Here’s Why CVD Equipment, Micron and Three Other Stocks Are in Spotlight Today

Market sentiment is positive on Thursday after polls suggesting low chances of a Brexit. A decline in U.S. jobless claims last week to near a 43-year low also contributed to the market rally.

Some stocks that are worth watching today include CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) and Boeing Co (NYSE:BA). This article sheds some light on the reasons of these stocks’ popularity and analyzes the respective smart money sentiment towards them.

Imitating hedge funds and other institutional investors can help identify some of the most profitable stocks on the market. However, our extensive research that covered the period between 1999 and 2012, showed that the best approach is to follow these investors into their small-cap stocks. Our backtests showed that the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds managed to generate a monthly alpha of 81 basis points, versus an alpha of 0.7 percentage points posted by their top 50 large-cap picks (see more details here).

CVD Equipment Gets New Order Worth $30 Million

CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV)’s stock has surged by more than 20% so far today after the company announced on Wednesday that it had received an order worth about $30 million from a major aviation component supplier to make fiber coating systems for its high volume facility. According to CVD, the same customer bought its system in 2015. CVD Equipment Corporation’s CEO Leonard A. Rosenbaum said that the new order is a testament to the company’s “differentiated technology” and confirms its position as a leading supplier of next generation technology for the aerospace industry. Only two funds from our database were long CVD Equipment Corporation (NASDAQ:CVV) at the end of the first quarter. Mark Broach’s Manatuck Hill Partners is one of them with ownership of 285,000 shares of the company.

Google Fiber Acquires Webpass

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is in the spotlight after its Google Fiber division said it is acquiring San Francisco-based internet service provider Webpass. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. With the acquisition of Webpass, Google’s fiber internet service will have an established commercial provider of gigabit internet to bolster the company’s expansion. Charles Barr, president of Webpass said that both companies can work together to accelerate the deployment of “super-fast” internet connections for customers across the US. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)” class A stock is the third most popular among the funds in our database with 155 funds having reported stakes as of the end of March. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global owns about 2.05 million class A shares of the company.

Move on the next page where we discuss Micron Technology, Gilead Sciences and Boeing.  

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)’s stock has gained 7% so far today after investment firm Susquehanna upgraded to stock to “Positive” from “Neutral” and upped its price target to $18 from $10. Susquehanna’s analyst Mehdi Hosseini said that pricing trends for PC & Server DRAM are improving, and thinks that PC and Servers business is Micron’s “sweet spot.” Among the funds tracked by us, 51 funds were bullish on Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) at the end of March, down from 64 funds a quarter earlier.

EC Grants Marketing Authorization to Gilead Sciences’ Drug

Shares of Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) are trading  in the green today as the company announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorization  to Odefsey, its tablet for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. Odefsey is Gilead’s second single tablet regime (STR) to receive marketing authorization in the European Union. In November 2015, the European Commission approved Genvoya. The hedge fund sentiment is pretty strong towards Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD). A total of 93 hedge funds among those tracked by us amassed approximately $4 billion worth of the company’s stock as of the end of the first quarter. John Armitage’s Egerton Capital Limited owns about 4.52 million shares of the company.

Boeing Strikes Deal with Iran

Investors have been watching Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) closely lately after the company said earlier this week that it had signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to sell jetliners to Iran. Monetary details of the agreement were not disclosed by the company, but an Iranian official said the deal could be valued at $25 billion. The deal would be one of the biggest between any US company and Iran since trade sanctions on Iran had been eased. In other news, earlier today, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Boeing with an ‘overweight’ rating and a $153 price target. Edgar Wachenheim’s Greenhaven Associates is one of 37 hedge funds from our database that reported stakes in Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) as of the end of the first quarter. It owns approximately 1.26 million shares of the company.

Disclosure: None