Lantheus Holdings, Aurinia, Whiting, Oasis, and More: What is Going on With These Five Falling Stocks?

Although the Dow Jones is down by just 40 points and the S&P and NASDAQ are off by around half a percent each, shares of five stocks, Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH), Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AUPH), Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL), Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS), and SM Energy Co (NYSE:SM), are deep in the red.

Let’s find out why traders are selling each stock and analyze how hedge funds were positioned among them using the latest 13F filings.

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Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) is 12% in the red after the company priced a 3 million spot secondary at $12.50 per share. Existing shareholders are the sellers in question and Lantheus itself will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale. Credit Suisse was the underwriter. The number of elite funds with holdings in Lantheus Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LNTH) rose by 3 quarter-over-quarter to 15 at the end of December. That’s out of the around 742 elite funds in our database.

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AUPH) has fallen by 22% after the company announced the public offering of common shares to be executed by Leerink Partners and Cantor Fitzgerald. According to The Street’s Adam Feuerstein, the company sold 22.3 million shares at around $6.75 a piece, raising $150 million to finance the company’s R&D of the potentially promising drug voclosporin (among other activities). No top funds that we track were long Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AUPH) at the end of Q4.

On the next page, we find out why Whiting Petroleum Corp, Oasis Petroleum Inc, and SM Energy Co are deep in the red today.

Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL), Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS), and SM Energy Co (NYSE:SM) were each down more than 7% at one point this morning due to the decline in crude prices (WTI futures are 2% in the red as of 11 AM). Although OPEC agreed to cut production for six months in late November of last year and crude prices haven’t breached the pivotal $60 per barrel mark (an area investors thought would trigger shale gains), shale is just too competitive. Due to cost cutting and productivity enhancements, some bears expect shale growth to drive U.S. crude production to record highs next year if oil prices remain in the mid-to-high $50’s. At some point, OPEC will need to decide whether it wants to continue giving away market share to shale producers or to let market forces do their work. If market forces do their work, crude prices could fall further before finding support. On the flip side of the equation, Saudi Arabia still has strong incentive to ensure steady oil prices for the upcoming Saudi Aramco IPO next year.

Either way, today’s upcoming API report and tomorrow’s EIA report will be among the most highly anticipated data releases this year in the energy space. According to our database of 742 elite funds, 38 and 32 were long Oasis Petroleum Inc. (NYSE:OAS) and SM Energy Co (NYSE:SM) in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, 34 elite funds owned shares of Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) at the end of the fourth quarter, down 1 funds from the previous quarter.

Disclosure:None