Earnings Hits and Misses: Box, Costco, Dell, Gap, Salesforce

Investing

Published: May 28, 2021 9:26 am

Here’s a quick look at some earnings reports that were released after markets closed on Thursday. All the reports we have covered beat both profit and sales estimates, but only one of the companies is posting a significant share price gain following the reports.

With just over a month left in the current earnings season, the number of reports issued every day has dropped from a few hundred to a few dozen. Earlier this week, we had reports on Wednesday from Lordstown Motors, Nordstrom and Zscaler. Then on Thursday, Best Buy, Nvidia, Snowflake and more reported results.

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Box

Cloud content management provider Box Inc. (NYSE: BOX) reported results Thursday evening that exceeded both top-line and bottom-line expectations. Earnings per share (EPS) of $0.18 were a penny better than expected, and revenue of $202.4 million topped the S&P Capital IQ consensus of $200.4 million. Box offered mixed guidance for the second quarter and the full year, coming in a bit light on EPS and a little higher on revenue expectations.

The stock traded down by less than 1% at $22.80 in Friday’s premarket, in a 52-week range of $15.07 to $26.47. The consensus price target is $6.80.

Costco

Membership warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) beat consensus estimates on both the top and bottom lines. The company reported EPS of $2.75 for its fiscal third quarter, more than 20% above consensus. Revenue totaled $44.4 billion, about 1.4% higher than expected. Same-store sales (excluding gasoline and exchange rate effects) rose by 15.2% year over year and e-commerce sales rose 38.2%.

The stock traded down by less than 1% to $385.00 in Friday’s premarket, in a 52-week range of $293.84 to $393.15. The consensus price target is $396.74.

Dell

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) also beat top-line and bottom-line estimates from S&P Capital IQ. The tech products maker reported first-quarter 2022 EPS of $2.13, 31% better than the consensus, with revenue beating consensus by 4.7% to ring in at $24.5 billion. The company said it plans to pay down at least $16 billion in debt in the current fiscal year, above Dell’s prior target of $14 billion. The increase is partly the result of a planned special dividend related to Dell’s spin-off of its majority stake in VMware.

The stock traded flat in Friday’s premarket, at $99.70 in a 52-week range of $45.62 to $103.80. The consensus price target is $106.51.

Gap

Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) beat the consensus estimate for loss per share of $0.09 by posting EPS of $0.48, far beyond last year’s first-quarter loss of $2.51 per share. Sales rose 89% year over year to $3.99 billion, 15% better than the consensus. Same-store sales rose 28% year over year and were 19% higher than in the first quarter of 2019. Gap guided full-year sales growth in the low-to-mid 20% range and raised full-year EPS guidance from a prior range of $1.20 to $1.35 to a new range of $1.60 to $1.75.

The stock traded up less than 1% in Friday’s premarket, at $35.16 in a 52-week range of $8.81 to $37.63. The consensus price target is $32.50.

Salesforce

Dow Jones industrial average component Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) also beat both top-line and bottom-line estimates. The company reported EPS of $1.21, nearly 38% above the consensus estimate, and revenue of $5.96 billion, a year-over-year increase of 22.6% and about 1.2% above the consensus estimate. Salesforce raised its guidance for both the second quarter and the full 2022 fiscal year. For the year, the company now expects EPS of $3.79 to $3.81 and sales of $25.9 to $26 billion. The new guidance topped S&P Capital IQ estimates for EPS of $3.45 and sales of $25.75 billion.

Shares traded up by about 5.3% in Friday’s premarket to $237.78, in a 52-week range of $167.00 to $284.50. The consensus price target is $274.38.

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