It’s election day as many Americans across the United States vote for their Representatives. Among the equities that are commanding some attention among investors are Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:ATI), e.l.f. Beauty Inc (NYSE:ELF), Frontdoor inc. (NYSE:FTDR), Cohu Inc. (NASDAQ:COHU), and TopBuild Corp. (NYSE:BLD). Let’s analyze further.
In the financial world there are a large number of tools investors have at their disposal to grade stocks. A pair of the most under-the-radar tools are hedge fund and insider trading indicators. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a solid amount. Insider Monkey’s flagship best performing hedge funds strategy returned 17.4% year to date and outperformed the market by more than 14 percentage points this year. This strategy also outperformed the market by 3 percentage points in the fourth quarter despite the market volatility (see the details here). That’s why we believe hedge fund sentiment is a useful indicator that investors should pay attention to.
Lightspring/Shutterstock.com
Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:ATI) is trending after Chris Olin of Longbow upgraded the stock to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ due to his channel checks that provide more confidence in the analyst’s bullish view on Allegheny Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:ATI). Specifically, the analyst believes jet engine companies and OEMs can hit their 2018 production targets and potentially issue positive delivery guidance for next year as well. Longbow has a $34 price target.
E.l.f. Beauty Inc (NYSE:ELF) shares soared 19% on Tuesday after the company reported a rather blowout third quarter. EPS for the period was over double the consensus of $0.08 per share, coming in at $0.17 per share. Sales for e.l.f. Beauty Inc (NYSE:ELF) were $63.9 million, exceeding the estimate of $60.09 million. Furthermore, guidance is positive as management sees FY adjusted EPS of $0.59-$0.61 versus the consensus of $0.57 per share.
Frontdoor inc. (NYSE:FTDR) shares sank almost 30% on the second day of the week after the company’s Q3 underwhelmed some estimates specifically related to adjusted EBITDA. For the period, EPS were $0.58 and sales were $377 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $86 million. FY18 guidance is for $1.25-$1.26 billion in sales and adjusted EBITDA of $215-$225 million, a metric lower than some estimates due to unfavorable weather in October among other things. As a result of the report, Ian Zaffino of Oppenheimer trimmed his price target for frontdoor inc. (NYSE:FTDR) to $40 from the previous $48.
Cohu Inc. (NASDAQ:COHU) shares retreated 15% after the company’s third quarter results were lower than the consensus. For the period, EPS was $0.30, versus the average estimate of $0.38, while sales were $86.2 million, below the estimate of $92.03 million. The results were due in part to the soft mobility market which negatively hurt demand for thermal handlers. Q4 sales guidance is also somewhat soft at $168-$183 million, versus the consensus of $200 million. Cohu Inc. (NASDAQ:COHU) was in 10 elite fund portfolios that we track at the end of Q2, down 4 from the end of Q1. We track around 650 elite funds in total.
TopBuild Corp. (NYSE:BLD) inched up over 5% after reporting a solid Q3. EPS was a penny better than estimates, coming in at an adjusted $1.23, while sales of $647.3 million, easily exceeded the consensus of $641.8 million. For FY18, management sees sales of $2.283-$2.403 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $278-$286 million. The number of top funds with holdings in TopBuild Corp. (NYSE:BLD) stayed the same at 13 quarter over quarter. Those funds also maintained an aggregate holding of around $78 million at the end of Q2 and Q1.
Disclosure:None
