By Carly Forster
To kick off the new earnings season, three big companies are set to announce their quarterly financial results this week. What should investors look for?
Alcoa Inc. is slated to announce its first quarter 2015 earnings on Wednesday, April 8 after market close. The company is expected to post $0.25 earnings per share on $5.9 billion in revenue, up from $0.09 earnings per share and $5.5 billion in revenue from the same quarter a year prior.
Alcoa’s fourth quarter 2014 earnings results were fairly strong coming in at $0.33 earnings per share excluding special items and $6.4 billion in revenue. However, many believed that the company has already peaked this year and analysts’ estimates have been lowered from $0.26 earnings per share on $6 billion in revenue.
Earlier this year Alcoa acquired titanium and specialty metals producer, RTI. The dilution acquisition is just one of the factors driving Alcoa’s forward estimates down as the company paid 13(x) EBITDA. Another reason for decreased estimates may also be speculation that the global aluminum deficit is starting to balance out, causing less demand for the company.
On average, the analyst consensus for Alcoa on TipRanks is Moderate Buy.
Family Dollar (FDO, Financial):
Family Dollar is scheduled to announce its second quarter earnings results on Wednesday, April 8 before the market opens. The company is expected to post earnings of $0.72 a share on $2.79 billion in revenue, down from $0.80 a share and up from $2.72 billion in revenue the same quarter a year prior.
Earlier this year, Dollar Tree presented an offer to acquire Family Dollar for $8.5 billion, which the company accepted. Family Dollar also received an offer from Dollar General for $9.1 billion, but rejected it.
Family Dollar missed analysts’ estimates last quarter by 29%, marking the fourth quarter in a row in which the company missed expectations.
However, Family Dollar has begun implementing new strategies to attract more customers, such as widening their focus on daily values and major price points and boosting its cross merchandising efforts for their discretionary and consumable categories to grow sales.
On average, the top analyst consensus for Family Dollar on TipRanks is Hold.
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA, Financial):
Walgreens Boots Alliance is set to announce its second quarter 2015 earnings results on Thursday, April 9 before the opening bell. The company is expected to post earnings of $0.94 per share on $27.7 billion in revenue, up from earnings of $0.91 per share and $19.6 billion in revenue the same quarter last year.
After many months, American drug store chain Walgreens has successfully merged with a European drugstore chain Alliance Boots, creating Walgreens Boots Alliance. This marks the first quarterly earnings report the combined companies will post since merging together under the new ticker, WBA.
In addition to posting results for this quarter, Walgreens Boots Alliance will also announce its full-year guidance, which will give investors perspective on how much money the combined company is making.
On average, the top analyst consensus for Walgreens Boots Alliance on TipRanks is Moderate Buy.
