Top 5 Earnings Previews for the Week Ahead (ORCL, FDX, NKE, RIMM, WAG)

There will be five key market-moving or sector-moving earnings reports this week. With Christmas coming on Tuesday of next week, this will basically be it for earnings season until earnings reports come out in January. We have issued basic previews for the following earnings reports: Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL); FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX); Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE); Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) ; and Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG). We have used earnings estimates from Thomson Reuters and added some color on each preview.

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) is set to report earnings after the close of trading on Tuesday. The enterprise software leader is expected to report earnings of $ EPS and $ billion in revenue. For the existing quarter, analysts expect earnings of $ EPS and $ billion in revenue. Despite the woes of the past in earnings, Oracle is now back up close to within about 3% of a

FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) is set to report on Wednesday morning before the open. Estimates are $1.41 EPS and $10.84 billion in revenues, and the following quarter expectations are $1.45 EPS and $10.82 billion in revenues. After having seen guidance more than once, it would seem that there should not be any major surprises one way or another here. As you would expect, the bulk of the company’s holiday-related revenues will be coming in the coming quarter rather than in the November-end quarter.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) reports on Thursday after the close of trading. Expectations are currently $1.00 EPS on revenue of $5.99 billion. Expectations for next quarter are $1.40 EPS and $6.1 billion in revenue. With shares down around $97 today versus a 52-week range of $85.10 to $114.81, the expectations have been muted compared to the past but we would note that this one still trades at about 18.5-times its expected earnings.

Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) is facing a strange earnings report on Thursday after the close. The expectation is a wide loss, but the reality is that RIM remains a Q1 and Q2 story for 2013 when its Blackberry 10 phones are released. Analysts expect that RIM will have a loss of -$0.35 EPS on a whopping 49% sales decline to $2.65 billion. For the following quarter, the estimates are a loss at -$0.26 EPS and $a 31% drop in revenue to $2.87 billion.

Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) is set to report earnings on Friday morning before the market opens. We will get to find out if earnings and sales are normalizing again after getting its pharmacy benefit manager issues mostly resolved. Estimates are $0.70 EPS and $17.5 billion in revenue. For the next quarter report, the estimates are $0.97 EPS and $19 billion in revenue.

JON C. OGG