What Drove These Three Stocks Lower On Friday?

While the markets started the last day of the trading week on a positive note, a number of stocks slumped in pre-market trading and extended their losses after the bell. In this article, we will take a look at three stocks that are losing ground today, will assess the news that sparked their declines, and will see whether the hedge fund sentiment towards them suggests whether today’s depreciation makes them more attractive for long-term investors.

sunset-over-the-golf-course-644477_1920

We think that hedge funds are the perfect investors to emulate due to their long-term focus, which allows us to overlook the delays in their quarterly 13F filings, as well as the due diligence that hedge funds conduct when they invest in a stock. Despite the average underperformance registered by equity hedge funds in the last couple of years, we determined that this group of investors had solid returns on the long side of their portfolios. However, we are more interested in their small-cap picks, which we use as part of our strategy. The strategy involves imitating a portfolio of the 15 most popular small-cap ideas among over 700 hedge funds and it has returned 102% since August 2012, beating the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by some 53 percentage points (see details here).

ClubCorp Holdings Inc (NYSE:MYCC)‘s stock opened around 3% lower Friday after the company disclosed its financial results for the third quarter after the bell on Thursday, reporting revenue of $255 million, up by 24.9% on the year, though its net income declined to $1.19 million from $3.27 million a year earlier. Likewise, the revenue was above analysts’ estimates of $252.8 million, but the earnings per share of $0.02 disappointed the Street, which expected EPS of $0.16. Still, despite Friday’s drop, the stock is up by over 15% year-to-date and the funds from our database are bullish on ClubCorp Holdings Inc (NYSE:MYCC) as they owned nearly 19% of the company at the end of June. A total of 26 funds reported stakes worth $292.16 million in the previous round of 13F filings, while the largest stake was held by Ken Griffin‘s Citadel Investment Group, which reported ownership of 3.35 million shares in its latest 13F, up by 86% on the quarter.

Follow Clubcorp Holdings Inc. (NYSE:MYCC)

We’ll dissect two of Friday’s most prominent decliners on the following page.

Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN)‘s shares were also down on the back of its financial results for the third quarter. The stock opened 7% in the red on Friday, though it recovered to end the day down by just 1.17%. The company delivered adjusted earnings of $0.86 per share, down from $1.05 a year earlier, while its revenue slid to $996.3 million from $1.37 billion in the third quarter of 2014, as the company was severely affected by the slowdown of the gaming industry in Macau, where Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN) registered a 38% net revenue drop. Compared to analysts’ EPS estimates of $0.86, the company managed to post better-than-expected results, but it fell short of expectations on the revenue side, with the consensus estimate having stood at around $1.03 billion. Among the hedge funds from our database, we can see some optimism regarding Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN)’s prospects as the number of funds with long positions in the company went up by ten to 35 during the second quarter, while the aggregate value of their holdings advanced to $1.24 billion and represented 12.40% of the company’s shares at the end of June. Mason Hawkins‘ Southeastern Asset Management is the top shareholder of Wynn Resorts in our database, owning 7.11 million shares after a 56% hike to its holding during the second quarter, followed by John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital, which reported a new position of 790,000 shares in its 13F filing for the second quarter.

Follow Wynn Resorts Ltd (NASDAQ:WYNN)

Lastly is Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc (NASDAQ:CRZO), whose stock lost 1.49% yesterday after the company issued estimated oil production figures for the third quarter and raised its production growth target for the current year to 23,573 Bbls/d and 21% respectively. The third quarter production represents an increase of 18% on the year and is 4% above the high-end of its previous guidance. On Thursday, Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc (NASDAQ:CRZO) also announced an underwritten public offering of 5.50 million shares, up from 5.30 million that it had announced earlier, expecting gross proceeds of almost $212 million. Several analysts have lowered their price targets on the stock in the last couple of months, including KLR Group, which reduced its target to $49 from $51 on Thursday. Still, most analysts have ‘Buy’ ratings on the stock and the consensus price target currently amounts to $53.60, which indicates an upside potential of nearly 31%. On the other hand, Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc (NASDAQ:CRZO) lost some popularity among the funds we track during the second quarter, as the number of funds with long positions slid to 25 from 39, while the aggregate value of their holdings fell to $266.82 million from $417.76 million and represented 10.50% of the company’s common stock at the end of June. Mariko Gordon’s Daruma Asset Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group lead the list of Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc (NASDAQ:CRZO)’s shareholders in our database with stakes of 1.40 million shares and 1.37 million shares respectively.

Follow Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc (NASDAQ:CRZO)

Disclosure: None