Earnings Previews: Big Lots, Cloudera, Li Auto

Earnings announcements that we had previewed for Wednesday evening and Thursday morning all beat bottom-line expectations and all but one beat on the top line as well. Academy Sports and Outdoor, which was expected to report Thursday morning, announced instead that it will report results before markets open on September 9.

After markets close this afternoon, results are due from three companies we previewed on Tuesday: Bill.com, Peloton and Workday.

Given the results posted Thursday morning by off-price retailers Dollar General and Dollar Tree, we are including here a preview of another off-price retailer reporting Friday morning. Two more companies we track are reporting results before markets open on Monday.

Big Lots

Discount retailer Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) has posted a share price gain of about 4% over the past 12 months. In early June, the company’s stock was up more than 35% for the same period. Since then, the stock has dropped 20%. Shares were beaten up Thursday morning, as investors punished the sector for the revenue miss and disappointing guidance from Dollar Tree. Rising costs for goods and transportation remain strong headwinds for these companies.

Of 10 analysts covering the stock, only three rate the shares a Buy or Strong Buy, while five have a Hold rating. At a recent price of around $55.10, the stock’s implied upside based on a median price target of $66 is nearly 20%. At the high price target of $77, the implied upside is nearly 40%.

For the company’s second quarter of fiscal 2022, analysts are expecting revenue of $1.48 billion, which would be down 9.3% sequentially and 9.8% year over year. Analysts are looking for adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.12, or 58% lower sequentially and down nearly 60% year over year. For the full fiscal year, the consensus estimate for EPS is $6.66, a drop of 9.3%, on sales of $6.16 billion, down about 0.6%.

The stock trades at 8.6 times expected 2022 and 2023 EPS and 7.6 times estimated 2024 earnings. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $42.05 to $73.23. Big Lots pays an annual dividend of $1.20 (yield of 2.09%).

Cloudera

Enterprise cloud software maker Cloudera Inc. (NYSE: CLDR) has posted a share price increase of about 34% over the past 12 months. Since June 1, the shares have traded in a narrow range of less than a dollar, since the company agreed to be acquired by private equity firms for an all-cash price of around $5.3 billion. Shareholders will receive $16 in cash for each share they own.

Source: Read Full Article