CAG ConAgra Brands Inc

Q1 Earnings Season Gets Underway

We will start counting Tuesday’s earnings announcements from Adobe Systems (ADBE) and Oracle (ORCL) as part of 2014 Q1 reporting cycle, though we are still a few weeks away from the earnings season taking the spotlight.

The market has plenty of domestic economic data to digest this week in a backdrop of developments in Ukraine and renewed questions about China’s growth outlook. On the docket this week are a host of housing, inflation, and manufacturing sector reports, but the focus will be on the FOMC meeting, particularly Fed Chairwoman Yellen’s first press conference.

The Fed isn’t expected to spring any surprises on the market. But with the unemployment rate not too far from the Fed’s 6.5% target, they will need to move past explicit thresholds without roiling the markets. This isn’t easy to do, as too vague a threshold leaves open the risk that the market gets ahead of the Fed in pricing the eventual monetary tightening. The FOMC could address this issue in its official statement on Wednesday, but the issue is bound to come in Janet Yellen’s press event that afternoon.

Beyond the Fed and economic data, we have a number of corporate bellwethers coming out with 2014 Q1 results (companies with fiscal quarters ending in February and reporting in March get counted as part of Q1 tally), which includes besides Oracle, Nike (NKE), FedEx (FDX), General Mills (GIS) and KB Home (KBH).

These Q1 earnings reports aside, we are in the transition phase between two earnings seasons when the last one hasn’t completely ended even as the new one is upon us. Of this week’s 80 earnings announcements, there are only 18 companies with fiscal quarters ending in February and getting counted towards the Q1 tally; the rest belong the 2013 Q4 reporting cycle (we have Q4 earnings reports from 497 S&P 500 companies, as of Friday, March 14th).

Expectations for 2014 Q1

Estimates for 2014 Q1 started coming down at an accelerated pace as companies predominantly guided lower on the 2013 Q4 earnings calls, consistent with the trend we have been seeing for more than a year now. Total Q1 earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are currently expected to be down -1.5% from the same period last year, a material decline from the +2.1% growth expected in early January 2014.

The negative revision trend is widespread, but is particularly notable for the Retail, Basic Materials, Autos, Consumer Staples, and the Energy sectors, as the chart below shows.

 
With roughly two-thirds of S&P 500 companies beating earnings expectations in any reporting cycle, actual Q1 results will almost certainly be better than these pre-season expectations. But Q1 is unlikely to repeat the performance of the last few quarters where we would witness a new all-time earnings total record each quarter. Total earnings for the S&P 500 are on track to reach $269.4 billion in 2013 Q4 (we still have 3 more companies to report results before ‘closing the books’ on that quarter). This is a new all-time quarterly record for total earnings, surpassing the previous record set in 2013 Q3 at $262.7 billion. Current estimates for 2014 Q1 aggregate to a quarterly total of $252.4 billion, but the expectation is for a strong ramp up from Q2 onwards.

Scorecard for 2013 Q4 (as of Friday, March 14th)

With respect to the ‘scorecard’ for 2013 Q4, we are still waiting for results from 3 S&P 500 members. Total earnings for the 497 S&P 500 members that have reported results  are up +9.2% from the same period last year, with a ‘beat ratio’ of 64.2% and a median surprise of +2.4%. Total revenues are barely in the positive column, up only +0.7%, with a revenue ‘beat ratio’ of 55.9% and a median surprise of +0.6%. While the revenue growth rate in Q4 was held down by tough comparisons in the Finance sector, the overall earnings growth rate in the quarter was the highest of 2013.

A big contributor to the strong Q4 earnings growth is easy comparisons for three companies – Bank of America (BAC), Verizon (VZ), and Travelers (TRV). Exclude these three companies and total earnings growth for the S&P 500 companies that have reported drops to +5.5% from the ‘headline’ +9.2%, which is about where growth has been in recent quarters.

For a detailed at the Q4 earnings season and the overall earnings picture, please check out our weekly Earnings Trends report.  

Monday-3/17

• A busy day on the economic calendar, with March Empire State manufacturing survey and Homebuilder sentiment index coming out before the open. Also coming out this morning is the February Industrial Production report.

Tuesday -3/18

• Housing Starts and CPI for February are the notable economic reports this morning. The two-day FOMC meeting will get underway today.
• Adobe Systems (ADBE) and Oracle (ORCL) are the notable earnings reports today, both after the close.
• Earnings ESP or Expected Surprise Prediction, our proprietary leading indicator of positive earnings surprises is showing Oracle coming out with an earning beat.
• Our research shows that companies with Zacks Rank of 1, 2 or 3 and positive Earnings ESP are highly likely to beat EPS estimates. Oracle has Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and Earnings ESP of +1.5%.
• To get a better understanding of Zacks Earnings Surprise Predictor, please click here.   

