Apple (AAPL) Bulls Are Charging Again, While Schlumberger, Starbucks and American Express Are Making Earnings Moves of their Own

Impressive fourth quarter results have pushed Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) higher today by about 1.5%, as the maker of da Vinci surgical systems reported a 29% surge in profits. Net income climbed to $190 million or $5.89 per share when adjusted for one-time costs, easily beating Wall Street expectations of $5.02 per share. Revenue increased as well, to $676.5 million, up by 12% year-over-year, and in-line with analysts’ expectations. For the full 2015 year, the company reported revenue of $2.38 billion and earnings of $15.54 per share.

Hedge funds did not rush out to buy Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) shares during the third quarter, as the number of long positions slightly increased during the quarter to 34, less than 5% of the funds we track. Samuel Isaly’s Orbimed Advisors holds the largest position, having reported ownership of 239,000 shares, down by 21% over the quarter.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) has been mostly in the red today, though it’s largely made up most of its losses after the bell, trading down by just 0.76% now. Investors were not impressed by the company’s forward guidance for the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, with Starbucks expecting earnings in the range of $0.38 to $0.39 per share, while analysts were looking for $0.40 per share. Starbucks also said that it expects revenue from overseas to suffer from the strong dollar. The news eclipsed the earnings results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2016 that the company issued yesterday after the market close, which amounted to revenue of $5.37 billion, up by 12% year-over-year, and earnings of $0.46 per share, slightly beating earnings estimates of $0.45 per share and falling slightly short of revenue expectations of $5.39 billion.

Hedge fund sentiment towards Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) improved a bit during the third quarter, with the number of long positions rising to 54 or 7.5% of the funds we follow. Steve Cohen is very bullish on this stock, having increased his bet by a whooping 900% over the quarter. His fund, Point72 Asset Management, holds 1.76 million shares according to its latest quarterly report.