Pandora, PayPal, Visa, and Other Stocks in Spotlight on Friday

After falling sharply yesterday, crude futures are in the red again today as traders prepare for the latest Baker Hughes rig count release.

In this earnings-heavy article that covers stocks that are in the spotlight today, we take a closer look at the earnings reports of Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P), Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL), Proofpoint Inc (NASDAQ:PFPT), Schlumberger Limited. (NYSE:SLB), and Visa Inc (NYSE:V). In addition, we are going to take a closer look at the

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

ded pixto/Shutterstock.com

Pandora Results Mixed

Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P) shares are up by over 3% after the company reported mixed second-quarter results. Although the streaming music company beat earnings estimates with a loss of $0.12 per share versus estimates of a loss of $0.16 per share, Pandora’s revenue missed the consensus by $8.58 million with a figure of $343.02 million, but it surged by 20.1% year-over-year. Guidance was also soft, with the company projecting full-year revenue of $1.380 billion to $1.405 billion, versus estimates of $1.424 billion. Despite the soft top-line, demand for the service is still growing as total listener hours rose by 7% year-over-year to 5.66 billion. Among the funds we track, 35 funds owned $772.23 million worth of Pandora Media Inc (NYSE:P)’s stock, which accounted for 37.90% of the float on March 31, versus 48 funds and $1.03 billion, respectively, a quarter earlier.

PayPal Retreats on Results

In marked contrast to eBay’s results yesterday, Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) shares are 7% in the red after the financial tech company reported earnings of $0.36 per share on revenue of $2.65 billion, largely in-line with the average analyst estimates of $0.36 in EPS and sales of $2.6 billion. Revenue advanced by 15.2% year-over-year as active accounts inched up 11% to 188 million and processed transactions soared 25% For the full year, the company anticipates adjusted EPS of $1.47 to $1.50. Shares could be down today because the market was expecting more growth for the full year. With ownership of 37.83 million shares,  Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital LP was a major shareholder of Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL) at the end of March.

On the next page, we examine Proofpoint, Schlumberger Limited, and Visa.