Amazon, Fitbit, and LinkedIn Among 5 Major Stocks Making Noise Today

Crude futures are down by 1.7% today and the major index futures are in the red after today’s jobless claims report showed 264,000 claims, on the lower end of the consensus estimate of 262,000-to-285,000. Although the claims were better than the mid-point of expectations, the market was evidently expecting something better nonetheless. Among the stocks that traders are buzzing about today are Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY), LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), and Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT). Let’s find out why each stock is in the spotlight and see how the smart money is positioned in each of them.

Our backtests that covered the period between 1999 and 2012, showed that following the 15 most popular small-caps among hedge funds can help a retail investor beat the market by an average of 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

Amazon.com Expands Its Offerings Internationally

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is in the spotlight today after unveiling a food delivery service in Britain. The service will offer around 130,000 groceries including thousands of fresh dairy, bakery, and produce items to select parts of London. The cost for the service will be an additional £6.99 monthly fee to Amazon Prime member for deliveries on orders of £40 or more.  The web giant hopes that its fresh-food delivery service will help it gain market share against established British supermarkets. Andreas Halvorsen‘s Viking Global owned more than 3.4 million shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) at the end of March.

Analyst Downgrades QUALCOMM 

QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) is 1% lower this morning after analysts at Brean Capital lowered their rating on the chip maker to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’. The analysts cite the trend towards more commoditized lower-price products in the smartphone sector that has caused pricing headwinds as one reason for the downgrade. Shares of QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) are up by 12% year-to-date and trade for 12-times forward earnings estimates. Of the 766 elite funds in Insider Monkey’s database, 59 held shares of the chipmaker at the end of the first quarter.

On the next page we examine why SYSCO Corporation, LinkedIn Corp, and Fitbit Inc are making noise today.

SYSCO Recieves Antitrust Approval from the EU for Purchase

SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY) is in the news after the European Union gave it the okay to buy Brakes Group. Brakes is a major European food-service distributor that did around $5 billion in sales during its previous fiscal year. SYSCO bought Brakes for $3.1 billion in February. Shares of SYSCO are up by 20% year-to-date and have been trading in a narrow range for the past month. According to our records, Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies was one of the top shareholders of SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY) as of the most recent 13F filing period.

Analyst Gives Thumbs Up to LinkedIn 

LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) is 2.80% higher this morning after analysts at RBC Capital upgraded the stock to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Sector Perform’. The analysts also raised their target price on it to $160 per share, citing the company’s strong position in the advertising and recruitment markets. Given LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD)’s retracement this year, the analysts also like the social media company’s “reasonably attractive” valuation. Of the funds that we track, 41 of them owned $1.39 billion in LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) shares on March 31, which accounted for 9.20% of the float.

Fitbit Receives Some Love From the Sell-Side

Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT) has opened 2% higher out of the gate this morning after analysts at Wedbush initiated coverage on the wearable tech company with an ‘Outperform’ rating and $18 price target. The analysts like the growth opportunities available to the company through signing up more corporate wellness programs. With shares of the company down by over 50% year-to-date, they now trade for less than 10-times forward earnings estimates. The number of elite funds owning shares of Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT) increased to 30 from 27 quarter-over-quarter as of March 31.

Disclosure: None