Investing

Earnings Previews: Hyliion, Range Resources, Square, Lowe's, TJX and Vertiv

Ildar Sagdejev (Specious) / Wikimedia Commons

Another busy week of earnings reports began Monday morning, with Discovery and Royal Caribbean and Air Lease, Occidental Petroleum and Palo Alto Networks coming up after the closing bell.

Here’s a look at three companies set to report results after the bell on Tuesday and three more scheduled to report Wednesday morning.
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Hyliion

Hyliion Holdings Corp. (NYSE: HYLN), a maker of drive trains for electric trucks, reports results Tuesday afternoon. The company came public last October in a reverse merger with a special-purpose acquisition company. Through the final three months of the year, the company’s stock price dropped by 58%, but shares are up about 16% so far this year. Overall, shares are down about 52% since the IPO.

Earlier this month the company introduced a new battery module that the company said will offer up to five times the life cycle of current electric vehicle batteries, with higher charging rates, faster-charging speeds and improved safety. The stock jumped more than 20% on the news, but it has pulled back somewhat since then.

Just three analysts have a consensus estimate calling for a net loss per share of $0.37 for the quarter and a net loss of $1.01 for the fiscal year. The fiscal year revenue estimate is $330,000. For fiscal 2021, analysts expect the company to post a net loss per share of $0.75 on revenue of $7.5 million. Hyliion is not expected to post a profit in either 2021 or 2022.

Range Resources

Range Resources Corp. (NYSE: RRC), an independent oil and gas producer, also reporting late Tuesday, posted a share price hike of around 38% in 2020, and shares have jumped more than 60% so far this year. Essentially all that gain is due to rising prices for crude oil, now at more than $61 a barrel. In early May of last year, a barrel of crude was fetching barely $20.

Of four analyst notes issued this month, three either reiterated or started coverage of the stock at the equivalent of a Hold rating, and one lifted its rating from Equal Weight to Overweight. The consensus price target on the stock is $9.48, and the high target is $15.00.

Analysts are expecting Range Resources to post earnings per share (EPS) of $0.06 on revenue of $497.6 million for the quarter and a net loss per share of $0.14 for the fiscal year on sales of $1.83 billion. These estimates are below last year’s results on both a quarterly and an annual basis.

The stock currently trades at around $10.80, already above its consensus target. Based on the current price, shares trade at around 11 times both 2021 and 2022 expected EPS.

Square

Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) had a good year in 2020. The stock price rose nearly 250% for the mobile payments company and shares are up another 25% so far in 2021. The company’s Cash app enables people to trade stocks, and the app may have attracted more users following Robinhood’s short-lived restriction on trading GameStop stock. Square reports results after markets close Tuesday.

Analysts are bullish on the stock. Evercore ISI claims that Square is the “most disruptive company in payments and banking.” Deutsche Bank has a price target of $330 on the stock and one of the hottest investments of the moment, the Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA: ARKF), holds nearly 1.8 million shares in Square (the fund’s top holding) that were valued at more than $485 million as of Friday’s close.

The consensus EPS estimate for the fourth quarter is $0.24, just a penny better than last year, on sales of $3.09 billion, up near 400% year over year. For the full year, EPS is forecast at $0.75, down by a nickel year over year, on $9.4 billion in revenue, up more than 300%.

The stock trades at around $270, above its consensus price target of $231.64. At the current price, the shares trade about 360 times expected 2020 EPS, 237 times expected 2021 earnings and 149 times expected 2022 earnings.


Lowe’s

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is set to report before markets open Wednesday morning. The home improvement retailer posted a share-price gain of more than 36% in 2020, and shares are up nearly another 10% so far this year. Over the past 12 months, Lowe’s stock has jumped 42%, compared with a rise of 16% for rival Home Depot.

Of 32 analyst ratings, just one is a Sell and, eight analysts rate the stock a Hold. The rest are either Buy (16) or Strong Buy (seven). The mean price target is $180, and the stock currently trades at around $175. The high target is $215, implying a gain of around 23% based on the current trading price.
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Analysts expect Lowe’s to post fiscal year 2021 (ended in January) EPS of $1.20 on revenue of $19.42 billion, year-over-year increases of around 28% in EPS and 21% in revenue. For the fiscal year, EPS is expected to reach $8.73, a hike of more than 50% compared with fiscal 2020, while revenue is expected to increase by 23% to $88.7 billion.

The stock currently trades at about 20 times expected 2021 EPS and 19 times expected 2022 EPS. Lowe’s pays an annual dividend of $2.40 (yield of 1.35%).

TJX

TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX), operator of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods stores, among others, also reports results early Wednesday. The retailer’s stock posted a gain of more than 12% last year, and the company is the largest specialty retailer in the country based on revenue.

Some 24 analysts rate the stock a Buy or Strong Buy, while just three rate it a Hold and only one rates it a Strong Sell. The mean price target is $71.50, not far from the current trading price of around $70 a share. A high price target of $90 implies a potential gain of around 29% to the current price.

Analysts expect EPS of $0.61 for the fourth quarter that ended in January, down about 25% year over year, and revenue of $11.5 billion, a decline of 36%. For the full year, EPS is tabbed at $0.41, down by 85%. For the new fiscal year, analysts are forecasting EPS of $2.65 and sales of $42.7 billion.

The stock trades at about 26 times expected fiscal 2022 earnings and 23 times expected 2023 earnings. TJX pays an annual dividend of $1.04 (yield of 1.54%).

Vertiv

Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE: VRT) provides infrastructure technologies and life-cycle services for data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial environments. The company’s IPO came in February of last year, just a few weeks before the impact of the pandemic sank the markets. In just over 12 months of trading, including that trough, the stock is up by nearly 68%.

The mean price target on the company is around $25, and all eight analysts covering the stock have it rated as a Buy or Strong Buy. At the current price of around $21.50, the stock trades at about 14% above its mean target. At a high target of $30, the potential upside on the stock is nearly 40%.

Analysts expect EPS of $0.33 on sales of $1.26 billion for the fourth quarter and EPS of $0.86 for the full year on sales of $4.33 billion. For the 2021 fiscal year, EPS is forecast at $1.14 on sales of $4.64 billion.

At the current price, Vertiv trades at nearly 21 times expected 2020 EPS, 18 times expected 2021 earnings and 15 times expected 2022 earnings. The company pays an annual dividend of $0.01 (yield of 0.05%).

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