5 Key Earnings for the Week Ahead

March 13, 2016 by Chris Lange

24/7 Wall St. has put together a preview of some of the major companies reporting their quarterly results this coming week. We are just exiting the main earnings season, but some companies still report in this down time. We have included the consensus earnings estimates from Thomson Reuters and the stock price and trading history, as well as added some additional color on each.

Be advised that the earnings and revenue estimates may change ahead of the formal reports, and some companies may change reporting dates as well.

Oracle

Look for Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) to release its most recent quarterly results on Tuesday. The consensus estimates call for earnings per share (EPS) of $0.62 and $9.13 billion in revenue. Shares of this mega-cap software company trade at nearly 15 times estimated 2016 earnings, and it sports a solid free cash flow yield. Combined sales in Oracle’s cloud software, infrastructure and platform-as-a-service businesses were solid, and analysts feel that this business has room to grow.

Shares traded at $38.95 on the most recent close, in a 52-week trading range of $33.13 to $45.24. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $43.50.


FedEx

On Wednesday, FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) is set to report its fiscal third-quarter results. The analysts’ consensus estimates are EPS of $2.34 and $12.41 billion in revenue. This company decided in January that it wants to buy back even more stock — some 25 million more shares. The prior FedEx buyback authorization was announced in September 2014 for 15 million shares, and that one has been completed. There were 272 million common shares outstanding as of January 25, 2016, so FedEx has authorized itself to buy back up to about 9.2% of its shares. In a grand total, FedEx has returned a total of almost $8 billion to shareholders by repurchasing more than 57 million shares.

Shares were changing hands at $144.42 as Friday’s session came to a close. The consensus price target is $174.00, and the stock has a 52-week range of $119.71 to $185.19.

Adobe Systems

The fiscal first-quarter report from Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) is scheduled for Thursday. Consensus estimates call for $0.61 in EPS and revenue of $1.34 billion. This old-school software company operates in three segments. Its Digital Media segment provides tools and solutions that enable individuals, small and medium businesses and enterprises to create, publish, promote and monetize their digital content. Adobe is also reasonably safe route for investors looking to own a company with marketing automation products, which have become huge.

Adobe shares closed at $85.88 on Friday. The consensus price target is $102.70. The 52-week range is $71.27 to $96.42.

Aeropostale

On Thursday, Aeropostale Inc. (NYSE: ARO) is expected to reveal its fiscal fourth-quarter results. The retailer will report a net loss of $0.14 per share and $521.19 million in revenue, if the consensus forecast is correct. This company is slowly coming to the understanding that it may need to turn to e-commerce to survive. Aeropostale only saw growth in one segment over the past three years: international licensing. Unfortunately, it only represents a tiny 2% of the company’s revenue in fiscal 2014. Perhaps Aeropostale could take it a few steps further and focus exclusively on licensing all of its products to someone else and make Amazon the sole seller.

The share price ended last week at $0.45. The consensus price target is $0.76. The stock has a 52-week range of $0.16 to $3.64.

Tiffany

The latest quarterly earnings report from Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) is due on Friday. The consensus estimates are $1.41 in EPS and $1.22 billion in revenue. The jewelry retailer reported its sales results for the two-month period ended December 31, better known as the holiday period. Results were negatively affected by the strong U.S. dollar and weak tourist spending in a number of markets. Looking at it on a constant-exchange-rate basis, worldwide net sales declined 3% (due to declines in the Americas and Asia-Pacific offsetting growth in Japan and Europe) and comparable store sales declined 5%. There were no noteworthy differences in performance among jewelry categories. Reported in U.S. dollars, worldwide net sales of $961 million were 6% lower than the prior year.

Shares were at $71.84 on Friday’s close, in a 52-week range of $59.73 to $96.43. The consensus price target is $82.17.

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