Most Searched Tickers Among Financial Advisors: Focus on Tech Following Earnings

On the second spot is Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), which did not make it to the top 20 of last week’s list. Amazon reported its financial results last week, which disappointed investors, despite growing in year-on-year terms. The e-commerce giant posted net income of $1.00 per share, while sales of $35.75 billion increased by 22% year-on-year. However, analysts were expecting EPS of $1.56 and $35.93 billion in revenue. Amazon also registered a 69% annual growth in its Web Services sales for the quarter, which totaled $2.41 billion. For the full year, the company reported net sales of $107 billion, up by 20% and EPS of $1.25 per share, compared to a loss of $0.52 reported a year earlier.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) was a top-performing stock last year, having registered a growth of over 100%. However, this year, amid an overall market selloff and weaker-than expected results, the stock is 21% in the red year-to-date. Nevertheless, Amazon’s performance last year was not being overlooked by smart money investors, as during the third quarter alone, the number of funds bullish on the stock (among those we track) went up by ten to 113, while in aggregate, these investors amassed 6.30% of the company’s outstanding stock by the end of September. We shall wait until the current round of 13F filings is complete to see if the same sentiment towards Amazon persisted in the last three months of 2015.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) jumped to the third spot on the list of the most-searched tickers, as the market was digesting the company’s financial results reported a week earlier. Netflix managed to beat profit estimates with fourth-quarter adjusted EPS of $0.07 and revenue of $1.82 billion, which was mixed in relation to consensus estimates of $0.02 in EPS on revenue of $1.83 billion. The company also added 5.59 million net subscribers during the quarter and expects to add 6.1 million subscribers in the current quarter.

Netflix’s stock is down by more than 20% since the beginning of 2016 as investors become more concerned about the company’s valuation and mounting competition. The shares are trading at a forward P/E of 126.6 and despite the year-to-date decline, they are still 39% in the green over the last 52 weeks. Among the funds we track, 57 reported stakes in Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) as of the end of September, amassing nearly 15% of the company, versus 50 funds a quarter earlier.