Analysts have a consensus forecast for quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.68 on revenues of $7.1 billion and full-year 2014 EPS of $1.90 on revenues of $24.49 billion.
EMC missed earnings estimates in the third quarter and just met them in the two preceding quarters. The company has also been fighting off demands from activist investor Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. to spin off its 80% stake in VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW). Beating estimates for the quarter may not squash the demands, but it would certainly help keep the noise level down.
The company has been investing in a portfolio of cloud and other IT assets over the past couple of years, and analysts at Pacific Crest Securities have said that 2015 should be the third and final year of such investments. The payoff is expected begin in 2016. Pacific Crest sees 2015 EPS of $2.05, compared with a consensus estimate of $1.90 from Thomson Reuters.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch started EMC as a Buy in mid-November, and J.P. Morgan started the company as Neutral in mid-December.
EMC’s forward price-to-earnings ratio is 12.77, and its price-to-book ratio is 2.46. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $29.09 and the 200-day moving average is $29.06. Over the past 12 months, the company’s shares are up more than 10%, compared with a gain on the S&P 500 of 13% in the same period.
The stock traded at $27.20, down about 0.8%, in the noon hour on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $23.47 to $30.92. The consensus price target on the stock is $32.17, and EMC’s market cap is around $55.3 billion.
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