Why These Five Stocks Are Trending Today?

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The US stock market plunged after the bell on the back of April nonfarm payrolls data, which showed that 160,000 jobs were created last month, versus 200,000 expected. However, after oil gained ground, the main indices recovered and are currently close to flat. Meanwhile, among the stocks that are making headlines today are Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA)Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)Medivation Inc (NASDAQ:MDVN), and Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY).  Let’s take a closer look at the events that put these stocks in the spotlight on Friday and see how the smart money investors have been trading them.

At Insider Monkey, we track almost 800 hedge funds and other institutional investors and every quarter we analyze their equity portfolio to see which stocks they are collectively bullish on. By focusing on the small-cap space, we determine stocks that enjoy most support and use them in our small-cap strategy (see more details here).

Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)’s stock is among big gainers today, having appreciated by over 11% on the back of the company’s announcement that it had advanced its talks with the US Federal Trade Commission and could face a $200 million payment if the investigation ends in a settlement. The FTC has been investigating Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)’s marketing practices, which involve independent distributors to sell its products. The company also posted its financial results for the first quarter yesterday and managed to beat the estimates with EPS of $1.36 on revenue of $1.12 billion, compared to expectations of $1.09 and $1.07 billion respectively. The news probably has probably disappointed Bill Ackman, who in 2012 made a $1.0 billion bet against Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) and tried to convince investors that the company is engaged in illegal operations. On the other hand, 31 other funds from our database were bullish on Herbalife at the end of 2015, including Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital, which owned 17.0 million shares.

Follow Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF)

On the other hand, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA)’s stock has declined by over 3% after the company announced a secondary offering of 15.0 million shares by affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. The offering also includes 1.50 million shares as over-allotment options. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) will not gain any proceeds from the offering. Heading into 2016, 78 funds among those tracked by Insider Monkey held around 7.40% of Walgreens Boots Alliance’s stock.

Follow Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA)

On the next page, we are going to take a closer look at the latest developments surrounding Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), and Medivation Inc (NASDAQ:MDVN), and Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY), which have been in the news lately in connection with a possible M&A deal.

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