Why These 5 Stocks Are Making Thunderous Moves Today

After rebounding late in the day, the market ended up registering small gains on Wednesday. However, it’s back to falling today, as all major U.S stock indexes are trading slightly down in afternoon trading. Below we’ll take a look at some of the biggest movers in both directions on this mixed day, which includes Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN), The Kroger Co (NYSE:KR), Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), all of which saw substantial moves over the day. So, let’s take a look at the events behind these fluctuations, and into what the hedge funds in our database think about these companies.

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Let’s start with Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN), which is trading down by more than 19.5% on Thursday afternoon, after the company reported its first quarter financial results. Before the market opened, the small-cap network specialist posted earnings of $0.18 per share, above the Street’s consensus of $0.14 per share. However, its revenue of $573.12 million, which was up by 8.3% year-over-year, missed estimates by $3.18 million. Guidance also came in below expectations as management said that it anticipates second quarter revenue of $615 million-to-$645 million, barely meeting the $644.6 million consensus at the high end. Finally, the firm trimmed its 2016 revenue growth guidance to 5%-to-8%, below the consensus of 8.4% and down from the previous guidance of 8%-to-9%.

Anand Parekh is one of the hedgies that we track who is doubtlessly none too pleased with the results, as his fund, Alyeska Investment Group, disclosed ownership of 2.54 million shares of Ciena Corporation (NYSE:CIEN) valued at more than $52 million as of the end of the fourth quarter.

Next up is The Kroger Co (NYSE:KR), which is also down today, by about 7.7%, following its own fourth quarter earnings call. EPS of $0.57 came in $0.03 ahead of consensus, but revenue of $26.17 billion, up by only 3.8% year-over-year, missed estimates by $110 million. Apparently, this revenue miss was the main element behind the decline in the stock. Taking into account today’s tumble, The Kroger Co (NYSE:KR) has lost more than 10% since the beginning of the year.

Among the hedge funds being hurt by this decline, we can highlight Steven Richman (who has one of the best surnames for someone in finance) of East Side Capital (RR Partners), whose 8.13 million-share stake made it the largest hedge fund shareholder of the stock in our system as of the end of the fourth quarter.

On the next page, we will take a look at the news driving the moves in the shares of Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF), Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK).