Why These Stocks Are Trading In Red Today

The US Stock Market is quite flattish on Monday, with major indexes posting small gains. However, a few stocks like Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P), MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD), Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL), Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) and Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:PTLA) have plunged in today’s session. So, let’s take a look at the events behind these substantial declines and see what the funds in our database think about these companies.

At Insider Monkey, we track more than 785 hedge funds, whose 13F filings we analyze as part of our small-cap strategy. Our research has shown that imitating a portfolio that includes the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds can outperform the market by as much as 95 basis points per month on average (see more details here).

Let’s start with Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P), which is down approximately 9.7% on Monday’s early afternoon, after the company announced a management team reshuffle as buyout rumors mount – exacerbated by the addition of media executive Anthony J. Vinciquerra  to the company’s Board. Former CEO Brian McAndrews was replaced by founder Tim Westergren, effective immediately; in addition, Mike Herring was appointed President and CFO, Sara Clemens was named COO, and Chris Philips, Chief Product Officer.

Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) has gained traction in the hedge fund world recently. Over the fourth quarter of 2015, the number of funds in our database long the stock rose by 33% to 48. These firms held more than 35% of the company’s total shares. The largest stake is held by Ricky Sandler’s Eminence Capital, which last declared owning 10.74 million shares of the company.

Next up is MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD), whose stock is down by roughly 20% as short interest continues to rise (it now stands around 44% of the float) and a class action filed on behalf of investors who lost money on the stock due to false and misleading statements from the company looms. However, no particular events seem to be driving Monday’s losses.

Among the funds that we track, 11 were long MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD) at the end of the fourth quarter. While hedge fund support was not overly high, several funds became very bullish, including D E Shaw, which reported a position of 1.06 million shares in its last 13F filing, up by more than 6,000% quarter-over-quarter.