The week in preview: Expectations as the earnings crunch begins

Posted Jul 13th 2008 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), eBay (EBAY), Coca-Cola (KO), Intel (INTC), International Business Machines (IBM), Schlumberger Limited (SLB), Nokia Corp. (NOK), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Advanced Micro Dev (AMD), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Baxter Intl (BAX), Safeway Inc (SWY), Gannett Co (GCI), Yum Brands (YUM), Mattel, Inc (MAT), Nucor Corp (NUE), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Harley-Davidson (HOG), Economic Data, Honeywell Intl (HON), United Technologies (UTX), Eaton Corp (ETN), Delta Air Lines (DAL)

As the second quarter earnings crunch begins in earnest this week, the bear market has investors jittery and prognosticators spinning out dire warnings. In the wake of mixed results from Alcoa (NYSE: AA) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) kicking things off last week, here's a look at what Wall Street is expecting from many of the companies scheduled to report this coming week.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial are expecting the following companies to report a rise in earnings when compared to the same period of the previous year.

Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE): $1.80 EPS (36.6%) on sales of $6.4 billion (+53.0%)
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG): $4.74 EPS (24.9%) on sales of $3.9 billion (+41.6%)
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK): 56 cents EPS (23.2%) on sales of $19.9 billion (+17.8%)
CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX): 90 cents EPS (21.1%) on sales of $2.9 billion (+12.8%)
Altera Corp. (NASDAQ: ALTR): 27 cents EPS (18.5%) on sales of $346.7 million (+8.4%)
IBM (NYSE: IBM): $1.82 EPS (+17.6%) on sales of $25.9 billion (+9.0%)
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY): 41 cents EPS (17.1%) on sales of $2.2 billion (+18.0%)
W.W. Grainger Inc. (NYSE: GWW): $1.46 EPS (17.1%) on sales of $1.7 billion (+8.0%)
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT): 47 cents EPS (17.0%) on sales of $15.7 billion (+17.0%)
Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON): 94 cents EPS (17.0%) on sales of $9.2 billion (+7.9%)

Eaton Corp. (NYSE: ETN): $1.95 EPS (12.8%) on sales of $4.1 billion (+27.5%)
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC): 25 cents EPS (12.0%) on sales of $9.3 billion (+7.4%)
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT): 79 cents EPS (12.7%) on sales of $7.2 billion (+13.2%)
Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX): 82 cents EPS (12.2%) on sales of $3.1 billion (+7.7%)
Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO): 96 cents EPS (11.5%) on sales of $8.9 billion (+15.6%)
Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR): $1.06 EPS (11.3%) on sales of $3.2 billion (+18.4%)
United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX): $1.30 EPS (10.8%) on sales of $15.3 billion (+9.9%)
Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB): $1.12 cents EPS (8.9%) on sales of $6.5 billion (+14.8%)
Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW): 97 cents EPS (7.2%) on sales of $4.6 billion (+9.9%)
Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM): 42 cents EPS (7.1%) on sales of $2.6 billion (+7.6%)
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ): $1.12 EPS (6.3%) on sales of $16.0 billion (+5.7%)
Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY): 52 cents EPS (5.8%) on sales of $10.2 billion (+3.9%)
Genuine Parts Co. (NYSE: GPC): 79 cents EPS (3.8%) on sales of $2.9 billion (+2.8%)

Analysts are looking for a number of the big financials reporting next week to post declines in earnings, but I've focused on those companies in a separate post (see Financials expected to post earnings declines, losses this week). The companies below are also expected to post declines in profit.

Novellus Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: NVLS): 4 cents EPS (-91.1%) on sales of $251.5 million (-39.6%)
Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL): 11 cents (-84.3%) on sales of $5.4 billion (+8.3%)
Mattel Inc. (NYSE: MAT): 3 cents EPS (-50.0%) on sales of $1.0 billion (+3.9%)
Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG): 76 cents EPS (-33.3%) on sales of $1.4 billion (-12.4%)
Gannett Inc. (NYSE: GCI): $1.02 EPS (-17.7%) on sales of $1.7 billion (-10.0%)
Sherwin-Williams Co. (NYSE: SHW): $1.39 EPS (-8.6%) on sales of $2.2 billion (-0.3%)

Continental Airlines Inc. (NYSE: CAL) is expected to swing to a loss of 52 cents (from $2.10 EPS last year) on $4.1 billion (+9.3%). And Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) is expected to narrow its loss to 52 cents per share (from 95 cents per share last year) on sales of $1.5 billion (+5.2%).

With expectations listed out this way Wall Street seems pretty optimistic about earnings (other than for financial companies; see Financials expected to post earnings declines, losses this week). But we'll see this week whether the companies above can live up to these expectations. Do you think they will?

Other economic data coming out next week include: