The three major U.S. equity indexes closed mixed on Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrials ended the day up by a mere 0.01%, while the S&P 500 closed 0.16% lower and the Nasdaq down 0.59%. Six of 11 sectors closed lower, with technology (−0.98%) and utilities (−0.73%) falling the most. Real estate (1.71%) and energy (1.28%) posted the largest gains.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration releases its weekly report on the country’s petroleum inventories later in the morning. Last week, the U.S. commercial crude inventory declined by 3.69 million barrels. After U.S. markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that U.S. inventories dropped by 4.2 million barrels, more than the 2.5 million barrels that analysts were expecting. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is giving a speech titled “Economic Outlook, Inflation, and the Labor Market” Wednesday afternoon that will be parsed for clues to future Fed rate hikes.

Before U.S. markets open on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Labor will issue its weekly report on claims for unemployment benefits and the Bureau of Economic Analysis will release its October report on personal consumption expenditures (PCE). To wrap up a busy week, the nonfarm payroll report for November is due Friday.

The three major indexes traded slightly higher in Wednesday’s premarket session.

After U.S. markets closed Tuesday, CrowdStrike reported quarterly results that were better than expected. Then came the not-so-good news: subscription revenue grew by less than the company expected due to “macroeconomic headwinds.” CrowdStrike expects to report adjusted earnings per share (EPS) in a range of $0.42 to $0.45 in the current quarter, well above the consensus estimate of $0.34, but revenue guidance of $619.1 to $628.2 million for the quarter fell short of the consensus estimate. The stock was punished Wednesday morning, trading down more than 17% in the premarket session.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise also beat earnings per share (EPS) and revenue expectations. The company issued upside guidance for earnings and revenue for the current quarter. Shares traded up about 1.9% Wednesday morning.

Before markets opened on Wednesday, Chinese online real estate broker KE Holdings beat consensus estimates on both the top and bottom lines but issued downside guidance for current-quarter revenue. The stock traded up by about 6.8% in Wednesday’s premarket.

Shipping company Frontline reported a miss on earnings and better-than-forecast revenue. The company said it expects to pay a cash dividend of 80% of adjusted net income per share ($0.37) for the third quarter once its voluntary exchange offer related to the acquisition of Euronav is completed. That is about $0.30 per share. Shares traded up by 3.4%.

Nordic American Tankers also beat top-line and bottom-line estimates Wednesday morning. The stock traded up about 3.2%.
After markets close Wednesday, Okta, Pure Storage, Salesforce and Snowflake are on deck to report quarterly earnings. Look for Dollar General and Kroger to post quarterly results first thing Thursday morning.

Here is a preview of three companies set to report quarterly results later on Thursday.

ChargePoint

Electric vehicle charging network provider ChargePoint Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CHPT) has seen its stock price drop by nearly 40% over the past 12 months. The stock has dropped by more than 60% since its March 2021 SPAC initial public offering. Following a bounce one month after the federal Inflation Reduction Act was signed, the share price declined by 40% before bouncing slightly higher again after the November elections.

The company is still burning cash, and interest rates remain high. The less-bad news is that ChargePoint expects to double its revenue in the current fiscal year.

Analysts are bullish on the stock, with 14 of 20 brokerages having a Buy or Strong Buy rating and the other six rating the stock at Hold. At a recent price of around $11.50 a share, the stock’s implied upside based on a median price target of $20.00 is nearly 74%. At the high price target of $46.00, the implied upside is 300%.

Revenue is forecast to reach $132.12 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2023, which would be up 22% sequentially and by 103% year over year. Analysts are expecting a loss per share of $0.18, flat sequentially, and worse than the year-ago loss of $0.15 per share. For the full 2023 fiscal year ending in January, ChargePoint is expected to post a loss per share of $0.75, worse than the prior year’s per-share loss of $0.61. Forecast full-year revenue of $481.88 million is up 98.8% from last year’s actual revenue.

The company is not expected to post a profit in 2024 or 2025. Three analysts have forecast a consensus profit of $0.24 per share in 2026. ChargePoint’s enterprise value to sales multiple for 2023 is 7.8, dipping to 5.0 in 2024 and 3.3 in 2025. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $8.50 to $26.75, and the company does not pay a dividend. The total shareholder return for the past year was negative 54.8%.

Marvell Technology

Chipmaker Marvell Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL) has seen its share price drop by nearly 40% over the past 12 months. Since posting a 52-week high in early December last year, the stock had dropped more than 50%. After posting a new 52-week low in mid-October, shares have added about 21.5%. Marvell confirmed earlier this month that it will eliminate its R&D activities in China, becoming the third U.S. chipmaker (Micron and Texas Instruments are the others) to leave the country.
Analysts remain solidly bullish on Marvell stock. Of 33 brokerages covering the shares, 29 have a Buy or Strong Buy rating, and the rest rate the shares at Hold. At a share price of around $42.90, the upside potential to a median price target of $70.00 is 63.2%. At the high price target of $125.00, the upside potential is more than 90%.

For its third quarter of fiscal 2023, Marvell’s revenue is forecast to come in at $1.56 billion, up 2.7% sequentially and 28.9% higher year over year. Adjusted EPS are forecast at $0.59, up 3.1% sequentially and by 37.2% year over year. For the full fiscal year ending in January, EPS are forecast at $2.30, up 46.4%, on sales of $6.13 billion, up 37.4%.

Marvell stock trades at 18.7 times expected 2023 EPS, 15.6 times estimated 2024 earnings of $2.75 and 12.9 times estimated 2025 earnings of $3.33 per share. The stock’s 52-week range is $35.30 to $93.85, and Marvell pays an annual dividend of $0.24 (yield of 0.56%). Total shareholder return for the past year was negative 39.5%.

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UiPath

UiPath Inc. (NYSE: PATH) makes and sells a robotic automation platform. Over the past 12 months, shares have plunged by about 75%. Investors got some good news a couple of weeks ago when the company reported preliminary results for the third quarter that included an increase in expected revenue and an announced reduction of some 6% in the company’s global workforce of around 4,000. After a jump of around 10% on the news, shares have dropped below their level on the day of the filing.

Of 22 analysts covering the stock, eight have a Buy or Strong Buy rating and 13 more have Hold ratings. At a share price of around $11.80, the upside potential based on a median price target of $16.00 is 35.6%. At the high price target of $27.50, the upside potential stretches to nearly 108%.

UiPath is expected to report third-quarter fiscal 2023 revenue of $255.94 million. That would be up 5.7% sequentially and by 15.9% year over year. Analysts are forecasting an adjusted loss per share of $0.01, compared to a prior quarter loss of $0.02 per share and a break-even quarter in 2021. For the full year, estimates call for a per-share loss of $0.02, down from year-ago EPS of $0.08, and sales of $1.01 billion, up 13.7%.

The stock trades at 186.2 times estimated 2024 earnings of $0.06 and 88.7 times estimated 2025 earnings of $0.13 per share The stock’s 52-week range is $10.44 to $50.21. UiPath does not pay a dividend, and the total shareholder return for the past year is negative 75.6%.

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