Why Twitter, Yahoo, Illumina, and Two Other Stocks Are Trending on Tuesday

Traders are focused on the API report today as the market awaits new catalysts to send prices moving again.

Among the securities that traders are also watching are several major tech companies and one life sciences company, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ). Let’s find out why investors are talking about the five stocks and use data from 13F filings to determine the hedge fund sentiment toward each stock.

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Although many traders gave up on the possibility of a Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) buyout as shares of the company fell 11.5% on Monday to below $18 a piece, there may still be some chance of a bid. According to Reuters, salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) is ‘still deliberating whether it should make an offer’ for the social media company. According to Reuters’ sources, Salesforce management is debating as to whether it should make a ‘lowball’ offer in light of Twitter’s lower price and the lack of other bidders. Given the lack of apparent synergies between the two companies, many of Salesforce’s major shareholders are against the acquisition. However, Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benioff has never really followed conventional wisdom. If there is a bid, the bid might be too low for Twitter to accept or it might just be enough to satisfy both companies’ shareholders. Of the 749 funds that we track, 30 were long Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and 60 funds held shares of salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) at the end of June.

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) shares have fallen by over 24% after the company reported preliminary revenue for its third quarter of fiscal 2016. For the three months, Illumina estimates its sales at $607 million, or considerably lower than management’s previous guidance of between $625 million and $630 million. According to the company, the shortfall was driven by a larger than anticipated year-over-year decline in high throughput sequencing instruments. Due to lower demand, the company expects its fourth quarter sales to be flat to slightly up sequentially. Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management raised its stake in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) by 19% to 572,623 shares during the second quarter.

On the next page, we will examine Yahoo, and Verizon Communications.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) may not be trying to knock off $1 billion from the purchase price of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) after all. In direct contrast to a past New York Post report, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said at a conference in Menlo Park:

“That [Post report] is just total speculation — we still see a real value to the asset there. But in fairness, we’re still understanding what was going on, to define whether it’s a material impact to the business or not. But the industrial logic of doing this merger still makes a lot of sense … I’m hoping we can get through all this stuff and get to the close [of the purchase].”

In addition, McAdam also said he understood that the internet was a dangerous place and filled with entities with a lot of resources (such as state actors). Occasionally some of the entities are ‘going to land a punch’ and there will be a security breach. Given that McAdam wants the deal to close and has called the Post report speculation, it seems that Yahoo shareholders can breathe a sign of relief knowing that the worst case scenario of Verizon walking away is now much less likely. Among the funds in our database, 81 funds were bullish on Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and 52 funds held shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) at the end of the second quarter.

Disclosure: none