Investors Are Abuzz About the Latest Results Out of Monster Beverage (MNST), Lions Gate (LGF), FireEye (FEYE) and More

The closing session of the trading week promises to be an eventful one following a deluge of earnings reports released after yesterday’s close from several prominent tech and healthcare companies.

Among the companies reporting their latest quarterly results in yesterday’s after-hours were Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST), FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE), Builders FirstSource Inc. (NASDAQ:BLDR), Paramount Group Inc. (NYSE:PGRE), and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (USA) (NYSE:LGF). We’ll take a look at how they did in this article and see how successful hedge funds have been trading them recently.

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 more details).

Kobby Dagan / Shutterstock.com

Monster Beverage Works Through Transitional Phase

Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) is 1.5% in the green in pre-market trading after the energy-maker reported top-line growth for the second quarter. Revenue rose by 19% year-over-year to $827.5 million, topping estimates of $804 million. Adjusted earnings, excluding several one-time items, also rose year-over-year, to $0.99 per share, though that figure missed estimates of $1.03.

Monster Beverage Chairman and CEO Rodney Cyril Sacks says greater cost savings from the company’s acquisition of American Fruits & Flavors in early-April will be realized in coming quarters, as the company overestimated its cost of goods requirements during the second quarter. Monster Beverage also continues to transition its distribution in several countries following its pact reached with The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) last year, in which the latter bought a 16.7% stake in the former and became its preferred distributor. Costs related to that transition continue to affect Monster’s bottom-line results. Columbus Circle Investors owns 85,305 shares of Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) as of June 30.

FireEye Taking A Beating After Weak Results, Layoffs

FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) shares have slumped by over 15% this morning after the security software company announced its second quarter results and an aggressive plan to cut costs than will result in hundreds of layoffs. While its adjusted EPS loss of $0.33 for the quarter came in ahead of estimates by $0.06, revenue and billings both disappointed investors. Revenue of $175 million was $6.6 million short of expectations, while billings of $196.4 million missed the mark by $13.2 million. CEO Kevin Mandia also announced that FireEye will aim to cut controllable costs by 9%, with the resulting unspecified number of job cuts likely numbering in the low-hundreds. Shares of FireEye have plummeted by 62% over the past 12 months. FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) shares were held by 28 of the hedge funds in our database on March 31.

We’ll check out how Lions Gate and two other companies performed during the June quarter on the next page.

Builders FirstSource Crumbles on Missed Estimates

Builders FirstSource Inc. (NASDAQ:BLDR) is 8% in the red this morning after its second quarter results narrowly missed estimates. Revenue of $1.68 billion missed the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion despite being up by 263% year-over-year, though primarily thanks to the company’s acquisition of ProBuild, which was completed last July 31. Adjusted earnings per share of $0.31 also came a smidgen short of the estimates of $0.32. Adjusted EBITDA checked in at $116.7 million, up from $100.2 million a year earlier. The company believes the integration of ProBuild is progressing smoothly, projecting incremental savings of approximately $70 million in 2016 above what was achieved in 2015.

We ranked Builders FirstSource Inc. (NASDAQ:BLDR) as one of the top home improvement retailers to buy earlier this year. Its shares were owned by 35 hedge funds in our system on March 31, up by five quarter-over-quarter.

Paramount Group Tops Core FFO Estimates

Shares of Paramount Group Inc. (NYSE:PGRE) are flat as investors continue to digest the REIT’s latest earnings report. The company’s Core FFO, a key measure of profitability in the REIT sector, came in at $0.23 per diluted share for the quarter, besting estimates of $0.20. It also raised its Core FFO guidance for the full-year to between $0.81 and $0.85 per share, up by $0.01 on both ends of the range from previous guidance. Paramount Group leased 148,896 square feet during the quarter at a weighted average initial rent of $74.15 per square foot.

We reported insider buying at Paramount Group Inc. (NYSE:PGRE) on March 15 and the stock has gained 11% since that date. 15 funds in our database owned 8.80% of Paramount Group’s common stock on March 31.

Lions Gate Jumps on Revenue Surge

Lastly, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (USA) (NYSE:LGF) is enjoying 6% gains this morning after its first quarter of fiscal year 2017 revenue surged by 35% year-over-year to $553.6 million. And while earnings of $0.01 per share were down from $0.26 a year earlier, they nonetheless easily topped estimates of a loss of $0.17. The TV and movie production company’s results were buoyed by the success of the crime caper Now You See Me 2 during the quarter, which has pulled in over $300 million worldwide. Instead of the fourth part of the Divergent series getting a theatrical release, the company now plans to release a TV movie followed by a 10-to-13-episode TV season that it hopes can be expanded from there into multiple seasons. The move comes after the third movie, Allegiant, disappointed, grossing less than $200 million worldwide. 32 funds in our database were long Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (USA) (NYSE:LGF) at the end of March.

Disclosure: None