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Earnings Previews: Home Depot, Sea, Walmart

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While the number of earnings reports due out next week is likely to be far fewer than we have seen over the past few weeks, there are some that typically attract a lot of interest. Many retailers will be reporting results next week, beginning with two Dow Jones industrial average stocks coming up Tuesday morning. Among tech stocks, another Dow stock, a red-hot chipmaker and China’s largest e-commerce company.

We already have previewed three companies scheduled to report quarterly results before markets open on Monday: Oatly, Tyson Foods and Warner Music.

Earlier in the day, we previewed three reports due after markets close on Monday: Bitfarms, IonQ and Lucid.

Here’s a look at three companies on deck for earnings first thing on Tuesday.

Home Depot

Home improvement giant Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) is a Dow Jones industrial average component that has added about 35% to its share price over the past 12 months. So far in 2021, the stock has added more than 40%. The current quarter is not the company’s strongest. The April and July quarters take the honors there. Analysts will be paying close attention to Home Depot’s professional contractor customers for hints about the company’s future prospects.

Of 33 analysts covering the stock, 22 give Home Depot a Buy or Strong Buy rating, and 10 rate the stock at Hold. At a recent price of around $370.70, the stock had outrun its median price target of $360. At the high price target of $425, the upside potential is nearly 15%.

Analysts expect Home Depot to report third-quarter fiscal 2022 earnings per share (EPS) of $3.37, which would be down by more than 25% sequentially but up by 6% year over year. Revenue is forecast at $3.71 billion, down about 16% sequentially and up by 3.5% year over year. For the full fiscal year, EPS are forecast at $14.63, up about 21.6%, on sales of $146.26 billion, up 10.7% year over year.

Home Depot stock trades at 18.5 times expected 2022 EPS, 24.4 times estimated 2023 earnings and 22.9 times estimated 2024 earnings. The stock’s 52-week range is $246.59 to $375.15. Home Depot pays an annual dividend of $6.60 (yield of 1.80%).


Sea

Singapore-based Sea Ltd. (NYSE: SE) operates Asia’s premier online gaming and entertainment site. Over the past 12 months, the stock has gained about 97% and posted its all-time high share price just last week. The stock is included in three ARK Invest ETFs, including the flagship ARK Innovation ETF. Through Thursday’s close, the ARK funds have reduced their combined holdings of Sea stock from 2.05 million shares at the end of June to 514,764 shares.

Of 25 analysts covering the stock, all 25 give the company a Buy or Strong Buy rating. At a price of around $333.80, the stock’s implied upside based on a median price target of $395 is about 18%. At the high price target of $460, the upside potential is nearly 47%.

Analysts expect Sea to report third-quarter revenue of $2.46 billion, up by nearly 8% sequentially and more than double year over year. The expected quarterly loss per share of $0.62 is a penny worse than the prior quarter loss but better than the year-ago loss of $0.69. For the full fiscal year, the loss per share is forecast at $2.47, down from a loss per share of $2.78 a year ago, on sales of $9.13 billion, up about 109% year over year.

Sea is not expected to post a profit in 2021, 2022 or 2023. The company’s enterprise value-to-sales multiple for the next three years is 19.7 for 2021, 13.3 next year and 10.0 in 2023. The stock’s 52-week range is $165.00 to $372.70. The company does not pay a dividend.

Walmart

The other Dow Jones industrial scheduled to report results before Tuesday’s opening bell, Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has improved its stock price by barely 2% over the past 12 months. Since posting a recent low in early October, however, shares are up nearly 10%. A recent report cited by MarketWatch has Walmart closing the gap with low-price leader Amazon in six popular consumer product categories: appliances, beauty, food and beverage, health and personal care, home furniture, and sports and outdoors. Low prices could be a key determinant of who wins customers’ hearts and minds this holiday shopping season.

Analysts are mostly bullish on the stock, with 28 of 38 rating the stock a Buy or Strong Buy and nine more with a Hold rating. At a price of around $148.50, the upside potential at the median price target of $170 is about 14.5%. At the high target of $196, the implied upside is 32%.

For its third quarter of fiscal 2022 that ended in October, Walmart is expected to report EPS of $1.39, down 22% sequentially but up by 3.7% year over year, on sales of $134.00 billion, down 4.2% sequentially and essentially flat year over year. For the full fiscal year ending next January, analysts forecast EPS of $6.31, up 15%, on sales of $560.44 billion, up less than 1%.

Walmart stock trades at 15.1 times expected 2022 EPS, 22.6 times estimated 2023 earnings and 20.9 times estimated 2024 earnings. The stock’s 52-week range is $126.28 to $153.66. Walmart pays an annual dividend of $2.20 (yield of 1.48%).

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