The Brightest Lights So Far This Earnings Season

We wanted to take a look at some of the bright spots in the earnings season so far, and these include Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU).

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), the Wintel duo, were not expected to show much in the first quarter. Fourth-quarter PC shipments were down and not expected to improve, while Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system was generating some buzz, but not much in the way of sales. The two companies offered surprising, if not exciting results. Both companies’ share prices have remained above their pre-release levels even though both remain well within their 52-week ranges. One possible note of caution going forward is that the channels may be stuffed with product that is not moving and we won’t know that until next earnings season.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) seems to post a new 52-week high every day. Perhaps there is increasing optimism that the company will buy out Verizon Wireless partner Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD). That buyout would be immediately accretive to revenue and profit, but leave Verizon with a punishing debt load. This may be one of those situations where everything is fine until it’s not.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), like Verizon, seems to make a new high every day. The company appears to have fixed its quality control issues and many of its most important lines of business are growing again. As we noted last week, we expect the 2.9% dividend yield to get a boost any day now.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) absolutely shattered expectations and the shares have been on a tear for the last couple of days, posting another 52-week high today of just under $220. Subscriber numbers were up and much of the credit is going to the company’s original production of “House of Cards.” Original programming is expensive and eats into the bottom line, but given the demands for licensing content from other media houses, Netflix’s original programming should carry it to more growth going forward.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) earnings beat estimates and were just a bit shy on the top line. Paid clicks were up 20%, but the amount the company received for each click fell by 4%. That’s still a net positive, however, and the plain fact is that web searching is massive, and Google simply owns search in much of the world. That’s not likely to change anytime — sooner or later.

Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE: BTU) did not post a profit in the first quarter but its loss was only a third as large at analysts had expected. Peabody and Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI), which reported in-line results this morning, both expect sales to improve as natural gas prices rise for the rest of this year. The entire coal mining sector could begin to see improvements based on these two miners’ results

We said at the beginning that we were going to cover bright spots so far this earnings season, but there is one storm cloud that deserves to be mentioned as well. As we’ve noted before, Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) may be very bad news not just for the mining and heavy equipment sector, but for the whole mining group. The big miners have been struggling with rising costs and surging stockpiles. It could be several quarters before the mining sector sorts itself out.