These 5 Stocks Are Kicking Off The Week With A Bang

All three index futures are in the green today as traders remain optimistic about the U.S economy after Friday’s solid jobs report. Among the stocks traders are talking about to start the new week are Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX), Cliffs Natural Resources Inc (NYSE:CLF), and Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA). Let’s check out why each stock has traders buzzing this morning and examine how the elite funds tracked by Insider Monkey are positioned in them.

Our backtests that covered the period between 1999 and 2012, showed that following the 15 most popular small-caps among hedge funds can help a retail investor beat the market by an average of 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

Finding Dory Still Strong

Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS)‘s box office hits keep on coming as the ‘Finding Nemo’ sequel notched another $20.3 million at the box office this weekend to become the highest grossing animated film of all time in the U.S. Given the company’s wealth of blockbuster studio and franchise rights acquisitions, from Star Wars, to its Pixar studio, to its Marvel rights, it is safe to say that CEO Bob Iger certainly has the magic touch in terms of M&A. Disney will need its film division to remain strong to offset the secular decline at ESPN. The number of funds tracked by Insider Monkey with long positions in Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) fell by two quarter-over-quarter to 49 as of the end of March.

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) shares are down by just under 3% this morning after analysts at SunTrust downgraded the tech stock to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’. Among other things, the analysts don’t think an acquisition of Twitter is likely in 2016. Part of the reason for Twitter’s recent surge has been speculation that another company might acquire it, which was only grew after Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)‘s acquisition of LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD). Twitter shares have steadily risen since that announcement, gaining 25% over the past month. In the long-term, the SunTrust analysts are still optimistic about the social media company’s potential. They currently have an $18 price target on the stock, only slightly above its current price. 27 elite funds in our system were bullish on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) at the end of March.

On the next page we find out why Barrick Gold, Cliffs Natural Resources, and Alcoa Inc are in the spotlight today.