Why Valeant, Alibaba, Valspar, Starwood & MannKind Are All Up Today

Shares of The Valspar Corp (NYSE:VAL) are trading up by more than 24% on Monday afternoon, on news that Sherwin-Williams Co (NYSE:SHW) will acquire the company for $113 per share in cash, or $11.3 billion, including the assumption of debt. This price represents a 41% premium to Valspar’s volume weighted average price over the past 30 days.

Among the funds that we track, 15 held long stakes in The Valspar Corp (NYSE:VAL) at the end of the fourth quarter. Their stakes, valued at $670.5 million on December 31, represented roughly 10.2% of the company’s outstanding stock. The largest position was the one held by David Cohen and Harold Levy’s Iridian Asset Management, which disclosed ownership of 5.54 million shares on January 26, up from 4.8 million shares held on December 31.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc (NYSE:HOT) is another one of Monday’s gainers making a move on takeover news, as it is up by more than 4.1% after the company received an improved takeover offer from Marriott International Inc (NASDAQ:MAR), which had been previously outbid by a consortium of Chinese investors led by the Anbang Insurance Group. The new offer values the operator of the Sheraton chain at $13.6 billion. Under the terms of the latest deal, shareholders of Starwood would receive $21.00 in cash and 0.80 shares of Marriott International for each Starwood share they hold.

52 funds among the approximately 785 that we track were long Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc (NYSE:HOT) as of the end of the fourth quarter. Among them was John Paulson’s Paulson & Co, which disclosed ownership of 11.6 million shares, making it the largest investor of record to date.

Finally, there’s MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD), which is trading up by about 8% on Monday afternoon, continuing the recent rally for the stock. Over the past five trading days, shares of the company have gained more than 55%, while over the past month the stock has surged by almost 120%. Analysts have argued that the run-up has been mostly driven by investors’ excitement over the improved version of Afrezza, a potentially revolutionary diabetes treatment.

Among the funds that week keep track of, 11 were long MannKind Corporation (NASDAQ:MNKD) at the end of the fourth quarter. While hedge fund support was overly high, several funds were growing very bullish, including D E Shaw, which held a position of 1.06 million shares, up by more than 6,000%.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article.