Corporate earnings season is now winding down, and 24/7 Wall St. has put together a preview of some of the larger companies reporting in the coming week. We have reviewed the consensus earnings estimates from Thomson Reuters and the stock price and trading history, as well as added some additional color on each.

Petrobras

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR), or Petrobras, is set to report its fourth-quarter results on Monday. Thomson Reuters has consensus estimates of $0.27 in earnings per share (EPS) and $36.23 billion in revenue. Given the company’s recent history in producing financial statements, there is no guarantee that Petrobras will deliver the fourth-quarter statement on time.

Petrobras is living up to the fears that investors should have had all along. When the stock rallied on rumors that Grace Foster would be forced to resign as chief executive officer of the Brazilian oil giant, 24/7 Wall St. warned that the ouster might not help Petrobras. The news that Foster and five other executives were resigning did nothing to help the stock. Now we have word of a replacement, and Brazil is living up to its reputation: more and more disappointment ahead.

Shares ended trading at $6.66 Friday. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $10.27 and a 52-week trading range of $5.79 to $20.94.

Dish

Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) will report its fourth-quarter earnings Monday. The consensus estimates call for EPS of $0.43 and $3.70 billion in revenue.

According to most estimates, a battle between Dish and the Fox News division of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (NASDAQ: FOXA) cost Fox tens of thousands of viewers and Dish about the same number of subscribers. The damage likely triggered the settlement that put Fox News back onto Dish. This situation is not isolated. Satellite TV companies and cable firms have cut off content channels several times recently as part of negotiations to get higher fees per subscribers. Over time, however, the trend will erode margins at the cable and satellite companies, and they can do little about it. The content companies that provide channels to the “pipes” for distribution have all the leverage.

Shares of Dish closed trading at $78.31 Friday. The stock has a consensus price target of $75.57 and a 52-week trading range of $55.45 to $79.57.

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Home Depot

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday. The consensus estimates are for $0.89 in EPS and revenue of $18.69 billion.

Home Depot has said it will add 80,000 workers for its spring shopping season. The company operates nearly 2,000 stores in the United States, so on average it plans to hire about 40 permanent part-time and seasonal employees per store. But that is an average, and some states and stores are not slated to gain any new employees, according to a map at the company’s website.

Shares were changing hands at $112.24 at Friday’s close. The consensus analyst price target is $111.00, and the 52-week trading range is $74.61 to $112.45.

SunPower

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) will report its fourth-quarter results Tuesday. The consensus estimates are for $0.24 in EPS and revenue of $607.16 million.

This company offers solar power products, including panels, balance of system components and inverters. It also designs, manufactures and sells high-performance rooftop and ground-mounted solar power systems, as well as utility-scale photovoltaic power plants. In addition, the company offers operations and maintenance services, including remote monitoring, preventative and corrective maintenance services, as well as rapid-response outage restoration and inverter repair services. Cowen analysts see a yieldco as highly likely with a strategic partner and a potential key for the company to monetize retained projects that represent as much as 600 megawatts (MW). They also think new capacity in the spring can be a catalyst for the company.

Shares ended the week at $28.03 on Friday. The consensus price target is $39.07, and shares have traded in a 52-week range of $22.75 to $42.07.

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First Solar

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) is scheduled to share its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday. Analysts are looking for $0.76 in EPS and $1.28 billion in revenue.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) just inked a deal with First Solar, and we might expect some raised guidance and a new outlook in this coming report. In the deal, Apple committed $848 million to purchase clean energy from First Solar’s California Flats Solar Project. Apple will receive 130 MW of the solar project under a 25-year power-purchase agreement. This is the largest agreement in the industry to provide clean energy to a commercial end user. This deal marks the first wholesale commercial and industrial power-purchase agreement executed by First Solar.

The share price was $49.02 on Friday’s close. The consensus price target is $59.00, and the 52-week trading range is $39.18 to $74.84.

Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is scheduled to report its fiscal first-quarter earnings Tuesday. The consensus estimates are for EPS of $0.91 and $27.35 billion in revenue.

Hewlett-Packard is trading at a very low 9.3 times 2015 estimated earnings, and it is the top Merrill Lynch pick for 2015 in IT hardware. The company has had a remarkable comeback under the leadership of Silicon Valley veteran Meg Whitman. Her most important point for 2014 was the plan to use free cash flows in order to reduce the existing debt, repurchase new shares and maintain the dividend payout policy. Shareholders can rest assured she stays the course in 2015. The Merrill Lynch team, and other analysts on Wall Street, feel that the company is cheap.

Shares traded at $38.39 as the week came to a close. The consensus price target is $41.96, and the stock has a 52-week trading range of $28.75 to $41.10.

Chesapeake Energy

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) is set to post its quarterly results Wednesday. Consensus estimates call for EPS of $0.24 and $4.83 billion in revenue.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that U.S. natural gas stocks decreased by 111 billion cubic feet for the week ending February 13. Estimates called for a drawdown of 105 billion to 109 billion cubic feet. The five-year average draw is about 180 billion cubic feet, and during the same period last year the draw was 250 billion cubic feet. Chesapeake fell roughly 2.5% on that news.

At the end of Friday’s trading session, shares were changing hands at $20.30. The consensus price target is $22.12. The 52-week trading range is $16.41 to $29.92.

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Lowe’s

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) will report its fiscal third-quarter results on Wednesday. Thomson Reuters has consensus estimates of $0.43 in EPS and $12.31 billion in revenue.

Lowe’s is the home improvement company that ranks the highest with consumers, and it ranks high with the Deutsche Bank team, as they consider the stock a top pick, and one that can beat earnings estimates when the company reports on February 25. The analysts are clear that the stock is expensive, but an earnings beat and solid guidance could lift the stock. A pickup in residential home sales could also offer a tailwind for the stock in 2015.

Shares closed trading at $73.56 Friday, above the consensus analyst price target of $71.57. The 52-week trading range is $44.13 to $72.85.

Target

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) will release its most recent quarterly results Wednesday. Thomson Reuters has consensus EPS estimates of $1.46, on $21.64 billion in revenue.

E-commerce is becoming ever more prevalent and companies that cannot keep up with this trend or are perceived to have weak e-commerce departments are expected to fall to the wayside. Target has seen its share of problems, in particular after its major data breach that harmed the company and its customer relations. We are now more than a year past that fiasco, and it could be that a serious case of misconceptions against Target are keeping its shares lower than they might be otherwise.

At the close of Friday’s trading session, shares were at $76.87. The consensus price target is lower at $74.57, and the 52-week trading range is $55.25 to $77.75.

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3D Systems

3D Systems Corp. (NYSE: DDD) is set to report its earnings Thursday before the markets open. The consensus estimates are for EPS of $0.25 and revenue of $202.32 million.

As we recently noted, the number of shares short in three of four of the 3D printing stocks we follow rose in the most recent period. All four of them saw short interest increase in the period before that. That is quite a lot of bets that things have turned sour in the industry. In fact, 3D Systems was one of the worst performing large stocks in 2014.

In Friday’s trading, shares closed at $31.07. The stock has a consensus price target of $40.85. Shares have traded between $27.00 and $82.65 in the past year.

J.C. Penney

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings Thursday. Analysts are looking for EPS of $0.11 on $3.86 billion in revenue.

The department store chain recently announced a new line of products licensed from Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) to tie-in with the release of Disney’s new live-action “Cinderella,” opening in theaters on March 13. This could pull J.C. Penney back from the brink of a cliff so it, like Cinderella, will live happily ever after.

Shares were changing hands at $8.22 on Friday’s close. The stock has a consensus price target of $8.16 and a 52-week trading range of $5.22 to $11.30.

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