First Earnings Season of 2021 Is Here
Most of the big names report this week or next
Earnings season comes around four times a year. And I get excited about it every time.
In the US, publicly traded companies are required to disclose information quarterly, as well as annually. It just so happens that there are a few weeks every quarter that most companies report their earnings around the same time. It’s not only the number of companies reporting but the size of the companies. Some of the biggest names report within a week of one another, sometimes on the same day.
Earnings reports are important because it allows investors to see how well (or poorly) a company is performing. The two biggest metrics looked at for every company are usually revenue and earnings per share (EPS.) The top and bottom lines can let you know if you’ve invested in a company beating expectations or not.
Other companies have certain metrics investors are interested in. For Amazon, it could be the growth of AWS. For Apple, it used to be iPhone sales. For Facebook and Twitter, it could be how many new users they’ve gained.
This week, some of the biggest companies that have already reported are:
- Monday — Kimberly Clark Corp (KMB), Xilinx, Inc. (XLNX)
- Tuesday Morning — Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), General Electric Company (GE), 3M Co (MMM), Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), American Express Company (AXP), NextEra Energy Inc (NEE)
- Tuesday After-Hours — Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), Starbucks Corporation (SBUX), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)
These are some big-names with hefty market caps. Here are a few highlights from those companies:
Microsoft’s stock was up more than 4% after hours after reporting 17% revenue growth. Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing unit, grew 50% compared to estimates of 42% growth.
Starbucks saw same-store sales in the US fall by 5%, but it was positive in China for the first time since the pandemic began. COO Roz Brewer will be leaving the company to become CEO of Walgreens.
J&J was up today after reporting this morning. They beat EPS and revenue estimates and announced they would release data from their vaccine trials soon.
GE was up big this morning but tapered off throughout the day. Investors were impressed by their free cash flow and outlook for this year.
Not to be outdone, Wednesday packs just as many, if not more, heavy hitters.
- Wednesday Morning — Boeing Co (BA), AT&T Inc. (T)
- Wednesday After-Hours — Apple Inc (AAPL), Tesla Inc (TSLA), Facebook, Inc. (FB), ServiceNow Inc (NOW)
- Thursday Morning — Mcdonald’s Corp (MCD), Mastercard Inc (MA), Southwest Airlines Co (LUV)
- Thursday After-Hours —Visa Inc (V), Mondelez International (MDLZ)
- Friday Morning —Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), Eli Lilly And Co (LLY), SAP SE (SAP), Honeywell International Inc. (HON)
Apple, Tesla, and Facebook are three of the six biggest companies by market cap. Their earnings, and stock movement, can have a sizeable impact on the whole market.
Believe it or not, even more companies are reporting next week. Amazon will be the biggest name next week, reporting on Tuesday, the 2nd. But while we’re still in this week, here is a calendar of the most anticipated earnings.
Also worth noting, the craziness that is GameStop continues. After closing out 2020 at $18.84, the stock closed at $147.98 today. The stock has had many days of double digits gains recently.
At the beginning of all this, the news that Ryan Cohen, co-founder of Chewy, was joining GameStop’s board, shot the stock up. It then, and still is in a war and short squeeze. After hours today, the stock is currently at $209.51, surging because of a tweet from Elon Musk. I’ve never seen anything like this and don’t know when this madness will end.
