Chevron, Petrobras, and Barclays Are Among 5 Stocks Making Noise Friday

After rallying above $41 per barrel, crude futures are once again below the water-line as traders brace for today’s rig count report. Bulls hope that the decline in crude prices will prevent more companies from activating their drills while bears hope the rig count will continue to rise, raising fears of another oversupply glut.

In this energy-heavy edition of the day’s trending stocks we’ll take a closer look at why Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX), Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS), Revlon Inc (NYSE:REV), Statoil ASA(ADR) (NYSE:STO), and Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) are turning heads today. We’ll also use SEC filings to determine what the smart money thinks of each company’s shares.

While there are many metrics that investors can assess in the investment process, the hedge fund sentiment is something that is often overlooked. However, hedge funds and other institutional investors allocate significant resources while making their bets and their long-term focus makes them the perfect investors to emulate. This is supported by our research, which determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor to beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

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Chevron Reports Mixed Results

Like its fellow supermajor Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) shares are in the red today after the company reported a loss of $0.78 per share on revenue of $29.3 billion, missing the bottom-line consensus estimate by a hefty $1.10 per share but beating the top-line target by $1.22 billion. Lower crude prices and impairments caused the company’s upstream division to report a loss of $2.46 billion while weak refining margins caused the company’s downstream unit to deliver earnings of just $1.28 billion. In positive news, the company continues to make progress with its growth and cost containment initiatives. Ken Fisher‘s Fisher Asset Management owned more than 3.6 million shares of Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) at the end of the second quarter.

Barclays Pops

After having been beaten up due to Britain voting to leave the EU last month, Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS) shares have surged by 7% due to a better than expected earnings release. For the first half, the company reported earnings of GBX0.069 ($0.09) per share on revenue of GBP11.01 billion ($14.61 billion). Despite profits falling by 21% year-over-year, the company generated a solid return on tangible equity of 11% and is committed to divesting non-core assets to improve its focus. Of the 766 active funds in our database, 12 of them owned $289.27 million worth of Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS) shares in aggregate on March 31, which accounted for 0.80% of the float.

On the next page we’ll find out why Revlon Inc, Statoil, and Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras have investors buzzing today.