Why These 5 Stocks Are Making Noise Today

Netflix’s First Quarter Falls Short of Growth Expectations

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) shares have retreated by over 10% in morning trading after the video streaming provider reported a lackluster first quarter. Although the company beat earnings estimates by $0.03 per share with EPS of $0.06, its total subscriber growth fell short of the consensus, adding just 2.23 million net subscribers for the quarter. Projected subscriber growth was also on the weak side, with the company guiding for 500,000 subscriber adds in the U.S and 2.00 million internationally for the second quarter, while some estimates expected as much as 4.00 million adds for the period. The slowing subscriber growth has prompted some investors to wonder what Netflix’s penetration limit is for the U.S. Although Netflix thinks its upper limit is 90 million homes, other analysts think it could be just two-thirds of that. The plot thickened further yesterday when Amazon revealed that its Prime Video service was now available to the masses, and Netflix also faces strong streaming competition from the likes of HBO. 64 funds in our database owned Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) at the end of December.

Target Commits to Living Wage

Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) is trending today after Reuters published a report stating that the discount retailer ‘has started raising employee wages to a minimum of $10 an hour’. $10 per hour would be a $1-per-hour raise for many Target employees and is $2.75 better than the Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Target could be raising its wages because of the hot jobs market in the U.S, which has pushed the unemployment rate down to around 5%. The move follows a similar move made by rival Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) earlier this year. 38 funds in our system owned shares of Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) at the end of the fourth quarter, down from 44 at the end of the third quarter.

Illumina Shares Crushed On Revenue Warning

Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) shares have fallen by over 25% this morning after the company warned that its first quarter top-line results will miss expectations. The company issued preliminary estimates of first quarter revenue of just $572 million, versus estimates of $596 million. Chairman and CEO Jay Flatley explained some of the challenges that impacted the results in a press release:

“Our first quarter results fell short of expectations largely due to lower than expected sales of HiSeq 2500, 3000 and 4000 instruments. Despite this slow start in Q1, we anticipate that our Americas and Asia Pacific regions will meet our expectations for the full year, but that Europe will underperform. As a result, we now project approximately 12% revenue growth for fiscal 2016. Given the disappointing outlook in Europe, we have made management changes in the region and plan to implement a program of actions to achieve our goal of delivering the robust growth we believe the market can support.”

The number of funds that we track with holdings in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) fell heavily during the fourth quarter, by 22, ending December at 40.

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