Why Costco, Wells Fargo, Petrobras, Cabelas, and More Are Making Headlines

Traders are watching Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) today after Reuters reported that the Federação Única dos Petroleiros union, Brazil’s largest oil workers union, rejected a labor contract offer from Petrobras on Thursday. If the two sides do not find some common ground, the labor union could potentially go on strike. Petrobras’ management is caught between a rock and a hard place, due to the desire to cut costs as much as possible in light of the company’s massive debt load, while coming up against the needs of its workers in country, which is witnessing rapid inflation. 23 funds in our system had a long position in Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) at the end of June, unchanged from the end of the March quarter.

Although he has said that he won’t comment on Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) until after the election, the Oracle of Omaha made an exception on Thursday. In response to CNBC’s Becky Quick, Warren Buffett said that he had spoken to CEO John Stumpf for five minutes and told him that “the problem was bigger than he thought.” Buffett’s spokesperson also added that recent rumors claiming that he expressed “extreme dissatisfaction” to the bank’s Board of Directors regarding the false accounts scandal were false. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owned 480 million shares in Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) on June 30.

Wrapping up our coverage of some of the morning’s top trending stocks, we come to Cabelas Inc (NYSE:CAB), which is currently the target of two different groups of bidders. According to Reuters, two different groups have emerged to potentially make binding acquisition offers for the company. The first is the usual suspect, Bass Pro Shops, along with Goldman Sach’s private equity division, while some other banks have interest in Cabelas’ credit card segment. The second is private equity firm Sycamore Partners, which has partnered up with Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF). According to Reuters, the deadline for binding bids is this week. 27 funds in Insider Monkey’s database owned almost one-fifth of Cabelas Inc (NYSE:CAB)’s float as of the most recent 13F reporting period.

Disclosure: None