Why Facebook, Sears Holdings, and Three Other Stocks Are Trending Today

After falling sharply yesterday, gold futures have steadied on Wednesday, with the forward month futures price of the commodity inching up 0.5% in morning trading so far.

In this article, we will find out why five stocks, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD), Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ), are in the spotlight, and we will use data from the last round of 13F filings to determine what the smart money thinks about each stock.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 740 hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on, can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see the details here).

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Murphy’s law has struck again, this time at Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).  Shortly after the social media giant introduced ‘Marketplace’, a mobile-centric e-commerce platform designed to compete against Craigslist, Facebook’s Marketplace product was inundated with postings for illegal products and services such as guns, sex, drugs, and other things. The occurrence isn’t inherently new to the internet. A few years ago, Craigslist was famous for taking down a certain section of its website due to the unsavory services offered by users there. Needless to say, the postings for illegal services and products are against Facebook’s terms of service, and the social media giant has since apologized for the event, blaming a ‘technical’ issue for allowing the postings. Dan Loeb‘s Third Point established a new position of  3.75 million shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) during the second quarter.

Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) is in the spotlight on the back of the news that various bidders including Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK) are in the running for potentially purchasing Sears’ iconic Craftsman tool business. According to Bloomberg, which cited sources familiar with the matter, the final bids, which should come in at the end of October, could value Craftsman at around $2 billion. Shares of Sears are down by 41% year-to-date, while Stanley Black & Decker has rallied by over 17%. Among the funds that we track, 16 held shares of Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) and 27 were long Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK) at the end of June.

On the next page, we find out why Amazon.com and Constellation Brands are trending.

Although it might have some problems if Donald Trump becomes President and he follows through with his anti-trust talk, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is considering putting behind it another potential anti-trust matter, this time in Europe. According to Bloomberg, the e-commerce giant is in talks with regulators on the continent to settle an antitrust probe concerning how Amazon’s e-book contracts with publishers might be severely restraining competition from rival distributors. Amazon is currently the largest distributor of e-books in the area. Jeff Bezos’ company is one of the smart money’s top picks, as our records indicate 145 funds were long Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) at the end of the second quarter.

Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ) is in the green after it reported comparable earnings per share of $1.77 (up by 13% on the year) on revenue of $2.02 billion (up by 17% on the year) for its fiscal second quarter, versus the Street’s estimates of $1.65 and $1.96 billion, respectively. For the full year, Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ)  expects earnings of $6.30 to $6.45 per share  and net sales growth of 16% to 17% for its beer business. In addition, the company also announced that it had agreed to buy High West Distillery, which should close by the end of this month. A total of 69 funds from our database were long Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ) at the end of June, down by two funds from the previous quarter.

Disclosure: none