Here’s Why These 5 Stocks Are Trending Today

Shares of food processor ConAgra Foods Inc (NYSE:CAG) have rallied by 1.23% in morning trading on the back of solid third quarter of fiscal year 2016 earnings. For the quarter, the food producer reported a profit of $0.68 per share, exceeding estimates by $0.10 per share, along with net sales of $2.92 billion, which also beat expectations by $60 million. In further promising news, the company’s gross margins rose by 2.6 percentage points year-over-year to 27.4%. ConAgra’s commercial foods segment sales also jumped by 6% year-over-year to $1.07 billion. Furthermore, the company completed the divestment of its private label operations to TreeHouse Foods Inc. (NYSE:THS) during the quarter. Barry Rosenstein‘s JANA Partners was one of 36 elite shareholders of the stock at the end of 2015. That was slightly down from the 38 investors in our system who were shareholders of ConAgra Foods Inc (NYSE:CAG) on September 30.

In contrast to yesterday’s action, Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN) is almost 10% in the green after Telsey Advisory Group upgraded the stock to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’. Telsey believes that Wynn will achieve, at minimum, the bottom end of its management’s optimistic forecast. Wynn Resorts also announced that it plans to expand its operations in Las Vegas by developing the area behind its current resorts in the Strip. The new developments will offer more family friendly attractions such as white sand beaches, aquatic features, and fireworks shows. The number of elite shareholders of Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN) among investors in our database dropped to 30 from 34 quarter-over-quarter during the December quarter.

Every stock in today’s trending edition is in the green, as Lexmark International Inc (NYSE:LXK) shares are also 5% higher than yesterday’s close. Investors have been buying shares because Reuters reported that Lexmark could be acquired by a Chinese company named Apex Technology. Lexmark has been exploring strategic alternatives since October of last year and a sale would presumably come at a premium. Apex Technology executives will meet with Lexmark executives this month in the United States to try and work out an agreement. As with all potential M&A rumors or news, no deal is guaranteed. The number of elite funds long Lexmark International Inc (NYSE:LXK) stayed constant quarter-over-quarter at 21. Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management owned slightly over 1.00 million shares at the end of December.

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