With the heart of earnings season officially here, it’s not surprising that many big-name stocks are in the spotlight. In this article we’ll take a closer look at the earnings results of five of the biggest, those being International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), and VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW). In addition, we’ll use SEC filings to see how elite funds are positioned in each.
Our research has shown that the best strategy is to follow hedge funds into their small-cap picks. This approach can allow monthly returns of nearly 95 basis points above the market, as we determined through extensive backtests covering the period between 1999 and 2012 (see the details here).
Twin Design / Shutterstock.com
IBM Beats Estimates
Perennial laggard International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) may finally be turning the corner, as the company reported better than expected earnings results for the second quarter, on strong revenue. For the period, Big Blue earned $2.95 per share on revenue of $20.24 billion, beating the consensus estimates by $0.06 per share and $210 million respectively. Although revenue fell again, by 2.7% year-over-year, the company’s cloud platform, analytics, security, and cognitive solutions segments are showing promise. IBM is also committed to investing in the future growth markets of quantum computing, blockchain, and the Internet of Things. Shares are up by 1.4% in pre-market trading. Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway is a big believer and stakeholder in International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), owning 81.23 million shares of the company on March 31.
Follow International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM)
Follow International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM)
Yahoo! Reports Mixed Results
Although the results won’t matter much given that Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is selling its core internet properties, the internet portal nevertheless turned in a so-so quarter for the three months ended June 30. For the time period, Yahoo! earned $0.09 per share on revenue of $1.3 billion, missing the bottom-line consensus by $0.01 per share while beating the top-line estimates by $220 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $172 million for the period, down from $262 million in the second quarter of 2015. Mavens revenue was $504 million, up from $401 million in the comparable period a year ago. The number of funds in our database which had holdings in Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) rose by 13 quarter-over-quarter to 97 as of the end of March.
Follow Altaba Inc. (NASDAQ:AABA)
Follow Altaba Inc. (NASDAQ:AABA)
On the next page we’ll see how Netflix Inc, EMC, and VMware did during their latest financial quarters.
