Trending Stocks: Davita, Nordstrom, AbbVie, and More

Despite the fact that the polls are narrowing and November 8 is just over a week away, the markets are rather calm, as all three indexes are moderately in the green.

Among the stocks that are capturing investors’ attention today are Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN), AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV), AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE:AN), Deere & Company (NYSE:DE), and Davita Inc (NYSE:DVA). Let’s examine the various reasons causing the five stocks to trend and analyze how hedge funds have been trading the five stocks using the latest 13F data.

Our research determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor to beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see the details).

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Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) is 0.8% in the red after Paul Trussell of Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ and trimmed his price target on it to $56 from $57, citing the luxury retailer’s rather full valuation. Shares of Nordstrom have rallied by over 45% since late-June, and the stock doesn’t look cheap without more sales growth. John W. Rogers‘ Ariel Investments owned 1.24 million shares of Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE:JWN) on June 30, up by 9% from its stake on March 31.

AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) shares are down by 2% after Vamil Divan of Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform’ and trimmed his price target to $60 per share from the previous mark of $70. Divan sees limited upside pipeline catalysts in the near-term and is rather concerned about Humira’s success given the increased attention to pricing transparency and the tougher payer environment. Of the 749 hedge funds that we track which filed 13Fs for the June quarter, 57 owned $4.77 billion in AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV) positions on June 30, down from 65 funds holding $5.28 billion in positions on March 31.

On the next page we’ll take a closer look at the latest on AutoNation, Deere & Company, and Davita.