Facebook Inc (FB), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), & More: Here’s Why Investors Are Buzzing about These Stocks

All three indexes and crude futures are lower today as investors remain uncertain on the future direction of the market. On one hand, various members of the Fed have given conflicting views on the timing of interest rate hikes in the near term. On the other hand, the U.S. economy is strong, but global macro risks abound.

In this article, we take a closer look at why five stocks, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), are in the spotlight today. We will also see how the smart money investors from our database traded the stocks during the second quarter.

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).

Traders are talking about General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) after the company released data showing its new Bolt electric car potentially beating Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s Model 3 in terms of range. According to the specs, GM’s new Bolt goes 238 miles on a charge, while the Model 3 is expected to have a range of at least 215 miles. Both cars are expected to be around the same price range, at around $37,500 to appeal the the mass market. Tesla won’t release the Model 3 until next year. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owned 50 million shares of General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) at the end of the second quarter, unchanged from the previous quarter.

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF) is making headlines after the retailer named Mark Erceg as its CFO. Erceg was previously the executive VP and CFO of Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (USA) (NYSE:CP). Before that, he was a high level finance executive at Masonite International and P&G. Shares of Tiffany are down by 9.3% year-to-date and trade at 17.3 times forward earnings. Of the around 750 funds we track, 26 funds owned $534.32 million worth of Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF)’s stock, which accounted for 7.00% of the float on June 30.

On the next page, we find out why Netflix, Boeing, and Facebook are trending.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares are in the red after analysts at Macquarie downgraded the stock to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’, saying that the company might run into some difficulty in the near term due to increasing competition and higher content costs. Due to those factors, the analysts don’t think Netflix will be able to grow as fast internationally as the market expects. However, in the long term, Macquarie is still optimistic and the investment bank retained its $85 price target. A total of 54 investors tracked by us own shares of Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) as of the end of June, down by 10 funds from the previous quarter.

Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) is in the spotlight after the company gave an optimistic forecast on Chinese demand for civilian aircraft for the next two decades. According to the company, Chinese airlines will buy more than $1 trillion worth of jets, which includes 6,810 planes. The new estimate is 7.6% higher than Boeing’s last-year forecast of 6,330 planes. The number of funds tracked by us with holdings in Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) rose by three quarter-over-quarter to 40 at the end of June.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)‘s Instagram division has rolled out a revision that allows users to search for specific wording/phrases and hide those potentially offensive comments on their posts. Instagram has done so in part to prevent cyber-bullying, which has been a growing problem lately. Facebook’s purchase of Instagram in 2012 has paid off substantially, as the value of the social photo sharing site is worth significantly more than the $1.0 billion Mark Zuckerberg and Co paid for it. At the end of June, 148 funds from our database owned shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), down by 16 funds from the previous quarter.

Disclosure: none