Investing

2 Major Earnings Reports to Look For Before Christmas

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24/7 Wall St. has put together a preview of two major companies that are expected to report their quarterly results this week. This week in particular is a lull in earnings, but these two companies are the biggest and brightest that will be reporting during this time, and one has been leading the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) for a good part of 2015.

We have included the consensus earnings estimates from Thomson Reuters and the stock price and trading history, as well as added some additional color on each. Be advised that the earnings and revenue estimates may change ahead of the formal reports, and some companies may change reporting dates as well.

Keep in mind that next week is the week of Christmas and that the markets will be closed early on Thursday and all of Friday.

Nike

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) is scheduled to report its fiscal second-quarter financial results on Tuesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for the leader of the DJIA to have $0.86 in earnings per share (EPS) on $7.81 billion in revenue. In the same period of the previous year, Nike posted EPS of $0.74 and revenue of $7.38 billion.

This stock has had an outstanding year so far, still up a sizzling 37%. Nike is a worldwide athletic giant and a top consumer discretionary name. It also has outstanding potential upside from a turnaround in its China business, improvements in gross margins and continued innovation-driven market share gains in both basketball and running footwear. With one of the most recognizable brands in the world, long-term investors may do very well adding shares here despite the big move up in the stock this year.

Nike is benefiting from consumer preferences for “athleisure.” With the company’s extensive product line and recognizable worldwide branding, the stock continues to roll year after year. Nike recently provided an overview of its plans to drive growth in its Nike Brand Direct to Consumer (DTC) operations. Driven by its digital business as well as inline and factory stores, Nike now anticipates achieving $16 billion in revenue by the end of fiscal year 2020. Over the next five years, incremental growth in DTC revenues is expected to be driven by e-commerce sales, which are projected to grow to $7 billion. Nike also expects to drive wholesale growth in the mid-to-high single-digit range over the next five years.

Shares of Nike were trading at $128.46 on Friday’s close, with a consensus analyst price target of $142.54 and a 52-week trading range of $90.69 to $135.30.


Micron Technology

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) is set to release its fiscal first-quarter earnings report on Tuesday. The consensus estimates call for $0.23 in EPS on $3.47 billion in revenue. That would compare to EPS of $0.97 and revenue of $4.57 billion in the same period of the previous.

This company has not been as fortunate as Nike in 2015, and is actually down on the year about 59%. In short, this stock got mauled this year. Micron’s broad portfolio of high-performance memory technologies, including DRAM, NAND and NOR flash, is the basis for solid state drives, modules, multichip packages and other system solutions. The company’s memory chip solutions enable the world’s most innovative computing, consumer, enterprise storage, networking, mobile, embedded and automotive applications.

Recently, Credit Suisse weighed in on Micron and noted that the short term might be an issue but it has an upside of roughly 70% from its current price level. The firm believes that the stock is below its strategic value and underappreciated. The firm has an Outperform rating on the shares with a $25 price target. Ultimately, while near-term trends are disappointing, potential China investments could be a positive catalyst.

Shares of Micron ended last week at $14.36. The consensus price target is $20.78, and the 52-week range is $13.50 to $35.74.

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