In early trading on Thursday, the Dow Jones industrials were up 0.07%, while the S&P 500 was down 0.57% and the Nasdaq down 0.93%.

After U.S. markets closed on Wednesday, Salesforce reported earnings per share (EPS) and revenue that topped analysts’ expectations. More importantly, CEO Marc Benioff told analysts on the conference call that “improving profitability is our highest priority.” That may quiet the pack of activist investors seeking changes at the Dow company. Shares traded up about 13% early Thursday.

Snowflake also beat estimates on the top and bottom lines, and it announced a $2 billion stock buyback program. The company expects revenue growth of 40% in its 2024 fiscal year, to go along with gross margins of 76% and an operating income margin of 6%. That outlook fell short of what investors wanted to hear. Shares traded down 13%.

Plug Power missed consensus estimates on both EPS and revenue, a report that investors interpret as disappointing but not fatal. The company issued upside guidance for fiscal 2023 and reaffirmed long-term targets out to 2030. Shares traded down 9.4% Thursday morning.

Before U.S. markets opened on Thursday, Macy’s reported EPS that beat estimates, but it fell short on revenue. Same-store sales were down at Macy’s but up at Bloomingdale’s. The department store guided revenue in a range that topped the consensus at the high end and was a bit short on revenue. Comparable store sales are expected to be down between 2% and 4% year over year in 2023. Shares traded up 9.6%.

Kroger beat the consensus EPS estimate but missed slightly on revenue. The company issued upside EPS guidance for its 2024 fiscal year and temporarily halted its buyback program so that it can pay down debt in anticipation of its proposed merger with Albertsons. Shares traded up more than 5% early Thursday.

Tech biggies Broadcom, Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Marvell are set to report results after markets close on Thursday, along with ChargePoint, Costco and Nordstrom. There are no notable reports expected on Friday.

Here is a look at what to expect from these two companies reporting quarterly earnings first thing Monday morning.

Lordstown Motors

Electric vehicle maker Lordstown Motors Corp. (NASDAQ: RIDE) originally was scheduled to release quarterly results on February 27 but delayed it by a week. The company also issued a recall on its Endurance pickup and halted production of the truck due to an issue that could have caused the vehicle to lose power while in operation. After its SPAC merger in October 2020, shares spiked to around $32.00. In early January, the stock dropped below $1.00 for the first time.
Of four analysts covering Lordstown stock, two have a Sell or Strong Sell rating and the others have Hold ratings. At a recent price of around $1.00, the shares trade at their median price target. At the high target of $2.00, the upside potential is 100%.

Analysts expect Lordstown to post revenue of $1.25 million in the fourth quarter. They also expect a reported loss per share of $0.24, better than the prior quarter’s loss of $0.38 and better than the year-ago loss per share of $0.42. For the full year, estimates call for a loss per share of $1.14 (last year’s loss was $2.27 per share) and sales of $1.69 million (there were no sales reported in 2021).

Lordstown is not expected to post a profit in 2022, 2023 or 2024. The enterprise value-to-sales multiple is expected to be 14.6 in 2022. Based on estimated earnings for 2023 and 2024 of $44.22 million and $360.88 million, respectively, the multiples are 0.6 and 0.1, respectively. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $0.87 to $3.79. Lordstown does not pay a dividend, and total shareholder return for the past 12 months is negative 63.22%.

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Trip.com

Travel services giant Trip.com Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: TCOM) has posted a 12-month share price increase of more than 46%. The stock touched a nine-year low in mid-March of last year following government-imposed lockdowns in some of China’s major cities. Since that bottom, the stock bounced up 140% and still shows a gain of 125% after 50 weeks.

Trip.com and rival Booking Holdings traded in close proximity until late November, when Trip.com shot more than 20% higher in less than a week. Booking has seen a share price hike of nearly 29% since late November, but Trip.com shares are up more than 45% in the same period. Expedia stock is up by less than 5% since late November.

Of 31 brokerages covering the stock, 28 have Buy or Strong Buy ratings. The rest have Hold ratings. At a share price of around $38.00, the upside potential based on a median price target of $40.61 is about 6.9%. At the high target of $52.38, the upside potential is 37.8%.

Analysts expect Trip.com com to report fourth-quarter revenue of $703.28 million, which would be down 27.4% sequentially and by 4.6% year over year. The consensus forecast also calls for a per-share loss of $0.02, compared to EPS of $0.22 in the prior quarter and year-ago EPS of $0.08 per share. For the 2022 fiscal year, analysts are looking for EPS of $0.14, down 57.7%, on sales of $2.88 billion, down 8.6% year over year.

Trip.com stock trades at 263.7 times expected 2022 EPS, 35.7 times estimated 2023 earnings of $1.04 and 22.2 times estimated 2024 earnings of $1.67 per share. The stock’s 52-week range is $14.29 to $40.17, and Trip.com does not pay a dividend. Total shareholder return for the past year was 44.09%.

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