Top Earnings Previews For Early In The Week Ahead (COP, ILMN, NFLX, TXN, AMGN, AAPL, T, BIDU, COH, JNPR, MMM, RF, X, UTX)

Earnings season is in full swing and we have many key reports due in the coming week.  24/7 Wall St. has provided some detailed previews for the key earnings reports we expect to show in detail on Monday and Tuesday.

We are monitoring earnings reports from the following companies for Monday and Tuesday: ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP); Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN); Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX); Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN); Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN); Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL); AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T); Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU); Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH); Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR); 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM); Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF); United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X); and United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX).

More earnings report previews will come on Sunday or Monday for the reports due on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Consensus estimates and price targets are from Thomson Reuters.  Color has been on added on each if applicable.

MONDAY, April 23

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is set to report Monday morning and the break-up is going to make any real apples to apples comparison difficult to interpret.  Thomson Reuters has estimates of $2.07 EPS.  Shares are trading around $73.15 and the 52-week range is $58.65 to $81.50; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $81.05.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) is no market mover with a $5.4 billion market cap, but it is a recent merger candidate even if that appears to be off the table.  Earnings estimates are $0.32 EPS and $263.6 million. Shares are trading around $44.00 and the 52-week range is $25.57 to $79.40; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $52.71.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) will show whether or not it can get close to making money again and whether or not Coinstar’s price hike at RedBox can offer it some of the same. Watch out for the wild card being the short interest.  By now the company would have known if it had earnings problems or not.  Thomson Reuters estimates are -$0.27 EPS and $868.6 million in revenues.  Shares are trading around $106.20 and the 52-week range is $62.37; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $96.21 that is under the current price.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) reports Monday afternoon and it is hard to imagine that Nokia was not a drag yet again as we had seen last year.  Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.29 EPS and $3.06 billion in sales. Shares are trading around $32.70 and the 52-week range is $24.34 to $35.98; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $35.54.

TUESDAY, APRIL 24

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) will be the first of the big biotech stocks.  Thomson Reuters has estimates of $1.45 EPS and $3.93 billion in sales. Shares are trading around $68.20 and the 52-week range is $47.66 to $70.00; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $70.85.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) will be the most widely followed report of the week. Apple has seen some huge profit taking with a drop in what appears to be 7 or 8 of the last 9 trading days.  The gains in 2012 have been massive, and some may just call it a wave of profit taking.  Shares are trading around $577 late Friday and the 52-week range is $310.50 to $644.00; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of about $679.00 or so.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) reports on Tuesday morning and it is the highest yield of the DJIA at about 5.7%.  Estimates are $0.57 EPS and $31.85 billion in revenues.  Shares are trading around $30.90 and the 52-week range is $27.29 to $31.97; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $31.71.

Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) will be key to watch as it can be extremely volatile around earnings.  Estimates are $0.84 EPS and $677.5 million in sales. Shares are trading around $145.00 and the 52-week range is $100.95 to $165.96; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $191.80.

Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) is expected to report $0.75 EPS on $1.1 billion in sales. Shares are trading around $75.90 and the 52-week range is $45.70 to $79.70; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $81.45.

Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) might not be incredibly important all on its own for tech and telecom spending, but investors try to use the analogy that it is a preview for Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) in the couple of weeks ahead.  The company has been weak and it has not exactly been trying to talk up its numbers. That is a stretch, but it is what the case has been before. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.13 EPS on $977,3 million in revenue.  Shares are trading around $20.75 and the 52-week range is $16.67 to $40.40; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $22.52.

3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) should have a blessing and a hex on it after GE beat estimates, but that also implies that there will be greater expectations on the conglomerate. Estimates are $1.49 EPS and $7.49 billion in sales.  Shares are trading around $87.31 and the 52-week range is $68.63 to $98.19; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $95.17.   Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF) is not a market-moving bank now but it is very actively followed by investors and traders because of its low share price and volatility.  Estimates are $0.08 EPS and $1.34 billion in revenue. Shares are trading around $6.01 and the 52-week range is $2.82 to $7.45; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $7.03.

United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) is expected to report Wednesday morning.  Estimates are $0.45 EPS and $4.95 billion in sales. Shares are trading around $28.95 and the 52-week range is $18.85 to $52.23; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $35.93.

United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX) is another conglomerate reporting Tuesday morning and it has the same issues as 3M in that GE offers support for the group but also sets the stage that earnings have to beat estimates to make everyone happy now.  Thomson Reuters has estimates of $1.20 EPS to $12.71 billion in revenue.  Shares are trading around $81.15 and the 52-week range is $66.87 to $91.83; Thomson Reuters had a consensus target as of Friday of $94.70 and that gives it the most implied upside of all conglomerates to the price targets.

JON C. OGG