What Has Investors Spooked About These 4 Stocks Today?

Halloween is approaching, where kids young and old roam the streets as ghosts, zombies, and other creatures of the night. Yet it’s not the looming threat of cities being overrun by little monsters that has investors frightened this morning, but the horror stories being woven by a handful of companies, whose stocks are under heavy selling pressure as a result. Let’s unmask the news haunting investors and see how long the trembling is likely to persist.

We’ll start with Rovi Corporation (NASDAQ:ROVI), which has tumbled by just over 20% after its third quarter earnings missed the mark after its deal with an unnamed major consumer electronics manufacturer expired. Rovi Corporation (NASDAQ:ROVI) further warned that the low-end of its full-year guidance would be missed if a deal with that manufacturer was not renewed, negotiations towards which are currently being held. For its third quarter, profit slid to $0.29 per share, down from $0.42 EPS a year ago, and short of the $0.36 consensus estimate. Revenue also slid by more than 10% year-over-year to $114.88 million. Rovi Corporation (NASDAQ:ROVI) shares have now crumbled by more than 60% this year. The elite investors that we track were wisely vacating the stock in the second quarter, as ownership fell to 20 from 32.

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A popular food stock among elite investors, GNC Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNC) has disappointed today, falling by 25% after earnings and revenue both fell from a year ago, while analysts had been expecting an improvement. Earnings came in at $0.54 per share, widely missing estimates of $0.83, while revenue of $672.2 million missed by over $11 million. EPS and revenue were down by 24% and 2.7% respectively, year-over-year. It’s the second big blow in the past week for GNC Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNC), which fell by 15% on October 22 after Oregon’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against it alleging the use of the illegal ingredients BMPEA and picamilon in its supplements. GNC Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNC) refuted the allegations, claiming they are “without merit”. Shares have now declined by over 38% year-to-date, a big blow to the bullish investors in our database, which held 27.00% of those shares on June 30, led by Ricky Sandler‘s Eminence Capital.

On the next page we have the details on two more stocks, NXP Semiconductors and ABIOMED, that have given investors a good scare this morning.

A day after making mild gains on the back of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s strong earnings results, Apple supplier NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) is sinking today after its own earnings results and more specifically, its fourth quarter guidance, spooked investors. Shares of NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) are down by nearly 17% after the company announced last night that it expects a double-digit sales decrease, percentage-wise, in the fourth quarter due to weakening demand. The shocking guidance trumped NXP’s otherwise solid third quarter results, which came in around expectations. Revenue of $1.52 billion was slightly beneath estimates, while earnings of $1.57 per share were slightly above them. 13.10% of NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI)’s outstanding shares, valued at $3.01 billion, were held by 69 of the investors we track as of June 30, making it one of the most popular semiconductor stocks. Billionaires James Dinan, Dan Loeb, and David Tepper were among the shareholders of the Dutch company.

Lastly is ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD), which has been anything but a treat for investors this morning, being down by over 22%. The slide comes despite the medical device maker’s second quarter of fiscal year 2016 results coming in above expectations at $0.17 per share in earnings and $76.4 million in revenue, the latter up by 47% year-over-year. Revenue from ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD)’s Impella heart pump accounted for much of the firm’s revenue. Gross margins improved by 2.6 percentage points to 84.5%. ABIOMED, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABMD) also slightly raised its guidance for the full 2016 fiscal year for both its revenue and GAAP operating margins. It’s unclear what has the market so spooked at the moment, as the results appear solid from top to bottom. Investors in our database held 12.70% of ABIOMED’s shares on June 30, and were growing more bullish on the stock, with 29 holding long positions at that time compared to 23 on March 31. William Leland Edwards‘ healthcare fund Palo Alto Investors was the most bullish of those 29, owning 2.74 million shares.

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