Stocks to Watch Wednesday: Exponent, Discover Financial, Canadian Pacific Railway, More

The U.S market is showing signs of positivity on Wednesday, following strong earnings results from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). Some other companies that are making headlines on the back of their latest quarterly results are Allied World Assurance Co Holdings, AG. (NYSE:AWH), Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:HAWK), Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (USA) (NYSE:CP), Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS), and Exponent, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPO). We’ll dig deeper into these companies’ latest reports to find out how they performed last quarter. We’ll also see what investors in our database think about them.  

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Allied World Assurance Beats Estimates

Allied World Assurance Co Holdings, AG. (NYSE:AWH) is in the spotlight after posting better than expected second quarter results after the closing bell on Tuesday. The Swiss company posted EPS of $0.91, dwarfing the estimates of $0.39. Revenue of $738.5 million also sharply beat the consensus estimate of $621.16 million. Allied World Assurance’s CEO Scott Carmilani said in a statement that the strong quarterly results were driven by the firm’s underwriting and investment portfolios. Mr. Carmilani added that with a combined ratio of 92.3%, the company’s North American business is showing significant strength. Among the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 14 of them were bullish on Allied World Assurance Co Holdings, AG. (NYSE:AWH) at the end of the first quarter of 2016. Allied World shares have jumped by over 13% today on the back of the impressive results.

Blackhawk Network Narrows Losses

Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:HAWK)‘s shares have gained over 4% today after the company reported a second quarter loss of $11.3 million, or $0.20 per share, beating the estimates of a loss of $0.25 per share. The California-based prepaid payment network company’s revenue came in at $183.7 million for the quarter, narrowly topping the estimated $183.6 million. In a press statement, Blackhawk’s CEO Talbott Roche said that strong performance incentives and a lower than expected EMV-related impact on the U.S retail segment helped the company deliver sound financial results. Claus Moller’s P2 Capital Partners was one of the 35 investors in our database that held long positions in Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:HAWK) at the end of the first quarter.

On the next page we’ll discuss how Canadian Pacific Railways, Discover Financial and Exponent performed in their latest quarters.