Core Laboratories, PTC, KCG, and Westlake Chemical Surge, While SunEdison Files for Bankruptcy

After a very strong start to the week, stocks are down on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) left interest rates unchanged and did not announce any stimulus measures. Also weighing on the main U.S stock indexes are a bunch of earnings calls, with the results generally being mixed; overall, the S&P is down 0.25%, the Dow 0.27%, and the Nasdaq 0.05%. However, a few stocks are on the rise on Thursday’s early afternoon. Among them, we can count Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB), PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC), KCG Holdings, Inc. Class A (NYSE:KCG), and Westlake Chemical Corporation (NYSE:WLK). Let’s take a look into what is pushing these shares upwards, and into what the hedge funds in our database think about these companies. In addition, we will look into Sunedison Inc (NYSE:SUNE), the trading of which has been halted after the company filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 785 hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see more details about our small-cap strategy).

Core Laboratories N.V. Sees “V-Shaped” Recuperation for Oil

Let’s start with Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB), which is up by 4.9% on Thursday afternoon, driven by the announcement of the company’s first quarter financial results. Earnings of $0.37 per share were in-line with the Street’s consensus, while revenue of $153.7 million, down by 28.1% year-over-year, missed estimates by $4.76 million. Guidance for the second quarter was also pretty much in-line with expectations, with management projecting EPS of $0.34-to-$0.36 and sales of $145 million-to-$150 million, versus analysts’ consensus of $0.36 and $148.8 million respectively. So, what is driving the stock up? Well, apparently, the company believes there is only one more quarter of struggling on the horizon. After the second quarter, a “V-Shaped” recovery will be seen in the oil market, and this will certainly help the company’s results, management explained.

Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) counted 20 hedge fund supporters among those we track as of the end of 2015. Among them was John W. Rogers’ Ariel Investments, which disclosed ownership of 282,149 shares of the company.

PTC Surges on Strong Guidance

Next up is PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC), which is up by 7.4% in Thursday trading, even though its second quarter financial results for fiscal year 2016 missed estimates on Wednesday afternoon. EPS of $0.23 came in $0.14 short of expectations, while revenue of $273.69 million missed consensus by $18.53 million. What seems to be driving the surge in the stock price is the full fiscal-year guidance provided by the company’s management; PTC projects fiscal year 2016 EPS of $1.52-to-$1.62, well above the Street’s consensus of $1.34, while estimating revenue will total $1.16 billion-to-$1.78 billion, versus estimates of $1.20 billion.

35 funds among those we keep track of were long PTC Inc (NASDAQ:PTC) by the end of the fourth quarter. Their combined stakes accounted for 20% of the company’s total outstanding shares.

We look into the plight of SunEdison on the next page, as well as the sunnier performances of KCG and Westlake.