Why These 5 Stocks Are Making Big Moves Today

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Oil is slumping on Tuesday, which is dragging the stock markets down with it, as all major U.S stock indexes are down by more than 0.6%. Among some of the most relevant movers today we can count Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI), Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL), Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), and Inventergy Global Inc (NASDAQ:INVT). Let’s take a look into the events driving the moves we’re witnessing in these stocks today and see what the funds in our database think about these companies.

Our research 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).

Back to the stocks that interest us, let’s start with Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI), which is down by about 2.9% this afternoon following the announcement of the company’s third quarter financial results for fiscal year 2016. Earnings of $1.21 per share came in $0.02 above the Street’s consensus estimate, while revenue of $1.85 billion, up by 6.9% year-over-year, beat estimates by $10 million. Same-restaurant sales also rose by 6.2% in the fiscal third quarter thanks to all of the holding company’s brands posting strong figures, headlined by the 9.9% same-store sales growth at Bahama Breeze, while Olive Garden delivered 6.8% comparable store growth.

Despite the positive results, Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI)’s stock is down on the announcement that Starboard Value’s Jeffrey Smith has stepped down from the company’s Board of Directors. Starboard was the largest shareholder of record at Darden at the end of the fourth quarter, with 11.63 million shares. However, in the first quarter of 2016, the firm disclosed several decreases to its exposure, with its position standing at 6.68 million shares as of March 15. On top of Starboard, another 31 funds in our database were long the stock at the end of 2015.

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Next up is Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA), which is also down today, by roughly 2.75%, following an earnings call of its own. Before the bell rang this morning, the company reported earnings of $1.31 per share for the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, $0.03 above the Street’s estimates. Nonetheless, revenue of $30.18 billion, up by 13.6% year-over-year, fell $480 million short of expectations.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) is one of the most popular consumer stocks among the hedge funds in our database. At the end of the fourth quarter, 78 firms held long stakes in the company, with their positions accounting for 7.4% of its outstanding shares. Among them was Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global, which, in spite of a 46% reduction to its holding over the fourth quarter, remained the largest shareholder in our system with 12.77 million shares.

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We run through what is happening with three of the day’s biggest movers on the next page.

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