Top 5 Earnings Previews for the Week Ahead

Be advised that the earnings and revenue estimates may change ahead of the formal reports, and some companies change earnings dates as well.

Home Depot

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) is scheduled to release its most recent quarterly results on Tuesday. The consensus estimates are $1.15 in earnings per share (EPS) on $20.82 billion in revenue. Home Depot remains one of the top consumer discretionary stocks to buy on Wall Street, and the company is coming into its sales sweet spot of the year. Between the spring cleaning activity and the increase in Americans once again looking for a new home, the time is ripe for investors looking to own a top retail stock. Home Depot is also becoming a darling of some quantitative hedge funds, as some see the stock as way undervalued on an intrinsic basis.

Home Depot shares were trading at $113.35 on Friday’s close. The consensus analyst price target is $122.96, and the stock has a 52-week trading range of $76.37 to $117.99.

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Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is set to report its fiscal first-quarter results on Tuesday. The analysts’ consensus estimates call for an EPS of $1.04 per share and $116.32 billion in revenue. The giant retailer made a big splash recently when it raised the wages of approximately 500,000 of its employees by lifting its base pay to $10 by 2016 for current workers, as well as to the same rate for new hires after six months training. The company, which is the largest employer in some states, has been under fire for some time over employee pay, and this action was a positive note.

Wal-Mart shares closed trading at $79.24 on Friday. The consensus price target is $84.39, and the stock has a 52-week trading range of $72.61 to $90.97.

Target

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) is scheduled to report its fiscal first-quarter results on Wednesday. The consensus estimates call for EPS of $1.03 and $17.09 billion in revenue. Target’s very rough patch over the past two years is highlighted by an incredible security breach that exposed millions of customer credit cards to hackers and brought an unprecedented amount of negative publicity. With an improving economy, and after posting very decent holiday numbers, the growth path for the retail giant has accelerated fast.

Target shares ended the week at $78.53. The consensus price target is $79.68. The 52-week trading range is $55.25 to $83.98.

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Best Buy

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is set to report earnings Thursday morning. The consensus estimates call for per-share earnings of $0.29 and $8.49 billion in revenue. Best Buy has become the retail rags-to-riches story over the past couple of years, as it not only has survived, but most of the big-box retailer’s competition have gone to the graveyard and the company has grown the brand smartly.

Best Buy continues to combat challenging conditions by reducing costs, pricing competitively, optimizing stores and enhancing distribution. The store-within-store partnerships it has with suppliers like Samsung, Apple and Google are continuing to drive more store traffic and product sales. Best Buy’s online channel growth also looks very promising, as it continues to battle Amazon. Rumors of its demise were frankly overblown.

Best Buy shares were trading at $34.59 as the week came to a close, in a 52-week trading range of $24.57 to $42.00. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $42.83.

Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is scheduled to report its fiscal second-quarter results on Thursday. The consensus estimates call for just $0.86 in EPS, as well as $25.68 billion in revenue. This old-school tech stock has sold off hard as investors feel that the PC slowdown in sales could continue to hurt earnings. Some Wall Street analysts feel that weak PC demand could continue to negatively impact revenue and free-cash-flow at the company. The recent decline in the stock may represent investors already discounting a weak first quarter. HP does a large 65% of sales to foreign accounts, and the dollar could be topping out after a long run.

Shares of HP were at $33.60 on Friday’s close. The consensus price target is $40.40. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $31.00 to $41.10.

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