Trending Stocks: Lockheed Martin to Get Trump Boost? Plus the Latest on ConocoPhillips, Netflix, Pfizer, and More

Crude futures are lower today as traders brace for the upcoming OPEC meeting later this month. If the cartel fails to agree on the specifics of a production cut, some analysts think crude could fall to $40 per barrel. If they do come to an agreement, the commodity could rise to $50 per barrel or higher.

In this article, we’ll examine the reasons why Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) are in the spotlight this morning, and uncover relevant hedge fund sentiment towards the stocks using the latest 13F data.

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).

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Traders are watching Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) after Carter Copeland of Barclays upgraded the stock to ‘Equal Weight’ from ‘Underweight’ and hiked his price target on it to $275 from $245. Copeland thinks that the market is pricing in an almost-certain probability that the Trump administration will spend more in defense in the near-term. More defense spending will likely benefit the U.S. Aerospace and Defense sector and Lockheed. Of the 749 funds in our system which filed 13Fs for the June quarter, 39 owned $1.19 billion worth of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT)’s stock on June 30, which accounted for 1.60% of the float.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) shares are in the green in the pre-market hours after the oil and gas giant announced that it will divest between $5 billion and $8 billion in assets (with much of it focused on North American gas) and use some of the money to finance a $3 billion stock buyback program. In addition, ConocoPhillips has a debt target of $20 billion, a 20%-to-30% payout of operating cash flows, and modest production growth to drive cash flow and margin expansion. The company expects 2017 full year production to be in the range of 1.54 million-to-1.57 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, versus the full year 2016 production expected average of 1.54 million BOE/D. 43 funds in our database were long ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) at the end of June.

On the next page we’ll find out why eBay, Pfizer, and Netflix are trending.

eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) is in the spotlight after analyst Colin Sebastian of Baird commented that his research tracker shows that the e-commerce company likely had a solid month of October. With that said, the analyst doesn’t expect eBay’s growth to jump significantly until management rolls out a new format/product next year. Sebastian has a $35 price target and an ‘Outperform’ rating on the auction giant. 58 funds that we track were long eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) at the end of June, up one from the end of the previous quarter.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) shares are higher after the European Commission approved the drug giant’s IBRANCE in combination with another drug, Arimidex, for the treatment of a certain common form of breast cancer. Given that breast cancer is a large market, many traders expect strong demand for the drug. In addition, Pfizer is also trending after Reuters reported that the company is considering a potential spin-off or sale of its consumer health segment for as much as $14 billion. The division includes popular brands such as Advil and lip balm Chapstick. The number of funds in our system with holdings in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) fell by 25 quarter-over-quarter to 94 at the end of June.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is trending after David Miller of Loop Capital hiked his price target on the stock to $151 from $133 per share. Miller did so after raising his subscriber add assumptions for the internet streamer, with the analyst estimating that Netflix will have 53.7 million subscribers domestically at the end of 2017, up from the previous 53.6 million estimate. Miller also thinks that Netflix’s international subscriber base will grow to 55.8 million as of the same time period, versus his previous estimate of 54.8 million. Andreas Halvorsen‘s Viking Global cut its stake in Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) by 22% to 6.28 million shares during the second quarter.

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