Why Tesla, SeaWorld, Netflix, and More Are Trending

It’s another quiet day in the market as all three indexes look to open flat this morning. Among the noteworthy tickers commanding the spotlight are several tech companies, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) along with three more, Golar LNG Limited (USA) (NASDAQ:GLNG), SeaWorld Entertainment Inc (NYSE:SEAS), and Dean Foods Co (NYSE:DF). Let’s find out why each ticker is trending and analyze smart money sentiment towards them.

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Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is in the spotlight after the company priced its public stock offering of 1.34 million shares at $262 a piece, a very respectable number for a company raising so much money. In addition, Tesla priced its convertible senior notes at an conversion price of $327.5 a piece. Although Tesla’s capital raise was well received by the market, David Tamberrino of Goldman Sachs isn’t impressed. The analyst inched up his price target to just $187 from $185 following the raise and kept his ‘Sell’ rating. Of the 742 elite funds we track, 38 funds owned $1.19 billion of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and accounted for 3.50% of the float on December 31, up from 34 funds and $1.01 billion respectively on September 30.

Although the energy markets remain volatile, the sell-side’s opinion on Golar LNG Limited (USA) (NASDAQ:GLNG) remains pretty bullish. Gregory Lewis of Credit Suisse became the latest analyst to give the thumbs up to Golar LNG, raising his price target to $35 from the previous $30. Lewis thinks there is around a 40% chance that Golar LNG will win a third FLNG project before 2019. The analyst has an ‘Outperform’ rating. 27 top funds owned shares of Golar LNG Limited (USA) (NASDAQ:GLNG) at the end of December, up 2 funds from the previous quarter.

On the next page, we examine SeaWorld Entertainment Inc, Netflix Inc, and Dean Foods Co.

Jason Bazinet of Citi recently downgraded SeaWorld Entertainment Inc (NYSE:SEAS) to ‘Sell’ from ‘Neutral’, citing the strong dollar versus the Brazilian Real that might make a Latin American rebound less likely. Bazinet doesn’t know if the consensus EBITDA estimate can be met, and has a $15 price target, down from the previous $19. 20 top funds had a bullish position in SeaWorld Entertainment Inc (NYSE:SEAS) at the end of December.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) keeps on innovating to stay one step ahead of its competitors. According to Variety, Netflix will soon replace its 5 star ratings system with a thumbs up or thumbs down system. According to the company’s research, the thumbs feature received substantially more ratings from users than the five star system. Netflix benefits from having more ratings by using the information to determine which new shows/genres to fund for its original content strategy. With more relevant and popular original content, Netflix’s moat is wider. 61 elite funds were long Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) at the end of December, up 6 funds from the previous quarter.

Dean Foods Co (NYSE:DF) is trending after Ken Goldman of JPMorgan upgraded the stock to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’. Goldman also raised his price target to $22 from the previous $20, citing potentially lower raw diary input costs. The number of elite funds with holdings in Dean Foods Co (NYSE:DF) fell by 6 quarter-over-quarter to 14 at the end of December.

Disclosure:None