The third full week of February will be one of the last weeks of
earnings season. At this point, most of the S&P 500's
components have already reported.
Still, investors will get earnings reports from Allscripts
Healthcare (NASDAQ:
MDRX
), Herbalife (NYSE:
HLF
), Tesla (NASDAQ:
TSLA
), MGM (NYSE:
MGM
), DTE Energy (NYSE:
DTE
), Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:
CHK
), Sourcefire (NASDAQ:
FIRE
), and The Carlyle Group (NYSE:
CG
).
Earnings reports
Multi-level marketer Herbalife will report earnings Tuesday. The
company is expected to post an earnings per share figure of $1.03
on revenue of about $1.05 billion. However, at this point, the
company's actual earnings performance might be irrelevant to its
share price.
For the past several weeks, Herbalife shares have been affected
more by comments from hedge fund managers than actual earnings
fundamentals. Pershing Square's Bill Ackman has bet against
Herbalife, alleging that the company is a pyramid scheme. Other
fund managers, most recently Carl Icahn, have gone against Ackman,
buying up Herbalife shares.
In response to Icahn's stake, Ackman told Benzinga that he
welcomed Icahn's involvement, as it would shed further light on the
situation at Herbalife.
Electric carmaker Tesla (NASDAQ:
TSLA
) will report earnings Wednesday. Like Herbalife, Tesla has been at
the center of some news controversy. Specifically, the company's
CEO Elon Musk made waves after he challenged the validity of a
report in The New York Times.
A New York Times reporter, John Broder, claimed that the Model S
he was test driving ran out of battery charge more quickly than the
company had promised. With no charge left, the car broke down by
the side of the road and had to be towed away.
Despite these issues, Dougherty & Co remains bullish on
Tesla. Analyst Andrea James has a Buy rating and $45 price target
on the stock, which closed at $37.04 Friday.
"We believe the stock has farther to go," James told Benzinga.
"The stock remains heavily shorted, mostly on concerns about
long-term demand for Tesla's vehicles, skepticism over Tesla's
ability to compete with the OEM establishment and concerns about
margin targets and profitability. We believe there is plenty of
room for investor sentiment to improve, misperceptions to correct
and long-term investment interest to grow."
Natural gas giant Chesapeake will report Thursday. After being a
controversial stock in 2012, Chesapeake seems to have taken a step
forward this year. Aubrey McClendon, the company's CEO and founder,
will retire April 1. Although he built the company, McClendon was
at the source of much of last year's controversy, burdening the
company with debt levels many found to be excessive.
Analysts expect Chesapeake to post an earnings per share figure
of $0.14 on revenue of $2.86 billion. But like Herbalife, investors
may be concerned with things other than the actual report. Argus
Research's Phil Weiss has a Hold rating on the stock with no price
target.
"If I wanted to hold CHK stock, then I'd want to know what
management's plans are to alleviate and unwind the financial
complexity to clean up the balance sheet," Weiss told Benzinga.
"More insights about the CEO search, the status of efforts to sell
assets and what, if any, changes we can expect to its planned
spending in 2013."
Economic releases
In the U.S., investors will get data on inflation. Wednesday
will bring reports on the producer price index, while data on the
consumer price index will be released Thursday. Higher than
expected PPI and CPI might prompt the Federal Reserve to reconsider
its loose monetary policy.
Internationally, both German PPI and CPI will be released
Wednesday along with Eurozone consumer confidence. Germany's GDP
will be released Friday, along with Canadian retail sales and the
Canadian CPI.
Weekly calendar
Monday
U.S., Canadian markets closed Mexican GDP year-over-year (Expected
3.57%)
Tuesday
Earnings from: Allscripts Healthcare, Herbalife German ZEW Economic
Sentiment (Expected 35), Wholesale Sales month-over-month (Expected
-1%), Australian Wage Price Index (Expected 0.8%)
Wednesday
Earnings from: Walter Energy (NYSE:
WLT
), Tesla Motors, Soda (NASDAQ:
SODA
), MGM, DTE Energy German CPI month-over-month (Expected -0.5%),
French CPI month-over-month, U.K. Claimant Count Change (Expected
-5K), U.S. Core PPI year-over-year (Expected 1.6%), U.S. Building
Permits (Expected 915,000), U.S. Housing Starts (Expected 925,000)
Thursday
Earnings from: SM Energy (NYSE:
SM
), Swift Energy (NYSE:
SFY
), Nordstrom (NYSE:
JWN
), Sourcefire (NASDAQ:
FIRE
), Atlas Energy (NYSE:
ATLS
) U.S. Core CPI year-over-year (Expected 1.8%), U.S. Existing Home
Sales (Expected 4.9M), Philly Fed (Expected 1)
Friday
Earnings from: Crown Media (NASDAQ:
CRWN
), Atlas Resource Partners (NYSE:
ARP
) German GDP, German Ifo Business Climate Index (Expected 105),
Canadian Core CPI month-over-month
(c) 2013 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment
advice. All rights reserved.
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