Trending Stocks: Facebook, Netflix, Lifelock, and More

It’s another green day on Wall Street as traders look forward to the tax cuts, infrastructure spending, and deregulation that President-elect Donald Trump has promised. In addition, some traders anticipate more corporate buybacks if American companies are allowed to bring their overseas cash back into the States at a lower rate.

In this article, let’s find out why four tech companies and one building materials company are trending today. The companies in question are Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), Lifelock Inc (NYSE:LOCK), Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC), and Headwaters Inc (NYSE:HW). In addition to the news that put them in the spotlight today, we’ll also take a look at how the smart money investors have been trading 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 more details).

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shares have popped 2% after the company announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase of up to $6 billion beginning in the first quarter of next year. In addition, Facebook disclosed that Jas Athwal, the Chief Accounting Officer, will leave in February. Facebook bulls hope the buybacks and executive change will improve sentiment around the stock. Of the 749 funds we track, 148 funds owned $15.24 billion of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and accounted for 4.70% of the float at the end of June.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is also 2% in the green after Brean Capital analyst Alan Gould initiated coverage on the stock with a ‘Buy’ rating and a $145 per share price target. Gould thinks Netflix has an ‘unstoppable lead’ in internet TV and will dominate the sector in the long run. As for the future, the analyst believes that the internet streamer will eventually reach 300 million global subscribers and achieve an EPS of $25 per share within the next 15 years. A total of 54 funds from our database were long Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) at the end of the second quarter, down by 10 funds from the previous quarter.

On the next page, we will examine Lifelock, Symantec Corporation, and Headwaters.

Lifelock Inc (NYSE:LOCK) has surged by 15% after Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) agreed to buy the company for $24 per share, which represents an enterprise value of $2.3 billion. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017. Symantec expects to finance the purchase with cash on its balance sheet and roughly $750 million in new debt. Symantec’s board has also raised the company’s buyback authorization to $1.3 billion, up from the previous $800 million. Although the buyout of Lifelock isn’t expected to have a material impact on Symantec’s fiscal 2017 results, the management does expect the purchase to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share in fiscal 2019. Among the funds we track, 38 funds held shares of Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) and 22 funds were long Lifelock Inc (NYSE:LOCK) at the end of June.

Headwaters Inc (NYSE:HW) shares are 17% in the green after the Australian firm Boral agreed to purchase the company for $24.25 per share in cash, or roughly $1.86 billion. The deal has been unanimously approved by the boards of both companies and is expected to be closed in mid-2017. Overall, 23 funds had a bullish position in Headwaters Inc (NYSE:HW) at the end of June, down by one fund from the previous quarter.

Disclosure: None