5 Stocks Hedge Funds Are Crazy About

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)

A total of 149 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey owned Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shares at the end of the third quarter, versus 148 funds a quarter earlier. Those funds own over $16.7 billion worth of Facebook’s stock, which accounts for 4.70% of the social media company’s float. Last week, famous investor Bill Miller said during a CNBC interview that the recent FB selloff offers a good investment opportunity. The New York Times recently claimed that Facebook has developed a secret censorship tool to get into China, a market which Mark Zuckerberg has been eyeing for some time. The tool will filter posts before they go live on users’ feeds. The tool would accommodate Chinese censorship laws, which are harsh, and have led to the banning of several American internet companies from operating in the country. Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital reported owning 7.11 million shares of Facebook as of the end of the third quarter.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

The collection of hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey continued to love Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) during the third quarter, with 149 of them having amassed $20.7 billion worth of the company’s shares as of the end of the period. Their holdings collectively accounted for 5.90% of Amazon’s float as of that time. Amazon appeared set to face a rough holiday season amid a pilot strike at ABX Air, the airline used by Amazon for shipments. The strike would have caused a delay in the deliveries of orders, which of course skyrocket during the holiday season. However, a Federal judge in Cincinnati recently ordered the pilots back to work. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock is up by over 16% year-to-date. In the third quarter, Amazon earned $0.52 per share on $32.71 billion in revenue, while estimates had predicted $0.78 in EPS and $32.69 billion in revenue. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global owns 2.93 million shares of Amazon as of the end of the third quarter.

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)

More of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey owned shares of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) on September 30 than any other stock. A total of 200 unique hedge funds owned either the company’s class A or class C shares (or both), a full 33% more than Amazon’s ownership among hedge funds. At the end of the second quarter, 187 funds in our database held either the class A or class C shares of Alphabet.  Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) earned $9.06 per share in the third quarter, versus the consensus estimate of $8.64, while revenue of $22.25 billion was in-line with estimates. The stock is up by just over 1% so far this year. Natixis Global Asset Management’s Harris Associates owns 2.36 million class C shares of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) as of the end of September.

Disclosure: None