Shares of Texas Instruments, Dunkin, Aetna, Cabelas, and Raytheon Being Propelled by Earnings, Other News

Aetna Still on Track to Buy Humana

Shares of Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET) are trading up by 1.3% on Thursday afternoon, helped by an earnings double beat announced this morning. In spite of falling enrollment, the health insurer’s EPS of $2.30 came in $0.07 ahead of expectations, while revenue of $15.69 billion, up by 4.0% year-over-year, beat the Street’s consensus by $240 million. Management also boosted its 2016 guidance; the team now expects full year EPS between $7.90 and $8.10, up from a previous projection of at least $7.75. Analysts are modeling EPS of $7.95 on average. In addition, the company assured investors that its $35 billion acquisition of competitor Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM) remains on track to close in the second half of the year.

Aetna Inc (NYSE:AET) is quite popular in the hedge fund world. 66 firms in our database held long positions in the stock by the end of 2015, with their combined stakes accounting for roughly 8.6% of the company’s total shares. A noteworthy position was that of Larry Robbins’ Glenview Capital, which disclosed ownership of 5.73 million shares of Aetna valued at more than $620 million as of December 31.

The Battle for Cabelas’ Credit Card Business Heating Up

Yet another stock moving on its earnings call on Thursday is Cabelas Inc (NYSE:CAB), which is up by more than 1.3% after reporting its first quarter financial results this morning. Before the market opened, the retailer posted EPS of $0.43, which beat the Street’s consensus by $0.05. However, revenue of $864.66 million, up by 4.5% year-over-year, missed estimates by $25.95 million.

In other news, Reuters reported on Wednesday afternoon that at least five financial services companies are contending for the acquisition of Cabelas Inc (NYSE:CAB)’s credit card business, as the company explores the option of selling itself. Allegedly, the parties to have expressed interest in the credit card business thus far are Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF), Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE:TD), and Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF). 22 funds among those that we track held 15.3% of Cabelas’ float on December 31.

Raytheon Declines on Lukewarm Guidance

Finally, there’s Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN), which is down by 2.3% this afternoon, even though the company beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines. First quarter EPS of $1.43 came in $0.05 ahead of estimates, while revenue of $5.76 billion was $300 million higher than anticipated, helped by strong sales in its missile systems business. In addition, management boosted its 2016 EPS guidance. While the company still envisions revenue of between $24 billion and $24.5 billion for the full year, EPS is now expected to come in between $6.93 and $7.13, up from a previous projection of $6.80-to-$7.00. Analysts have projected EPS of $7.03 on revenue of $24.34 billion.

Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN) counted the backing of 35 funds among those that we track by the end of 2015. Among them was Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management, which had ownership of 1.52 million shares of the company.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article.