Why Wells Fargo, Gilead, Newfield, Amgen, and Chesapeake Energy Are Trending

All three indexes are in the green today after U.S. consumer confidence jumped to its highest figure in nine years during September. According to the Conference Board, the consumer confidence index inched up to 104.1 this month, up from 101.8 in August.

Among the stocks that are commanding attention from traders are several energy companies, two healthcare giants, and one bank. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC), Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD), Newfield Exploration Co. (NYSE:NFX), Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) and see what the smart money thinks of each stock.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 750 hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on, can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see the details here).

Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) is trending after the Wall Street Journal reported that the bank’s Board is considering implementing executive claw-backs that might result in pay cuts for CEO John Stumpf and former retail head Carrie Tolstedt. News of the clawbacks comes after various politicians on Capitol Hill specifically requested such action be taken. If the Board claws back the compensation for some of its executives, bulls hope that Wells Fargo’s shady sales tactics scandal will fade from the limelight and that its stock will bounce back. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns around 10% of Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC)’s shares as of June 30.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) shares are down by 2% after Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges lowered his rating on the stock to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ and also set a price target of $94 per share on it, down from the previous target of $112. Porges is bearish on Gilead’s Hep C business, as he thinks sales will “decline faster and farther” than what The Street estimates. Of the 749 hedge funds that we track which filed 13Fs for the latest reporting period, 85 of them were long Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) at the end of June, down by eight funds quarter-over-quarter.

On the next page we’ll find out why traders are talking about Newfield Exploration, Amgen, and Chesapeake Energy.