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.
Match Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MTCH) shares are down 1% despite analyst Kunal Madhukar upping his price target to $61 from $56. Although Madhukar states that his research suggests that Match could beat for Q3 versus the consensus, some traders could be selling due to the news that Tinder competitor Bumble could IPO to a softer-than-expected valuation. According to some, Bumble might IPO at a $1.1 billion valuation, versus previous estimates of as much as $1.5 billion. Match Group Inc. (NASDAQ:MTCH) operates Tinder, and a cheaper valuation for a competitor could affect sentiment for Match. There is also no guarantee that Match could will beat estimates. A total of 26 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 24% from one quarter earlier.
TravelCenters of America LLC (NASDAQ:TA) shares fell almost 10% on Monday after the company reported a softer than expected third quarter. For the period, TA reported EPS of $0.04 versus the consensus of $0.21 per share. Revenue was also lighter than expected at $1.66 billion (up 20.3%) versus the consensus $1.94 billion. Adjusted EBITDA rose 2.4% to $31.4 million while third quarter nonfuel gross margin crept up 3.4%.
TravelCenters of America LLC (NASDAQ:TA) was in 9 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2018. TA shareholders have witnessed a decrease in hedge fund sentiment recently. There were 10 hedge funds in our database with TA holdings at the end of the previous quarter.
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