Markets opened lower on Thursday amid Saudi-Iran tussle at the OPEC meeting in Vienna, which has put price control measures in jeopardy. Some of the stocks worth watching today are Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX), Box Inc (NYSE:BOX) and General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS). Let’s find out what’s putting these stocks in the spotlight today and see the hedge funds’ sentiment towards each of them.
Denys Prykhodov / Shutterstock.com
Through extensive research, we determined that imitating some of the picks of hedge funds and other institutional investors can help generate market-beating returns over the long run. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these investors, since they are usually less followed by the broader market and are less price-efficient. Our backtests that covered the period between 1999 and 2012, showed that following the 15 most popular small-caps among hedge funds can help a retail investor beat the market by an average of 95 basis points per month (see more details here).
Apple Issuing Bonds in Asia Pacific
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in the spotlight today after the Wall Street Journal reported that the company is issuing bonds in Taiwan and Australia as part of its plans to raise $3 billion to $4 billion in debt in the Asia Pacific region to generate funds for dividend payments and share buybacks. Approximately 90% of the total cash of Apple is placed outside the US. The source said that Apple uses the offshore debt sales for raising funds for its share buybacks and dividends. Apple will start its bond issues in Taiwan and Australia with $1 billion in each market, the report claimed, citing a person familiar with the matter. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s stock is down by over 1% so far today. As of the end of first quarter 2016, 152 hedge funds from our system are long Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) with approximately $14.8 billion worth of shares in aggregate. Billionaire Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management has the biggest stake among these investors with the total ownership of more than 11 million shares.
Whistle Blower Sues Oracle over Exaggerated Accounting
Shares of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) declined by more than 4% today after the company was hit with yet another lawsuit on Wednesday. Svetlana Blackburn, a former senior finance manager at the company, filed a whistleblower lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claiming that she was fired when she didn’t comply with the top management’s orders to falsify and exaggerate the Cloud revenue figures. Svetlana claims that her bosses told her to add “millions of dollars” to the financial reports without any backing. In a statement, Oracle’s spokesperson Oracle spokeswoman said that the company doesn’t agree with the allegations and intends to “vigorously” defend in the court. Out of the total funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 62 funds amassed around $7.9 billion worth of Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)’s stock at the end of March 2016. Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick First’s Pacific Advisors owbs more than 25 million shares of the company.
On the next page, we will discuss Phillips 66, Box and General Mills.
