Today’s Hottest Stocks: Fitbit, Glu Mobile, GameStop, and 2 More

Crude futures are below $40 per barrel today as sentiment around the commodity remains firmly negative. Bulls are hopeful that $38.50-to-$39.00 will be a technical support level and that today’s EIA report can reverse the recent declines.

Among the stocks generating buzz on Wednesday morning are Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT), Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU), Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO), GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME), and U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLCA). Let’s take a closer look at why each stock is in the spotlight and use SEC filings to determine how hedge funds are positioned among the five equities.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 765 hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on, can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see the details here).

Fitbit Reports Earnings

Traders are watching Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT) today after the wearable tech company reported better than expected second quarter results. For the three months ended June 30, Fitbit earned $0.12 per share on sales of $587 million, beating estimates by $0.01 per share and $8.52 million respectively. Sales soared by 46.6% year-over-year as the company sold 5.7 million devices, a record for the second quarter. The U.S. continued to account for the majority of Fitbit’s demand, with sales in the region accounting for 76% of total sales. Guidance was also strong, as management expects non-GAAP diluted net income per share for the full year in the range of $1.12-to-$1.24 and revenue of $2.5 billion-to-$2.6 billion. Shares of Fitbit are up by 6% so far in extended market trading. Of the 766 active hedge funds that Insider Monkey tracks, 30 funds owned a combined $273.92 million worth of Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT) shares on March 31, which accounted for 8.40% of the float.

Glu Mobile Declines on Guidance

Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) is lower in extended market trading after the gaming company reported a second quarter loss of $0.03 per share on revenue of $48.36 million. Although analysts were expecting a wider loss of $0.05 per share, shares of Glu Mobile are nevertheless in the red due to revenue falling by 13.9% year-over-year, bookings retreating by 11.5%, and the company offering light guidance for the remainder of the year. Glu Mobile anticipates an EPS loss of between $0.15 and $0.17, while analysts has been predicting a loss of $0.14. 12 funds in our system were long Glu Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:GLUU) at the end of the first quarter, down by one from the end of the previous quarter.

On the next page we’ll find out why Qorvo Inc, GameStop, and US Silica Holdings are trending this morning.

Traders Sell Qorvo Due to Soft Guidance 

Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) is down by almost 8% in the pre-market on after the semiconductor company reported soft guidance. Despite the company beating both top- and bottom-line expectations with fiscal first quarter revenue of $698.53 million (up by 3.7% year-over-year) and EPS of $1.08, traders focused on management’s guidance estimate of EPS of only $1.35-to-$1.45 and revenue of $820 million-to-$850 million for the second quarter of its 2017 fiscal year. Given the massive run-up since mid-April, the market was evidently expecting higher numbers. Of the funds in our database, the number with holdings in Qorvo Inc (NASDAQ:QRVO) fell by four quarter-over-quarter to 21 as of the end of March.

GameStop Diversifies

Videogame retailer GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) further diversified itself after announcing that it had completed the acquisition of three national AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) authorized retailers: Red Skye Wireless, Cellular World, and Midwest Cellular. The acquisitions add 507 stores to GameStop’s technology brands business and make the company AT&T’s largest physical retailer with 1,421 AT&T mobility stores. The purchase helps put Gamestop on track to generate $200 million in operating earnings from the mobility segment by the end of 2019. Cliff Asness‘ AQR Capital Management owned almost 2.1 million shares of GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) at the end of the first quarter.

Fracking Sand Producer Earnings Ahead of Estimates

U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLCA) is in the spotlight today after the fracking sand maker reported a second quarter loss of $0.17 per share on sales of $117 million. Although revenue fell by 20.7% year-over-year due to the low crude prices, U.S. Silica’s top-line still beat estimates by $2.06 million. The company’s net income was also ahead of estimates by $0.05 per share. Total tons sold increased by 9% year-over-year to 1.3 million and the company generated $5.1 million in operating cash flow for the time period. Due to the uncertain direction of crude prices, management has refrained from giving out EPS guidance for the full year. Hedge funds have been relatively bullish on the fracking sand maker of late, as 35 funds that we track were long U.S. Silica Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLCA) at the end of March, up by 13 funds from the end of December.

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Disclosure: None