Campbell Soup, Nvidia, Joy Global: What You Need to Know About 5 Trending Stocks

Crude futures are more than 1% in the red today as sentiment around the commodity remains uncertain after yesterday’s greater-than-expected EIA inventory build.

Among the stocks in the spotlight this morning are Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB), Joy Global Inc. (NYSE:JOY), NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU), and Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRA). Let’s take a closer look at the five companies and find out why they’re trending and use the latest 13F data to determine how the smart money perceives each stock.

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Campbell Soup Misses the Mark

Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) shares are 4% in the red today after the food producer reported underwhelming results for its fiscal year 2016 fourth quarter. For the period, Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) earned $0.46 per share, missing estimates by $0.04, while revenue was $1.69 billion, flat year-over-year and in-line with analysts’ estimates. Comparable organic sales retreated by % while adjusted EBIT margin fell by 30 basis points to 15%. For its fiscal year 2017, Campbell Soup expects adjusted EPS of between $3.00 and $3.09 and net sales growth of flat-to-1%. Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group more than quadrupled its position in Campbell Soup during the second quarter, to almost 1.8 million shares at the end of June.

Joy Global Reports Earnings

Although its earnings report doesn’t really matter due to Komatsu’s agreement to buy the company in July, Joy Global Inc. (NYSE:JOY) is nevertheless in the headlines today for reporting disappointing fiscal 2016 third quarter results. For the three months, Joy Global earned just $0.10 per share on revenue of $586.55 million, missing the consensus estimates by $0.02 and $18.77 million respectively. Revenue fell by 26% year-over-year due to weak commodity prices while consolidated bookings retreated by 9% year-over-year. In the short-term, it certainly looks as if Joy Global’s management was right to sell the company. The number of hedge funds in our database with holdings in Joy Global Inc. (NYSE:JOY) fell by five quarter-over-quarter to 22 at the end of June.

We’ll find out why NVIDIA Corporation, Baidu Inc, and Vera Bradley are each making headlines this morning on the next page.

Two Tech Companies Team Up to Make Autonomous Car

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) are in the spotlight after the two companies agreed to work together to build a self-driving AI vehicle. As China’s dominant search company, Baidu is one of the leaders in terms of researching and developing AI software. Given its GPUs, Nvidia is also one of the sector leaders in terms of developing chips suited for AI purposes. Nvidia’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said:

“No company in the world today has demonstrated the ability to integrate this system and deploy it at scale for millions of cars to drive by themselves. We are going to bring together our technical capabilities and expertise in AI.”

If the two companies succeed in their efforts, revenue for both companies will likely increase. Of the 749 hedge funds that we track which filed 13F’s for the latest reporting period, 50 owned $1.47 billion worth of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares, while 56 were long Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) at the end of June.

Vera Bradley Earnings Ahead of Expectations, Shares Rise 5%

Traders are bidding up Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRA) today after the company reported better-than-expected fiscal 2017 second quarter results. For the three months, Vera Bradley earned $0.14 per share on revenue of $119.2 million, beating the consensus marks by $0.01 and $0.47 million respectively. Comparable-store sales dropped by 5.7% year-over-year, pushing the company’s operating margin down by 90 basis points to 7%. For its full 2017 fiscal year, Vera Bradley expects EPS of $0.88-to-$0.92 and revenue of $510 million-to-$515 million. 16 hedge funds in our system owned shares of Vera Bradley, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRA) as of the most recent 13F reporting period, down by one fund quarter-over-quarter.

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