These Five Stocks are Making Headlines On Wednesday

After the closing bell on Tuesday, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) released financial results that disappointed investors, which sent shares of both tech companies down in after-hours trading. However, Wall Street might have shifted focus away from the ongoing earnings season toward the monetary policy decision of the Federal Reserve. Although most market participants do not expect a rate hike this week, the policy statement released by the Fed’s policy-setting committee on Wednesday will definitely receive attention from investors. Aside from Apple’s and Twitter’s sharp declines in after-hours trading, there are several other stocks that are making big moves today.

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Northrop’s Shares Down in Today’s Trading Session Despite Releasing Strong Earnings Report

Earlier in the morning, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) released its first-quarter earnings report, with both top- and bottom-line figures beating analysts’ estimates. The global security company posted net earnings of $556 million, or $3.03 per diluted share, which increased from $484 million, or $2.41 per diluted share, reported for the same quarter of 2015. Pension-adjusted diluted EPS increased to $2.77 from $2.14, easily beating analysts’ expectations of $2.49 per share. The defense contractor’s sales for the quarter were flat year-on-year at $5.96 billion, but slightly above analysts’ consensus estimate of $5.93 billion. The company’s top-line figure benefited from higher sales from its Aerospace Systems segment, which were offset by lower sales from Technology Services and Mission Systems. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) also raised its full-year 2016 EPS guidance to the range of $10.40 to $10.70 from the previous guidance of $9.90 to $10.20.

The shares of the security company are down below 1% thus far in today’s trading session and are 8% in the green thus far in 2016. There was a total of 40 hedge funds tracked by insider Monkey with stakes in Northrop at the end of December, which aggregately amassed nearly 7% of the company’s outstanding common stock. Eric Sprott’s Sprott Asset Management acquired a new stake of 179,600 shares of Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) during the first quarter of this year.

General Dynamics Up 2% on Strong Financial Results

General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD)’s shares are trending higher in today’s session, after the aerospace and defense company released better-than-expected first-quarter results. The company reported diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $2.34 for the quarter, up from $2.14 a year earlier and higher than analysts’ estimates of $2.16. First-quarter revenue was $7.72 billion, which decreased from $7.78 billion generated a year ago. Despite the year-over-year decline in the company’s top-line figure, the revenue figure came in above analysts’ expectations of $7.68 billion. General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD)’s Marine Systems group was the only unit of the company’s five divisions to register positive revenue growth for the quarter. This division’s sales increased as the company completed the ramp-up in construction from one to two Virginia-class submarines per year in 2015, with 16 submarines scheduled for delivery through 2023, as well as due to development work related to the replacement of the Navy’s Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine fleet. The number of money managers from our database with stakes in the company increased to 47 from 43 during the December quarter. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had 13,330 shares of General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE:GD) in its equity portfolio at the end of the March quarter.

Edward Lifesciences Reaches New 52-week High After Releasing First-quarter Results

Edwards Lifesciences Corp (NYSE:EW) reached a new 52-week high of $112 in today’s pre-market trading session, but the stock has lost ground since the ring of the opening bell. The medial device maker raised its full-year 2016 top- and bottom-line guidance, as strong sales of the company’s transcatheter heart valves led to higher-than-expected financial results for the first quarter. The leader in the science of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring anticipates 2016 sales in the range of $2.7 billion-to-$3.0 billion, up from the previous guidance of $2.6 billion-to-$2.85 billion. Similarly, the full-year 2016 EPS outlook was raised to the range of $2.67 to $2.77 from $2.57-to-$2.67. An earlier-than-anticipated U.S. indication expansion for the company’s SAPIEN 3 valve also stands behind the improved guidance. Edwards Lifesciences Corp (NYSE:EW)’s adjusted EPS increased 24.6% year-on-year to $0.71, which was above the estimates of $0.66. Meanwhile, first-quarter sales grew 18.1% year-on-year to $697.3 million. Cliff Asness’ AQR Capital Management owned 3.11 million shares of Edwards Lifesciences Corp (NYSE:EW) at the end of December.

First-quarter Financial Results Put Pressure on This Steelmaker; Stock Down 2%

United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X)’s shares are nearly 2% in the red in today’s trading session, after the U.S. largest steelmaker released its financial results for the first quarter of this year. U.S. Steel recorded a net loss of $340 million for the quarter, significantly higher than the net loss of $75 million reported for the first quarter of 2015. However, the company’s bottom-line figure substantially improved from the net loss of $1.13 billion recorded for the last quarter of 2015. This marks the seventh quarter of losses for the steelmaker in the past eight quarters. First-quarter net sales dropped to $2.34 billion from $3.27 billion in the first quarter of 2015. United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) also announced that it had filed with the International Trade Commission against Chinese steelmakers, who hoarded up a massive share of the U.S. domestic steel market in 2015. However, steel imports dropped approximately 35% to 5.1 million tons in the first two months of 2016 relative to the same period of 2015. Jonathan Barrett and Paul Segal’s Luminus Management acquired a 2.14 million-share stake in United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) during the final quarter of 2015.

Tax Services Provider’s Stock Down 15% Today

H & R Block Inc. (NYSE:HRB) has lost a whopping 15% of its market value in today’s trading session, after the Kansas City-based consumer tax services provider released disappointing U.S. tax results through April 19. The company said on Tuesday that its H&R Block U.S. assisted returns prepared declined 5.8% through April 19 to 12.2 million. As a result, the company announced plans to streamline operations, which would involve a workforce reduction of nearly 13%. “The volume losses are not acceptable and as CEO, I take complete responsibility for delivering stronger results”, outlined the company’s Chief Executive Officer Bill Cobb through a public statement. Soon after the release of the aforementioned statement, analysts at Oppenheimer downgraded H & R Block Inc. (NYSE:HRB) to ‘Market Perform’ from ‘Outperform’ and withdrew the price target of $29, saying that it was unfortunate that the company could not even reach previous heavily-reduced metrics. The company is anticipated to release its fiscal 2016 results on June 9, as well as reveal plans and outlook for fiscal 2017 during a conference call on that day. David Harding’s Winton Capital Management had 1.26 million shares of H & R Block Inc. (NYSE:HRB) in its equity portfolio at the end of December.

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