These 5 Prominent Stocks Are Making Notable Moves Today

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Mixed earnings reports and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s press conference have cast a pall over investor sentiment in the markets today, with the major U.S indexes trading slightly down. Among the most important stocks affected by earnings reports today are Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV), Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK), American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE:YUM) and Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT). Let’s see how these companies performed in the first quarter and take a look at how top hedge funds were positioned in each stock.

Our research has shown that the best strategy is to follow hedge funds into their small-cap picks. This approach can allow monthly returns of nearly 95 basis points above the market, as we determined through extensive backtests covering the period between 1999 and 2012 (see the details here).

Travelers Companies Slides on Earnings

Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV)’s stock has lost 6.16% today after the company announced its first quarter financial results. The company delivered operating income of $698 million, or $2.33 per share, down from last year’s $827 million and missing estimates of $2.55 per share. Total revenue for the first quarter did increase to $6.69 billion, up from $6.63 billion in the first quarter of 2015. The company cited hail storms that hit Texas in March as the cause of the profit decline.

Out of the nearly 800 active hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 24 funds held long positions in Travelers Companies Inc (NYSE:TRV) at the end of the fourth quarter. Cliff Asness‘ AQR Capital owned the most notable position in the company among those funds, amounting to 2.90 million shares.

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Stanley Black & Decker Beats Estimates

Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK) reported its first quarter earnings on Thursday, with EPS coming in at $1.28, beating analysts’ expectations of $1.14. The Connecticut-based company’s revenue of $2.67 billion also beat estimates, which had anticipated $2.56 billion in revenue. The company expects full-year earnings of $6.20-to-$6.40 per share. The stock is currently trading up by 4.44%.

22 hedge funds in our system held positions in Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. (NYSE:SWK) at the end of last year. Richard S. Pzena‘s Pzena Investment Management owned a position of 2.9 million shares on December 31.

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We dig into the earnings reports of American Express, Yum Brands, and Mattel on the next page.

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