Investing

Earnings Previews: Li Auto, Occidental Petroleum, Rocket Companies

More than 100 companies reported quarterly results on Tuesday, and there are nearly 600 more reports due out this week. A couple of noteworthy reports were Caesars and TJX. The former missed earnings but beat on revenues, while the latter missed on revenue and offered indifferent guidance.

We already have previewed three firms set to report results after markets close Wednesday: Clover Health, eBay and Skillz. Another five firms are set to report results before markets open Thursday: Alibaba, Discovery, Newmont, Nikola and Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Wednesday morning, we previewed three tech companies reporting results after markets close Thursday: Block, Coinbase and Dell.

Here are previews of two more companies set to report results late on Thursday and one scheduled to report first thing on Friday.

Li Auto

Beijing-based electric vehicle maker Li Auto Inc. (NASDAQ: LI) has been a U.S.-traded company for less than two years. The stock is up by 68% since the July 2020 initial public offering. But from its peak in late November of that year, the shares are down by around 37%. Li Auto reports results before markets open on Friday morning.

Two other China-based EV makers, Xpeng and Nio, are down by 51.6% and 60.6%, respectively, since November of 2020. Tesla, however, is up 42% for the same period. U.S.-based Lucid is up more than 150% since its SPAC IPO in January of last year, and electric pickup truck maker Rivian is down 42% since its IPO last November. The only conclusion we can draw from all this is that EV stocks are not as hot as they once were. That includes Lucid and Tesla, down almost 52% and almost 32%, respectively, since last November.

Only 11 brokerages cover the firm, and all give the stock a Buy or Strong Buy rating. At a recent price of around $27.50 a share, the upside potential based on a median price target of $45 is about 63.6%. At the high price target of $64, the upside potential is 133%.

Fourth-quarter revenue is forecast at $1.56 billion, which would be up 29% sequentially but down 62.4% year over year. Analysts have forecast a loss per share of $0.01, following a per-share profit of $0.34 in the prior quarter and down from EPS of $0.02 in the same quarter last year. For the 2021 fiscal year, current estimates call for a loss per share of $0.02, compared to a loss per share of $0.10 last year, on sales of $4.20 billion, up about 190%.

After the anticipated loss of $0.09 per share in 2021, Li Auto is expected to post EPS of $0.02 in 2022. In 2023, the share price to earnings multiple based on estimated EPS of $0.36 is 75.6. The stock’s 52-week range is $15.98 to $37.45. Li Auto does not pay a dividend. Total shareholder return for the past year is 1.9%.

Occidental Petroleum

Since posting a low in late October of 2020, shares of Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) have risen by 335%. That’s how high crude prices can reverse the fortunes of an oil producer that has fallen on tough times. Cash flow from operations topped $3.1 billion in each of the past two quarters. Free cash flow totaled just over $5 billion for those two quarters.

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