Tesla Counters Mobileye, Twitter Streams NFL Game, Plus the Latest on Exxon, Intel, & GoPro

All three major indexes are again lower today as traders brace themselves for a possible unexpected interest rate hike from the Fed next week.

Among the stocks grabbing some headlines during today’s down market are Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO), Mobileye NV (NYSE:MBLY), and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR). We’ll put each of them under a microscope in this article and use the latest hedge fund filings to see how the smart money was positioning themselves in each stock during the second quarter.

Hedge fund sentiment is an important metric for assessing the long-term profitability. At Insider Monkey, we track over 750 hedge funds, whose quarterly 13F filings we analyze and determine their collective sentiment towards several thousand stocks. However, our research has shown that the best strategy is to follow hedge funds into their small-cap picks. This approach can allow monthly returns of nearly 95 basis points above the market, as we determined through extensive backtests covering the period between 1999 and 2012 (see the details here).

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Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) shares are off by 1.15% in morning trading in part due to the news that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating why the company hasn’t taken a write-down on its asset values despite the over 50% drop in crude prices. Exxon has defended itself by saying that it has followed all relevant regulations and rules. Exxon shares are also in the red due to lower WTI and Brent prices this morning. 60 funds in our system were bullish on Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) at the end of the second quarter, unchanged from the end of the first quarter.

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has surged by 2.6% after the semiconductor giant raised its third quarter revenue outlook to $15.3 billion-to-$15.9 billion, versus the previous range of $14.4 billion-to-$15.4 billion. In addition, management also raised the midpoint of its gross margin expectations for the quarter to 63% from the previous 62%. Intel shares have done very well in 2016, rising by around 10% year-to-date. The number of funds tracked by Insider Monkey with holdings in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) rose by three during the second quarter to 57 at the end of June.

On the next page we’ll examine the latest on GoPro, Mobileye NV, and Twitter.

GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) bulls are having a good day, as shares of the action camera maker are up by 4% in morning trading. Much of the bullishness is due to Bank of America Merrill Lynch setting a $19 price target on the stock and giving it a ‘Buy’ rating as it initiates coverage of it. The analysts think that much of the bad news has already been priced in and thinks GoPro offers upside given the company’s new product cycle. Not many funds that we track owned GoPro according to our database. 16 hedge funds owned $124.94 million worth of GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO)’s stock, which accounted for 8.40% of the float on June 30.

A few days after Mobileye NV (NYSE:MBLY) criticized former customer Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) for pushing the envelope in terms of auto-pilot technology, Tesla has responded by saying that the assertion was “inaccurate”. Tesla also added:

“When Tesla refused to cancel its own vision development activities and plans for deployment, Mobileye discontinued hardware support for future platforms and released public statements implying that this discontinuance was motivated by safety concerns.”

It is unclear how the very public spat between Mobileye and Tesla will help the former win new customers. Shares of the company are down by 0.6% in morning trading. 25 funds had a long position in Mobileye NV (NYSE:MBLY) on June 30, owning 5.30% of the company’s float. 17.7% of the float is short.

Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) shares have surged by 4.5% after yesterday’s NFL game between the Jets and Bills was broadcast on the social network without a hitch. Twitter bulls hope the streaming of an NFL game will help the social media company increase its userbase/engagement and help with monetization efforts. In addition to yesterday’s game, Twitter will also be streaming nine more Thursday Night Football games in the coming months. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies was long more than 3.1 million shares of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) at the end of the second quarter.

Disclosure: None