Why 5 Stocks, Including Macy’s and Coach, Are Going Viral Today

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After two sharp down days in the previous three trading sessions, the bulls are back in charge on Wednesday. In the middle of the morning, the Dow is up by over 70 points, the S&P is 0.5% in the green, and the Nasdaq has rallied by almost 0.8% as some traders anticipate news of an interest rate hike coming out of the next FOMC meeting.

Among the stocks traders are talking about today are Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE), Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AGIO), Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M), Coach Inc (NYSE:COH), and Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE:APD). Let’s find out why each company is being talked about and analyze how successful hedge funds have each stock positioned in their portfolios.

While there are many metrics that investors can assess in the investment process, the hedge fund sentiment is something that is often overlooked. However, hedge funds and other institutional investors allocate significant resources while making their bets and their long-term focus makes them the perfect investors to emulate. This is supported by our research, which determined that following the small-cap stocks that hedge funds are collectively bullish on can help a smaller investor to beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see the details here).

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Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) is 1% in the red today after it announced earnings guidance for its third quarter. For the period, Nucor’s management expects EPS to be in the range of $0.85-to-$0.90 per diluted share, versus second quarter consolidated net earnings of $0.73 per diluted share. In contrast, analysts were expecting an average of $0.95 per share, as steel imports have declined year-over-year due to various duties. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies owned 931,800 shares in Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) at the end of the second quarter, down by 13% from the amount owned at the end of the first quarter.

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Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AGIO) shares are off by 2% today after the company announced its intention to sell up to $150 million worth of common stock in a public stock offering, in addition to granting underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to $22.5 million worth of additional shares. The proceeds of the offering are expected to be used to finance the company’s R&D. The pricing of the offering has not been announced yet. 11 funds that we track had a long position in Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:AGIO) at the end of June, down by five funds from the end of the previous quarter.

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On the next page, we’ll examine the latest on Macy’s, Coach, and Air Products & Chemicals.

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