Why You Should Watch These Five Stocks Today?

Markets opened higher on Tuesday as companies continue to announce quarterly financial results. A Federal Reserve policy meeting is also scheduled to start today. Among the trending stocks today are Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT), T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS),  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS).  Let’s have a detailed look at why these stocks are trending today along with an analysis of the hedge funds’ sentiment around them.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 800 hedge funds and other 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 (see more details about our small-cap strategy).

Apple’s Worst Quarter in a Decade?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is slated to announce its financial results for the fiscal second quarter after the closing bell on Tuesday and the expectations hint that the tech giant might have suffered the worst quarter since 2003. Apple is expected to report a revenue of $52 billion, down from last year’s figure of $58 billion. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook hinted back in January that the company is on its way to report a decline in sales. The primary reason behind the bad quarter is the massive decline in iPhone sales. According to estimates, Apple sold 50.4 million iPhones in the last quarter, down from 61.2 million a year earlier. In addition, Apple is also expected to report a 20% drop in the number of iPads, which could mark its ninth consecutive quarter of sales decline. Analysts are now counting on iPhone 7 for a boost in the company’s market position.

A total of 133 hedge funds in our database held positions in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at the end of the fourth quarter 2015. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management reported holding 11.31 million shares of Apple as of March 31.

FDA Committee Rejects Sarepta Therapeutics’ Drug

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT)’s stock opened over 30% in the red this morning after a US FDA advisory committee voted against the company’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) disease drug “eteplirsen”. DMD is a life threatening disease which mostly affects men. The panel said that a clinical trial of 12 patients didn’t prove the effectiveness of the drug. The FDA, which is not bound to comply with the advisory committee’s vote, will review the drug on May 26.

Out of the total funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 17 funds held long positions in Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT), having amassed $426.3 million worth of stock at the end of the fourth quarter of 2015. Joseph Edelman’s Perceptive Advisors is one of the notable shareholders of the company with ownership of more than 2.2 million shares.

T-Mobile Beats Expectations

T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS)’s stock opened higher but is currently 2.40% in red after the company announced better-than-expected first quarter results. The mobile carrier reported EPS of $0.56, beating the estimates of $0.10. Total revenue for the first quarter was $8.6 billion, better than the Street’s expectation of $8.43 billion. The company’s results were driven by a growth in net customer additions, which amounted to 2.20 million in the quarter.  T-Mobile also increased its full-year guidance for branded postpaid net adds to the range of 3.2 million to 3.6 million from the previous range of 2.4 million to 3.4 million, and increased adjusted EBITDA target to between $9.7 billion and $10.2 billion, versus the previous range of $9.1 billion to $9.7 billion.

Overall, 50 hedge funds out of those tracked by us held stakes in T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ:TMUS) at the end of the fourth quarter 2015 with a total value of approximately $2.4 billion. John Paulson’s Paulson & Co owns more than 19.7 million shares of the company.

Alibaba-Disney Deal Killed by Chinese Regulators

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) has taken down DisneyLife video service in China after pressure from regulators in China, according to The Wall Street Journal. Back in December, Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) and Alibaba signed a multiyear licensing agreement under which the famous Disney characters were to be brought on screens in China through a video subscription service. According to Alibaba, DisneyLife service is down for maintenance. However, the company has started refunding the fee to the subscribers.

In other news, Ant Financial Services Group, which operates Alipay and was spun-off from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), raised $4.5 billion in funding. Ant Financial’s total worth is $60 billion, more than that of its rival PayPal’s $48 billion.

Out of the total hedge funds tracked by us, 77 funds held positions in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) at the end of last year with the total value of approximately $6.7 billion. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management is one of the biggest stakeholders in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) with a total ownership of more than 3.0 million shares, held as of March 31.

Disclosure: None