Here’s Why These Five Stocks Are on the Move on Thursday

The US stock market is mixed, yet flattish, on Thursday afternoon, as investors await Friday’s payrolls data. “Today is more of a consolidation of positions. Perhaps taking some chips off the table ahead of tomorrow’s jobs number,” Tony Bedikian, head of global markets at Citizens Bank explained.

Among individual stocks on the move are Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (USA) (NYSE:CP), Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ), Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (USA) (NASDAQ:TSEM), Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) and Sunoco LP (NYSE:SUN). In this article we will take a look into the events behind the movement of these stocks, and into what the funds in our database think about them.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 765 hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see more details).

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Canadian Pacific Tumbles On Pershing Departure

Let’s start with Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (USA) (NYSE:CP), which has tumbled 2.65% on Thursday trading, after Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square (and affiliated funds) announced it will be liquidating its stake in the company. The firm will commence a public offering of all of its 9.84 million shares, valued at approximately $1.5 billion. “Canadian Pacific has completed an incredible transformation since our initial investment in 2011,” Ackman explained. “Hunter Harrison and Keith Creel have restored to greatness one of North America’s top railroads and have set the company on the path to continued success,” he added. Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (USA) (NYSE:CP) saw the number of hedge funds in our database long its stock surge by 24% to 36 during the first quarter.

Canadian Natural Resource Little Changed After Earnings

Next up is Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ), which has gained 0.7% today, following the announcement of the company’s second quarter financial results. Before the bell rang this morning, the firm posted a net loss of CAD 0.19 ($0.15), compared to estimates of a loss of CAD 0.20, while revenue of CAD 2.55 billion beat estimates by CAD 750 million. While lower commodity prices were somewhat offset by a 14% decline in overall operating costs, cash flow from operations plummeted by 38% year-over-year to CAD 938 million. Management also declared a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.23 per share, in line with the previous payout. At the end of the first quarter, Canadian Natural Resource Ltd (USA) (NYSE:CNQ) saw 23 funds among those we track holding shares.