The global markets are sluggish to end the trading week, as the markets in Asia, Europe, and now the U.S all moved into the red. Several stocks have enjoyed strong runs recently however, pushing to new yearly highs yesterday.
In this article, we’ll check out why Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE:DPZ), Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY), GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB), Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG), and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) are performing so well and will take a look at how hedge funds have been trading them this year.
We determine hedge fund sentiment by analyzing the equity portfolios of some of the best-performing hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive research, we have determined that the due diligence that these investors employ, as well as their long-term focus makes them perfect targets to emulate. However, the results of our analysis have also showed that the small-cap picks of these funds can generate much better returns, with the 15 most popular small-cap stocks beating the market by an average of 95 basis points per month (see more details here).
Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE:DPZ) attained its 52-week high yesterday, touching $154.10 after it announced its integration with Facebook’s Messenger app. The new integration lets users order pizza using the Facebook app by simply opening a new chat with Domino’s Pizza. Users may also click the message button on Domino’s Facebook page. Shares of Domino’s Pizza have gained 26% since June 26. Among the funds we track, 33 funds held $1.24 billion worth of Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE:DPZ)’s stock in aggregate at the end of June, having amassed 18.90% of its outstanding stock.
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Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY) did indeed go yesterday, all the way to its 52-week high of $35.54. The company recently simplified its procedures for customers, introducing Domain Connect, which the company claims “will simplify and streamline the process of connecting domain names to different web platforms.” The new setup is likely to drive the company’s revenue higher. Piper Jaffray set a $40 price target on the stock at the beginning of this week and has a ‘Buy’ rating on it. The number of funds in our database long Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY) stood at 23 at the end of June, up from 22 at the end of March. Those 23 funds held 21.40% of the company’s stock.
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We’ll check out the latest on three other hot stocks on the next page.
GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB) reached its 52-week high of $43.62 yesterday, with the stock having risen by nearly 70% this year. Helping the stock this week was a price target upgrade from Cowen on September 20, which bumped its target price on the stock to $38 from $33. The firm’s report also stated that GrubHub is likely to expand its market share in the near future. Due to its massive gains this year, GrubHub currently has a rather high P/E ratio of 90.13. 25 hedge funds in our database had positions in GrubHub at the end of the June quarter, valued at about $992 million and amounting to about 37.70% of GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB)’s outstanding stock.
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Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG) spiked to its 52-week high of $30.09 yesterday on the 20th anniversary of its HeartStart automated external defibrillators, which have sold 1.5 million units. Philips’ announced a collaboration with QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) to develop an IoT healthcare ecosystem at the end of August, which has helped push shares up by 3% this month. Qualcomm Life and Philips HealthSuite will work together to create a large but scalable healthcare ecosystem that they hope will create a lucrative niche market. 14 hedge funds that we track held about $329 million in Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG) positions stock at the end of June, compared to 11 funds with $364 million in holdings at the end of March.
Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) vaulted to its 52-week high of $102.33 yesterday. The company is looking to launch new biometric technology which will help curtail the chances of online fraud. The technology will be used to verify customers’ identities during online transactions. The new system is likely to be implemented in the course of the coming few weeks, with MasterCard currently testing the feature. 82 of the hedge funds in our system held about $6.50 billion worth of Mastercard’s shares stock on June 30, up from 80 funds holding $6.21 billion in stock on March 31.
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Disclosure: None