Continuing our looks at some of the more than 900 publicly traded companies scheduled to report March quarter earnings this week, this installment includes previews of a China-based automaker and three U.S. firms at or near the top of investors’ minds.

Looking ahead to companies reporting earnings after Wednesday’s closing bell, we have previewed Apple, Facebook, Qualcomm and Ford. Four more stocks reporting results before markets open Thursday, Caterpillar, McDonald’s, Merck and Altria, were previewed in a second story also posted Tuesday.
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The four companies previewed in this story are scheduled to report earnings after markets close on Thursday.

Amazon

Shares of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) surged higher last summer, peaking at a 52-week high on September 2. Since then, the shares have fallen by as much as 16% and traded about 3.5% below that peak Wednesday morning. In each of the past three quarters, Amazon has absolutely stomped all over earnings forecasts, beating the consensus estimates by 600% in last year’s June quarter, 67% in the September quarter and 95% in the December quarter. The lack of a consistently positive effect on the share price is something of a poser.

Of 47 broker ratings on the stock, 43 are Buy or Strong Buy. The consensus price target on the stock is $3,993.18, implying upside potential of almost 14% to a recent price of $3.474.85. At the high target of $5,200, the upside potential is nearly 50%.

For the first fiscal quarter, Amazon is expected to post earnings per share of $9.54 on revenue of $104.46 billion, representing a boost in EPS of 90% year over year and a sales increase of 38.5%. Growth is expected to taper off (a bit) in the second half of the year, but full-year EPS is currently forecast at $47.61, up nearly 14% year over year, on revenue of $474.69 billion, up 23%.

At the current trading price, Amazon trades at 73.0 times expected 2021 EPS, 52.0 times estimated 2022 earnings and 38.4 times estimated 2023 earnings. The stock’s 52-week range is $2,256.38 to $3,552.25. Amazon does not pay a dividend.

First Solar

Solar panel maker First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) saw a share price boost of about 77% in 2020, and the story continued well into January, when shares had jumped by nearly 150% in just the first three weeks of the new year. The share price suffered from the general downturn in the tech sector but the share price gain for the year to date is still slightly better than double. Investors and analysts will be listening for clues about how a federal infrastructure plan could affect the company’s business going forward.

Just over half (nine of 17) analysts give the stock a Buy or Strong Buy rating. Shares currently trade at around $89, more than $3 above the consensus price target of $85.75. At the high target of $141, upside potential on the stock is 58%.

For the March quarter, analysts expect EPS of $0.98, up 16.5% year over year, on sales of $772.88 million, up more than 45%. Analysts forecast 2021 EPS at $4.37, up 17.4% year over year, on sales of $2.94 billion, up 8.4%.

At its current price, First Solar stock trades at 23.6 times expected 2021 EPS, 22.1 times estimated 2022 earnings and 25.5 times estimated 2023 earnings. The 52-week range is $37.92 to $112.50. First Solar does not pay a dividend.
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Nio

Shares of Shanghai-based electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio Ltd. (NYSE: NIO) have been on a tear. Even after dropping more than 50% between early January and early March, they trade up by almost 1,200% over the past 12 months. Nio’s recent streak of closing higher on eight consecutive trading days has added 16% to the share price, while trading volume never fell below 70 million a day.

The company showed off its new ET7 sedan to rave reviews earlier this week at the Shanghai Auto Show.

Although the stock is not widely covered in the United States, brokerages tilt positive, with 11 Buy ratings and seven Hold ratings. At a current trading price of around $41.25 per share, the potential upside at the consensus price target of $54.70 is 32.6%. At the high target of $91.11, upside potential is nearly $121%.

Analysts are expecting Nio to report a loss per share of $0.16 for the March quarter, $0.09 better than the year-ago loss. Revenue is expected to soar by 423% to $1.02 billion. For the full year, Nio’s per-share loss is forecast at $0.43, down from a loss per share of $0.73 a year ago. Revenue of $5.27 billion is more than double year-ago sales.

Nio shares currently trade at 692.0 times expected 2023 earnings. No profit is expected in 2021 or 2022. Nio’s 52-week range is $3.08 to $66.99 and the company does not pay a dividend.

Twitter

Social media platform Twitter Inc. (NASDAQ: TWTR) posted a share price gain of about 69% in 2020. So far this year, the stock has added up 20% on stronger ad revenue. The question now is how Apple’s new tracking transparency feature will affect Twitter’s advertisers. The other side of the coin includes product rollouts designed to drive more traffic and a way for popular accounts to monetize their followers. Traffic may be strong, but will advertisers follow if they cannot get targeted data from iPhone users?

The majority of brokers rate the stock as a Hold, with just four of 36 handing out Buy or Strong Buy ratings. At a price of around $65.35, the potential upside to the consensus price target of $70.76 is about 8.3%. At the high target of $95, upside potential tops 45%.

Consensus estimates for the first quarter call for EPS of $0.14 and sales of $1.03 billion, up 27% and 27.2% year over year. For the full 2021 fiscal year, analysts are looking for EPS of $0.92, well above 2020’s per-share loss of $0.87. Revenue is expected to increase by more than 29% year over year to $4.8 billion.

Twitter trades at 70.4 times expected 2021 EPS, 52.8 times estimated 2022 earnings and 38.8 times estimated 2023 earnings. The stock’s 52-week range is $27.12 to $80.75, and the company does not pay a dividend.

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