Gun Stocks in Spotlight Following Shootings; Walt Disney and Schlumberger Limited Trending on Business Updates

All three major index futures and crude are in the green again after the Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates the same on Wednesday.

In this article, we find out why investors are buzzing about five stocks that are trending due to various events, Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB), TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR), Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR), and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp (NASDAQ:SWHC) and we use publicly available 13F data to see how elite funds are positioned in each.

We believe that imitating hedge funds and other large institutional investors can be helpful in identifying stocks capable of outperforming the broader market. Through extensive research that covered portfolios of several hundred large investors between 1999 and 2012, we determined that following the small-cap stocks that large money managers are collectively bullish on, can generate monthly returns nearly 1.0 percentage points above the market (see the details here).

Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) is in the spotlight after CEO Bob Iger hinted that the next Star Wars film, ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’, won’t bring as much in box office receipts as ‘The Force Awakens’, which did around $2.1 billion globally. However, Iger pointed out that “the level of interest is as high as it was for Force Awakens”. Additionally, Disney is in the headlines for saying that the company’s EPSN division will focus more on digital/mobile going forward. Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) owns a ‘treasure trove’ of digital rights to various popular sports that it hasn’t currently fully monetized yet. The added digital revenues could potentially help offset some of ESPN’s cable losses as more customers become cord cutters. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management owned 8.67 million shares of Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) at the end of June, up 1% quarter-over-quarter.

Although it might have shut down parts of its operations in Venezuela earlier in the year (due to the lack of prompt payments for its services), it looks like Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) won’t be leaving the South American country completely just yet. The leading oil service company just won a major project in the country’s Orinoco Belt to drill around 80 wells. Although the terms of the deal aren’t finalized yet, the project will likely number in the hundreds of millions, as PdVSA, the state firm that awarded the contract, has said that drilling 480 wells in the belt will net around $3.2 billion. Given its poor state finances and the low crude prices, Venezuela needs as much foreign help as it can get to boost its cash flow. Schlumberger bulls hope the company will be paid more promptly for its services for the new project. The number of funds from our database with holdings in Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB) fell by one quarter-over-quarter to 55 at the end of June.

On the next page, we examine TASER International, Sturm Ruger & Company, and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp.

Racial strife in the United States isn’t over. Due to some controversial shootings of African-American civilians in Tulsa and Charlotte, protests have erupted in various cities. In Charlotte, the protests have become so bad that Pat McCrory, the Governor of North Carolina, had to declare a state of emergency in Charlotte on Wednesday night. Apparently, more shots, this time between civilians and civilians have been exchanged, and several people including some officers have been injured.

The controversy over the killings of civilians who may or may not have been armed by police will likely cause more police departments to look into non-lethal firearms such as products made by TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR). Meanwhile gun demand might also rise and be a boon for gun-makers such as Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR), and Smith & Wesson Holding Corp (NASDAQ:SWHC) as more people will likely buy guns to protect themselves from the violence.

According to our records, 10 and 16 funds had a bullish position in TASER International, Inc. (NASDAQ:TASR) and Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE:RGR) respectively at the end of the second quarter. Comparatively Smith & Wesson Holding Corp (NASDAQ:SWHC) was more popular, with 20 investors tracked by us reporting long positions as of the end of June.

Disclosure: none