The US stock market opened higher with the Dow climbing closer to the 20,000 level, extending the post-election rally. Later today, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is expected to give a speech on the state of the labor market, which will be the last speech of this year and will be the first since the Fed hiked interest rates.
Meanwhile, a number of stocks are in the spotlight following several developments. In this article, we are going to take a closer look at the events surrounding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), Nintendo Co., Ltd (ADR) (OTCMKTS:NTDOY), JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAKK), and Mitel Networks Corp (NASDAQ:MITL). In addition, we’ll take a look at the smart money sentiment towards each stock in order to gain some perspective regarding their long-term profitability.
We follow over 700 hedge funds and other institutional investors and by analyzing their quarterly 13F filings, we identify stocks that they are collectively bullish on and develop investment strategies based on this data. One strategy that outperformed the market over the last year involves selecting the 100 best-performing funds and identifying the 30 mid-cap stocks that they are collectively the most bullish on. Over the past year, this strategy generated returns of 18%, topping the 8% gain registered by S&P 500 ETFs (see more details).
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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s stock inched up by some 1.15% amid news that the tech giant has appealed the EU $14 billion tax demand. The company argued that EU regulators intentionally picked it due to its popularity and success. Therefore, regulators ignored the opinion of tax experts and disregarded Ireland’s position while moving on with its case. Ireland will also join Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its appeal, which will make the situation for Brussels more difficult, since it creates a conflict with another community country in a period marked by tension and escalating anti-EU sentiments across a number of member states. The case will probably represent a strong precedent, which explains Ireland’s move to stand by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s side, since the country managed to attract a number of multinationals via its tax deals. Among the investors in our database, Apple registered an increase in popularity during the third quarter, as the number of funds long the stock jumped to 145 from 116.
Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS)‘s stock opened in the green today and keeps trading higher after the company’s “Rogue One” scored $155 million over its opening week-end. The amount was the second-largest registered in an opening weekend in December in North America, topped only by last year’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, which grossed $248 million. In Europe, the movie registered sales of $135.5 million, which combined is a bit shy of the expected total $300 million, although the movie has yet to open in South Korea and China. A total of 51 funds tracked by Insider Monkey held shares of Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) heading into the fourth quarter, up by seven funds over the quarter.
On the next page, we’ll take a closer look at Nintendo, JAKKS Pacific, and Mitel Networks.
