Why 2U, Take-Two, Acadia, Air Lease and Acxiom Are Making Headlines Today

ACADIA Down Slightly On EPS Miss

Shares of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) are trading 0.1% lower on Friday after the company posted second quarter sales of $1 million yesterday, above the Street’s consensus. However, a net loss of $0.63 per share disappointed analysts, who were expecting a loss of $0.49 per share.

“The second quarter of 2016 was highlighted by transformative events for ACADIA, including the FDA approval and recent commercial launch of NUPLAZID™,” President and CEO Steve Davis stated. “We are executing on our plans to bring NUPLAZID to patients in need – our sales specialists have been trained and deployed; our patient and physician support system, NUPLAZIDconnect™, became operational at approval; we are expanding awareness of NUPLAZID among healthcare professionals through a number of initiatives including speaker programs, media and digital campaigns, and symposia at major medical meetings; and we are working with payors to make NUPLAZID available to eligible patients,” Mr. Davis concluded.

AT the end of the first quarter, ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) counted the backing of 31 funds among those we track. Julian Baker and Felix Baker’s Baker Bros. Advisors was the largest institutional shareholder of record, owning more than 24.2 million shares worth $677 million on March 31.

Air Lease Corp Takes Off After Strong Q2

Back to gainers, we’ve got Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL), which has gained 2.45% today after slightly beating analysts’ estimates on Thursday afternoon with the release of its second quarter results. EPS of $0.84 came in $0.02 ahead of expectations, while revenue of $350.13 million was narrowly higher than the consensus of $349 million.

“We had another strong quarter, with our business continuing to deliver record revenues and strong results. Our customers continue to perform well. The sale of our ATR and E-jet fleet to NAC is progressing on track. Demand for our used aircraft remains robust. We remain watchful of OEM and airline capacity discipline, and we look forward to any and all opportunities that may arise,” stated John L. Plueger, President and CEO of Air Lease.

23 funds in our database were long Air Lease Corp (NYSE:AL) at the end of the first quarter, including John Osterweis’ Osterweis Capital Management, which held more than 2.5% of the float, or about 2.62 million shares.

Acxiom Posts Robust Q1 2017 Figures

Finally, there’s Acxiom Corporation (NASDAQ:ACXM), which has spiked by 8.7% on Friday, driven by a double beat posted on Thursday afternoon. After the bell rang, the firm announced fiscal first quarter EPS of $0.15 on revenue of $214.8 million, $0.06 and $11.42 million above estimates, respectively. For the full-year, management guided for adjusted EPS of $0.55-to-$0.60 above the Street’s consensus of $0.55 at the mid-point of the range. However, sales are expected to be in the $850 million-to-$870 million range, below analysts’ target of $885.2 million. Also helping the stock on Friday was an upgrade from BMO Capital, which raised its rating on the company’s stock to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’.

Acxiom Corporation (NASDAQ:ACXM) was in the portfolios of 15 hedge funds in our database as of the end of March. Among them, was Mariko Gordon’s Daruma Asset Management, which held more than 3.00 million shares at the end of the quarter.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned in this article.