Harley-Davidson (HOG), Infoblox (BLOX), and More: Why Are These Stocks Plunging Today?

American Equity Investment Life Holding (NYSE:AEL) shareholders received some bad regulatory news after the Labor Department announced new regulations that make it harder for brokers to sell index annuities. Under the new rules, brokers will have to release more information on how they are compensated for sales of index annuities and other complex financial products. The process could reveal conflicts of interest that might lower demand. Given that American Equity Investment Life Holding (NYSE:AEL) is one of the largest sellers of index annuities, investors have sold the stock off, with shares down by 16%. The number of shareholders of American Equity in our database dropped to 19 as of the end of December, down from 24 three months earlier.

Navistar International Corp (NYSE:NAV) is off modestly today after being down by more than 7% at one point this morning. It is unclear what caused the sell-off. Navistar did agree to settle SEC charges relating to the company potentially misleading investors on the ability of its new truck engine to meet U.S emission standards. The charges were settled for $7.5 million late last week. Hedge funds are bullish on Navistar International Corp (NYSE:NAV). Of the 785 or so investors in our database, 16 of them held over half of the company’s float at the end of December. Among them was Carl Icahn‘s Icahn Capital LP, with a holding of over 16.00 million shares. 

Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM) is off by 7.5% this afternoon on the back of technical selling. Due to poor financial performance, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE:OZM) shares have fallen by 34% year-to-date and are off by almost two-thirds in the last twelve months. 15 elite funds held roughly 2.5% of the company at the end of December. Crispin Odey‘s Odey Asset Management Group was the largest smart money shareholder at that time, with a holding of 4.85 million shares.

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