Yahoo Finance Tesla Motors Leads 5 Big Tech Earning to Watch This Week (TSLA)
Wall Street's first-quarter earnings season is starting to turn away from technology and toward a few other sectors, but the last gap for tech includes a few well-known and volatile names, providing the potential for another week of sizable moves.
Not that we need any more.
Amazon.com (AMZN) skyrocketed to end last week after blowing the door off Wall Street expectations. That followed a huge uptick for Facebook (FB) in the wake of its own impressive earnings and user growth. And that came after Apple (AAPL) was cored for missing already limbo-low expectations, including the company's first revenue decline in 13 years.
Here, we'll look at some of the biggest potential movers and shakers from this week's slate of big tech earnings releases.
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Tesla Motors (TSLA). Tesla is expected to report earnings after the bell on Wednesday, but while you can always count on Tesla to react strongly to any sort of news, the biggest fireworks for the first quarter have already come and gone.
Tesla is fresh off not just the unveiling of the Model 3 sedan -- the more affordably priced car meant to finally bring Tesla to the masses -- but also a massive milestone. Namely, CEO Elon Musk says the company has registered 400,000 preorders of the Model 3, each of them complete with a $1,000 deposit.
We also got our most important bad news for the quarter -- namely, that Tesla delivered 12,420 Model S units and 2,400 Model X units. While the overall 14,820 vehicles were a 50 percent improvement from last year, it came short of forecasts for 16,000 units, thanks to parts shortages.
So, why pay attention to earnings at all?
While many investors still seem to be OK with the idea that Tesla is posting quarterly losses, those losses are deepening (analysts are expecting losses to increase from 36 cents per share to 58 cents). An even lower figure on this front could be worrisome. Investors also should pay attention to Tesla' margins and cash situation.
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GoPro (GPRO). The headline numbers expected when GoPro reports on Thursday afternoon are simply ugly. Wall Street is expecting the action-camera maker to swing from a 24-cent-per-share quarterly profit to a 60-cent loss, and it'll get there on revenues estimated to decline by more than 53 percent.
So, ouch.
And investors will be looking extra carefully at beats or misses on those figures, because GoPro will be lacking a stat: quarterly guidance. As of last quarter, the company said it will only offer long-term outlooks.
Shy of that, the news that will matter will have to do with product launches. During GoPro's last earnings call, CEO Nicholas Woodman said the Karma -- GPRO's entry into the drone space -- would come out sometime in the first half of the year. Investors also will want to hear something more concrete on the launch of the Hero 5 -- the latest in its Hero series, and about any improvements upon the Hero 4.
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And GoPro could use an update there, as sales of the Hero 4 were so disappointing during the holiday season that the company slashed its price from $400 to $199.
Fitbit (FIT). The wearable technology company has found itself in a similar struggle as GoPro, with shares off some 60 percent since August 2016 -- but Fitbit is actually enjoying some positive momentum as of late, pulling together a 50 percent rebound out of the February lows.
That's because the headlines have been pretty favorable as of late. For one, Fitbit won a favorable ruling in a dispute against Jawbone; the latter is trying to keep Fitbit from importing its devices to the U.S. Also, recent patent filings obtained by blogger Dave Zatz last week hint that the company may be working on a Flex 2 and a Charge 2.
But what we could actually see in Fitbit's earnings report are strong revenues related to the strong reception for the company's Blaze and Alta devices -- namely, that each sold 1 million devices within the first month of availability.
Morgan Stanley is particularly bullish ahead of Fitbit's Wednesday evening earnings report, expecting that those Blaze and Alta devices will result in a beat -- and push Fitbit to raise its full-year outlook, too. That came as Morgan Stanley analysts reaffirmed both its "overweight" rating and its $32 price target, which would be 75 percent higher than current levels.
For the record, Wall Street expects FIT stock to earn 2 cents on $440.86 million in revenues.
FireEye (FEYE). FireEye is having itself a difficult year, off 15 percent year-to-date and currently rangebound after it rebounded with the market in February. And back out to summer, it's off nearly 70 percent. CEO Dave DeWalt told analysts in last quarter's earnings call that an oral agreement between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi JinPing contributed to a weak third quarter and full-year guidance.
The company is expecting first-quarter revenue of $167 million to $177 million, losses of 49 to 53 cents per share and billings of $163 million to $183 million. The last two figures are below analyst expectations, but they do set FireEye up with something of a low bar to hurdle. A beat on billings especially (as well as strong guidance) could help send FireEye out of its rut.
FireEye's report, scheduled for Thursday, is coming just as the stock is starting to battle to stay above its 50-day moving average, so a post-earnings reaction could be particularly violent.
Sprint Corp. (S). Typically when telecoms report, investors are looking at terms like "customer gains," "subscriber adds" and "churn."
But right now, the story with Sprint is debt -- $34 billion of it.
Softbank Group, which controls Sprint, plans to create a subsidiary whose purpose will be to lend Sprint money -- Sprint is looking to get $3 billion to $5 billion per year in loans -- using wireless equipment and spectrum rights as collateral. As Bloomberg put it, it's "a little like borrowing against the tires to make car payments."
However, the company also is unleashing its own controls to help keep costs in check, such as relocating radio equipment and reducing its workforce. So significantly lower operating costs would be a welcome sight.
Past all that, expect Sprint to continue adding net subscriber additions thanks to heavy discounting against rivals AT&T (T), Verizon Communications (VZ) and T-Mobile US (TMUS), and to keep churn in check.
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