Why These 5 Stocks Are Tumbling Today: LendingClub (LC), Lannett (LCI), More

Juniper Drags Fortinet Down

Shares of Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) are trading down by almost 4% in the afternoon hours, most likely as a reaction to Juniper Networks, Inc. (NYSE:JNPR)’s preliminary first quarter results, which were released on Monday evening. The company said that it expects to earn $0.35-to-$0.37 per share on revenue of $1.09 billion-to-$1.10 billion, down from previous EPS guidance of $0.42-to-$0.46, and revenue expectations of $1.15 billion-to-$1.19 billion. Consensus estimates stood at the upper range of the previous guidance, coming in at $0.45 per share in EPS and $1.18 billion in revenue.

Several funds in our database are taking a hit from this decline. 25 funds among those that we track were long Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT) at the end of the fourth quarter. Among them was Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, which held the largest position, comprised of 1.82 million shares.

Bogda’s Departure Has Investors Worried

Another decliner in Tuesday trading is Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE:LCI), which has lost 5.75% since the bell rang this morning. The decline was triggered by the announcement that president Michael J. Bogda will be leaving the company, effective June 3, “to pursue other interests.”

Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE:LCI) saw a marked reduction in hedge fund support over October-to-December period, as the number of hedge funds in our database long the stock fell by 41% to 17. However, Mitchell Blutt’s Consonance Capital Management seemed quite bullish. The firm initiated a stake in the company comprising 1.31 million shares during the quarter, giving it the largest position among those investors as of December 31.

LendingClub Still A ‘Show Me’ Story

Finally, there’s LendingClub Corp (NYSE:LC), which is down by almost 4.5% this afternoon, potentially in reaction to this week’s LendIt conference, an annual event that brings together emerging technology-powered financial institutions. LendingClub’s performance has been quite poor for some time. Over the last year, the stock has lost almost 60%, while since its IPO back in December of 2014, its shares have fallen by more than 70%. Investors are demanding that the company prove that “the model works through different economic cycles,” LendingClub CEO Renaud Laplanche explained. “There’s some skepticism of the staying power of the model,” he added. “For now, investors are valuing these businesses more like traditional lenders than high-growth tech companies,” a CNBC article expounded.

Despite the public’s bearishness, LendingClub Corp (NYSE:LC) saw hedge fund support rise during the fourth quarter, with the number of hedge funds in our database long the stock increasing by 20%, to 18. A noteworthy position was held by Valinor Management LLC, headed by David Gallo, which owned 14.39 million shares of LendingClub worth almost $160 million on December 31.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article.