Today’s Trending Stocks: Pioneer, Ariad, Hershey, and 2 More

Crude futures are in the red today as sentiment around the commodity cools off. Meanwhile the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 are relatively flat as traders digest the latest earnings releases. Among the stocks in the news today are Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), Hershey Co (NYSE:HSY), Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXN), Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA), and Goldcorp Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GG). Let’s take a closer look at why the five companies are in the spotlight and see how hedge funds are positioned in them.

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).

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Pioneer Losses Narrower Than Expected

Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) shares are 3% in the green today after the company reported a loss of $0.22 per share on sales of $786 million for its second quarter. Analysts were expecting a loss of $0.36 per share on revenue around $805.5 million. Pioneer’s bottom-line results were ahead of estimates in part due to strong production numbers. Total production for the period rose by 5% year-over-year to 233,000 BOE per day, while oil production jumped by 10%. There could be more production growth ahead as management increased its 2016 capex budget by $100 million to $2.1 billion. Andreas Halvorsen‘s Viking Global owned more than 2.5 million shares of Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) at the end of the first quarter.

Strong Results at Hershey 

Hershey Co (NYSE:HSY) shares are up by 2% after the consumer staples company beat both top- and bottom-line estimates with its second quarter results. For the three months ended June 30, Hershey earned $0.85 per share on sales of $1.64 billion, beating the consensus estimates by $0.07 and $30 million respectively. Second quarter net sales increased by 3.7% year-over-year and the company updated its 2016 outlook to $4.24-to-$4.28 in adjusted EPS. 21 hedge funds in our system were long Hershey Co (NYSE:HSY) as of March 31.

On the next page we’ll examine why Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, and Goldcorp Inc are all trending this afternoon.

Alexion Up 2.5% on Mixed Results

Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXN) earned $1.13 per share on sales of $753.12 million for its second quarter, missing the bottom-line consensus estimate by $0.04 but beating the top-line mark by $9.1 million. Revenue rose by 18.4% year-over-year as demand remained brisk for the company’s core Soliris product. Management anticipates non-GAAP EPS of $4.50-to-$4.65 on revenue of $3.05 billion-to-$3.10 billion for the full year. Within our database of 766 active funds, 37 hedge funds owned shares of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXN) at the end of the first quarter.

Ariad Spikes on Earnings Beat

Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) shares are over 10% higher after the company reported second quarter GAAP EPS of $0.56 on sales of $68.13 million. The results were ahead of estimates by a whopping $0.67 per share and $7.49 million respectively. Although a big reason for the beat was a one-time revenue recognition measure of $25.5 million related to cumulative shipments of Iclusig in France, the company nevertheless achieved 50% year-over-year growth in U.S sales during the quarter. Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) is also making progress in terms of its pipeline, having initiated a rolling NDA submission for brigatinib during the quarter. 26 funds in our system owned $296.02 million worth of Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARIA) shares on March 31, which accounted for 24.40% of the float.

Goldcorp Off 5% on the Back of Lower Production Numbers

Goldcorp Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GG) reported a second quarter net loss of $0.09 per share, sharply lower than the net earnings of $0.47 per share that the company reported for the same quarter of last year. Like its revenue, which missed the consensus target by $152.66 million, the gold miner’s bottom-line results also missed analyst estimates, by $0.11 per share. Although production was slightly lower than expected for the quarter at 613,400 ounces of gold with all-in sustaining costs of $1,067 per ounce, the company reaffirmed its 2016 production guidance of 2.8 million-to-3.1 million ounces and an AISC of between $850 and $925 per ounce. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies was one of the top shareholders of Goldcorp Inc. (USA) (NYSE:GG) on March 31, owning 3.59 million shares.

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