) was one of the most popular stocks among the funds tracked by Insider Monkey as of March 31. 144 hedge funds were bullish on the company, including Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Capital, which held 56.62 million Microsoft shares on that date.

Goldman Sachs Assigns GBX 260 Price Target to Vodafone

Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD)’s stock has gained 0.37% this morning after shares of the company were given a GBX 260 ($3.45) price target by investment firm Goldman Sachs, which has a ‘Neutral’ rating on the mobile communications company. Last week, JPMorgan boosted its price target for Vodafone to GBX 300 ($3.99) from GBX 280 ($3.72) and has an ‘Overweight’ rating on the stock. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital is one of the 21 hedge funds in our system which have stakes in Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD) as of the end of the first quarter.

Disclosure: None