Analyst Action Puts Anadarko Petroleum in Spotlight, COMSCORE, Inc. (SCOR) Trading Higher on Accounting Probe Updates & Other News

Crude futures are again in the red this morning as sentiment around the commodity remains sluggish. Although inventories aren’t in danger of over-flooding, supply is still in many places greater than demand and some analysts don’t expect a rebound until next year.

Not surprisingly, several crude-related companies made it to our list of market-trenders this morning. Among them are Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) and Transocean LTD (NYSE:RIG), as well as some non-energy companies, such as COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR), General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) and Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C). Let’s find out why the five stocks are trending and see how the smart money was trading these stocks in the second quarter.

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COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) is well in the green today after the company said that its investigation into previous revenue recognition practices, disclosures and internet controls is ‘substantially complete’. The company’s audit committee has identified areas of concern and will be “undertaking a significant effort to help ensure that the errors in judgment and internal control deficiencies did not impact other transactions that were not part of the investigation”A. In terms of the new preliminary data, management estimates that for the year ended in December 2015, sales should be $339.9 million rather than the previous $368.8 million. The loss from operations for the time period should be $10.8 million rather than the previous $2.65 million. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management established a new stake of 450,000 shares in COMSCORE, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCOR) in the second quarter.

Transocean LTD (NYSE:RIG) is in the spotlight after analysts at Canaccord Genuity recently upgraded the stock to ‘Hold’ from ‘Sell’, citing the company’s ‘rock solid’ balance sheet among other factors. Although the analysts are bearish on the sector overall, they think that Transocean’s current stock price reflects much of the negative news. Canaccord has a $9 price target on the stock. Transocean is also trending due to the fluctuating oil prices. If today’s rig count number increases again, oil prices might need some more helpful OPEC/Russia statements to be in the positive this week. Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital LP owned over 21 million shares in Transocean LTD (NYSE:RIG) on June 30.

On the next page, we examine why General Electric Company, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, and Citigroup are trending today.

Given that it is one of the largest industrial companies in the world and Hinkley Point will be one of the largest industrial projects in the U.K., it’s not surprising that General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) has recently won a $1.9 billion order to supply generators, steam turbines and other industrial equipment to the nuclear power plant project. After putting the project on hold in part due to political reasons, the British government gave the go-ahead for the project on Thursday. The order confirm’s GE’s leadership position in the industrial sector and partially validates its pivot away from the financial sector. Of the around 750 elite funds that we track, 57 were long General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) at the end of the second quarter.

Analysts at JPMorgan recently gave the thumbs up to Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC), as they raised their price target to $70 from $64 and reaffirmed their ‘Overweight’ rating. As reason for the price target hike, JPMorgan likes the expected accretion from Anadarko’s recent deepwater acquisition, as well as management’s dedication to reinvest in U.S. onshore assets. Hedge funds on a count basis cut their stake in Anadarko in the second quarter. A total of 48 funds from our database had a bullish position in Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) at the end of June, down by 11 funds from the previous quarter.

Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) is in the red after analysts at Goldman downgraded the stock to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’. The analysts also trimmed their price target to $50 per share from $52, noting that the bank’s ROE of 7.7% is considerably below the target of 10%. Going forward, the Goldman analysts don’t think Citigroup’s strong divisions of wealth management, etc. will be enough to help lift the company’s overall ROE to that 10% target. A total of 97 funds we track have a stake in Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) as of the end of June, down by four funds from the previous quarter.

Disclosure: none