Trading Week Kicks Off With A Bang for Wal-Mart and 4 Other Stocks

Disappointing trade figures out of China have investors on edge this morning as the trading week kicks off. Exports from the country dipped by 4.4% year-over-year in July, while imports crumbled by 12.5%. While the figures have some blaming the Brexit, Chinese exports also slid by 4.8% in June.

Among the companies grabbing investors’ attention this morning are Wal-Mart, Image Sensing Systems, Horizon Pharma, MEI Pharma, and Oasis Petroleum. We’ll take a look at what’s happening with these companies below and see how hedge funds have been trading their stocks recently.

Through extensive research that covered the portfolios of several hundred large investors between 1999 and 2012, we determined that following the small-cap stocks that large money managers are collectively bullish on, can generate monthly returns nearly 1.0 percentage points above the market (see the details here).

Wal-Mart Making a Move on Amazon?

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) initially spiked upon the ringing of the opening bell, but has since fallen to losses of 0.71% on the day after the retail giant announced the acquisition of Jet.com for $3 billion in cash. The purchase of the e-commerce startup further solidifies Wal-Mart’s attempts to take on Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) head-to-head in the e-commerce arena. Among other things, the company has greatly expanded its e-commerce capabilities with the building of several large distribution centers and recently unveiled a delivery subscription service similar to Amazon’s Prime. Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway owned more than 55 million shares of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) at the end of March.

Image Sensing Systems Soars on Q2 Results

Image Sensing Systems Inc (NASDAQ:ISNS) has gained over 100% today thanks to its strong second quarter results that were released after the close of trading on Friday. Revenue was $4.7 million, up from $4.4 million a year earlier, while EPS jumped to $0.24 year-over-year from $0.13. Strong adoption of the company’s Sx-300 radar product helped it to achieve solid boosts in sales and sales margins during the quarter, and it has a next generation video detection device planned for release in the fourth quarter. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies owned 49,800 shares of Image Sensing Systems Inc (NASDAQ:ISNS) on June 30, up by 49% from the start of the second quarter.

We’ll check out what’s happening with three other trending stocks today on the next page.