Why Alphabet, WhiteWave, Chemours, and More Are Making Headlines

The markets are showing strong signs in early Thursday trading, as all three major indexes are up by at least 0.32% this morning. Among the stocks that are making headlines today are Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV), Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC), Chemours Co (NYSE:CC), and E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD). Let’s take a closer look at what has investors ruminating on these stocks this morning and see how the elite funds tracked by Insider Monkey are positioned.

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Alphabet Not Giving Up on Devices

Although it makes the majority of its profit and cash flow from search, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) isn’t giving up on hardware devices. According to the Android Police, Alphabet is building two Android Wear smartwatches, with the code names Angelfish and Swordfish. The smartwatches will heavily feature Google’s AI assistant technology as a differentiating trait and the two products are expected to launch when Alphabet launches its newest Nexus smartphone. Of the 766 elite funds that we track, 155 investors had long positions in Alphabet’s class A shares, owning $14.98 billion worth of those shares, while 142 were long Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s class C shares, with those holdings valued at $14.90 billion.

WhiteWave Rises on Buyout

WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV) shares are up by over 18% in morning trading after the world’s largest yogurt company, Danone, agreed to purchase WhiteWave for $56.25 per share in cash. The deal has a total value of around $12.5 billion when including debt. Shares of the company had rallied by over 21% year-to-date before the buyout. 32 funds in our system were poised to cash in on the deal, owning shares of WhiteWave Foods Co (NYSE:WWAV) at the end of March, up by six funds from the end of the previous quarter.

On the next page we’ll look into why Western Digital, Chemours, and Du Pont are trending on Thursday. 

Guidance Lifts Western Digital

Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC) has surged by over 5% in morning trading after the hard-drive maker released positive preliminary financial results for its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016 ended July 1. Thanks to its ownership of SanDisk Corp, Western Digital now expects fiscal fourth quarter revenue to come in at $3.46 billion, topping the previous guidance range of $3.35 billion-to-$3.45 billion. Adjusted EPS is expected to be $0.72, also besting the prior guidance range of $0.65-to-$0.70. In addition to the positive updated guidance numbers, Western Digital announced that Mark Long will replace Olivier Leonetti as the company’s CFO beginning in September. 42 funds in our database owned shares of Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC) at the end of March, up by five funds from the end of 2015.

Lawsuit Ruling Causes Traders to Exit Chemours Positions

Chemours Co (NYSE:CC) shares plunged by more than 22% yesterday after an Ohio jury found E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD) liable for a person’s testicular cancer, with the ruling claiming that the disease was potentially caused in part due to toxic chemicals released by Du Pont into the region’s waters. Although Du Pont is technically liable, Chemours will bear the financial penalty from the case because it was the division in question that did the polluting. Chemours was spun off from DuPont in 2015. The jury awarded the plaintiff $5.1 million in associated damages and could potentially award even more in punitive damages. Traders fear that the trial damages could lead to similar defeats in other trials involving similar circumstances. Shares of Chemours have nonetheless rebounded by 10% this morning and are up by 22% year-to-date. The number of elite funds with Chemours Co (NYSE:CC) holdings rose by eight quarter-over-quarter to 30 as of March 31, while 32 funds were long E I Du Pont De Nemours And Co (NYSE:DD).

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