Apogee, Apigee and Everything In-Between: The Latest On These 5 Trending Stocks

Despite the relatively small change in the major indexes on Wednesday, many investors are on edge in anticipation of the Federal Reserve FOMC meeting later this month. If interest rates should rise faster than expected, some traders could decide to take profits from what has now been an 8-year bull market.

In this article, we’ll analyze why Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AERI), CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS), Apogee Enterprises Inc (NASDAQ:APOG), Student Transportation Inc (NASDAQ:STB), and Apigee Corp (NASDAQ:APIC) are trending, and see how hedge funds were positioned in them using the latest 13F filing data.

We believe that imitating hedge funds and other large institutional investors can be helpful in identifying stocks capable of outperforming the broader market. Through extensive research that covered portfolios of several hundred large investors between 1999 and 2012, we determined that following the small-cap stocks that large money managers are collectively bullish on, can generate monthly returns nearly 1.0 percentage points above the market (see the details here).

Kobby Dagan / Shutterstock.com

Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AERI) bulls are pretty happy today after the company announced positive top-line efficacy results for its product candidate Roclatan 0.02%/0.005% from a phase 3 trial. According to the company, the drug candidate successfully achieved the primary efficacy endpoint, showing statistical superiority over each of its components. Shares of the company have surged by over 56% in pre-market trading on the news. Of the 749 hedge funds that we track which filed 13Fs for the June quarter, 17 owned $153.4 million worth of Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AERI) shares on June 30, which  accounted for 32.80% of the float.

CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) may have to wait a little bit longer before it can be considered a credible threat to internet streaming giants such as Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX). According to The Hollywood Reporter, CBS’ new Star Trek series will now launch four months after its original target unveiling of January. One reason for the delay appears to be the drive to make the show as good as possible. Executive producers Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman said:

“We aim to dream big and deliver, and that means making sure the demands of physical and post-production for a show that takes place entirely in space, and the need to meet an air date, don’t result in compromised quality.”

Howard Guberman‘s Gruss Asset Management owned more than 2.2 million shares of CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) at the end of June, up by 3% quarter-over-quarter.

On the next page, we’ll examine why Apogee Enterprises, Student Transportation, and Apigee Corp are each in the spotlight this morning.

Apogee Enterprises Inc (NASDAQ:APOG) is 8% in the green in pre-market trading after the company reported better-than-expected fiscal year 2017 second quarter results. For the period, Apogee earned $0.77 per share on revenue of $278.5 million, beating the consensus targets by $0.10 and $10.45 million respectively. Sales rose by 15.7% year-over-year, while EPS rose by 54%. Operating margin also inched up by 260 basis points. Apogee’s management expects more of the same for the rest of the year, as they raised their fiscal 2017 EPS outlook to $2.80-to-$2.90 and issued a full-year revenue growth outlook of 10%. 13 funds in our system had a long position in Apogee Enterprises Inc (NASDAQ:APOG) at the end of June, down by one from the end of March.

Like Apogee, Student Transportation Inc (NASDAQ:STB) also solidly beat the consensus estimates for its latest fiscal reporting period, pushing its shares up by 5.45% in extended trading. For its fiscal 2016 fourth quarter, Student Transportation earned $0.07 per share, beating the average analyst estimate by $0.02. Revenue came in at $166.19 million, up by 9% year-over-year, and beating the consensus mark by $2.52 million. For the full fiscal year, the company earned $0.06 per share, up from $0.04 in the previous fiscal year. In addition to the beats, the company’s Board has approved a monthly cash dividend of $0.03667 per common share through the end of the second quarter of its fiscal 2017. Four funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long Student Transportation Inc (NASDAQ:STB) at the end of the second quarter.

Apigee Corp (NASDAQ:APIC) reported an adjusted loss of $0.21 per share for its fiscal 2016 fourth quarter, beating the consensus analyst estimate of a loss of $0.27 per share. Revenue for the period was $25.1 million, up by 34.2% year-over-year, and $0.16 million ahead of estimates. For the full fiscal year, Apigee’s product revenue rose by 46% year-over-year to $75.3 million while its total revenue jumped by 34% to $92 million. Adjusted gross margin was 71.8%, up from 65.3% in the prior fiscal year. The number of funds in our database with holdings in Apigee Corp (NASDAQ:APIC) rose by three during the second quarter to 12 at the end of June. Apigee’s stock is little moved on the news given that it recently agreed to sell itself to Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) for $17.40 per share in cash.

Disclosure: None