Why Are Investors Losing Confidence in These 5 Stocks Today?

It’s a rather flat day on Wall Street, as all three major indexes are hovering around level ground for the day. The Dow Jones is up by just seven points while the S&P 500 is down by a single point. While the broader market is flat, shares of Argos Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ARGS), CalAmp Corp. (NASDAQ:CAMP), Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR), Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE), and Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) are not so lucky, as all five stocks are in the red this morning. Let’s find out what is going on with these five stocks and see what the smart money in our database collectively thinks of each of them.

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Argos COO to Resign

Argos Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ARGS) shares are 24% in the red today after the company filed a report with the SEC announcing that its COO, Fred Miesowicz, will resign on April 22. In the same report, Argos announced that it will cut its workforce by 13% or 18 employees to reduce operating expenses by approximately $2.3 million a year. Argos’ lead drug candidate is AGS-003, which is in Phase III trials for the possible treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Of the 786 elite funds Insider Monkey tracks, two of them were long the stock, owning slightly over half-a-million dollars worth of Argos Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ARGS)’s shares between them at the end of 2015.

CalAmp Lower on Earnings

CalAmp Corp. (NASDAQ:CAMP) has fallen by 13% in late morning trading after the company reported disappointing earnings for its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016. For the fiscal period, CalAmp earned $0.32 per share on revenue of $70.8 million, meeting earnings estimates but falling short of top-line expectations by $0.25 million. Revenue from the company’s wireless datacom segment inched down by 2.6% year-over-year while adjusted EBITDA came in at $13.7 million. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2017, CalAmp anticipates consolidated revenue from continuing operations of $77 million-to-$85 million. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies owned 133,800 shares of CalAmp Corp. (NASDAQ:CAMP) at the end of 2015.

On the next page, we examine why Alere Inc, Clean Energy Fuels Corp, and Yum! Brands Inc. are all treading water today.

Alere Lower on Abbott Chairman’s Comments

Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) shares are 13% lower today after Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) Chairman Miles White said the following in an earnings call, when asked about his commitment to the transaction by which Abbott agreed to acquire Alere for $56 in cash per share:

“I will be careful as Alere has had delays on filing their 10-K and filing the proxy. I would say it is not appropriate for me to comment on Alere.”

In other news, Jonathan Wygant is now the company’s chief accounting officer. 30 elite funds in our database owned Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) at the end of December, down from 39 at the end of September.

Clean Energy Down on Privately Negotiated Exchange Agreement

Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE) has entered into a privately negotiated exchange agreement with certain holders of its 5.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2018. Under the agreement, the note holders agreed to exchange an aggregate principal amount of $25 million of notes and accrued but unpaid interest of around $69,270 in exchange for shares of Clean Energy common stock. Clean Energy expects to issue no more than 6.275 million shares under the agreement. Shareholders don’t like the dilution and have sent the stock lower today by over 9% today. Within our database of 786 elite funds, ten funds held roughly 3% of Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE)’s float at the end of 2015.

Yum in the Red as Earnings Day Arrives

Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) is slightly lower today as the company readies to release its earnings report later today. Of particular interest to investors will be the company’s same-store sales in its China segment. Yum Brands is currently in talks with China Investment Corp, Baring Private Equity Asia, and KKR over possibly selling a controlling share of the company’s China unit to those entities. Having higher same-store sales could lead to more money being realized from a sale. Keith Meister‘s Corvex Capital owned 21.04 million shares of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) at the end of December.

Disclosure: None