Here’s Why Alphabet Inc (GOOG), Vale SA (ADR) (VALE) & Three Other Stocks Are Among Trending Names on Wednesday

All three main indexes are in the green this morning as investors await the Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to raise the interest rates or not. Among the stocks capturing some attention from traders today are several resource companies, one generic manufacturer, and one major tech giant.

In this article, let’s find out why investors are buzzing about Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE), Allergan plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:AGN), InterOil Corporation (USA) (NYSE:IOC), and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) and see what the smart money investors from our database think about each stock.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 740 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).

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is trending today after the company launched Allo, a new messaging app for both iOS and Andriod which ‘can help you make plans, find information, and express yourself more easily in chat’. In Allo, users will also be introduced to a preview edition of Google Assistant, which customers can use for different tasks. Although Alphabet might have missed the boat with social media and not buying WhatsApp or Instagram, many investors believe there is an opportunity for the tech giant to gain more market share in the crucial messaging app sector (which just eclipsed social networks in terms of users) with the emergence of AI and chatbots. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global reported a stake of 841,255 class C shares of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and another position containing some 1.79 million class A shares held as of the end of June.

Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) shares have gained over 5% after Barclays upgraded its rating on the iron ore producer to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Underweight’. However, the investment bank maintained its $4 price target on the stock. Vale might need China’s economy to strengthen a bit before the company can fundamentally go full steam ahead again. The number of funds from our database with holdings in Vale SA (ADR) (NYSE:VALE) fell by two quarter-over-quarter to 24 at the end of June.

On the next page, we find out why investors are buzzing about Allergan, InterOil Corporation, and Exxon Mobil Corporation.

Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) is again in the headlines after agreeing to purchase Akarna Therapeutics, this time for $50 million in cash and various success-based sales, regulatory, and development milestones. Akarna’s lead drug candidate, AKN-083, is a potential treatment for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Allergan previously paid a massive premium (of a sum up to $1.695 billion) to buy Tobira Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:TBRA), which also showed promising potential in terms of R&D for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and other liver diseases. With the increasing occurrence of obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases among the populace, Allergan’s management expects NASH to become one of the next “epidemic-level chronic diseases” over the coming years and they are reacting accordingly. Allergan plc (NYSE:AGN) was one of the smart money’s favorite stocks in the second quarter, with 131 out of around 750 funds tracked by Insider Monkey reporting stakes as of June 30.

Last but not least, InterOil Corporation (USA) (NYSE:IOC) founder Phil Mulacek has given up on his opposition to Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM)‘s purchase of the company he created. Mulacek had been opposed to the purchase because he thought InterOil’s board could have extracted better terms. According to Bloomberg, Exxon may have been willing to pay a substantially higher price back when Mulacek was the CEO in 2013 (of around 3x the final number). Given the lower crude and LNG prices, the lower final price is totally understandable, however. Mulacek said:

“They’ll win the vote. We’re dissenting. I was there when Exxon was offering a lot more. That was a very fair and equitable deal for both companies.”

According to our records, 22 funds had a bullish position in InterOil Corporation (USA) (NYSE:IOC) and 60 investors were long Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) at the end of June.

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