Why Tesla, Amazon, Alphabet, Zoetis, and Suncor Are Making Headlines Today

It’s the first day of the new trading week and all three index futures are in the green as investors remain bullish on future corporate earnings growth and central bank support. Among the stocks in the spotlight on Monday are Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS), and Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU). Let’s take a closer look at why these five stocks are making headlines and see how the elite funds in our database are positioned in them.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 765 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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Musk To Reveal His Master Plan

Although Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has been beset by a semi-automated driving controversy recently and the company’s planned merger with SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) looks more distant, Elon Musk isn’t fazed. Tesla’s CEO tweeted the following yesterday:

“Working on Top Secret Tesla Masterplan, Part 2. Hoping to publish later this week.”

Given Tesla’s huge potential future market, investors will no doubt want to the plan Mr. Musk has to guide his company to the promised land of profit and returns. If the master plan is rich on doable details, Tesla shares could see sentiment improve. Of the 766 elite funds that we track, 39 of them owned $1.08 billion of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares in aggregate, which accounted for 3.60% of Tesla’s float on March 31. Those figures were sharply up from 29 funds with $837.44 million in holdings on December 31.

Amazon Prepares for Prime Day

Although July 12 isn’t an official holiday like Christmas or Thanksgiving, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)‘s Prime Day could very well deliver the same results for the company if Amazon succeeds in making splurging on e-commerce items a habit for millions of shoppers. Amazon raked in between $375 million and $400 million in sales on Prime Day last year and experts estimate that the e-commerce giant will double that on tomorrow’s Prime Day. It’s hoped the deals will draw new shoppers to Amazon.com, creating more sustainable revenue growth for years to come. Investors are certainly expecting good things from Jeff Bezos and Co., given Amazon shares are trading at their all-time high. 133 elite funds in our system owned shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) at the end of March, down by eight funds quarter-over-quarter.

On the next page we examine why Alphabet Inc, Zoetis Inc, and Suncor Energy are turning heads this morning.
Alphabet’s Beefs Up its Self-Driving Team

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is in the spotlight after the technology giant hired dedicated general counsel Kevin Vosen for its self-driving car project. Good legal representation will be important for Alphabet given the potential for lawsuits over patent infringement and vehicle accidents. If Alphabet plays its cards right, the company’s self-driving car software could become the next Android. 155 funds in our database owned Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Class A shares at the end of March, while 142 were owners of the stock’s Class C shares.

Ackman Cuts Zoetis Stake

Given the company’s positive stock performance year-to-date, Bill Ackman‘s Pershing Square has pared his stake in Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS). According to SEC filings, Ackman’s fund has cut his stake by 6.1 million shares, lowering his share of the company to 3.8% from 5.0%. Mr. Ackman selling shares doesn’t necessarily represent any sort of bad news for Zoetis shareholders. The company trades for a reasonable 21-times forward earnings estimates and has a strong moat. 48 funds that we follow had a long position in Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS) at the end of March, down by six from the end of December.

Suncor Bullish on Oil Sands

Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU) is trending after Bloomberg published an article on the energy company stating that Suncor’s CEO has doubled down on oil sands projects, even though the substance is more carbon intensive than traditional methods of unlocking crude. Suncor has spent $6 billion in acquisitions over the past year and plans to boost production to 800,000 BOE per day in 2019 from 600,000 BOE per day in 2015. Whether the deals will pay off depends on how much crude can be recovered from the sites. The number of firms in Insider Monkey’s database with holdings in Suncor Energy Inc. (USA) (NYSE:SU) rose by three quarter-over-quarter to 32 as of the end of March.

Disclosure: None