Markets were cheering the latest US-China trade deal, after which the two countries will significantly reduce tariffs on each other’s imports for 90 days. The deal practically negates all bear cases modeled by Wall Street analysts based on the impact of tariffs.
Sylvia Jablonski, Defiance ETFs CEO and CIO, called the deal a “game changer” during a program on CNBC.
“I think both countries probably saw a little bit of the demise of what would be here with a non-tariff deal as the data came in. You had a lot of complaints around China across all sectors and then in the US, retailers were reaching out to President Trump and saying that shelves are empty and, you know, a lot of panic about semiconductor software companies. I think that this is really a game changer for both countries, and the big message here is that both countries, it sounds like, decided that they really don’t want to decouple, and, you know, make America great might also mean that, you know, China stays.”
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In.
For this article, we picked 10 stocks currently making moves amid the latest earnings season. With each stock we have mentioned the latest hedge fund sentiment. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
10. Alaska Air Group Inc (NYSE:ALK)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 28
Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC commented on Alaska Air and said the stock could go lower:
“First off, it’s really well run, so don’t take this the wrong way. But the airlines are wrong to own right here because people think we’re going into a travel recession. I think you’d still go lower.”
Diamond Hill Mid Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
Other top contributors in Q4 included Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK), Webster Financial and Liberty Media-Formula One. Shares of regional airline Alaska Air rose in the quarter as management provided more details about the company’s recent acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, which investors received positively.
9. Palantir Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:PLTR)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 41
Paul McCarthy from Kisco Capital recently analyzed Palantir Technologies Inc (NASDAQ:PLTR) shares from a technical perspective during a program on Schwab Network and said that the stock could see a pullback in the long term:
“I think afterwards, you’ll see a longer pullback. There may be a consolidation period, possibly a time for the company to grow some revenues into their valuation. Maybe some longer-term investors will start to come back into the stock. But it’s just been a tremendous, meteoric rise. To me, it does look like a five-wave impulsive pattern. Investors are probably signaling that for the long term, this is probably just the first five waves up and that there will be more upside in the coming years. However, it’s clear we’ve kind of pulled forward a lot of the valuation, just given the multiples that the stock’s currently trading at.”
Palantir’s valuation is concerning for many. Its revenue growth is expected to slow over the next two years, with estimates suggesting a 22% YoY growth rate, potentially bringing revenues to around $4 billion by fiscal 2026. If Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) can improve margins by 100 basis points annually, it would be able to generate about $1.5 billion in adjusted operating income by FY26, with a present value of $1.3 billion when discounted at 8%. Applying an S&P 500-like growth multiple of 2.5 to 2.75 times earnings, Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:PLTR) would have a P/E of 46, translating to a price target of $27.
Ithaka US Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“From the front-lines of warzones to Fortune 500 enterprises, Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR) builds software to address high-level action items, respond to defense and security concerns, and improve organizational efficiency. The company offers a number of software products from data analysis and curation (Palantir Gotham and Foundry) to a cloud-based operations software (Apollo). The company rose to popularity, in part, due to several government contracts (~55% of revenues) arising from recent and continuous global conflicts. In addition to creating generative AI defense solutions for governments across the globe, commercial customers (~45% of revenues) have flocked to the company’s security and data analysis solutions to monitor and analyze business data and protect sensitive information. The stock’s rise in the quarter was due to a strong earnings report that beat Street expectations as well as investor excitement with regard to the company’s ability to further monetize its AI product across its growing customer base.”
8. Kimberly-Clark Corp (NYSE:KMB)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 45
Jim Cramer was recently asked about Kimberly-Clark. Here is what he said:
“I think you go down to 4.5% because right now that’s the operative level. They did not make the quarter. I was a little bummed out. Let’s wait till it goes lower.”
7. Reddit Inc (NYSE:RDDT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 52
LikeFolio ‘s Megan Brantley explained during a program on Schwab Network why Reddit Inc (NYSE:RDDT) stands out among other social media platforms when it comes to the ads business:
“Reddit is in a unique position versus a lot of other companies that we often compare it to, just because of how its platform is designed and how consumers are using it. I would compare Reddit most closely to Pinterest in terms of having a captive audience of consumers who are searching for a very specific topic, have a specific objective, and are looking for more information. But Reddit may even be better because it’s so text-based versus image-based, and I think that’s part of the reason why we’ve seen such traction in Reddit’s advertising.