Wednesday-3/19

• The Fed is in focus today, with the FOMC coming out with its statement and followed by Chairwoman Yellen’s press conference.
• FedEx (FDX), General Mills (GIS) and KB Homes (KBH) will report in the morning, while Jabil Circuit (JBL) and Guess (GES) will report after the close.
• Earnings ESP is showing General Mills beating EPS expectations. General Mills has Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and Earnings ESP of +1.5%

Thursday -3/20

• In addition to weekly Jobless Claims, we will get the February Existing Home sales data and the March Philly Fed regional survey.
• ConAgra (CAG) and Lennar Corp (LEN) are the notable earnings reports in the morning, while Nike (NKE) will report after the close.

Friday-3/21

• Not much on the economic calendar, while Tiffany (TIF) and Darden Restaurants (DRI) will report earnings results, both in the morning.
• Tiffany with a Zacks Rank of 3 and Earnings ESP of +0.7% is expected to come out with a positive earnings surprise.

Here is a list of the 80 companies reporting this week, including 10 S&P 500 members.

Company	Ticker	Current Qtr	Year-Ago Qtr	Last EPS Surprise %	Report Day	Time
ARES COMMERCIAL	ACRE	0.2	0.13	-46.15	Monday	BTO
ALTEVA	ALTV	0.13	-0.21	N/A	Monday	AMC
APPRICUS BIOSCI	APRI	-0.06	-0.21	10	Monday	AMC
ALPHATEC HLDGS	ATEC	-0.02	-0.01	150	Monday	AMC
BIOLINE RX LTD	BLRX	-0.18	-0.3	-11.11	Monday	BTO
CORENERGY INFRA	CORR	0.13	N/A	0	Monday	N/A
DTS INC	DTSI	N/A	0.17	85.71	Monday	AMC
COPEL-ADR PR B	ELP	N/A	-0.18	4.88	Monday	N/A
FATE THERAPEUTC	FATE	-0.29	N/A	-1200	Monday	AMC
FIBROCELL SCIEN	FCSC	-0.26	N/A	-128.57	Monday	BTO
FUTUREFUEL CORP	FF	0.2	0.15	-2.78	Monday	AMC
FORTUNA SILVER	FSM	0.04	0.07	-100	Monday	N/A
GAIAM INC	GAIA	-0.02	0.09	0	Monday	AMC
GENIE ENERGY-B	GNE	-0.05	0.08	100	Monday	AMC
HEALTH INS INN	HIIQ	0.09	N/A	14.29	Monday	N/A
INOVIO PHARMAC	INO	-0.03	-0.02	0	Monday	BTO
IMAGEWARE SYS	IWSY	-0.02	-0.02	N/A	Monday	AMC
JA SOLAR HOLDGS	JASO	-0.03	-2.65	11.9	Monday	BTO
KYTHERA BIOPHRM	KYTH	-0.69	-1.04	16.22	Monday	AMC
LATAM AIRLINES	LFL	0.16	0.01	80	Monday	AMC
LMI AEROSPACE	LMIA	0	0.38	-27.27	Monday	BTO
LINDE AG ADR	LNEGY	N/A	0.28	N/A	Monday	N/A
MELA SCIENCES	MELA	-0.1	-0.19	0	Monday	AMC
NAVIGATOR HLDGS	NVGS	0.25	0.23	N/A	Monday	AMC
OFS CAPITAL CRP	OFS	0.16	N/A	-21.05	Monday	BTO
STERLING CONSTR	STRL	-1.47	0.01	25	Monday	BTO
TSAKOS EGY NAVG	TNP	-0.08	-0.16	66.67	Monday	BTO
TROVAGENE INC	TROV	-0.23	-0.1	80.65	Monday	AMC
TOWERSTREAM CP	TWER	-0.1	-0.12	0	Monday	AMC
ADOBE SYSTEMS	ADBE	0.12	0.22	-5.26	Tuesday	AMC
ORACLE CORP	ORCL	0.67	0.63	3.13	Tuesday	AMC
AERIE PHARMACT	AERI	-0.21	N/A	-502.08	Tuesday	AMC
GLOBAL B&C HLD	BRSS	0.33	N/A	-5.26	Tuesday	AMC
CONSOLTD WATER	CWCO	0.05	0.25	-25	Tuesday	BTO
DSW INC CL-A	DSW	0.29	0.34	0	Tuesday	BTO
FACTSET RESH	FDS	1.22	0.89	-1.61	Tuesday	BTO
GLOBAL POWER EQ	GLPW	0.36	0.51	5.26	Tuesday	N/A
GTT COMMUNICATN	GTT	-0.09	-0.02	55.56	Tuesday	BTO
MOBILE TELE-ADR	MBT	0.42	0.58	40	Tuesday	BTO
