It’s Monday and gas futures were up big thanks to positive sentiment. Although all eyes are on the upcoming elections this week, traders are keeping a close eye on several stocks in the spotlight including Newell Brands Inc. (NYSE:NWL), Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), Madison Square Garden Co (NYSE:MSG), Match Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MTCH), and TravelCenters of America LLC (NASDAQ:TA).
For those of you interested in potentially partly diversifying your portfolio with hedge fund picks, check out the Insider Monkey quarterly newsletter (click the link for more details), which was up 121% since inception in May 2014 through the end of August of this year. Hedge funds are often filled with the best and brightest and have more resources than the typical retail investor.
Newell Brands Inc. (NYSE:NWL) is in the spotlight after analysts at Wells Fargo assigned a $36 price target on the stock, giving it substantial upside from present levels. Specifically, the analysts like management’s plan to sell off certain assets which could help unlock value. Going the other way is Kevin Grundy of Jefferies, however, who trimmed his price target to $20 from $23. Grundy isn’t as optimistic due to NWL’s mixed Q3 results, which indicate both good things such as the return of growth and potential risk factors such as tariff impacts. Of the around 650 elite funds we track, Newell Rubbermaid Inc. (NYSE:NWL) was in 33 elite funds’ portfolios at the end of June.
Traders are keeping an eye on Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) after William Featherston upgraded Chevron to ‘Outperform’ from the previous rating of ‘Neutral’. Featherston has a $138 price target, citing the company’s valuation, execution, and visibility into future free cash flows. With his estimate of future $10-$11 billion in surplus free cash flow per year, the analyst believes Chevron will continue to increase its dividend and potentially expand its buyback program in the future.
Among the funds we track, Fisher Asset Management held the most valuable stake in Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), which was worth $555.6 millions at the end of the second quarter. On the second spot was Adage Capital Management which amassed $286.7 millions worth of shares. Moreover, Glaxis Capital Management, Skybridge Capital, and 3G Capital were also bullish on Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), allocating a large percentage of their portfolios to this stock.
Madison Square Garden Co (NYSE:MSG) shares have jumped over 4% on Monday after a schedule 13D showed that Silver Lake and its affiliates has raised its holdings in the company to 7.4%, or around 1.4 million shares. Although MSG isn’t as susceptible to activist investors as some other stocks due to its main shareholder James Dolan, investors generally like how smart money institutions are raising their stakes in a company. Samantha Greenberg of Margate Capital was rightly bullish on Madison Square Garden Co (NYSE:MSG) last year at the Robinhood investor conference.