Why Tesla, Apple, Alibaba, and Two Other Stocks Are Trending Today

It’s another red day on Wall Street as all three index futures and crude oil are lower, dragged by the overall decline in markets around the world.

Among the stocks traders are talking about are Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), GlobeImmune Inc (NASDAQ:GBIM), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), and Himax Technologies, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:HIMX). Let’s take a closer look at each stock and see how elite funds are positioned among them.

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 the details here).

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Tesla Motors Says Accident Not Material

Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is in the spotlight today after reporters from Fortune asked why Tesla had not disclosed the death of a man using Tesla’s autopilot technology before the company’s around $2 billion capital raise. Tesla and Elon Musk has responded by saying that the death “is not material to the value of Tesla” and that “if anyone bothered to do the math (obviously, you did not) they would realize that of the over 1M auto deaths per year worldwide, approximately half a million people would have been saved if the Tesla autopilot was universally available”. Shares of Tesla are down 1.4% today. Of the 766 funds we track, 39 funds owned $1.08 billion worth of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock, which accounted for 3.60% of the float on March 31, versus 29 funds and $837.44 million, respectively, on December 31.

GlobeImmune Will be Delisted

GlobeImmune Inc (NASDAQ:GBIM) shares have more than halved on the news that that the company will delist its common stock from the NASDAQ. According to a press release, the company filed a Form 25 notification on July 5 to effect the voluntary delisting and management expects the filing to be effective on July 25, 2016. Traders are selling because delisted stocks generally don’t have much liquidity. None of the funds we track owned shares of GlobeImmune Inc (NASDAQ:GBIM) at the end of the first quarter.

On the next page, we examine Apple Inc, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, and Himax Technologies Inc (ADR).
Apple’s Next iPhone is Expected to Have More Storage

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)‘s next iPhone is expected to be thinner, more water resistant, sport a better camera, and have more storage (for entry level phones). Currently the entry level iPhone gives users 16 GB and analysts expect the next iPhone to provide double the space, or 32 GB. A better iPhone will help ramp up Apple profit and revenues, which have been languishing of late. A total of 152 funds tracked by us were long Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at the end of the first quarter, up by 19 funds from the previous quarter.

Alibaba Plans for a Driverless Future

China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is trending after CTO Wang Jian told Reuters that Alibaba is planning to ‘quickly introduce driverless vehicle technology’. Alibaba is apparently working with China’s SAIC Motor Corp to adapt some driverless tech aspects into a vehicle that is expected to go on sale in 2016. A fully automated car may still be several years away, however. At the end of March, 67 funds from the Insider Monkey database owned shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), down by 10 funds over the quarter.

Analysts Give Thumbs Up to Himax 

Himax Technologies, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:HIMX) shares are in the green today after analysts at Nomura upgraded the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ and set a $9.70 price target. Himax provided better-than-expected guidance on Tuesday and analysts think the chip manufacturer has a bright future, given the strong growth outlook for augmented reality/virtual reality products such as Microsoft’s HoloLens. The number of funds tracked by us with holdings in Himax Technologies, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:HIMX) rose by 10 quarter-over-quarter to 27 at the end of March.

Disclosure: none