At least whenever we look at Reddit—I don’t have this chart for you, but I do have a stat—I looked at Reddit and Snapchat because we just saw that report out of Snapchat, and we saw a bit of an underwhelming advertising report. When we look at visits to Reddit’s ad platform specifically just in the last two weeks, we have those up about 80% on a year-over-year basis, which is really strong. Snapchat’s were down about 30% in the same period. So I think there’s a bit of a divergence, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that when consumers go to Reddit, they’re looking for recommendations. Ads don’t feel quite so intrusive as they might on other platforms where ads can interrupt what the consumer is trying to do.”
With over 80 million daily active users, Reddit Inc (NYSE:RDDT) remains one of the fastest-growing social media platforms in the world. While Facebook and Twitter show signs of maturing growth, Reddit Inc (NYSE:RDDT) still has huge upside potential as more and more people flock to Reddit discussion boards for authentic opinions and discussion. User input from millions of people on various topics freely accessible to anyone is Reddit Inc (NYSE:RDDT)’s moat. As of 2023, users posted 16 billion comments on the platform, according to the company. That’s why companies are flocking to pay money to Reddit to use its data to train their AI models. Reddit Inc (NYSE:RDDT) has a licensing agreement with Alphabet Inc.’s Google worth $60 million to help train large language models. Reddit Inc (NYSE:RDDT) has signed licensing agreements totaling $203 million, with terms lasting two to three years. The company generated approximately $20 million from AI content deals last quarter and expects to exceed $60 million by year-end. Reddit Inc (NYSE:RDDT) has signed licensing agreements totaling $203 million, with terms lasting two to three years.
Munro Global Growth Small & Mid Cap Fund stated the following regarding Reddit, Inc. (NYSE:RDDT) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“Key contributors to performance over the quarter were Reddit and AppLovin (see stock story on page 5). Reddit, Inc. (NYSE:RDDT) delivered a strong set of results, demonstrating impressive revenue growth and expanding operating margins. As the world grapples with misinformation and AI-generated content, we continue to view Reddit’s position as a unique platform hosting the largest volume of human conversations globally becoming increasingly valuable.”
6. Palo Alto Networks Inc (NASDAQ:PANW)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 64
Guy Adami from CNBC recently said while commenting on cybersecurity stocks that Palo Alto Networks Inc (NASDAQ:PANW) is a “best of breed” stock.
“I mean the secular shift to this has been in place for the last five or six years without question. The problem across the space, some more than others, has been valuation concerns, and when news is bad, they take these out to the woodshed. But in the meantime, all these names are in play. I think Palo Alto is best in breed, but other names work too.”
5. Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 74
Jim Cramer in a latest program on CNBC said that Crowdstrike is “terrific.”
“I think for the long term it’s terrific. We had to take some profits out of it too because it just got too big, but I think George Kurts is delivering an amazing product and I think he’s got a lot to say. He’s giving a speech tonight. I think Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) is terrific.”
Aristotle Atlantic Large Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) provides cybersecurity products and services that offer endpoint protection and threat intelligence solutions, enabling customers to prevent damage from targeted attacks, detect advanced malware and search all endpoints. The company’s open cloud architecture enables it and third-party partners to rapidly innovate, build and deploy new cloud modules that can provide customers with enhanced functionality across a myriad of use cases.
We see the cloud cybersecurity market as positioned to experience strong growth over the next few years, driven by continued migration from on-premises to cloud-based architecture. We believe CrowdStrike can benefit from this trend due to its early-mover advantage, multiple product offerings and native integrations with leading cloud platforms. The increasing threats from state-sanctioned cybercriminals using high-performance computing and AI necessitate higher spending on advanced cybersecurity products. The total addressable market (TAM) is projected to grow significantly over the next four calendar years. Additionally, CrowdStrike’s cloud-native architecture and unified platform approach provide competitive advantages, resulting in high customer retention and widespread adoption of multiple modules.”