Hope you like earnings news. This week brings a ton of third-quarter earnings reports with news from Microsoft, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Alphabet quite capable of moving the entire market. We’ll also get more consumer company (Coca-Cola and Kimberly-Clark for example) reports to show whether last week’s higher revenue but lower volume pattern continues. And Wall Street is expecting negative news from oil companies ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) when they both report on Friday.
The challenge for tech companies will be to show enough revenue and earnings growth to justify their high stock prices. Wall Street believes Meta Platforms (META) will. The analyst consensus (for Meta’s report on Wednesday, October 25) is for earnings of $3.57 a share versus $1.64 in the third quarter of 2022. Amazon (AMZN), similarly, has been marked up for a big earnings gain with earnings per share of 58 cents this quarter versus 20 cents in 2022. Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG) have been set lower fences to jump $2.65 versus $2.35 for Microsoft and $1.45 versus $1.06 for Alphabet, which gives the stocks more chance to beat expectation but which could pressure on stock prices if the company’s only match expectations.
Coca-Cola (KO) isn’t being tabbed for the same kind of higher earnings on lower volumes “good” news that PepsiCo (PEP) and Procter & Gamble (PG) were able to deliver last week. Wall Street sees Coke’s earnings at 69 cents a share, flat with 69 cents a share in 2022. Kimberly-Clark, on the other hand, is projected to earn $1.84 this quarter versus $1.40 in 2022. Colgate-Palmolive (CL), which is scheduled to report on Friday, October 27, is projected to have earned 80 cents a share in the third quarter of 2023 versus 74 cents a share for the third quarter of 2022.
I’m not sure that investors will care if oil companies report disappointing third-quarter earnings since the investment story currently is higher oil prices NOW, But, for what it’s worth, ExxonMobil is projected to earn just $2.38 a share for the third quaeter of 2023 versus $4.15 in 2022. Chevron is seen as earning $3.59 in 2023 versus $5.56 in the third quarter of 2022.
