After markets closed on Wednesday, Meta Platforms lit a fire under the tech heavyweights following the release of its earnings report. The company reversed the prior quarter’s loss of active users, adding a million to lift its total to 1.96 billion. Revenue rose 6.6%, lower than analysts were expecting, but enough to help boost the shares by nearly 18% in after-hours trading. The stock traded up about 16.5% in Thursday’s premarket.

Here is a brief rundown of some of the other firms that reported Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
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Ford beat the on both the top and bottom lines, after launching its all-electric F-150 pickup earlier in the day. The stock traded up nearly 3% Thursday morning.

Casino operator Las Vegas Sands missed estimates on the top and bottom lines, blaming pandemic-related travel restrictions. Shares traded essentially flat.

PayPal met earnings estimates but beat on revenue. The company also lowered second-quarter guidance and withdrew its medium-term guidance. Shares traded up almost 3%.

Qualcomm traded up more than 7% in the premarket after beating the consensus profit estimate by 10% and the revenue estimate by about 6%. The company also noted that demand for its products is outrunning supply. Qualcomm expects “incremental improvement” to its production volume over the course of the year.

Marlboro cigarette maker Altria beat on profit but missed the revenue estimate. Shares traded up about 0.2%.

Caterpillar stock traded down about 1.6% after beating both the profit and revenue estimates. Margins slipped and dealer inventories rose.

McDonald’s reported better-than-expected results and the shares traded up about 1.6%. U.S. same-store sales rose 3.5% year over year.

Coal miner Peabody Energy traded down more than 12% in Thursday’s premarket, after posting a loss when analysts were looking for a profit. The loss was blamed on a $301 million hedging charge. Shipment volume also declined sequentially, and prices dropped by 25%.

Southwest Airlines posted a worse-than-expected loss and slightly better-than-expected revenue. The company said it expects to be profitable for the rest of the year and for the fiscal year as a whole. Shares traded up more than 3% in premarket action.

We already have previewed results due Thursday afternoon from Amazon, Apple and Robinhood, as well as Intel, Roku and U.S. Steel. Before markets open on Friday, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66 and Weyerhaeuser are expected to post quarterly results.
No earnings releases are scheduled for Friday afternoon, but there is a big one set for Saturday and a couple of interesting reports due first thing Monday morning.

Berkshire Hathaway

Perhaps the most important thing that will happen at Saturday’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) shareholder meeting is a vote on a proposal to replace Warren Buffett as the company’s board chair. The proposal is being offered by the National Legal & Policy Center, which argues that Berkshire should split the roles of chief executive and chairperson.
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The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has said it plans to vote in favor of the proposal. CalPERS owns roughly 800 shares of Berkshire’s class A stock (valued at around $493,000 each in Thursday’s premarket session) and 5.5 million class B shares. That may sound like a lot, but it is less than 1% of shares outstanding. Buffett himself owns about 32% of Berkshire’s outstanding shares.

Still, CalPERS is a big noise in financial circles, and if it follows the same reasoning it has with Berkshire with other stocks it owns, the pension fund could change the leadership of smaller firms in which it holds larger stakes.

Berkshire’s shares have added nearly 22% to their value over the past 12 months, reaching a 52-week high in late March. Since then, however, the stock is down about 8.1%.

Berkshire’s class B shares trade at around $333.00, compared to a median price target of $364.00 from four brokerages. All four recommend holding or buying the stock.

Enterprise Products

Energy pipeline operator Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD) has posted a share price gain of about 21.5% over the past 12 months. It is the largest oil and gas midstream (pipeline and infrastructure) company in the country, with a market cap of nearly $57 billion. The company will report first-quarter results before markets open on Monday.

Regardless of the prices for oil and natural gas, pipeline companies will get paid to transport it, even if the seller doesn’t have enough oil or gas to put on the line. These guaranteed cash flows make master limited partnerships (MLPs) hot properties with investors looking for significant returns.
Of the 23 brokerages covering the stock, 19 have a Buy or Strong Buy rating and the other four have Hold ratings. At a recent price of around $26.20 a share, the stock trades about 14.5% below its consensus price target of $30. At the high target of $34, the upside potential on the stock is nearly 30%.
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Revenue for the December quarter is forecast at $10.47 billion, which would be down about 7.9% sequentially but 14.3% higher year over year. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) are forecast at $0.52, up 0.6% sequentially and down 18.8% year over year. For the full 2022 fiscal year, analysts expect to see $2.25 in EPS, up 1.9% year over year, on sales of $46.42 billion, an increase of 13.8%.

The stock trades at 11.6 times expected 2022 EPS, 10.9 times estimated 2023 earnings of $2.40 and 10.2 times estimated 2024 earnings of $2.57. The stock’s 52-week range is $20.42 to $27.65, and the company pays an annual distribution of $1.86 (yield of 7.10%). Total shareholder return for the past 12 months was 23.7%.

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ON Semiconductor

Since posting an all-time high share price in early January, ON Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: ON) has seen its share price decline by 27%. Over the past 12 months, the share price has added about 17%.

Strong demand for chips continues and supply remains tight. This keeps prices high and chipmakers happy. The potential downside, however, is that buyers order more than they need as insulation from further price increases. When the supply chain gets untangled, chips in inventory often have to be cleared out at fire-sale prices. Investors have seen this before and may be worried that it is about to happen again.

Of the 29 analysts covering the stock, however, most are bullish, with 21 rating it at Buy or Strong Buy. The other eight have Hold ratings. At a share price of around $51.20, the implied gain based on a median price target of $73 is 42.6%. At the high price target of $90, the implied gain is 75.8%.

First-quarter revenue is forecast at $1.91 billion, up 3.3% sequentially and 29.0% year over year. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) are forecast at $1.05, down 3.8% sequentially but 200.0% higher year over year. For full fiscal 2022, analysts have estimated EPS of $4.20, up 42.3%, on a sales jump of 14% to $7.68 billion.

The stock trades at 12.2 times expected 2022 EPS, 11.5 times estimated 2023 earnings of $4.44 and 10.9 times estimated 2024 earnings of $4.69 per share. The stock’s 52-week range is $34.01 to $71.25. The chipmaker does not pay a dividend, and total shareholder return over the past year was 18.3%.

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