Trending Stocks: Alibaba Group (BABA), Tesla Motors (TSLA), Fitbit (FIT), More

The threat of an oil supply disruption amid massive fighting in Libya and a wildfire in Canada’s oil producing regions lifted crude prices on Thursday, resulting in a rise in stock futures. Meanwhile, some prominent companies announced their quarterly earnings reports this morning or after last night’s market close. These companies include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB), Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP), and Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT). Let’s take a detailed look at these earnings reports and see what world-class investors think about these companies.

Alibaba’s Revenue Rises Despite Difficulties  

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)’s revenue grew by 39% to $3.75 billion in its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016, beating the Street’s estimate of $3.57 billion. Gross merchandise volume (GMV) surged by 24% to $114 billion, whereas sales touched $15 billion. 73% of the company’s GMV came from its mobile platform. Alibaba delivered net adjusted earnings of $0.47, missing analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.55. Alibaba managed to grow despite the economic slowdown in China, mainly because of its expansion strategy outside the Chinese e-commerce ecosystem. Last month, the company announced its acquisition of Southeast Asian online retailer, Lazada Group, for around $1 billion. In a statement, Alibaba’s chief financial officer, Maggie Wu, said that the company’s strong quarterly results exemplify the strength of its core business, mobile penetration, and Cloud platform strategy. Alibaba shares are 3.94% in the green this morning.

Out of the 786 active funds that we track, 77 held positions in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) at the end of last year, with a total value of approximately $6.7 billion. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management is one of the biggest stakeholders in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) as of March 31, with ownership of more than 3.08 million shares.

Tesla Motors Announces Slight Earnings Beat

Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) reported a first quarter loss of $0.57 a share on $1.6 billion in revenue, better than the expected $0.58 per share loss, while revenue was in-line with estimates. The company’s loss rose by 84% to $282 million mainly because of a delay in parts for its new Model X SUV. Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, said in a statement that the company is on track to meet the delivery targets for its upcoming low cast Sedan Model 3 in 2017. The company now plans to make a total of 500,000 electric cars by 2018 because of the increasing demand. Musk added that increasing the production five-fold will cause a rise in spending. Tesla’s stock has lost more than 3.6% this morning. It was also reported that two senior executives have left the company, according to a statement released on Wednesday. Greg Reichow, VP of Production, and John Ensign, VP of Manufacturing, both resigned from the company.

At the end of the fourth quarter, 29 of the hedge funds in our system held positions in Tesla, with a total value of $837.4 million, representing some 2.7% of the company’s outstanding stock. Daniel Benton’s Andor Capital Management owned 1.00 million shares of the company on December 31.

On the next page we’ll check in on the latest results from L Brands, Avon, and Fitbit.

L Brands’ Sales Miss Estimates

L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB)’s stock has plunged by more than 10% today after the company reported weaker-than-anticipated sales for its first quarter. The beauty products company’s sales rose by 4% to $2.61 billion, missing estimates of $2.67 billion. Same-store sales increased by 3% during the quarter, missing the FactSet consensus of 3.9% growth. In April, sales increased by 2% to $737.5 million, while same-store sales rose by 1%. The company expects adjusted first quarter earnings per share to be in the range of $0.50 to $0.55, below the estimated EPS of $0.58.

As of March 31, Clifford Fox’s Columbus Circle Investors held more than 1.4 million shares of L Brands Inc (NYSE:LB).

Avon Facing Losses

Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP) is up by more than 3% today despite reporting an unexpected loss per share, excluding items, of $0.07 for the first quarter, missing estimates by $0.09. Revenue declined by 16% year-over-year to $1.31 billion, though this did beat the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. The cosmetics products company has suffered a decline in sales for four years. The company is busy restructuring its business by getting rid of non-performing operations, cutting its workforce, and investing in its supply chain. Avon sold 80% of its North American business back in March. The company is facing massive difficulties in China and Brazil, two of its primary markets, due to falling demand.

As of March 31, Himanshu H. Shah’s Shah Capital Management had 2.7 million shares of Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP) in its portfolio.

Fitbit Misses Guidance Estimates

Shares of Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT) have crashed by more than 15% after the company posted better-than-expected financial results for the first quarter, but greatly missed guidance estimates. The health and fitness products company reported EPS of $0.10, better than the expected $0.03. Quarterly revenue of $505 million also surpassed the estimates of $443.24 million. For the second quarter, the company expects EPS in the range of $0.08-to-$0.11, a far cry from the consensus of $0.26. Nonetheless, Fitbit’s full 2016 EPS guidance of $1.12-to-$1.24 tops the $1.13 analyst estimates at the mid-point, while its estimated 2016 revenue of $2.5 billion-to-$2.6 billion also dwarfs the consensus estimate of $2.46 billion, so today’s slide could be an overreaction. The company does face tough competition from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) however, which has taken a chunk of Fitbit’s market share with its Apple Watch, of which a follow-up is expected in September.

27 hedge funds in our database were long Fitbit Inc (NYSE:FIT) at the end of last year, up from 20 at the end of September.

Disclosure: None