Why Are These Five Stocks Collapsing Today?

With the US stock market extending its losses on Tuesday, shares of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA), Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB), Frontier Communications Corp (NASDAQ:FTR), Qualys Inc (NASDAQ:QLYS) and Bristow Group Inc (NYSE:BRS) are among the top losers. Let’s find out why investors might be selling these five stocks today. Aside from the news that sent shares lower, we are also going to assess the hedge fund sentiment towards these stocks.

While there are many metrics that investors can assess in the investment process, 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 beat the S&P 500 by around 95 basis points per month (see more details here).

First on the list we’ve got Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA), whose shares are 2.8% in the red on the back of the company posting its financial results for the second-quarter of its fiscal 2016. For the quarter ended December 31, Twenty-First Century Fox reported a decrease in revenue of 0.5% year-over-year to $7.38 billion, while its profit advanced to $0.44 per share from $0.53 a year earlier.

A total of 56 investors from our database held long positions in Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA) at the end of the third quarter, versus 57 funds a quarter earlier and they amassed 16.2% of the float at the end of September. Jeffrey Ubben‘s ValueAct Capital was the largest shareholder with 47.33 million shares, valued at $1.28 billion at the end of September.

Second in our list is Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB), whose shares have declined by 15% after the global media company reported first-quarter EPS of $1.18, in-line with analyst estimates. However, revenue of $3.15 billion was down by 5.7% on the year and missed the estimates by $110 million. The company hasn’t provided any guidance, but investors should notice that the stock has fallen by 48% in the past twelve months.

During the third trimester, Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIAB) registered a decrease in popularity among the funds that we track, with 35 investors holding long positions at the end of September, versus 47 at the end of June. Among them, Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management was the largest shareholder, reporting ownership of 8.31 million shares as of the end of the third quarter.