In this weeks earning preview we have a few big names looking to report earnings that are worth keeping an eye on. Baidu, Home Depot, Target and Salesforce all report this week.
Baidu, Inc.
Ticker: (NASDAQ: BIDU)
Earnings Time: Monday, August 19 after market close
Expectations: EPS estimate $0.87, Revenue estimate $3.66 billion
Brief Overview: Chinese search giant, Baidu, is expected to take a hit this quarter after placing large investments in cloud, artificial intelligence and other content material. Online marketing services has been its main source of revenue and has been on an upward trend which is expected to continue. Baidu has posted surprise earnings beats on 3 out of the last 4 earnings releases. We’ll have to wait and see till after the close if they can surprise again!
Profile: Baidu is the largest Internet search engine in China with mid-70s mobile traffic share in the search market. The firm generates 86% of revenue from online marketing services and the rest from other segments. Baidu is a technology-driven company and has been investing in AI technology, such as autonomously driven cars.
Home Depot
Ticker: (NYSE: HD)
Earnings Time: Tuesday, August 20 before market open
Expectations: EPS estimate $3.09, Revenue estimate $31.05 billion
Brief Overview: Home improvement company Home Depot is set to announced second quarter earnings this week with many investors watching their e-commerce and same-store earnings growth. Sentiment is somewhat positive for this quarter after a slow start to the year.
Profile: Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement specialty retailer, operating nearly 2,300 warehouse-format stores offering more than 30,000 products in store and 1 million products online in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Its stores offer numerous building materials, home improvement products, lawn and garden products, and decor products and provide various services, including home improvement installation services and tool and equipment rentals. The acquisition of distributor Interline Brands in 2015 allowed Home Depot to enter the maintenance, repair, and operations sector, while the tie-up with Company Store brought textile expertise to the brand.
Salesforce.com Inc
Ticker: (NYSE: CRM)
Earnings Time: Thursday, August 22 after market close
Expectations: EPS estimate $0.47, Revenue estimate $3.95 billion
Brief Overview: Cloud company Salesforce is slated to post earnings after the close on Thursday and is expected to post a slight decline in earnings this quarter. They are expected to post $3.95 billion in revenue this quarter, up 20% from the same quarter last year.
Stock prices are slightly up on the year but if they can post a beat we can expect some solid gains. Salesforce is a closely watched company on the street so there will likely be some great trading opportunities after they post. Keep this company on your radar!
Profile: Salesforce.com provides enterprise cloud computing solutions, including Sales Cloud, the company’s main customer relationship management software-as-a-service product. Salesforce.com also offers Service Cloud for customer support, Marketing Cloud for digital marketing campaigns, Commerce Cloud as an e-commerce engine, the Salesforce Platform, which allows enterprises to build applications, and other solutions, such as MuleSoft for data integration.
Target
Ticker: (NYSE: TGT)
Earnings Time: Wednesday, August 21 before market open
Expectations: EPS estimate $1.62, Revenue estimate $18.34 billion
Brief Overview: Target is set to post earnings before the market opens on Wednesday with analyst expecting their growth to continue. Investors will be watching how same-stores sales have compared to recent quarters along with e-commerce as they expand same-day shipping options. Target has been working hard to adapt to the changing retail environment and so far they have done a great job.
Target has had a strong run since the beginning of the year and posting a beat will help fuel the bull run so make to keep an eye on this stock.
Profile: Target Corp is a leading American general merchandise retailer with 1,844 stores (as of the end of fiscal 2018), offering a variety of products across several categories, including beauty and household essentials (24% of fiscal 2018 sales), apparel and accessories (20%), food and beverage (20%), home furnishings and decor (19%), and hardlines (17%). Most of Target’s stores are large-format, averaging around 130,000 square feet. The company has a significant e-commerce presence, deriving around 7% of sales from the channel. In addition to its namesake stores, Target owns Shipt, an online same-day delivery platform. After it exited Canada in 2015, virtually all of Target’s revenue is generated from the United States.
