Week 1 of Q2 Earnings in the Books: AXP, SLB & More

Friday, July 19, 2019

Capping off the first week of “unofficial” earnings season, we hear from several companies from a wide range of industries. The good news is that most of the Q2 earnings results this morning were solid, though — like the full week of mostly strong reports marked notably by Netflix’s NFLX subscriber miss — there were some laggards.

American Express AXP posted a 2-cent beat on Q2 earnings, to $2.07 per share. This was better than the $1.85 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Revenues of $10.84 billion beat estimates as well, though only slightly. This is the third quarter in the last four where AmEx has outperformed expectations. We are seeing a little selling on the news in today’s pre-market; AmEx shares had risen nearly 35% year to date. For more on AXP’s earnings, click here.

BlackRock BLK, on the other hand, came up short of estimates on both top and bottom lines this morning: $6.41 per share on $3.52 billion in revenues were slightly below the $6.52 and $3.55 billion expected, respectively. These numbers are down 3.8% year over year on earnings and -2.2% on the revenue side. Acquisitions and expansion initiatives in the quarter were behind the misses; the investment firm expects to make its full-year guidance numbers. For more on BLK’s earnings, click here.

The world’s largest oilfield services company, Schlumberger SLB, met expectations for 35 cents per share in its Q2 earnings report ahead of today’s opening bell, while $8.27 billion in revenues beat estimates by 1.9%. Like with AmEx, Schlumberger has now posted a positive surprise in three of the last four quarters. For more on SLB’s earnings, click here.

Rail major Kansas City Southern KSU reported $1.64 per share in its Q2 release this morning, four cents ahead of expectations. Its $714 million in quarterly sales also topped the Zacks consensus, by 1.43%. These are also improvements over the $1.54 per share and $682.4 million reported in the year-ago quarter, and marks only the second time in the last four quarters Kansas City Southern has outperformed on earnings. For more on KSU’s earnings, click here.

Mark Vickery
Senior Editor

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