5 Major Nasdaq Stocks That Hit 52-Week Lows This Week

The Nasdaq Composite index has had a rather volatile week after a severe downturn on Friday, but has ultimately managed to gain more than 0.9% so far this week. Amidst such volatility, several major stocks have hit 52-week lows this week, something that had been a rarity during the two-month bull run coming out of the Brexit dip.

Among the Nasdaq stocks hitting new yearly lows this week were Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:NCLH), 21Vianet Group Inc (NASDAQ:VNET) and Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM). Let’s take a look at what has driven these stocks to such depressed valuations, and see how the hedge funds in our database have been trading these companies lately.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 750 hedge funds and other 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).

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Ericsson Touches Ground After Licensing Deal

Shares of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) hit a 52-week low of $6.69 just before 11:00 am on Wednesday, after it announced that it was joining forces with some other key telecom patent holders to create a company that holds all of those patents and helps ease patenting. The new company, called Avanci, will incorporate patents from Ericsson, QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), ZTE, Royal KPN and InterDigital Inc. The companies plan to share the revenue derived from licensing deals. As of the end of the second quarter of 2016, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) counted 12 hedge funds in our database long its stock, including Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors, with 1.04 million shares.

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First Solar Sinks As Renewable Energy Plan Disappoints

Just before 10:00 am Wednesday, First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) hit a 52-week low of $34.50, after the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, which had been in development for eight years, was met with disappointment from solar developers, who believe that it overly favors land conservation and won’t be nearly enough to meet the government’s climate change goals. 30 funds that we track held long positions in First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) as of June 30. Among them was David Harding’s Winton Capital Management with 263,118 shares.

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We’ll check out three other stocks that have hit yearly lows recently on the next page.

Norwegian Cruise Line Bottoms, Then Rebounds

Shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:NCLH) traded as low as $34.16 on Monday, bottoming out after almost two weeks of steady decline. It seems like the downtrend was initiated by a Morgan Stanley bearish note on its peer Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL), which pointed out that the cruise industry’s August metrics seemed weak across the board. Last Friday, Bernstein initiated coverage on Norwegian Cruise Line with an Outperform rating and a $44 price target. However, this was not enough to change the course of the stock, which only rebounded after hitting rock bottom on Monday.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:NCLH) experienced an 18.75% decline in hedge fund support over the second quarter, counting 26 backers by the end of the period. Among those that left were Citadel Advisors, which sold all of its 1.57 million shares between April and June, and Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management, which sold off its 501,600 shares held on March 31.

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21Vianet Falling Since Earnings Report

21Vianet Group Inc (NASDAQ:VNET) hit a 52-week low of $8.05 on Tuesday afternoon and has fallen heavily since early-May, losing 59% of its value. The recent slide in the last month came after the company posted a second quarter net loss of $0.17 per share, $0.08 worse than the Street expected. Furthermore, following the poor results, JPMorgan downgraded the stock to ‘Underweight’ and Credit Suisse decided to suspend coverage on it, citing a lack of transparency in the company’s business model. Hedge funds in our system fled 21Vianet Group Inc (NASDAQ:VNET) during the second quarter, as ownership of the stock among them slid to 11 from 15. Daniel S. Och‘s OZ Management sold off its 4.82 million shares during the quarter, while Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management disposed of its 3.51 million-share stake.

How Deep A Hole Is Whole Foods In?

Finally, there’s Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM), which hit a 52-week low of $27.67 on early-Wednesday, partly driven by a bearish report from Goldman Sachs issued Monday, and partly by ongoing investor concerns regarding the company’s weak sales. Unlike its peers above, Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFM) became slightly more popular among the hedge funds in our system during the second quarter, as 26 held the stock on June 30, up from 25 on March 31. Anand Parekh’s Alyeska Investment Group almost quadrupled the size of its position to 5.12 million shares during the quarter, while Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management held 767,643 shares valued at $24.58 million as of June 30.

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Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned in this article.