Here’s Why Microsoft, Salesforce.com, and Three Other Stocks Are Trending Today

Crude futures are in the green this morning after yesterday’s route. All three indexes are also relatively quiet after Thursday’s down and up day.

Among the stocks trending today are Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc (NYSE:LL), Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX), KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE:KKR), and salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM). Let’s find out why each stock is in the spotlight and see what the funds in our database think about them.

While there are many metrics that investors can assess in the investment process, the hedge fund sentiment is something that is often overlooked. However, hedge funds and other institutional investors allocate significant resources while making their bets and their long-term focus makes them the perfect investors to emulate. This is supported by our research, which determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor to beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

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Microsoft Goes Where No Big Tech Company Has Gone Before

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is in the spotlight today after the company announced it is partnering with the cannabis-centric software firm Kind Financial. Kind provides software that helps cannabis growers to track inventory, handle transactions, and remain in compliance with laws. By working with Kind, Microsoft will be the first tech giant to break into the fast growing legal weed sector. The number of funds from our database with holdings in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) rose by four quarter-over-quarter to 144 at the end of March.

Lumber Liquidators Settles with CPSC

Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc (NYSE:LL) shares have jumped after the company settled with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission over the company’s past sales of formaldehyde-laced flooring. Under the terms of the settlement, Lumber Liquidators won’t issue a recall and has agreed not to sell Chinese laminate flooring ever again. The regulator did not find unsafe levels of formaldehyde as some bears thought. Among the funds we track, 14 funds owned $39.7 million of Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc (NYSE:LL) and accounted for 11.20% of the float on March 31, versus 15 funds and $39.53 million, respectively, on December 31.

On the next page, we examine Barrick Gold Corporation, KKR & Co, and salesforce.com.