Why Amazon, Starbucks and Three Other Stocks Are Trending Today

It’s a good day to be a bull on Wall Street as the Dow has officially broken through an all-time close high, and the S&P is in record territory too.

Among the newsworthy stocks amid the positive backdrop are Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), SAGE Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SAGE), Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX), and RR Donnelley & Sons Co (NASDAQ:RRD). Let’s take a closer look at each company and see what the investors from our database think about them.

We believe that imitating hedge funds and other large institutional investors can be helpful in identifying stocks capable of outperforming the broader market. Through extensive research that covered portfolios of several hundred large investors between 1999 and 2012, we determined that following the small-cap stocks that large money managers are collectively bullish on, can generate monthly returns nearly 1.0 percentage points above the market (see the details here).

Joe Ravi / Shutterstock.com

It’s Prime Day

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) sales will likely increase substantially today as it is Amazon Prime Day. For the second consecutive year, tens of thousands of items on Amazon’s website can be bought at discounted prices for Amazon Prime members, and Amazon will likely benefit given the increase in spending. Partly due to the deals to be had on Prime day, analysts estimate that 63 million consumers are currently actively enrolled in Prime, up by 19 million from Prime Day in 2015. Of the 766 elite funds we track, 133 funds owned $14.7 billion worth of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s stock, which accounted for 5.30% of the float on March 31, versus 141 funds and $17.32 billion, respectively, on December 31.

Certain Types of Coffee to Cost More  

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) shares are up by 0.80% as the chain is expected to raise the price of certain sizes/types of brewed coffee by 10 to 20 cents a cup in the U.S. stores starting today. The price increases will help Starbucks increase its margins and deliver better returns to shareholders. Shares of the company have been range-bound of late, falling by 5.5% year-to-date. Hedge fund optimism in the coffee name has also waned. According to our data, 52 funds had a bullish position in Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) at the end of March, down by nine funds from the previous quarter. Hopefully the price increases can improve sentiment around the stock.

On the next page, we take a closer look at SAGE Therapeutics, Xerox Corp, and RR Donnelley & Sons Co. 

SAGE Surges on Study Results

SAGE Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SAGE) is 34% higher today after a Phase 2 study showed that the company’s product candidate SAGE-547 had met the primary endpoint in terms of statistically reducing postpartum depression symptoms compared to placebo. The study also showed that there were no serious adverse events and that the drug was well tolerated. SAGE will continue the development of SAGE-547 by expanding its Phase 2 clinical program to determine optimal dosing of the drug for the potential treatment of postpartum depression. The number of funds from our database with holdings in SAGE Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SAGE) fell by two quarter-over-quarter to 21 at the end of March.

M&A Rumors Between Xerox and RR Donnelley

Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX) and RR Donnelley & Sons Co (NASDAQ:RRD) have gained over 2% each today after a Bloomberg report stated that Xerox is in negotiations to acquire R. R. Donnelley. Although the talks are early stage and there is no guarantee of a deal, the tie-up between the two companies could potentially be done before Xerox splits into two companies by the end of the year. R.R. Donnelley is the owner of the Edgar financial reporting service. Among the funds we track, 29 funds had a bullish position in Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX) at the end of March, up by four funds from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, 22 investors were long RR Donnelley & Sons Co (NASDAQ:RRD) at the end of March, down by one from the end of the fourth quarter.

Disclosure: None