Why Microsoft, Visa, Alibaba, and Two Other Companies Are in the Spotlight Today

Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE:TUP) shares are off by 5% after the company reported mixed results for its third quarter. Tupperware earned $0.87 per share on revenue of $521.8 million, beating profit estimates by $0.07, but missing the top-line expectations by $6.34 million. Overall sales inched up by just 0.2% year-over-year as the company’s sales in established markets fell by 5% in local currency. The established market weakness was offset by emerging market strength, where sales for Tupperware rose by 5% in local currency. Tupperware Brands expects fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.37-$1.42 on sales growth of 5% to 7%. The number of funds from our database with holdings in Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE:TUP) fell by seven quarter-over-quarter to 14 at the end of June.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is on watch today after CNBC reported that its affiliate, Ant Financial, is ‘closer to an initial public offering’. Although many traders speculate that Ant will IPO in 2017, CNBC’s source says that a timetable for the IPO has not been set. Given that Ant Financial is currently valued at around $60 billion and that Alibaba retains the economic rights to a considerable chunk of Ant, a successful IPO of the affiliate could be a positive catalyst for Alibaba. A total of 69 funds tracked by us had a bullish position in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) at the end of the second quarter, up by two funds from the previous quarter.

Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS) shares have surged by 5% on the back of stronger WTI prices, which are currently 2.55% in the green due to the EIA reporting that inventories fell by 5.2 million barrels last week. Also helping Oasis is commentary from Piper Jaffray analyst Kashy Harrison, who upgraded the stock to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ and hiked his price target to $16 from $14. Harrison likes Oasis’ improved capital efficiency and thinks the recent dip in shares offers good long term risk/reward. At the end of June, 33 funds tracked by Insider Monkey owned $541.98 million worth of Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS)’s shares, which represented 32.20% of its outstanding stock.

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