Buzzing Stocks: CBS, Zillow Group, Generac, More

Generac Holdings Suffers a Poor Quarter

Less power outages and declining oil prices dented the first quarter results of Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC), but the power products company still managed to surpass the Street’s estimates. Generac Holdings’ revenue dropped by 9% to $286.5 million, beating analysts’ expectations of $280.74 million. EPS came in at $0.46, also beating estimates, by $0.04. The company’s CEO, Aaron Jagdfeld, said in a statement that sales of mobile products were affected by low oil and gas prices. However, the company is hopeful for the future. It expects a 10%-to-12% rise in sales in 2016 due to its recent acquisition of Italy-based power generation company, Pramac. Shares of Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC) are more than 2% in the red today.

As of December, 31, just eight hedge funds in our system had positions in Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC), with a total value of approximately $73 million. Gilchrist Berg’s Water Street Capital was one of the biggest stakeholders, owning more than 1.6 million shares of the company.

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) Misses Estimates

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) is up by 0.31% today despite the company posting a 34% year-over-year dip in revenue amid rising expenses. The company reported EPS of $0.60 on revenue of $572 million for the first quarter, missing analysts’ consensus expectations of $0.74 in EPS on $593 million in revenue. Expenses in the quarter jumped to $124 million from $91.8 million in the first quarter of last year. For the full year, the genome sequencing company now expects EPS in the range of $3.35 to $3.45, down from a previous estimated range of $3.55 to $3.65. Illumina’s CEO, Jay Flatley, said that the company remains positive about the growth potential of gene-sequencing. He said that the company’s projects with the biggest potential are still in the early stages of development, and are likely to bear fruit in the near future.

At the end of 2015, 40 hedge funds in our database held $1.3 billion worth of Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) shares. That was down greatly from 62 hedge funds with long positions a quarter earlier.

Revenue and Sales Decline for Anheuser Busch Inbev

Anheuser Busch Inbev SA (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) has lost more than 2% today after its revenue and sales in the first quarter missed analysts’ estimates. The Belgium-based brewing company’s revenue was $9.4 billion for the quarter, down from $10.45 billion in the same quarter of last year, and widely missing analyst expectations of $10.04 billion. Profit fell even more heavily, to $844 million from $2.3 billion a year earlier, mainly because of unfavorable exchange rates in Latin America, with the company saying in a statement that its Brazil business faced the most difficulties in the quarter. Anheuser Busch Inbev SA (ADR) (NYSE:BUD) is hopeful that its $108 billion takeover of SABMiller will boost its revenue in the future.

Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management is one of the biggest shareholders of Anheuser Busch Inbev, with total ownership of more than 5.00 million shares as of March 31.

Disclosure: None