5 Stocks That Are Moving the Markets Today: TSM, APH, BBT, More

The markets are somewhat choppy today, as the Nasdaq is slightly in the red, while the S&P and Dow are comfortably in the green. Among the noteworthy news that traders are digesting this morning is the surprising decline in new home starts in the U.S, though permits jumped higher than expected.

The markets are also being affected by several individual stocks that are moving the markets today, including Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM), Amphenol Corporation (NYSE:APH), Imperva Inc. (NYSE:IMPV), Banc of California Inc. (NYSE:BANC) and BB&T Corporation (NYSE:BBT). In this article, we’ll discuss the news behind these stocks and see how hedge funds have been trading them lately.

At Insider Monkey, we track more than 750 hedge funds, whose 13F filings we analyze as part of our small-cap strategy. Our research has shown that imitating a portfolio that includes the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds can outperform the market by as much as 95 basis points per month on average (see more details).

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Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM) stock is trading marginally higher after reports emerged that QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) may switch production of follow-on orders for its Snapdragon 830 chips to the company, as Samsung struggles to keep up with the demand. It was also reported today that Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (ADR) (NYSE:TSM) will purchase machinery equipment worth T$3.7 billion ($120 million) from Applied Materials South East Asia Pte. Ltd. and  Keysight Technologies Singapore (Sales) Pte. Ltd. Among the funds that we track, 26 funds held $2 billion worth of Taiwan Semiconductor’s stock at the end of June, having amassed 1.5% of its outstanding stock.

Amphenol Corporation (NYSE:APH) is trading up by 2.37% after the company announced better than expected results for its third quarter. Its net income for the quarter stood at $0.73 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $0.68. Amphenol’s revenue of $1.64 billion also surpassed the Street’s forecast of $1.57 billion. The company expects its full year earnings to be in the range of $2.68-to-$2.70 per share. The number of funds from within our hedge fund database long Amphenol Corporation (NYSE:APH) stood at 19 as of June 30.

We’ll check out the latest on three more market movers on the next page.

Imperva Inc. (NYSE:IMPV) shares have plunged by 15% on the news that it may delay selling itself as it seeks to attain a better price. At the same time, several analysts, including JPMorgan, cautioned that the company needs to offer consistent growth for a couple of quarters to justify its own elevated price expectations. Imperva shares are now well below the $44 price range they stood at before Bloomberg reported on July 11 that the company would seek to sell itself. 21 hedge funds in our database had long positions in Imperva Inc. (NYSE:IMPV) at the end of the June quarter, including Paul Singer‘s Elliott Management, which pushed for a sale.

Banc of California Inc. (NYSE:BANC) shares have jumped by 15% after the company decided to report its earnings earlier than scheduled. Its net income for the third quarter of the year rose by nearly 100% to touch $0.59 per share, easily beating the consensus estimate of $0.42. Banc of California’s revenue of $161.6 million also clobbered the Street’s forecast of $144.4 million. Furthermore, the company increased its 2016 EPS forecast from $1.60 to $1.85. Banc of California has also rebounded today after big losses yesterday partly due to lashing out against a Seeking Alpha article published yesterday which it called “inaccurate” and “malicious”. The article alleged that several Banc of California officers and board members had ties to fraudster Jason Galanis. Seeking Alpha stated that the article was an instablog post that was not subject to its editorial approval. 17 hedge funds that we track held about $97 million in Banc of California stock as of the end of the June quarter.

BB&T Corporation (NYSE:BBT) is marginally up as the company reported its financial results for the third quarter, including EPS of $0.76 and revenue of $2.81 billion, which beat estimates of $0.71 and $2.79 billion. BB&T Corporation (NYSE:BBT) stated that the bank focused on curtailing costs and increasing revenue. 20 hedge funds in our database held about $838 million worth of BB&T Corporation’s stock as of the end of June.

Disclosure: None