Wall Street is heading towards the end of earnings season as four major companies are scheduled to release quarterly reports this week. What should investors look for in those reports?
Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ: URBN):
Urban Outfitters will announce its first quarter 2016 earnings results on Monday, May 18 after market close. The retailer is expected to post earnings of $0.30 a share and $758.25 million in revenue, up from $0.26 earnings per share and $686.30 million in revenue the same quarter last year.
In the last quarter, Investors were happy to see the Urban Outfitters brand had a 4% growth in comparable sales, as the company had experienced a sales dip for the prior 3 quarters. The company saw an increase in sales at its sister brands as well; 6% at Anthropologie and 18% at Free People. Wall Street believes the company will report another increase in comparable sales in its first quarter results.
Investors and analysts will also be looking to see if Urban Outfitters revises its full-year guidance or if the company announced any plans for expansion.
On average, the top analyst consensus for Urban Outfitters on TipRanks is Moderate Buy.
Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT):
Wal-Mart will announce first quarter 2015 earnings on Tuesday, May 19 before the market opens. Wall Street expects the company to post earnings of $1.04 per share and $116.2 billion in revenue; down from $1.10 earnings per share but up from $114.96 billion in revenue year-over-year.
In the last quarter, Wal-Mart unveiled new initiatives to improve wages and training for employees. Starting this April, the company began increasing the pay of 500,000 full-time and part-time U.S employees to $9.00 an hour. By February 2016, Wal-Mart plans to increase wages to $10.00 an hour. Most of Wall Street did not react too kindly to this news as it is not clear if there will be a positive impact from the increased wages, and if there is, how long it will take to materialize.
