While releases might have slowed down a little in recent weeks, a number of interesting companies are putting out their earnings in the days ahead. The key earnings we have picked out to have an advanced look at are Accenture (NYSE: ACN), FedEx (NYSE: FDX), Smartsheet Inc (NYSE: SMAR), GitLab (NASDAQ: GTLB) and Gamestop (NYSE: GME).
Accenture
This Dublin-based IT services specialist is expected to return earnings of $2.37 per share and revenue of $14.65bn for its second quarter. The company has benefitted well from increasing digitisation over the last couple of years and investors will want to examine the Accenture’s earnings for any sign of a slowdown in this growth.
There have also been some other recent challenges. Following in the footsteps of many other international businesses, Accenture announced in early March that it has shut down its operations in Russia. The company had 2,300 employees in the country.
While this will not have affected results from the second quarter, it may have some small influence the company’s outlook.
Across the year-to-date, the company’s shares have dropped in price by 23% alongside other tech stocks, with Accenture’s shares having hit their all-time high in December 2021 following an impressive set of Q1 earnings.
The company will release its second quarter results before the market opens on Thursday. A strong showing here that bolsters confidence in a continued push towards digitisation could lead to a resurgence for Accenture.
FedEx
This is a company which has missed expectations in its most recent results amid staffing and supply chain issues. However, an upswing in e-commerce and a productive festive period could spell a turnaround in the stock’s fortunes.
The year to date has seen the company’s share price decline by more than 17%, comparatively poor when judged alongside the 2% growth achieved by its close competitor UPS. On the flip side, that could make the business an attractive investment for those wishing to buy low.
The delivery service’s earnings are expected to come in at $4.65 per share, while analysts have revenue pegged as coming in at $23.44bn. Watch out for FedEx’s earnings after the close of trading on Thursday.
Smartsheet
Looking ahead to work management software firm Smartsheet’s earnings, it might be worth looking at competitors.
That’s because comparable businesses like Five9 have enjoyed earnings success in their recent quarterly updates, so expectations for Smartsheet may be high. Indeed, close competitor Monday.com showed impressive revenue growth of more than 90% in its results in February, though the stock still tanked amid concerns about interest rates.
So where does that leave Smartsheet? Well, the company will need to impress in order to convince investors that it is the smart choice over its nearest competitor. This means solid revenue growth is a must.
In its most recent quarter, the company achieved 46% growth to $144.6m. This is a higher total revenue, but much slower growth than that achieved by Monday.com. As things stand, consensus estimates have the company’s revenue climbing by 38% to $151.66m in its fourth quarter. This might not be enough to grab investors’ attention.
The business’ fourth quarter earnings will be released on Tuesday evening.
GitLab
GitLab is fairly new to the major leagues of the public markets. The company’s stock leapt by more than 30% following its IPO in October but has since fallen by more than 70%. It has struggled amid the wider tech selloff, but posted some fairly decent results in December.
These included:
Revenue growth of 58% up to $66.8m
Growth of 66% in customers with more than $5,000 of annual returning revenue.
Growth of 73% in customers with more than $100,000 of annual returning revenue.
Non-GAAP Net loss per share of 0.34, ahead of analysts’ expectations.
While these results didn’t appear to impress investors in December, GitLab might attract more positive attention if it can rack up a second successive set of positive earnings this week.
Watch out for GitLab’s earnings release after the close of trading on Monday.
Gamestop
Everyone’s favourite meme stock will be reporting its quarterly results after the close of play on Thursday. Investors will be looking out for improvements in foot-traffic in stores, a good festive period performance and developments involving NFTs and other tech-related projects.
However, these may have little effect on the business’ share price.
New Constructs CEO David Trainer has warned that the stock is “dangerous” because of how detached its share price remains from its financial performance. As such, even strong results might not result in much of an upswing for Gamestop’s share price, which has fallen by more than 43% across the year to date.
Consequently, this might be a stock that is safer to avoid than to peg your hopes on.
