The markets are sailing high today, following the Dow Jones closing above 18,000 on Monday for the first time since July 2015. According to the American Association of Individual Investors, stock allocation surged by 64% last month after investors converted cash into equities, which is the primary reason behind the recent market rally. Meanwhile, a massive workers strike in Kuwait has greatly curtailed oil production, temporarily stabilizing crude prices on the open market. However, there are some important stocks which are sinking today despite the fair trading seas. Among those stocks are Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT), Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP), Capstone Turbine Corporation (NASDAQ:CPST), Applied Optoelectronics Inc (NASDAQ:AAOI), and ADTRAN, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADTN), which we’ll look at in this article. We’ll also take a look at how the hedge funds that we track have been trading these stocks recently.
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Brinker International Stung by Declining Sales
Shares of Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT) have lost more than 6% this morning after the company reported its latest quarterly earnings. The dining company’s profit for the most recent quarter tumbled by 12% with EPS of $1.00, while its revenue of $824.6 million missed the consensus estimate of $844.09 million. Sales at Brinker International’s Chili’s flagship restaurants decreased by 4.1% last quarter. In a statement, Wyman Roberts, CEO of Brinker International, said that the company is disappointed in its sales performance. Following the earnings report, Zacks Investment Research downgraded its rating for Brinker International to ‘Sell’ from ‘Hold’, citing the decline in sales. The firm said that increasing food costs would further dent the company’s performance in the near future.
Out of the 785 or so hedge funds tracked by us, 17 of them held positions in Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE:EAT) at the end of the fourth quarter. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies was one of the notable stakeholders of Brinker International with ownership of 290,800 shares of the company on December 31.
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Drug Failure Drags Down Sucampo
Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP)’s stock has declined by more than 5% this morning after the company announced that it was pulling the plug on the development of cobiprostone, a drug for the treatment of proton pump inhibitor-refractory non-erosive reflux disease (NERD), because the drug did not meet the primary endpoints in its Phase 2a trial. However, the statement said that the company plans to continue the development of cobiprostone study for the prevention of oral mucositis disorder, which is currently in a Phase 2a trial of its own.
A total of 22 hedge funds out of those tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCMP) at the end of 2015, with a total value of approximately $42.1 million. Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management had one of the biggest stakes in the company, of 583,716 shares.
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We examine the ill tidings that are sinking three other stocks today on the next page.
