Twitter Inc (TWTR), Salesforce.com, Inc. (CRM) & More: Here’s Why These Stocks Are in Spotlight Today

The US stock market opened in the green today amid growth in oil prices. Investors await the outcome of the next FOMC meeting expected later this week.

Meanwhile, among stocks that are in the spotlight on Monday morning are Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), Boeing Co (NYSE:BA), Shake Shack Inc. (NYSE:SHAK), and General Motors Company (NYSE:GM). In this article, let’s take a closer look at the latest news surrounding these stocks and see what the smart money investors from our database think about the companies in question.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 740 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 more details about our small-cap strategy).

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is being sued by an investor as the microblogging site is held responsible for failing to deliver. The lawsuit has been brought by Doris Shenwick, a shareholder who claims that Twitter misled investors on key growth metrics such as user engagement and user count. The lawsuit also claimed that Twitter had promised an increase in monthly active users to 550 million in the “intermediate” term. For the “longer term” it had promised more than a billion of monthly active users. Twitter had 313 million monthly active users at the end of June. The shareholder plans to launch a class-action lawsuit and wants to represent all investors who bought shares of Twitter between February and July of 2015. Among the fund we track, the number of investors long Twitter went up to 30 from 27 during the second quarter. 

Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) is looking to gain foothold in growing Artificial Intelligence sector and aims to integrate the technology with its software products. At an event in San-Francisco, the company has unveiled its new ‘Einstein’ service which utilizes the technology. The company is expected to co-ordinate its AI efforts under this umbrella. Among the funds we track, 60 funds held $2.14 billion worth of Salesforce.com’s stock in aggregate at the end of June, having amassed 4% of its outstanding stock, compared to 63 investors that held $1.79 billion worth of shares a quarter earlier.

Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) is expected to receive orders from Iran as the country has been announced about the United States’ willingness to issue export licenses in the coming months. With these licenses, Iran will be able to order Boeing jets. Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister for Iran, Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan said that failure to issue such approval will be in the breach of agreement related to the easing of sanctions in return for controlled nuclear activities. The number of funds from our database long Boeing Co amounted to 40 at the end of June, while the total value of their holdings stood at $1.07 billion, up from $1.02 billion held by 37 funds at the end of previous quarter.

Shake Shack Inc. (NYSE:SHAK) has received rating confirmation from Buckingham Research, which reaffirmed its ‘Buy’ rating and price target of $45 per share. The analysts also stated that the company is on the fast track for growth and expects to increase its owned locations to 450. A total of 14 funds tracked by us have positions in Shake Shack as of the end of June, with the total value of their holdings amounting to $133 million, or about 10.10% of Shake Shack Inc. (NYSE:SHAK)’s outstanding shares.

General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is facing the risk of workers’ strike as the company’s negotiations with Canada’s autoworkers’ union Unifor have not yielded desired results. The union wants GM to commit building new vehicle models at its Oshawa, Ontario plant. The union also has indicated that while it is optimistic about getting a proposal from GM, it is not willing to extend the deadline for strike. Heading into the third quarter, 65 investors we track owned about $3.29 billion of General Motors Company shares at the end of June, down from 67 funds and $3.71 billion, respectively, a quarter earlier.

Disclosure: none