Corporate earnings season is just reaching its peak, and 24/7 Wall St. has put together a preview of some of the larger companies reporting in the coming week. We have taken a review of the consensus earnings estimates from Thomson Reuters, the stock price and the trading history, and added some additional color on each.
Also, next week will bring auto sales and retail sales data for the month of January. The biggest report of them all will be the unemployment and payrolls report from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Exxon Mobil
Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings Monday. Thomson Reuters has consensus estimates of $1.34 in earnings per share (EPS) and $87.58 billion in revenue.
The question investors are going to ask about Exxon is the same as with every other oil and gas giant now: How will it hold up against low oil prices? Also, what about the dividend trends for 2014? Will it make acquisitions to buy up oversold and cheap assets when it can? Exxon shares were down over 6% so far in 2015, as of mid-Friday.
Shares closed trading at $87.42 Friday. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $95.37 and a 52-week trading range of $86.03 to $104.76.
BP
BP PLC (NYSE: BP) will report its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday. Thomson Reuters has a consensus estimate of $0.51 in EPS. BP remains in the “investor penalty box” after its Gulf of Mexico disaster. Still, investors remain overly concerned here about oil prices and how the company will cope with these through times. No one is immune in the oil and gas sector.
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Shares of BP were trading at $38.83 at Friday’s close. The stock has a consensus price target of $44.11 and a 52-week trading range of $34.88 to $53.48.
Gilead Sciences
Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) will report its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday. The consensus estimates are for $2.20 in EPS and $6.73 billion in revenue.
Gilead has been dealing with a recent price and distribution war over hepatitis C drugs. In mid-December, Express Scripts partnered with AbbVie to exclusively distribute AbbVie’s hepatitis C drug, almost immediately following its FDA approval. This directly competes with Gilead’s cash cow, Solvadi, and the recently approved Harvoni treatments. At the announcement of AbbVie and Express’ distribution partnership, Gilead shares dropped nearly 18%. However, since this time the share price has made a strong recovery back to that previous price level.
Gilead still has a lot of issues around its Sovaldi pricing, and now the lines have been drawn by distributors and pharmacy benefit managers. The stock was last seen up almost 12% year to date, and investors keep pointing out that it is valued at only 10 to 12 times earnings.
Shares ended Friday trading at $104.83. The consensus analyst price target is $122.58, and the 52-week trading range is $63.50 to $116.83.
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Disney
Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) will report its first-quarter earnings Tuesday. The consensus estimates are for $1.07 in EPS and revenue of $12.87 billion.
Disney keeps amazing Wall Street and Main Street with its earnings. It has a solid lineup of movies coming its way with Star Wars and other great features. Still, shares are marginally lower so far in the first month of 2015, and the stock remains priced where it has to beat earnings estimates.
Shares dropped about 2.4% to $90.96 on Friday. The consensus price target is $98.31, and shares have traded in a 52-week range of $69.85 to $96.43.
GM
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday. Analysts are looking for $0.83 in EPS and $40.12 billion in revenue.
GM seems to be well past its recall woes now, but the stock has never really recovered, despite being valued at only eight times expected 2015 earnings. Investors are likely to look at China as the big driver ahead. One thing helping GM is that its dividend now yields more than 3.5%, and that actually may favorably help it as a defensive stock despite how cyclical the auto industry is.
Shares of GM ended the week at $32.62. The consensus price target is $40.13. The 52-week trading range is $28.82 to $38.15.
Merck
Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK) is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday. The consensus estimates are for EPS of $0.86 and $10.50 billion in revenue.
Pfizer shares have slid since its earnings report, and many investors view Pfizer as a cheaper stock against valuations than Merck. Also, Merck shares were up almost 8% so far in 2015 when the broader market was weaker.
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Merck shares traded at $60.28 as the week came to a close. The consensus price target is $64.66, and the stock has a 52-week trading range of $51.92 to $63.62.
GoPro
GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) is set to report its fourth-quarter results Thursday. Consensus estimates call for $0.70 in EPS and $580.33 million in revenue.
GoPro entered the market this past summer and took it by storm in its first few months of trading. The company was red hot, debuting under the $30 mark and rising over the $90 mark by late September. Since then the company has struggled and it has been rough. The stock dipped under $50 in January for the first time since August. Earnings could be a chance for GoPro to turn itself around, following the holiday season sales.
GoPro shares close trading at $49.75 Friday. The consensus price target is $79.73. The post-IPO trading range is $28.65 to $98.47.
Sprint
Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) will report its results Thursday. Thomson Reuters has recent consensus estimates of -$0.28 in EPS and $8.69 billion in revenue.
Sprint has had a rough run of things the past year. The new CEO, Marcelo Claure, has tried to turn the company around but it appears that it is still circling the drain. However, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel. In the fourth quarter, Sprint had a campaign that looked to directly compete with the likes of T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T with their device sales. This campaign partnered directly with the iPhone 6 on its release. Apple previously reported its earnings and announced that it had sold 74.5 million iPhones in the December quarter. The question is, how big of a chunk did Sprint get out of this?
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By the end of Friday’s trading session, Sprint shares were at $4.30. The consensus price target is $7.28, and the 52-week trading range is $3.79 to $9.76.
Teva Pharmaceutical
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) is set to report its earnings Thursday. The consensus estimates are for EPS of $1.31 and revenue of $5.16 billion.
The company recently announced that the FDA had approved the first generic equivalent to Nexium delayed-release capsules in the United States. This is a huge development for the company as Nexium, or the Purple Pill, is one of the most consumed and advertised drugs on the market. Teva could stand to capitalize on being a lower cost producer for such a popular drug as this.
By the close of Friday’s trading day, shares were at $56.86. The stock has a consensus price target of $63.67. Shares have traded between $43.22 and $61.90 in the past year.
Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings first thing Friday morning. Analysts are looking for EPS of $0.06 on $453.34 million in revenue.
Rumors had recently surfaced that search giant Google was looking to acquire Twitter. This rumor had previously come up, back when Twitter was still a private company. So how would Twitter help Google? Well, at a market cap of around $23 billion, whatever help Twitter could offer to Google seems too expensive on the surface. Twitter’s primary attraction for Google would likely be its 270 million or so active users, and the company’s advertising revenues have grown nicely, up 83% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2014, for example. Would the company spend that much just to defend against a new entrant in video? Still, total revenue of around $450 million a quarter hardly justifies a price tag north of $25 billion, especially when the user numbers appear to be stagnating.
Shares were changing hands at $37.53 at Friday’s close. Twitter’s stock has a consensus price target of $50.40 and a 52-week trading range of $29.51 to $67.24.
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