Why Facebook, Microsoft, Alcoa, and More Are Turning Heads Today

Crude futures are in the green on Tuesday as traders look forward to the upcoming API inventory release later today. Not surprisingly, the S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq are also well up in morning trading, as some investors have become more bullish given the S&P reaching an all-time high.

Among the stocks traders are talking about today are Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA), Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). In this article, we’ll find out why each stock is in the spotlight and examine what elite funds think of each of them.

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Analyst Give Thumbs Up to Oracle 

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) shares are moderately higher today after analysts at BMO Capital Markets upgraded the database software maker’s stock to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ and raised its price target on the stock to $47 from $45. The analysts believe Oracle’s growth prospects are sound and that the stock trades for a decent discount to where it should. Shares of Oracle sport a forward P/E of 13.5 versus the Nasdaq’s 19. 62 elite funds in our database had a long position in Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) at the end of the first quarter.

Alcoa Reports Solid Results

Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) is over 3% higher after reporting stronger than expected earnings for the second quarter. For the period, the materials manufacturer earned $0.15 per share on revenue of $5.3 billion, beating the consensus estimates by $0.05 per share and $100 million respectively. The company’s smelting and mining operations reported sales of $2.3 billion, up by 7% quarter-over-quarter, while the company’s engineering segment for automotive and aerospace turned in $3.5 billion in sales, up by 1% year-over-year. Alcoa management said that the company remains on track to break up into two parts sometime in 2016. 37 funds that we track owned shares of Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) as of the most recent 13F reporting period, down by four funds from the previous reporting period.

On the next page, we’ll find out why Seagate Technology, Facebook, and Microsoft are in the spotlight this morning.

Seagate Surges on Outlook, Cuts

Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) shares have skyrocketed by more than 19% in early morning trading after the hardware drive manufacturer guided for $2.65 billion for its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016, trouncing estimates of $2.32 billion. The company also expects adjusted gross margin of approximately 25.8% and GAAP gross margins of 25% for the period. Seagate’s strong adjusted gross margins will likely trend higher as management has plans to cut 14% of its global headcount by the end of fiscal year 2017, or approximately 6,500 employees. Of the 766 funds that we track, 24 owned $759.92 million in Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:STX) positions on March 31, which accounted for 7.40% of the float.

Microsoft Does a Deal with Facebook

Although Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) may officially be in the social media business now with its purchase of LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is still willing to do mutually-beneficial deals with the giant from Redmond. According to the Wall Street Journal, the two tech companies are expected to announce a deal today through which Facebook will use Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud tools in addition to its Facebook at Work tool. Given Facebook’s size, the deal should help Microsoft’s productivity division grow, while Facebook should realize more productivity. 164 top funds owned shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) at the end of March, up by 18 funds from the previous quarter. Meanwhile 144 funds had a bullish position in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) at the end of the first quarter, up by four funds from the previous quarter.

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