Why These Five Stocks Are in Spotlight

All three major US indices closed higher yesterday as traders have been worrying less about the Brexit and focus on more positive macro-economic data instead.

Among the stocks that have been in the spotlight in the last couple of days are Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE), General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS), Monsanto Company (NYSE:MON), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT), and JD.Com Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD). Let’s take a closer look at the events that put these stocks in the spotlight and the hedge fund sentiment towards them.

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Galena Drops on Study Discontinuation

Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE) shares closed over 80% lower yesterday and are losing ground in the pre-market on Thursday after the company discontinued its Phase 3 PRESENT clinical trial assessing NeuVax for the potential prevention of the recurrence of early stage, node-positive breast cancer with low to intermediate HER2 Expression on the recommendation of an independent data monitoring committee. The committee recommended the discontinuation ‘due to futility’ or lack of efficacy. Five funds from our database owned $2.59 million worth of Galena Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ:GALE)’s stock, which accounted for 1.10% of the float on March 31, versus four funds and $2.51 million, respectively, a quarter earlier.

General Mills Reports Earnings

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) has reported better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter, with EPS of $0.66 on revenue of $3.93 billion, beating the consensus by $0.06 per share and $70 million respectively. Although sales dropped 8.6% year-over-year, net revenue fell only 1% in terms of constant currency. Guidance isn’t bad, with management expecting fiscal year 2017 organic net sales to be flat to down 2%, and for FY 2017 adjusted EPS to rise by 6% to 8% on a constant currency basis. Among the funds we track, 25 funds were long General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) at the end of the first quarter, down by one from the previous quarter.

On the next page, we examine Monsanto Company, Wal-Mart Stores, and JD.Com Inc (ADR).