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

Although housing starts for September came in below expectations at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.05 million units versus estimates of 1.16 million units, the major indices are nevertheless close to flat as traders focus more on the earnings of various companies that just reported.

Among the other securities that are grabbing traders’ attention today are Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Visa Inc (NYSE:V), Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE:TUP), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), and Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS). Let’s find out why each stock is in the spotlight and see what the smart money investors from our database think about them.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 750 hedge funds and other 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 the details here).

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is in the spotlight today courtesy of New England Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick, who said “I’m done with the tablets”. Belichick added, “I’ve given them as much time as I can give them. They’re just too undependable for me”. Given that Microsoft has a deal with the NFL to supply Surface tablets on the sidelines, Belichick in this instance is presumably referring to Microsoft’s Surface tablets, whose sales have previously been rather robust. Given that the Belichick is regarded as a top coach in football and the NFL is the most popular sport in the United States, Microsoft’s Surface division certainly has a PR problem on its hand, however fleetingly. Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management inched up its holding in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 1% to 18.37 million shares in the third quarter.

Visa Inc (NYSE:V)‘s board of directors deftly practiced the ‘bad news sandwich’ by hiking its dividend by 17.9% to $0.165 per share per quarter, shortly after the company announced that its CEO, Charlie Scharf, will step down come December 1. Visa’s dividend hike now gives the stock of the payment network a forward yield of around 0.81%. Not surprisingly, shares of Visa are up over 1% on the back of the news. Of the 749 funds we track, 118 funds owned $9.33 billion worth of Visa Inc (NYSE:V)’s stock, which accounted for 5.80% of the float on June 30, up from 106 funds and $9.22 billion, respectively, on March 31.

On the next page, we will find out why Tupperware Brands Corporation, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, and Oasis Petroleum are trending.
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.

Disclosure: none