Here’s Why You Should Pay Attention to These Tech Giants Today

Markets are trading up on Monday, helped by surging oil prices and a spike in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). A few other stocks trending in the morning hours include Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). So, let’s take a look at what’s going on with these companies, and into what the hedge funds in our database think about them.

We track prominent investors and hedge funds because our research has shown that historically their stock picks delivered superior risk-adjusted returns. This is especially true in the small-cap space. The 15 most popular small-cap stocks among a select group of investors delivered a monthly alpha of 80 basis points between 1999 and 2012 (see the details here).

Facebook Tumbles Ahead Of Meet With Conservatives

Let’s start with Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), which is trading down by more than 1.5% on Monday morning, amid news that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has agreed to meet with conservative leaders on Wednesday, to address allegations that the site is politically biased. A former Facebook employee and prominent conservatives have argued that the social media site left “conservative political stories” out of its trending topics list intentionally. The company has denied such allegations.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2016, two of the largest hedge fund investors in Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) were John Armitage’s Egerton Capital Limited and Alex Snow’s Lansdowne Partners. By March 31, these funds held 5.89 million shares and 3.71 million shares of the company, respectively – valued at $672 million and $423 million, correspondingly.

Amazon To Launch New Private-Label Products

Next up is Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), which is also down (about 0.7%) on Monday morning, after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company is preparing to expand its private label offerings. In coming weeks, the online retailer plans to roll out other private label products – on top of diapers, including food and household items under the Happy Belly, Wickedly Prime and Mama Bear brand names, among others. The products could appear in the site as soon as late-May, and will be offered to only Prime members at first, people familiar with the matter said. Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) saw several hedge funds among those we track make bullish moves over the first quarter of 2016. Among them, we can count James Crichton’s Hitchwood Capital Management, which almost tripled its stake over the period, taking it to half a million shares, worth $296 million as of March 31, Doug Silverman and Alexander Klabin’s Senator Investment Group, which started a new position comprising 255,000 shares over the January to March interval.

Alphabet To Face Record Anti-Trust Fine

Shares of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) are quite flattish on Monday morning. Over the weekend, the U.K.’s Telegraph reported that the European Commission will impose a record-breaking fine on Google in the next few weeks, for abuses of its online search dominance. According to the report, sources familiar with the issue said that officials were aiming at announcing a 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) fine before the summer break – even as soon as next month. However, details are still being closed, and the penalty could go as high as 6.6 billion euros (about $7.5 billion), which would widely surpass the highest anti-trust fine ever issued: the 1.1 billion euros ($1.25 billion) penalty received by Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) back in 2009. In addition, “Google will be banned from continuing to manipulate search results to favour itself and harm rivals,” the Telegraph assured. At the end of the first quarter, more than 140 funds in our database were long Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Interestingly, the largest stake was held by a newcomer: Natixis Global Asset Management’s Harris Associates. Over the period, the firm acquired 1.98 million shares of the company, valued at more than $1.47 billion as of March 31.

Microsoft Trending Ahead Of Ex-Dividend Date

Similar to Alphabet, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s stock is quite flat in the Morning hours, ahead of its ex-dividend date. Shareholders of record by May 17 will receive a dividend of $0.36 per share on June 9. Based on Friday’s closing price of $51.08, the annual dividend yield ascends to 2.82%, or roughly 82 basis points higher than the S&P 500 average. Among the firms that will likely benefit from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s dividend are First Eagle Investment Management, which last disclosed ownership of 23.62 million shares, worth more than $1.3 billion by March 31, and Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, which held 18.22 million shares at the end of the last quarter.

Yahoo! Spikes On Buffett’s Declarations

Finally, there’s Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), which is up by more than 2.2% on Monda, helped by reports that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has offered to financially back billionaire Dan Gilbert’s bid to buy the company. The Oracle of Omaha told CNBC that he is “an enormous admirer of Dan and what he has accomplished in Quicken Loans‎. Yahoo is not the type of thing I’d ever be an equity partner in. I don’t know the business and wouldn’t know how to evaluate it, but if Dan needed financing, with proper terms and protections, we would be a possible financing help,” he added. While Mr. Buffett’s Berkshire is not a Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) shareholder at the time, other major hedge funds are. Among them, we can count Jeffrey Smith’s Starboard Value LP, which declared holding 12.29 million shares, valued at $452 million, by March 31 – after boosting its exposure by 72% over the first quarter.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.