Next up is Dubin’s financial pick, as he increased his stake Regions Financial Corp (NYSE:RF) by 62% to 6.57 million shares with a value of $62.07 million. Birmingham, Alabama-based Regions Financial has experienced a slow spring on the stock exchange, being down slightly year-to-date. The bank, which started its operations back in 1971 as a result of a merger between three local banks, posted its earnings of $0.16 for the first quarter on April 21, which was $0.02 below analysts’ expectations. For the same period the year before, Regions Financial Corp (NYSE:RF) posted earnings of $0.21. The revenue for the first quarter was however slightly higher than the revenue for the first quarter of 2014, giving some support to the share price. In the later part of May, Regions Financial finally put an end to the lawsuit the bank had been engaged in regarding the acquisition of AmSouth Bancorp back in 2006. Regions Financial has now agreed to pay shareholders $90 million as compensation for the misleading and false information the bank revealed regarding the purchase. The compensation is assumed by analysts to affect the banks financial situation. Believing that this is already baked into the share price it would seem is Dmitry Balyasny, who increased his fund’s stake in Regions Financial by 1,293% to 9.70 million shares with a value of $91.56 million during the first quarter.
The last pick to be discussed is the 426,310 shares with a value of $56.06 million that Highbridge bought in designing company Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL). Started by fashion designer Ralph Lauren in 1967 and put on the stock exchange thirty years later in 1997, the company has been having a terrible spring on the exchange, dipping by over 24% year-to-date. The reporting of its financial results for the third quarter of 2015 led to one of the worst trading days in the stock’s history as it plunged by 18%. The results were heavily affected by exchange rates, leading to Ralph Lauren Corp saying that it was going to increase its prices in Europe, Japan, and Canada in order to offset the strong appreciation of the U.S dollar. Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) also stated that it was about to renegotiate the price of the raw materials that it uses in its products, like cotton. Ralph Lauren posted earnings per share of $1.41 for the fourth quarter of 2015 $0.09 better than analysts’ estimates, with revenues also coming in better than expected, showing that Ralph Lauren seems to have found a way to quickly counter the unfavorable exchange rates, as it set out to do. David Goel and Paul Ferri‘s Matrix Capital Management took a stake in Ralph Lauren Corp consisting of 400,000 shares with a value of $52.60 million during the first quarter, and seemed to be confident in the turnaround that has seemingly already begun.
Disclosure: None
