Here’s Why Amazon, Tesla, and Three Other Stocks Are Trending Today

The markets are quiet this morning as all three major index futures are close to flat.

Some potential upside/downside catalysts in the upcoming week include today’s EIA inventory release and tomorrow’s jobless claims report. In this article, we take a closer look at five trending stocks, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT), St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ), Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (NYSE:FCAU), and see how the smart money investors from our database are positioned towards them.

We believe that imitating hedge funds and other large institutional investors can be helpful in identifying stocks capable of outperforming the broader market. Through extensive research that covered portfolios of several hundred large investors between 1999 and 2012, we determined that following the small-cap stocks that large money managers are collectively bullish on, can generate monthly returns nearly 1.0 percentage points above the market (see the details here).

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Amazon Prime Numbers Rise

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is in the spotlight today after the company said that sales from third party merchants rose 30% year-over-year on July 12. Although some analysts were expecting a higher year-over-year increase, technical glitches likely blunted some of the demand and lowered the year-over-year growth number. Demand was strong internationally and Amazon’s overall demand situation remains strong. On the back of strong Prime membership growth and surging AWS numbers, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares have rallied 10% year-to-date so far. Of the 766 elite funds we track, 133 funds owned $14.7 billion worth of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock, which accounted for 5.30% of the float on March 31, versus 141 funds and $17.32 billion, respectively, a quarter earlier.

FTC Seeks More Data Over Merger

Traders are watching Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requested additional information over their proposed merger. Abbott agreed to buy St. Jude in April for around $25 billion. The FTC’s request will likely extend the time frame before the merger deal can close by 30 days after the FTC gets its requested information. It seems the market doesn’t believe the information request is a big deal, as shares of both companies are relatively unchanged in the pre-market. A total of 42 funds from our database were long Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) at the end of March,  while 36 funds had a bullish position in St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ).

On the next page, we examine Tesla Motors, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Musk Standing Firm With Self-Driving Tech

According to the Wall Street Journal, despite several high profile accidents due to self-driving technology in recent months, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has ‘no plans to disable’ the autopilot function in its cars. Tesla will instead increase education on how to properly use the technology as a supplement to regular driving. Although some have criticized Tesla for adopting the technology too early, Musk defended his company’s decision stating, ‘we knew we had a system that on balance would save lives’. In other news, analysts at Morgan Stanley speculate that Tesla’s soon-to-be-released master plan will include an ‘on-demand mobility service’ that could make it a competitor to Uber. At the end of the first quarter, 39 investors tracked by Insider Monkey owned shares of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), up by 10 funds from the previous quarter.

Fiat Seeks White Hat Help

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (NYSE:FCAU) is seeking the help of the ‘good’ hacker community by implementing a bug bounty initiative where the company will pay hackers $150 to $1,500 for each cyber-security flaw they find and disclose to the company. Hackers famously showed that they could hack into a moving Jeep last year. Given the increase in automation and connectivity of cars, good cyber-security will be very important going forward. A total of 28 funds among those we track owned shares of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (NYSE:FCAU) at the end of March.

Disclosure: None