Investing

Top 9 Earnings to Look for Next Week

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24/7 Wall St. has put together a preview of some of the major companies reporting their quarterly results this coming week. We are just exiting the main earnings season, but some companies still report in this down time. 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.

AutoZone

On Tuesday, AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) will share its most recent quarterly results. The consensus estimates call for earnings per share (EPS) of $10.92 and $2.65 billion in revenue. Currently this company trades at about 18 times against fiscal 2016 earnings estimates. Back in March the company announced a new share buyback plan to add on to the current one with additional $750 million in common stock.

Shares traded at $761.56 at the close on Friday, in a 52-week range of $662.70 to $810.00. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $852.00.


Best Buy

Look for Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) to reveal its fiscal first-quarter results on Tuesday as well. The consensus estimates call for $0.35 in EPS, as well as $8.29 billion in revenue. The company offers sharp discounts on some of the items sold at BestBuy.com. The consumer electronics retailer may do this for several reasons. Among them are clearance of inventory that would not sell quickly without discounts, a method to bring in customers who might buy other items on which Best Buy makes larger margins, or a means to keep pace with online sales by Amazon.

Shares were trading at $32.34 on Friday’s close. The consensus price target is $34.44. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $25.31 to $39.10.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Fiscal second-quarter results from Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE) are due on Tuesday. The analysts’ consensus estimates are EPS of $0.42 and $12.35 billion in revenue. After historically taking a siloed approach to managing the business, this company is working to integrate its research and development and go-to-market efforts across product areas and business units. Considering its leading presence in each major information technology (IT) hardware segment and IT services, analysts are saying that the company has a unique opportunity to emerge as a leading IT provider.

Shares ended last week at $15.87. The consensus price target is $17.68, and the stock has a 52-week trading range of $11.63 to $18.55.

Costco

Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) is scheduled to report its fiscal third-quarter results on Wednesday. The consensus analyst estimates call for $1.23 in EPS and revenue of $27.12 billion. The company reported that April same-store sales, including gasoline sales and foreign exchange effects, were flat in the United States, up 2% in Canada and down 3% internationally. Globally, same-store sales were flat compared with April 2015. Excluding gasoline and currency exchange effects, U.S. sales rose 2%, Canadian sales rose 7% and international sales rose 1%. On the same basis, worldwide same-stores sales in the quarter rose 3%. Net sales for the month totaled $8.98 billion, up 3% year over year. Retail Metrics had projected a same-store sales gain of 1.1% (up 4.3% excluding gasoline sales).

Costco closed at $142.69 on Friday. The consensus price target is $168.55. The 52-week trading range is $117.03 to $169.73.
HP

The latest quarterly earnings report from HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) is expected on Wednesday. The consensus estimates are EPS of $0.38 and $11.73 billion in revenue. This is the printer and personal computer businesses of the old Hewlett-Packard. This company provides products, technologies, software, solutions and services to individual consumers and small and medium-sized businesses, as well as to the government, health and education sectors worldwide. The company’s Personal Systems segment offers commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, thin client PCs, tablets, retail point-of-sale systems, calculators and other related accessories, software, support and services for the commercial and consumer markets.

The share price was $11.66 on Friday’s close, in a 52-week trading range of $8.91 to $16.17. The consensus price target is $13.50.

Abercrombie & Fitch

On Thursday, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) is set to report its fiscal first-quarter results. The consensus estimates call for a net loss of $0.51 and $710.25 million in revenue. This company screened out in a Jefferies search as the most undervalued of the companies among department stores and specialty/softlines. This was due to 4.2 times the EV/EBITDA model and was valued at only 0.3 times its EBITDA growth. The company thinks that margins are recovering off trough levels, and Jefferies sees a potential for operating margins and EPS to nearly triple in three or four years.

Shares of Abercrombie were changing hands at $24.42 as last week came to a close. The consensus price target is $28.19, and the stock has a 52-week range of $15.42 to $32.83.


Dollar General

Also on Thursday, Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) is scheduled to share its latest quarterly earnings. The consensus estimates call for $0.95 in EPS on $5.28 billion in revenue. Merrill Lynch recently detailed its investment rationale for this company as follows:

We rate Dollar General Buy as we believe Dollar General offers steady low-risk growth with an outside square footage opportunity that is supported by a strong balance sheet and capital return. We expect industry fundamentals to remain supportive, believe Dollar General has ample room to grow market share and are positive on Dollar General’s comp, margin and capital return initiatives which we see as achievable and could provide upside to long term targets.

Shares closed at $81.62 on Friday, in a 52-week trading range of $59.75 to $87.42. The consensus price target is $94.10.

Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) is scheduled to reveal its fiscal third-quarter results on Thursday too. The consensus estimates are set at $0.42 in EPS and $339.37 million in revenue. This company was a momentum trader’s dream between 2013 and 2015, and it may have more investors looking the company’s way again after the big sell-off. Palo Alto is helping to lead a new era in cybersecurity by protecting thousands of enterprise, government and service provider networks from cyber-threats, and it boasted staggering year-over-year billing growth.

The stock was trading at $141.76 a share on Friday’s close. The consensus price target is $195.54. The stock has a 52-week range of $111.09 to $200.55.

Sears

And finally, Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) is set to report its fiscal first-quarter results on Thursday as well. The analysts’ consensus forecast calls for a net loss of $3.20 per share and $5.26 billion in revenue. Sears is one of the most financially troubled major corporations in America, posting more than $1 billion in losses annually over the past three years. Shares are down about 70% in the past 12 months alone. Poor financial performance likely has hurt the company’s reputation, as well as its apparently poor customer service.

Shares of Sears were changing hands at $11.99 as Friday’s session came to a close. The consensus price target is $9.00, and the stock has a 52-week range of $10.52 to $44.72.

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