Why These 5 Stocks Tumbled As Markets Surged Today

After closing up marginally on Thursday, the markets are now surging today, with all major U.S stock indexes registering gains of 0.4%-to-0.5%. However, a few stocks are seeing marked declines. Among them, we can count H & R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB), Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC), Nimble Storage Inc (NYSE:NMBL), Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VTAE), and Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE). Let’s take a look at the events behind these fluctuations, and into what the hedge funds in our database think about these companies.

At Insider Monkey, we track more than 700 hedge funds, whose 13F filings we analyze as part of our small-cap strategy. Our research has shown that imitating a portfolio that includes the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds can outperform the market by as much as 95 basis points per month on average (see more details here).

Let’s start with H & R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB), which is trading down by almost 17% on Friday afternoon following the announcement of the company’s third quarter financial results for fiscal year 2016. After the market closed on Thursday, the tax preparation and related services provider posted a net loss of $0.34 per share, $0.10 worse than expected, on revenue of $475 million, which was not only down by 6.7% year-over-year, but also missed expectations by $26.78 million. First Eagle Investment Management disclosed ownership of 5.7 million shares of H & R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) valued at roughly $190 million as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2015.

Next up is Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC), which opened Friday 18.4% below its Thursday closing price of $20.52 per share. While no particular news seemed to be driving the tumble, the decline did come after the payment of a special dividend of $4 per share, which derived from the sale of the company’s Veritas unit. Interestingly, trading volume at midday had already surpassed the stock’s daily average by 25%; this suggests than many investors were selling the stock after they collected the dividend. In fact, the decline in the share price was very close to $4.

Among the firms that profited from this dividend we can count Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, which disclosed ownership of 7.28 million shares of Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) valued at more than $153 million as of December 31, along with another 28 institutions in our database which held long stakes in the company at the end of the fourth quarter.

On the next page, we will take a look at the news driving the downward moves in the shares of Nimble Storage Inc (NYSE:NMBL), Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VTAE), and Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE).

Another stock that is trading down on Friday is Nimble Storage Inc (NYSE:NMBL), which has lost 12% in the early afternoon hours. The tumble followed the announcement of the company’s fourth quarter financial results. The company’s net loss of $0.12 per share was in-line with expectations, while its revenue of $90.09 million, up by 32% year-over-year, came in $1.88 million ahead of estimates. However, guidance for the first quarter disappointed investors and analysts alike. Management said it expects first quarter revenue of $83 million-to-$86 million and a net loss of $0.25-to-$0.27 per share, while the Street’s consensus had pegged Nmble Storage’s first quarter revenue to be $85.6 million with a loss of $0.16 per share in earnings.

Taking into account today’s drop, Nimble Storage Inc (NYSE:NMBL)’s stock has lost more than 21% in 2016, making 21 funds among those we track quite unhappy. Among them is Brett Barakett’s Tremblant Capital, which declared holding 3.45 million shares of the company as of December 31, which made it one of the top-five institutional shareholders of the company on record as of that date.

Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VTAE) is one of the biggest losers of the day, down by more than 52% in the early afternoon. The main news driving the decline appears to be the company’s fourth quarter earnings call. On Thursday evening, the clinical stage biotechnology company posted a net loss of $0.52 per share, $0.10 better than expected; however, revenue of $92,000, down by 42.8% year-over-year, fell about $30,000 short of expectations. In addition, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded its rating on the stock to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ this morning.

Phil Gross and Robert Atchinson can’t be pleased with the developments, as their fund, Adage Capital Partners had ownership of 2.15 million shares of Vitae Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:VTAE) as of the end of the fourth quarter, after its holding in company being boosted by 51% over the period.

Finally, there’s Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE), which is down by about 7.25% today despite having handily beaten analyst expectations with its fourth quarter financial results on Thursday evening. Earnings of $0.08 per share came in $0.18 ahead of consensus, while revenue of $119.3 million beat estimates by $16.53 million.

Among the investment firms that we track, D E Shaw held the largest stake in Clean Energy Fuels Corp (NASDAQ:CLNE) by the end of the fourth quarter, owning 1.31 million shares. On February 16, Kevin Michael Ulrich‘s Anchorage Advisors disclosed a new position in the company comprising 6.69 million shares; this made it the largest institutional investor of the stock at that time.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article.