What Is Driving the Drop of These Five Stocks on Wednesday?

While all three indices in the red today amid a reported slowdown of the US services sector growth, shares of Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) and Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC) are underperforming the market. In the following article, we will examine why investors are selling shares and examine the relevant hedge fund sentiment towards these stocks.

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First up is Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC), whose stock fell about 3% on news that it will pay a penalty of $1.2 billion to resolve the problems generated by bad and risky loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration.  Those problems were caused because of little compliance with FHA requirements. Other large banks, like Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), are also involved in similar issues.

During the third quarter, Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) registered a decrease in popularity among the funds that we track, with 85 investors holding long positions at the end of September amassing 11.7% of the float, versus 91 funds a quarter earlier. Among them, Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway was the largest shareholder, reporting ownership of 470.3 million shares in its last 13F filing.

Next up is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA), whose stock is down more than 3.5% amid weak manufacturing data from China. The country’s purchasing managers’ index amounted to 49.4 in January, which represents the lowest point since August 2012 and was below the expectations of 49.6.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) lost popularity in the third quarter of 2015, as out of the 730 funds that we track, 60 funds held shares of the company on September 30, amassing 2.6% of the float, down from 85 funds on June 30. Boykin Curry’s Eagle Capital Management was the largest shareholder of Alibaba in our database, with 8.1 million shares valued at almost $476.4 million at the end of September.

Next on our list of intraday losers is Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), whose shares are down by around 1.5% with no notable news concerning the company today. However, the analysts at Goldman Sachs are more bullish on Intel, as they yesterday upgraded the stock to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Sell’ and set a price target of $31 per share.

Among the funds we follow, 45 reported long positions in Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) as of the end of September, down by three funds from a quarter earlier. First Eagle Investment Management was the largest shareholder of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) in our system, with 126,161 shares valued at $8.91 million at the end of September.

In other news, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is off by 4% on the back of the company reporting its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2015.  The company posted adjusted EPS of $1.39, which represents an increase of 17% year-over-year. The company’s revenue of $39.6 billion was almost flat on the year. Moreover, General Motors managed to beat the EPS expectations by $0.17 and revenue by $570 million. General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) also managed to deliver strong EBIT-adjusted of $2.8 billion, versus $2.4 billion reported for the fourth quarter of last year. Also, EBIT-Adjusted reached $10.8 billion for the full year.

Among the funds we track, a total of 88 investors reported stakes in General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) as of the end of the third quarter, down from 104 funds long the stock at the end of the second quarter.

Last but not least, Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC) is almost 13% in the red in Wednesday trading after the company reported fourth-quarter EPS of $0.21 on revenue of $41.8 million, missing Wall Street expectations by $0.06 per share but beating revenue expectations by $6.93 million.

Ardmore Shipping Corp (NYSE:ASC) has also lost some popularity among smart money investors in the third quarter of 2015, as out of the 730 funds we track, 10 funds held shares of the company on September 30, amassing 9.3% of the float, down from 14 funds a quarter earlier.

Disclosure: None