The markets are trading slightly higher on Monday as several stocks are fueling its move on the back of different developments. Earlier today, five companies issued press releases outlining their latest financial results, including Visa Inc (NYSE:V), Clorox Co (NYSE:CLX), Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL), HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC), and Towers Watson & Co (NASDAQ:TW). Therefore, in this article we will take a closer look at the results and see how the market reacted to the news.
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In addition, we will take a look at the smart money activity surrounding each of these companies by looking at the data from the 13F filings of over 730 funds we have in our database. Large money managers usually employ a lot of resources in order to identify the most profitable opportunities and by following the stocks they are collectively bullish on, we can also benefit from their insight. For example, the 15 most popular small-cap stocks, around which our investment strategy is focused, have returned 102% since August 2012, beating the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by around 53 percentage points (see more details here).
Without any further ado, let’s take a look at the results revealed by the five companies outlined above. On the first spot is Visa Inc (NYSE:V), which has reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2015. The company delivered net income of $2.62 per share for the full year, up by 16% compared to fiscal year 2014, while for the fourth quarter, its EPS amounted to $0.62, up by 44% year-over-year. Visa Inc (NYSE:V)’s revenue for the fourth quarter and the full year also went up to $3.57 billion and $13.88 billion, respectively. Visa’s fourth quarter results missed the EPS estimate of $0.63, while revenue was slightly higher-than-expected. The company also announced the acquisition of Visa Europe in a $23-billion deal and a new buyback program of $5 billion. The market reacted negatively to the worse-than-expected earnings and sent the stock down by nearly 4% in morning trading. Still, among the funds we track, Visa Inc (NYSE:V) is a very popular stock, being included in the equity portfolios of 98 funds, which held 4.80% of its stock at the end of June. Among them was billionaire Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management, which further increased its stake in the third quarter, reporting ownership of 14.63 million shares as of the end of September.
Next in line is Clorox Co (NYSE:CLX), which reported its fiscal year 2016 first quarter results this morning, which resulted in its stock moving 4% into the green today. The company posted EPS of $1.31 per share, up from $0.68 a year earlier and revenue of $1.39 billion, versus $1.35 billion last year. In this way, the company also managed to beat the estimates of $1.18 in EPS and $1.38 billion in revenue. For the full 2016 fiscal year, Clorox Co (NYSE:CLX) anticipates delivering EPS in the range of $4.68-to-$4.83, in line with the consensus analyst estimate. Among the funds from our database, only 27 held stakes in Clorox Co (NYSE:CLX) that amassed 5.30% of the company’s stock at the end of June.
Three more trending stocks are discussed on the following page.
Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL)‘s stock jumped by over 8% after the bell, as the company reported EPS of $0.82 on revenue of $2.83 billion this morning. Both revenue and earnings were higher in year-over-year terms and both were above the estimates projected by the Street, which were for EPS of $0.70 on revenue of $2.80 billion. Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL) managed to post an 8% annual growth in sales despite facing strong currency headwinds across almost all international markets and expects further growth in the next quarters. The funds from our database are somewhat cautious towards Estee Lauder Companies Inc (NYSE:EL) as only 31 of them reported aggregate stakes that were equal to just 1.30% of the company’s shares at the end of June.
HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC)‘s stock inched down even though the company’s bottom line for the third quarter was better-than-expected. The company delivered a 32% growth in pre-tax profit to $6.1 billion, compared to estimates of $5.2 billion. The results show the effect of lower payments for regulatory settlements and fines, as well as the impact of the strategic review that the company launched back in June. HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC) is not very popular among the funds from our database, as only 15 reported stakes in it during the previous round of 13F filings, although this number was up by five in the second quarter. The value of these funds’ positions was equal to just 0.40% of HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC)’s market cap at the end of June.
Towers Watson & Co (NASDAQ:TW) posted revenue of $896 million for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2016, up by 2% on the year and delivered adjusted net income of $1.49 per share, versus $1.32 per share a year earlier. Both top and bottom lines were higher than the $881.5 million in revenue and EPS of $1.34 expected by analysts. The stock jumped after the bell, but has since retracted and currently is trading at around 1% in the green. Between April and June, the number of investors bullish on Towers Watson & Co (NASDAQ:TW) went up by three to 24, although the aggregate value of their stakes amounted to only 4.40% of the company’s market cap at the end of the second quarter.
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