Line Corp’s IPO, MGM’s Push Into Mobile Gaming Among the Biggest Finance Stories of the Day

The Dow Jones Index and the S&P 500 are in record territory this afternoon as traders bid up stocks on the back of solid earnings results from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). Among the stocks trending on Thursday are Line Corp (ADR) (NYSE:LN), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM), Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC), and Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C). Let’s take a closer look at why the five stocks are in the news and see what the smart money managers in our database think of each stock.

Our research, which determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor to beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

Line Corp Soars

Like many tech IPOs before it, Line Corp (ADR) (NYSE:LN) shares have surged out of the gate on its IPO day, rising by 26.98% to trade around $41.70 per share. Seeing as underwriters typically price offerings below expected market value to create buzz, Line Corp’s pop isn’t exactly surprising. If the messaging app, which has 218 million active users and reported $1 billion in gross sales last year, monetizes its user base well, however, the stock could be a good long-term holding. Given that the stock just had its initial public offering today, no funds that Insider Monkey tracks in its database of 766 elite funds rare known shareholders of Line Corp (ADR) (NYSE:LN) at this time.

Line IPO Validates Facebook’s WhatsApp Purchase

Line Corp’s successful IPO and over $7 billion valuation validates Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)‘s purchase of Whatsapp. Mark Zuckerberg and Co. famously bought the messaging app in 2014 for $22 billion, a price that seemed crazy given that Whatsapp made very little money at the time. Seeing as Whatsapp now has over 1 billion monthly users, or roughly four times as many as Line Corp, the price Facebook paid no longer looks as steep. Facebook dominates mobile messaging apps and it also has a promising growth market in virtual reality given its Oculus purchase. If the augmented reality game Pokemon Go can become a cultural phenomenon, virtual reality apps could be a hit too. Stephen Mandel‘s Lone Pine Capital owned 11.4 million shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) at the end of March.

On the next page, we’ll find out why MGM Resorts, Range Resources Corp, and Citigroup are in the spotlight today.