Why These 5 Stocks Are Making Thunderous Moves Today

Shares of Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) are trading down by about 7.5% on Thursday afternoon after the company admitted that it had overstated its Active New Member growth. Management said the error was caused by database scripting mistakes. While most figures were lower than originally reported, a few of them came in higher than before. Despite Bill Ackman’s allegations about Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) being a pyramid scheme (which now appears to be coming to a positive resolution for the company), 31 funds in our database disclosed long equity positions in the company as of the end of the fourth quarter. A noteworthy institutional investor is none other than Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital, which declared holding 17 million shares worth more than $911 million as of December 31.

On the other hand, there’s Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS), which is trading up by almost 18% in the afternoon hours. Before the market opened today, the 3D printing company reported a fourth quarter net loss of $0.01 per share, $0.11 better than expected, on revenue of $173.36 million, which also beat consensus estimates, by $5.05 million. Management also provided revenue guidance for 2016 of $700 million-to-$730 million, and EPS guidance of $0.17-to-$0.43, substantially above consensus estimates of $700.6 million in revenue and $0.18 in EPS.

Several hedge funds in our database are no doubt pleased with the good news. Among them we can count Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management, which disclosed ownership of 2.1 million shares of Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2015.

Finally, there’s Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), one of Thursday’s top gainers. Shares are up by more than 30% in the afternoon hours after the company said that it expects not to be prosecuted for former (now deceased) CEO Aubrey McClendon’s indictment for bid rigging. While Icahn’s Herbalife position has not had a great day, his Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) holding has more than made up for it. Icahn Capital LP was the largest institutional investor of record in the company at the end of the fourth quarter, holding 73.05 million shares. However, on February 12, Mason Hawkins’ Southeastern Asset Management displaced Icahn, after declaring ownership of 89.57 million shares, up from 55.67 million shares held on December 31.

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