Earnings to Watch in Holiday-Shortened Week: Micron Technology, Nike, General Mills and CarMax in Focus

The following is a list of earnings slated for release December 20-24, along with a few previews. Although next week’s earnings are unlikely to have much of an effect on major market movements, it is sufficient to gauge investors’ sentiment.

• Monday (December 20)
• Tuesday (December 21)
• Wednesday (December 22)
• Thursday (December 23)
• Friday (December 24)

Earnings Calendar For The Week Of December 20

Monday (December 20)

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: MICRON TECHNOLOGY, NIKE

MICRON TECHNOLOGY: The world’s leading semiconductor manufacturer is expected to report its fiscal first-quarter earnings of $2.01 per share, representing year-over-year growth of more than 155% from $0.78 per share seen in the same quarter a year ago.

The Boise Idaho-based semiconductor company is expected to post revenue growth of over 30% to around $7.7 billion from a year earlier. In the last two years, the company has topped expectations on earnings per share at all times.

“While the underlying demand trends are strong and producer inventory levels are low heading into a period of seasonal strength, there are some signs of inventory adjustments short term after customers-built inventory,” noted Joseph Moore, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.

“We see demand growth on the back of seasonality, memory elasticity/higher content per unit, and low customer inventories, and very slow supply growth in DRAM given declines in capex. We continue to believe that memory stocks have a relatively well-defined earnings cycle, though highs and lows are likely to be better than they have been historically.”

NIKE: The world’s largest athletic footwear and apparel seller is expected to report earnings per share of $0.62 in the fiscal second quarter, which represents a year-over-year decline of over 20% from $0.78 per share seen in the same period a year ago.

The Beaverton, Oregon, footwear retailer would post revenue of $11.23 billion, down about 0.1% from a year earlier. For four quarters in a row, the company has exceeded expectations on earnings per share.

“We are raising our price target to $189 representing 40x our FY23E EPS of $4.73. We don’t believe management will make significant changes to its FY22 guidance but view the business as running above plan in N. America and Europe (EMEA). The gross margin could be a lever to raise back to prior guidance (+150bps at the high end). China is a point of uncertainty with investors and the model,” noted John Kernan, equity analyst at Cowen.

“We are raising our expectations for Q2, largely driven by an incrementally stronger outlook for N.A. and EMEA, with less conviction behind results in Greater China. We now model Q2 revenues +3% y/y ex FX to $11.52B vs consensus of $11.255B, driven by N.A. +2% (+3% vs 2019 compared to Q1’s +14% vs 2019), EMEA +1% (+17% vs 2019compared to Q1’s +19%), Greater China -2%, and APLA +10%.

We forecast gross margin expanding +130bps y/y, as higher full-price selling and DTC mix offsets higher freight costs and some product cost inflation (we include gross margin quarterly bps drivers in Fig 5). On a 2-year stack basis, product costs have deleveraged 240bps or more in each of the last two quarters. We see SG&A dollars growing +10% y/y to 31.1% of revenues (+204bps y/y). Ultimately, this drives EPS of $0.75 vs consensus of $0.63 – we model a 100bps impact from FX.”

TAKE A LOOK AT OUR EARNINGS CALENDAR FOR THE FULL RELEASES FOR THE DECEMBER 20

Tuesday (December 21)

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: GENERAL MILLS

The Minneapolis Minnesota-based company, General Mills, is expected to report its fiscal second-quarter earnings of $1.05 per share down from $1.06 per share seen in the same period a year ago.

The consumer foods manufacturer’s revenue would decline over 2% year-over-year to around $4.8 billion up from $4.72 billion seen a year earlier. In the last two years, the company has missed earnings per share estimates only once.

“While growth abounded for domestic food manufacturers as consumers rushed to stock up on essential wares as COVID-19 took hold, it hasn’t been a pure panacea for this intensely competitive space. And we think the future trajectory hinges on which of the trends that took centre stage the past few years will hold,” noted Erin Lash, Sector Director at Morningstar.

“In this context, while we concede many consumers honed their cooking skills while sheltering at home, as busy schedules resume, we think food consumption will revert such that a greater portion of budgets is expended outside of the home, in line with pre-pandemic levels. Further, although grocers simplified shelf assortments to maximize productivity during the peak in demand, we think the variety will return as supply chains normalize.”

TAKE A LOOK AT OUR EARNINGS CALENDAR FOR THE FULL RELEASES FOR THE DECEMBER 21

Wednesday (December 22)

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: CARMAX

The used-car retailer CarMax is expected to report its fiscal third-quarter earnings of $1.49 per share, which represents year-over-year growth of about 5% from $1.42 per share seen in the same period a year ago.

The Richmond, Virginia-based used car giant would post year-over-year revenue growth of nearly 50% to $7.63 billion in the quarter ended November 2021. In the last two years, the company has exceeded expectations on earnings per share with an average surprise of over 80%.

“Based on historical & current data, we expect to see strength in used car sales as we move forward, particularly given the shortage of new car inventory, manufacturers pulling back on incentives, and potential tailwinds from de-urbanization, mass transit, ride-sharing, and travel. We expect CarMax (KMX) to successfully execute their Omnichannel strategy, providing both online and physical dealer options to consumers,” noted Adam Jonas, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.

“KMX has consistently generated >$2,000 GPU and has one of the strongest balance sheets amongst the dealers. Long term, we estimate strong growth in same-store sales along new store openings, allowing KMX to achieve operating leverage, with upside from the omni-channel rollout.”

TAKE A LOOK AT OUR EARNINGS CALENDAR FOR THE FULL RELEASES FOR THE DECEMBER 22

Thursday (December 23)

No major earnings are scheduled for release.

Friday (December 24)

The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq observe Christmas, markets will be closed on Friday.