Trending Stocks: Chesapeake, Northstar Realty, Twitter, Reynolds American, and More

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is in the spotlight after Reuters reported that the company may need to cut costs substantially if it fails to find an acquirer; and seeing as how many prominent companies have shown a lack of interest in acquiring Twitter, it doesn’t look likely that it will be sold any time soon. In terms of how much Twitter can cut, analyst Robert Peck of SunTrust estimates that the company could potentially cut 10% of its workforce and save around $100 million annually. If Twitter’s management doesn’t cut costs, the company could be a potential target for activists. The number of funds in our system with holdings in Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) rose by three during the second quarter to 30 at the end of June.

Two tobacco companies are trending after British American Tobacco PLC (ADR) (NYSEMKT:BTI) made a non-binding proposal to buy the 58% of Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI) shares that it does not currently own. According to the proposal terms, British American Tobacco will pay $56.50 per share, of which $24.13 would be in cash and $32.37 would be in British American shares. British American’s management expects the deal, if approved, to be accretive to earnings in the first full year and to also be accretive to dividends per share. The combination of the two would create the world’s largest listed tobacco company by net turnover and operating profit. Reynolds American, whose shares are up by 16% today on the news, has said that its board of directors will evaluate the offer and respond accordingly.

According to our data, 40 funds that we track were long Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI) at the end of June, while 15 were shareholders of British American Tobacco PLC (ADR) (NYSEMKT:BTI).

Disclosure: None