Given that it’s the middle of earnings season, it’s not surprising that many major companies are trending today. The market are in the red a day after the Federal Reserve decided to keep the interest rates unchanged, but hinted towards a hike in September.
In this article, we take a closer look at four companies that just released earnings, ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Harley-Davidson Inc (NYSE:HOG), Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), and Cheesecake Factory Inc (NASDAQ:CAKE). In addition, we are going to take a closer look why Alere Inc (NYSE:ALR) is in the spotlight. Aside from the latest developments surrounding these five stocks, we are going to assess the hedge fund sentiment towards each of them.
At Insider Monkey, we track around 770 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).
maradon 333/Shutterstock.com
ConocoPhillips Rises Despite Loss
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) opened higher, but has retreated after the company posted a wider-than-expected adjusted loss of $0.79 per share for the second quarter, missing analyst estimates by $0.18 per share, while its revenue slid by 36% on the year to $5.58 billion. Second quarter production averaged 1,546 MBOED, and the company improved production and operating expenses by 20% year-over-year. Due to the strong results, ConocoPhillips is increasing full 2016 production guidance to 1,540-1,570 MBOED and cutting capex to $5.5 billion from the previous $5.7 billion. A total of 45 funds from our database had a bullish position in ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) at the end of March, up by 14 funds from the previous quarter.
Follow Conocophillips (NYSE:COP)
Follow Conocophillips (NYSE:COP)
Harley-Davidson’s Posts In-Line Revenue
Harley-Davidson Inc (NYSE:HOG) shares have managed to recover after having opened in the red, on the back of the company reporting largely in-line second-quarter results. For the time period, Harley-Davidson earned $1.55 per share on sales of $1.67 billion, beating profit estimates by $0.01 per share and meeting sales expectations. Although domestic retail sales inched lower by 5.2% year-over-year and full year motorcycle shipment guidance was lowered to 264,000 units from the previous 269,000, Harley-Davidson Inc (NYSE:HOG) nevertheless added 2.0 percentage points to its market share. According to our data, the smart money has been lukewarm towards the motorcycle company, as 20 investors tracked by us were long Harley-Davidson Inc (NYSE:HOG) at the end of the first quarter, compared to 24 funds a quarter earlier.
Follow Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE:HOG)
Follow Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE:HOG)
On the next page, we find out why traders are talking about Alere Inc, Amgen Inc, and Cheesecake Factory Inc.
