This is Driving The Declines at Nokia (NOK), Micron (MU), Alibaba (BABA), Xerox & Kinder Morgan Today

After experiencing a rebound last week, markets were back to their declining way on Monday, with all major U.S stock indexes down slightly. Some of the stocks driving the losses included Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK), Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), and Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX), all of which are tumbling today. Let’s take a look at the events behind the drops, and into what the hedge funds in our database think about these companies.

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Back to Monday’s decliners, there’s Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK), which is trading down almost 12% in the early afternoon. Earlier today, the company announced that it received a positive decision from a patent arbitration case involving Samsung Electronics. While the amount of money awarded was not disclosed, management did say that between 2016 and 2018, inclusive, it expects the company to receive approximately EUR 1.3 billion (about $1.4 billion) in cash “related to its settled and ongoing arbitrations in Nokia Technologies, including this award.” However, it seems like that figure disappointed investors.

On top of the unsatisfactory guidance, Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) was downgraded by Merrill Lynch to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ this morning, while Canaccord cut its price target on the stock to $6.50 from $10.00. These research firms are now the only ones bearish on Nokia. Over the latest fully reported 13F filing quarter (the third quarter of 2015), Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke, and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, which used to be the largest investor in the company within our system, sold all of its 30.89 million shares.

Next up is Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI), down by over 9% in Monday trading. Two events were probably driving this decline. On the one hand, oil prices fell more than 4.6% today. On the other hand, 24/7 Wall St. attributed the tumble to the closing of a $350 million deal with BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP), through which Kinder Morgan will acquire 15 refined product terminals.

Negative news aside, it seems like hedge funds are bullish on Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI). Over the latest reported quarter, Bob Peck and Andy Raab’s FPR Partners boosted its position in the stock by 22%, taking its holding to almost 6.00 million shares, worth more than $165 million.

On the next page, we will examine why Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), and Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX) are also falling on Monday.

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) is down by just under 2% on Monday afternoon, along with oil and the broader market, even though analysts at Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to ‘Neutral’ this morning. According to the firm, the decline that the stock experienced recently now makes its valuation attractive.

It seems like there are still many hedge funds bullish on Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU)’s long-term potential. As of the end of the third quarter, 71 funds in our database were long the stock and held 11.5% of its total shares. D E Shaw declared holding 12.41 million shares of the company, worth more than $185 million as of September 30.

Yet another stock tumbling on Monday is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), down by roughly 0.5% since the market opened, having rebounded from a steeper slide earlier in the day. The dip is probably due to the news that competitor JD.Com Inc(ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) has added the Calvin Klein and Under Armour Inc (NYSE:UA) brands to its site’s offerings. “While the brands will not be on JD.com exclusively, the deals are still significant for the company as it battles against Alibaba, its biggest rival, to attract more international sellers. The hope is that having more international products on its site will give Chinese consumers more reason to shop on the site,” an article from The Street explained.

In fact, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) seems to be losing popularity among hedge funds as well. Over the latest reported quarter, the number of hedge funds in our database with long positions in the company fell by almost 30% to 60. Also interestingly, ownership of Alibaba’s shares among the investors that we track stood at only 2.6% as of September 30.

Finally, there’s Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX), down about 2.9% in the afternoon hours, after analysts at Morgan Stanley downgraded their rating on the stock from to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Overweight’. The experts also trimmed their price target by $1.50 to $12.00, even though they said they see the recently announced split of the company as a positive.

Last Friday, famed investor Carl Icahn said that his firm, Icahn Capital LP, held 92.38 million shares of Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX). This stake accounts for 9.12% of the company’s outstanding common stock, and implies a substantial increase from the 82.31 million owned shares disclosed in December. Icahn also expressed his belief that the company’s split was a positive development.

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