Why These Five Stocks Are in Spotlight Today

It’s the fourth day of the week, and OPEC is once again meeting in Vienna to try and hammer out some sort of production cap. The bears think Iran’s rivalry with Saudi Arabia will preclude any meaningful show of unity while the bulls hope that this time will be different. Among the stocks buzzing today are Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), American Woodmark Corporation (NASDAQ:AMWD), Conn’s Inc (NASDAQ:CONN), Joy Global Inc. (NYSE:JOY), and 58.com Inc (ADR) (NYSE:WUBA). Let’s take a closer look and analyze how elite funds are positioned in each stock.

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While there are many metrics that investors can assess in the investment process, the hedge fund sentiment is something that is often overlooked. However, hedge funds and other institutional investors allocate significant resources while making their bets and their long-term focus makes them the perfect investors to emulate. This is supported by our research, which determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor to beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

Johnson & Johnson Gets Bigger

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is getting bigger after the healthcare conglomerate announced it will buy Vogue International for around $3.3 billion in cash. Vogue develops, markets, and distributes salon-influenced and nature inspired hair care and other personal care products in the U.S. and 38 other countries. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016 and is not expected to impact 2016 Johnson’s EPS or revenue guidance. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management was one of the top shareholders of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) at the end of the first quarter.

American Woodmark Reports Mixed Earnings

American Woodmark Corporation (NASDAQ:AMWD) posted earnings of $0.86 per share on revenue of $240.92 million for its fiscal fourth quarter, missing the EPS consensus estimate by $0.03 per share and beating top-line estimates by $3.76 million. Net sales rose by 16% year-over-year as the company experienced growth across all channels. Gross margin was 20.3%, versus 20.9% for the same quarter of the prior year impacted by higher labor benefit costs and greater depreciation weighed on the metric. For all of fiscal year 2016, American Woodmark earned $3.57 per share on revenue of $947.04 million. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies was long more than 700,000 shares of American Woodmark Corporation (NASDAQ:AMWD) at the end of March.

On the next page, we examine Conn’s, Joy Global, and 58.com.