Following two days of steep declines, Wall Street couldn’t recover on Wednesday morning, as most stocks have declined, while the list of losers is led by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV), Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), and Match Group Inc (NASDAQ:MTCH). Let’s take a closer look at why investors are selling these stocks and what is the consensus sentiment towards them among smart money investors.
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We are going to start with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), whose stock has plummeted by 8% on the back of the company posting its financial results for the fourth quarter and full 2015. For the quarter, Yahoo posted revenue of $1.27 billion, with earnings of $0.13 per share. Moreover, EPS came in line with expectations, while the revenue missed the consensus by $190 million. Total net loss for the quarter reached $4.435 billion and this figure includes a non-cash impairment of goodwill, in which the firm registered a loss of $4.461 billion. In addition, the company delivered a 7.6% comparable revenue growth for the full year to $4.97 billion. However, it seems that investors also disliked the company’s strategic plan, which includes eliminating 15% of its workforce, as well as five offices (Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan). This is part of a more aggressive plan which aims to improve profitability, reduce operating expenses and divest in non-strategic assets.
During the third quarter of 2015, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) registered a decrease in popularity among the funds we track, with 89 investors holding long positions at the end of September, versus 104 funds at the end of June, and they amassed 20.1% of the float. Among them, Kenneth Mario Garschina‘s Mason Capital Management was the largest shareholder, reporting ownership of 16.36 million shares in its last 13F filing.
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Moving on, National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV)’s shares are down by 12% today after the company reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter results. The company delivered fourth-quarter EPS $0.23 on revenue of $2.72 billion, missing profit estimates by $0.04 per share and revenue expectations by $320 million. Furthermore, revenue fell by 52% from the fourth quarter of 2014.
Hedge fund sentiment towards National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV) has stayed unchanged, as the number of funds long the stock remained unchanged at 28 at the end of the third quarter. First Eagle Investment Management was the largest shareholder of National-Oilwell Varco, Inc. (NYSE:NOV), with 21.15 million shares, valued at $796.2 million at the end of September.
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Read on to see the developments that sent lower shares of Mondelez International, Netflix, and Match Group.
Another notable decline was registered today by Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), whose shares are down by around 6.5% also on the back of its financial results. The global snack company posted EPS of $0.46 on revenue of $7.36 billion for the fourth quarter. Although the company’s revenue beat analyst estimates by $130 million, EPS missed expectations by $0.02. Moreover, diluted net loss amounted to $0.46 per share, including a negative $0.48 per share loss due to a different accounting method in Venezuela’s subsidiaries.
Among the funds we follow, 69 reported long positions in Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ) as of the end of September, up by 20 funds from a quarter earlier. Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners was the largest shareholder of Mondelez in our system, with 48.03 million shares valued at $2.01 billion at the end of September.
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Although the analysts at Piper Jaffray are more bullish on Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), as they upgraded the company to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ and raised their price target to $122 per share from $94.09 on Tuesday, shares are down by 2.5% in today’s morning trading amid a Bloomberg report that Hulu, LLC wants to buy films at the Sundance Film Festival, in a move to compete with Netflix and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). While these two companies have bought more than a dozen films, the private company hasn’t officially announced it yet.
Hedge funds have been optimistic on Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), with 57 funds long the stock at the end of the third quarter, up from 50 funds a quarter earlier. Billionaire Chase Coleman‘s Tiger Global Management reported holding a $1.86 billion position in the stock as of the end of September, comprising 22.9% of its portfolio.
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Last but not least, Match Group Inc (NASDAQ:MTCH) is almost 15% in the red in Wednesday trading after the dating services provider reported fourth-quarter EPS of $0.24 on revenue of $267.6 million, beating profit estimates by $0.04 per share, but missing revenue expectations by $9.72 million. Shares of Match Group are down by 30% since its IPO in November 2015.
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Disclosure: None