JAKKS Pacific, American Express, Lucas Energy and More: Here’s Why These Five Stocks Are On the Move

The three major indexes are moderately in the red after today’s initial jobless claims failed to meet expectations.

Among the stocks that are showing considerably more volatility than the indexes are JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAKK), American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), Lucas Energy, Inc. (NYSEMKT:LEI), and Syntel, Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNT). Let’s find out why each stock is on the move and take a look at what the smart money investors from our database think about them.

Hedge fund sentiment is an important metric for assessing the long-term profitability. At Insider Monkey, we track over 745 hedge funds, whose quarterly 13F filings we analyze and determine their collective sentiment towards several thousand stocks. However, our research has shown that the best strategy is to follow hedge funds into their small-cap picks. This approach can allow monthly returns of nearly 95 basis points above the market, as we determined through extensive backtests covering the period between 1999 and 2012 (see the details here).

maradon 333/Shutterstock.com

Traders punished JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAKK) today to the tune of 10.74% after the company reported third-quarter earnings of $0.89 per share on revenue of $302.79 million, which were lower than expectations by $0.21 and $35.56 million, respectively. Net sales fell by 10.2% year-over-year due to lower demand, the negative impact of the Brexit decision, and the suspension of shipments to a major domestic buyer. For the full year, the company expects EPS to come in at $0.56, down from the previous guidance of $0.78, while revenue guidance was lowered to $755 million from the previous $800 million. Among the funds we track, 11 funds owned $28.41 million worth of JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAKK)’s stock, which accounted for 17.50% of the float on June 30, versus 11 funds and $27.56 million, respectively, on March 31.

American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) shares have surged 9.6% after the financial giant reported better-than-expected results for its third quarter. American Express earned $1.24 per share, beating the Street by $0.28 per share, while revenue was $7.77 billion, $50 million ahead of estimates, but down by 5.1% year-over-year. Although the loss of the Costco business hurts, the company raised adjusted EPS guidance for the full year to $5.90-$6.00 from the previous $5.40-$5.70 range. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owned 151.6 million shares of American Express Company (NYSE:AXP) at the end of June.

On the next page, we find out why Verizon Communications, Lucas Energy, and Syntel are trending.Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) shares are 2.6% in the red after the telecom reported mixed third-quarter results. While Verizon earned $1.01 per share, beating the consensus estimate by $0.02 per share, its revenue fell by 6.7% year-over-year to $30.94 billion and missed the consensus estimate by $140 million. Verizon also added a net 442,000 postpaid subscribers, a number considerably lower than the expectation of 766,000. Of particular interest to some readers is Verizon’s CFO saying on the conference call that that the company is still ‘evaluating’ what the 2014 Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s data breach means for the telecom’s previous deal to buy Yahoo’s core internet assets for $4.8 billion. A total of 52 funds from our database had a bullish position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) at the end of the second quarter, down by nine funds from the previous quarter.

Nano-cap Lucas Energy, Inc. (NYSEMKT:LEI) is off by 13% this afternoon after the company provided an operational update on its activity in Texas and Oklahoma. Specifically, Lucas Energy participated in the Cyclone #9H well that tested 598 barrels of oil equivalent per day (Boe/d) and a 30-day initial production rate of 486 Boe/d in the Eagle Ford shale. CEO Anthony C. Schnur also added in a statement:

“The change in the commodity price environment has allowed Lucas to reassess its opportunities to increase shareholder value. As we ramp up production on our legacy and newly-acquired assets, the Company continues to aggressively pursue acquisition opportunities with both producing and nonproducing reserves. We are convinced that the state of ‘lower for longer’ commodity price environment offers exceptional value on the asset acquisition front.”

Apparently traders either expected more from the operational results, or didn’t like the fact that the company is considering expanding through acquisitions. Lucas Energy, Inc. (NYSEMKT:LEI) wasn’t in the equity portfolios of any of the funds that we track at the end of June.

Syntel, Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNT) shares are 16% in the red after the company reported a loss of $2.58 per share on revenue of $241 million for its third quarter. Wall Street was expecting a penny more in losses and $8.81 million more in revenue. Syntel lost so much because its third quarter was negatively affected by a $3.21 per share one-time tax expense associated with a one-time repatriation of cash. Shares of the company are down because the revenue fell 5% year-over-year due to challenging market conditions and the uncertain macroeconomic climate, gross margin shrank to 39.2% from the prior year period of 42.4%, and the company’s 2016 guidance didn’t impress, as the management sees full-year loss of $0.65-$0.75 per share  on revenue of $960 million to $970 million based on the exchange rate assumption of 67 rupees to the dollar. A total of 18 funds tracked by us were long Syntel, Inc. (NASDAQ:SYNT) at the end of June, up  by three funds from the previous quarter.

Disclosure: none