Herman Miller Inc. (MLHR), Level 3 Communications Inc. (LVLT) &; More: Here’s Why These Stocks Are in Red on Thursday

Markets are trading in positive territory amid higher oil prices and following the Fed’s decision to postpone the interest rate hike. In other news,  the existing home sales have recorded a fall for the second straight month, as they declined 0.9% to an annual rate of 5.33 million units. The average expectations were pegged at 1.1% increase to 5.45 million units.

Despite bullish sentiment prevailing today, a number of stocks, including Herman Miller Inc. (NASDAQ:MLHR), Level 3 Communications Inc. (NYSE:LVLT), Sorl Auto Parts Inc. (NASDAQ:SORL), Great Basin Scientific Inc (NASDAQ:GBSN), and Leading Brands Inc (USA) (NASDAQ:LBIX) are deep in the red territory. Let’s take a look at the developments that pushed these stocks down today and assess the hedge fund sentiment towards these stocks.

While there are many metrics that investors can assess in the investment process, 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 beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see more details here).

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Herman Miller Inc. (NASDAQ:MLHR)’s stock has slid by around 9.55% as the company failed to meet the earnings estimates. The company reported its fiscal first quarter earnings of $0.60 per share, lower than the consensus expectation of $0.62, while revenue of $598.6 million was lower than estimates of $614.2 million. Among the funds we track, 20 funds held $108 million worth of Herman Miller’s stock in aggregate at the end of June, having amassed 6.10% of its outstanding stock, compared to 17 investors that held $98 million worth of stock a quarter earlier.

Level 3 Communications Inc. (NYSE:LVLT) stock is trading around 3% lower on significant trading volume. The stock is maintaining its bearish trend as it had closed previous trading session in the red as well. Earlier today, the company announced that users of its Adaptive Threat Intelligent security solution can now customize threat intelligence and the alert system. The number of funds from our database long Level 3 Communications declined to 48 from 52 in the second quarter. The total value of their holdings also fell to $3.17 billion from $3.37 billion, but still represented 17.20% of its outstanding stock at the end of June.

Sorl Auto Parts Inc. (NASDAQ:SORL) stock has lost nearly 10% so far today. Yesterday, the stock was downgraded by Greenbridge Global to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ with a price target of $4.50. The downgrade comes on account of valuation and the analysts have also advised the investors to book the profits as the stock has appreciation close to 100% since announcing its second quarter results. Three funds from our database have positions in Level 3 Communications as of the end of June, compared to two funds a quarter earlier.