Why GE, Yahoo, and 3 Other Stocks Are Trending This Morning

The markets are in the green ahead of Tuesday’s opening bell, with the S&P, Nasdaq, and Dow futures are all in positive territory, as are crude futures. Among the stocks traders are buzzing about early this morning are Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT), and Zillow Group, Inc.- Class C (NASDAQ:Z). Let’s dig in to the news surrounding these stocks this morning and see how elite funds are positioned in them.

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).

Verizon Plans Bid for Yahoo’s Internet Assets

According to the Wall Street Journal, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) plans to make a second-round bid of around $3 billion for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)‘s core internet assets, not including patents and real estate. Yahoo has said previously that it could sell the patents and real estate assets for $1 billion or more. Verizon acquired AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion and would realize substantial synergies if it combined Yahoo’s core internet properties with AOL. News of the $3 billion non-patent real estate bid deals a blow to speculation that Yahoo’s core internet assets won’t fetch between $4 billion and $8 billion, as earlier reported. In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported that private equity firm TPG is also expected to submit a second-round bid. It is unclear whether other bidders in the first round will participate in the second round.

Of the 766 elite funds in Insider Monkey’s database, 97 owned Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) on March 31, while 61 were long Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ).

General Electric Trims Its Energy Workforce

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is in the news after the conglomerate told Texas regulators that it was cutting an additional 362 oil service jobs at three of its Lufkin facilities. General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) bought Lufkin Industries for around $3.3 billion in 2013 as a way to gain more exposure to the energy industry. Unfortunately crude prices crashed beginning in late 2014 and the industry has been in a lower-for-longer environment ever since. General Electric has already cut around 600 jobs at the unit. Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway owned 10.59 million General Electric shares at the end of the first quarter.

On the next page we examine why Sarepta Therapeutics and Zillow Group and making waves today.
Sarepta Therapeutics Rallies After FDA Requests Dystrophin Data

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT) is 36% higher in pre-market trading after the FDA requested that the company provide dystrophin data from biopsies obtained thus far from the company’s continuing confirmatory study of eteplirsen, as part of the agency’s ongoing evaluation of the NDA for the treatment. Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT) plans to submit the requested data to the FDA over the next few weeks. Eteplirsen is Sarepta’s lead candidate for the potential treatment of duchenne muscular dystrophy. Sarepta’s stock has swung wildly up and down based on several perceived negative and positive events over the FDA’s potential decision regarding the drug. Sarepta shares are up in the pre-market today because traders perceive the FDA requesting more data as an indication that the probability of an approval might be better than the market previously expected.

Zillow Settles Litigation

Zillow Group, Inc.- Class C (NASDAQ:Z) shares are more than 10% higher in the pre-market after the company settled litigation started by Move Inc and several other parties for around $130 million. Move Inc had previously sued for $2 billion in damages because Zillow hired two former top Move executives, which might have been construed as trade secret theft. Zillow’s stock is up because the settlement doesn’t include any admission of liability or wrongdoing and might save the company money in the long run due to less legal fees. The number of elite funds in our database invested in Zillow Group, Inc.- Class C (NASDAQ:Z) fell by one quarter-over-quarter to 21 as of the end of the first quarter.

Disclosure: None