Earnings Reports and Analyst Ratings: Why Goldman Sachs, Lockheed Martin, and 3 Other Stocks Have Investors Buzzing

After slumping yesterday, crude futures are now in the green as traders look forward to today’s API inventory release. Two of the last three reports have been positive and that sentiment is pushing the market closer to even than it was earlier in the morning. Among the stocks traders are talking about today are Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT), W W Grainger Inc (NYSE:GWW), Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC), and Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK). Let’s take a closer look at each stock and see what the world’s greatest investors think of each of them.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 765 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 the details here).

Goldman Sachs Reports Strong Results

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) shares are slightly in the red in the pre-market hours despite the company reporting EPS of $3.72 on revenue of $7.93 billion, beating the consensus estimates by a healthy $0.72 per share and $350 million respectively. Although the bottom-line beat is pretty respectable, the top-line beat did equate to Goldman’s revenue falling by 12.6% year-over-year, led by an 11% decline in investment banking revenue and a 17% decline in underwriting revenue. On a positive note, Goldman’s tangible book value inched up by 2% to $166.90 per share, slightly above the company’s current share price. Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway was one of the top shareholders of Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) at the end of March, owning 10.96 million shares.

Lockheed Beats Estimates

Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) is 1.17% in the green this morning after the defense giant reported earnings of $3.32 per share, beating the bottom-line consensus estimate by $0.39 per share. In addition, revenue rose by 10.9% year-over-year to $12.91 billion, which beat top-line estimates by $350 million. Guidance was strong, with the company now expecting adjusted EPS of $12.15-to-$12.45 on sales of $50.0 billion-to-$51.5 billion, whereas prior guidance called for adjusted EPS of $11.50-to-$11.80 on revenue of $49.6 billion-to-$51.1 billion. Cliff Asness‘ AQR Capital Management reported a stake of over 450,000 shares in Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT) as of March 31.

On the next page we’ll take a look at the latest earnings reports and/or analyst ratings updates concerning W W Grainger, Belden Inc, and Star Bulk Carriers.

Grainger Misses the Mark

W W Grainger Inc (NYSE:GWW) earned $2.89 per share on sales of $2.56 billion, missing the consensus marks by $0.28 per share and $20 million with its second quarter financial results. Although total sales rose by 1.6% year-over-year, the company’s organic sales inched lower by 2% and gross margin dropped by 200 basis points to 40.6%. Full-year 2016 guidance was for diluted EPS of $11.20-to-$12.20 on a sales rise of 1%-to-4%. Management previously guided for earnings per share of between $11.00 and $12.80 on a sales rise of between flat and 6%. 21 funds that we track owned shares of W W Grainger Inc (NYSE:GWW) at the end of the first quarter, up by one quarter-over-quarter.

Belden Easily Exceeds Estimates

Traders are watching Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) today after the company reported second quarter EPS of $1.54 on revenue of $603.4 million. Those numbers beat the consensus analyst estimate by $0.28 per share for the bottom line and $21.15 million for the top line. Adjusted EBITDA margin rose by 120 basis points to 17.9%, while gross profit margin inched up by 130 basis points to 41.3%. Due to the strong results, management now expects full-year EPS of $3.23-to-$3.43 versus the previously guided range of $2.84-to-$3.14. Full-year revenue is anticipated to come in between $2.355 billion and $2.385 billion, up slight from prior estimates of $2.32 billion-to-$2.37 billion. Of the 766 active funds in our system, 18 of them owned $113.65 million in Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) positions on March 31, which accounted for 4.40% of the float.

Analyst Give the Thumbs Up to Star Bulk 

Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK) is in the spotlight today after analysts at JPMorgan upgraded the stock to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ and set a $6.50 price target on it. Although China’s economy is still slow, many commodity prices have increased. If dry bulk commodity demand rises either due to China’s economy improving or emerging markets growing, demand for bulk shipping will increase. Seven funds in our system were long Star Bulk Carriers Corp. (NASDAQ:SBLK) at the end of March, unchanged over the quarter.

Disclosure: None