Tuesday’s Top Trending Tickers: TWTR, VSLR, BIDU, C, LBIX

It’s been a pretty quiet morning on Wall Street so far, as all three indexes are pretty much flat. The Dow is off by 36 points, the S&P 500 is up by 0.06% and the Nasdaq is 0.26% higher. Among the stocks showing more volatility than most today are Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Vivint Solar Inc (NYSE:VSLR), Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), and Leading Brands, Inc (USA) (NASDAQ:LBIX). Let’s find out why traders are buying and selling these equities and see what the smart money in our database thinks of each stock.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 765 hedge funds and 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 the details here).

Twitter Rises for the Second Day After Big Deal in Social Media Space

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) shares have surged by 4.6% in morning trading a day after Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) agreed to buy LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) for $26.2 billion in cash. Given that LinkedIn is a social media company, some traders speculate that Twitter could make for an attractive target as well. Although Twitter has struggled to turn a profit and monetize its audience, the company has hundreds of millions of users and could potentially be profitable if a company with the right plan and resources buys it. Any Twitter buyout is just speculation at this point however. 27 funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) at the end of March, down by three funds from the end of the previous quarter.

Vivint Solar Looks For Financing

Vivint Solar Inc (NYSE:VSLR) is in the green today after Bloomberg published an article reporting that the solar company is seeking growth financing of around $300 million. The financing will help Vivint achieve its April guidance of installing 260 MW for the year and help convince investors that the company can survive in the post-SunEdison world. Nine top funds in our system had a long position in Vivint Solar Inc (NYSE:VSLR) at the end of March, down from ten at the end of December.

On the next page we examine why Baidu, Citigroup, and Leading Brands are trending today.
Technical Buying Detected At Baidu 

Chinese search giant Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) is 2% higher today due to technical buying after the stock approached the $160 support level. Shares of Baidu previously trended lower due to increased government scrutiny over its healthcare ads. The increased scrutiny caused Baidu to revise its revenue guidance for the second quarter to RMB18.1 billion-to-RMB18.2 billion, or USD$2.807 billion-to-USD$2.823 billion, versus the previous range of USD$3.119 billion-to-USD$3.192 billion. Although Baidu shares have rebounded, it is unclear whether the $160 level will hold in the long term if the Chinese government does not reverse its stance against the company, which has forced it to have to cancel some of its ads contracts with certain companies. Hopefully for Baidu bulls, management can fix their healthcare ad vetting system, get on the government’s good side, and increase profits again. 72 funds in our database were long Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) as of the most recent 13F reporting period, up by 17 funds quarter-over-quarter.

Citigroup Lower On Potential Brexit 

Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) is off by 1.3% this morning as investors continue to worry about the potential implications of a Brexit. Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) is more international than its peers and would suffer more if a Brexit caused an unexpected shock in Europe or other emerging markets’ financial systems. In other news, Citigroup may need up to three months to sell its Brazilian retail segment. 101 funds that we track owned shares of Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) at the end of the first quarter.

Nano-cap Surges on Earnings 

Nano-cap Leading Brands, Inc (USA) (NASDAQ:LBIX) has surged by more than 50% after the company reported net income of CAD$0.10 per share (or USD$0.08), a big improvement from a loss of CAD$0.15 (USD$0.12) in the same quarter of fiscal year 2015. The positive swing was due to cost savings, a gain due to a long-unused internet domain, and other activities. None of the 766 active funds in our database held shares of Leading Brands, Inc (USA) (NASDAQ:LBIX) at the end of March. As with all nano-caps, investors should exercise due-diligence before buying or selling shares.

Disclosure: None