PAC SUNWEAR CAL	PSUN	-0.18	-0.17	0	Tuesday	AMC
RENREN INC-ADR	RENN	0.05	-0.06	22.22	Tuesday	AMC
PROSENA HLDG BV	RNA	-0.14	N/A	-60	Tuesday	BTO
SAEXPLORATN HLD	SAEX	0.25	N/A	-6450	Tuesday	AMC
TRADE ST RESID	TSRE	0.05	N/A	-87.5	Tuesday	AMC
VERACYTE INC	VCYT	-0.37	N/A	N/A	Tuesday	AMC
YINGLI GREEN EN	YGE	-0.17	-0.94	0	Tuesday	BTO
FEDEX CORP	FDX	1.52	1.23	-4.85	Wednesday	BTO
GENL MILLS	GIS	0.68	0.64	-5.68	Wednesday	BTO
JABIL CIRCUIT	JBL	0.02	0.45	34.04	Wednesday	AMC
ACTUANT CORP	ATU	0.32	0.35	-4.35	Wednesday	BTO
BACTERIN INTL	BONE	-0.08	-0.11	-100	Wednesday	AMC
CLARCOR INC	CLC	0.42	0.47	-1.43	Wednesday	AMC
ELBIT SYSTEMS	ESLT	1.46	1.62	3.94	Wednesday	BTO
EVOGENE LTD	EVGN	-0.08	-0.02	N/A	Wednesday	BTO
FRANCO NV CP	FNV	0.22	0.33	26.32	Wednesday	AMC
GUESS INC	GES	0.8	0.95	7.69	Wednesday	AMC
KB HOME	KBH	0.08	-0.16	-31.11	Wednesday	BTO
HERMAN MILLER	MLHR	0.34	0.32	2.44	Wednesday	AMC
SINOVAC BIOTECH	SVA	N/A	-0.08	N/A	Wednesday	AMC
TILLYS INC	TLYS	0.18	0.32	4.76	Wednesday	AMC
VERA BRADLEY	VRA	0.46	0.62	8.82	Wednesday	BTO
EXONE CO/THE	XONE	0.01	0.04	0	Wednesday	AMC
CONAGRA FOODS	CAG	0.6	0.55	12.73	Thursday	BTO
LENNAR CORP -A	LEN	0.28	0.26	14.06	Thursday	BTO
NIKE INC-B	NKE	0.73	0.73	1.72	Thursday	AMC
AMBIT BIOSCIENC	AMBI	-0.43	N/A	14.29	Thursday	AMC
CATO CORP A	CATO	0.13	0.27	21.43	Thursday	BTO
CONSTELLIUM NV	CSTM	0.5	N/A	6	Thursday	BTO
ENVIVIO INC	ENVI	-0.14	-0.18	21.43	Thursday	AMC
IHS INC-A	IHS	0.75	0.47	17.24	Thursday	BTO
MARCUS CORP	MCS	0	-0.01	-12.5	Thursday	BTO
NEW RESID INV	NRZ	0.16	N/A	-16.67	Thursday	BTO
RALLY SOFTWARE	RALY	-0.31	N/A	14.81	Thursday	AMC
SCHOLASTIC CORP	SCHL	-0.35	-0.63	-2.27	Thursday	BTO
SHOE CARNIVAL	SCVL	0.04	0.16	5.88	Thursday	AMC
SILVER WHEATON	SLW	0.25	0.5	-4.35	Thursday	AMC
TIBCO SOFTWARE	TIBX	0.11	0.09	9.38	Thursday	AMC
WET SEAL INC -A	WTSL	-0.24	-0.06	0	Thursday	AMC
DARDEN RESTRNT	DRI	0.82	1.02	-25	Friday	BTO
TIFFANY & CO	TIF	1.52	1.4	25.86	Friday	BTO

 
ADOBE SYSTEMS (ADBE): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
BANK OF AMER CP (BAC): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
CONAGRA FOODS (CAG): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
DARDEN RESTRNT (DRI): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
FEDEX CORP (FDX): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
GUESS INC (GES): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
GENL MILLS (GIS): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
JABIL CIRCUIT (JBL): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
KB HOME (KBH): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
LENNAR CORP -A (LEN): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
NIKE INC-B (NKE): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
ORACLE CORP (ORCL): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
TIFFANY & CO (TIF): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
VERIZON COMM (VZ): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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