5 Stocks That Are Grabbing the Friday the 13th Spotlight

Alibaba Expands Its Cloud

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and SoftBank recently announced that they have formed a joint venture named SB Cloud Corp to launch cloud computing services in Japan. The joint venture will combine Alibaba’s cloud expertise with SoftBank’s customer contacts. SoftBank will hold 60% of the venture, while Alibaba will own 40%. Cloud computing is a rapidly growing area and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) wants as much market share in the sector as possible. Shares of the Chinese e-commerce giant are 1.55% in the red today. Our data shows that hedge funds were fairly bullish on Alibaba in the fourth quarter. 77 funds owned $6.74 billion worth of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) on December 31, a big step up from the 60 funds with $3.79 billion in holdings on September 30.

Westport Experiences Macro Headwinds

Westport Innovations Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:WPRT) turned in a disappointing first quarter, amounting to a loss of $0.36 per share on sales of $24 million, missing analysts’ estimates by $0.08 per share and $4.1 million, respectively. Revenue fell by 14.3% year-over-year as macro headwinds negatively affected the company’s business in multiple end-markets. The company will release its full-year guidance once it completes its merger with Fuel Systems Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSYS), which is expected to occur in early June. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies was one of seven elite funds in our database that held shares of Westport Innovations Inc. (USA) (NASDAQ:WPRT) at the end of December. Those shares are up by 0.10% this morning.

Shake Shack Surges on Good Results

Shake Shack Inc (NYSE:SHAK) beat both top and bottom-line expectations with its first quarter financial results, pulling in earnings of $0.08 per share on sales of $54.17 million, while estimates stood at $0.05 per share and $52.06 million respectively. Sales rose by 43.3% year-over-year as same-store sales jumped by 10%. The company expects revenue of $245 million-to-$249 million for 2016, which would slightly top the consensus estimate of $243 million. The company also expects to add 23 more restaurants during the year. 11 elite funds in our system owned 10.1% of Shake Shack Inc (NYSE:SHAK)’s shares as of December 31. Shares are up by 7.33% this morning.

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