As investors continue to monitor the coronavirus, they’ll also be paying close attention to earnings announcements from Best Buy (BBY) and Beyond Meat (BYND).
Ahead of the opening bell, Best Buy is expected to report fiscal fourth quarter adjusted earnings of $2.74 per share on $15.05 billion in revenue. Best Buy’s holiday quarter results will help investors get a pulse on the health of big box retail. Rivals Walmart and Target both had disappointing holidays due to weaker-than-expected demand.
Analysts are concerned that the deadly coronavirus will lead Best Buy to give conservative guidance for fiscal 2021, fourth-quarter results are largely expected to be strong driven by e-commerce strength. Best Buy is anticipated to report first-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.01 per share on $9.27 billion in revenue. For the full-year, analysts estimate adjusted EPS of $6.26 per share and revenue of $44.22 billion.
The broader industry has been dealing with weak gaming sales, and Best Buy is also expected to have been negatively impacted.
Shares of Best Buy rose 40% over the past 12 months and have outperformed the broader market’s 14% gain in the same time period.
Meanwhile, plant-based protein maker Beyond Meat will deliver fourth-quarter results after the market close. The company is expected to deliver another quarter of profit. Analysts polled by Bloomberg expect Beyond Meat to report adjusted earnings of one cent on $79.77 million in revenue. Gross margins will likely have expanded to 33.3% from 24.9% in the year-ago period.
“Data points have skewed positively since Beyond Meat reported Q3 earnings (the day before the lock-up expired), including various new and extended restaurant partnership announcements, continued momentum in scanner data, and positive interviews by senior management,” UBS analyst Steven Strycula wrote in a note Feb. 25.
In addition, updates on international expansion and production capacity will be closely monitored. Strycula expects Beyond Meat to provide guidance in line with consensus estimates. “We expect BYND’s FY20 guidance to bracket Consensus given retail trends QTD and recent foodservice announcements. Consensus FY20e revenue of $495m is a +$213m YOY increase. Based on checks and our restaurant economics framework, we estimate that the nationwide Dunkin’ & Hardee’s roll-out could add a combined ~$85m in sales.”
Beyond Meat’s report comes on the heels of an announcement Wednesday morning that the company would be partnering with coffee giant Starbucks (SBUX) to sell breakfast sandwiches with Beyond Meat sausage patties. Starting March 3, more than 1,400 Canadian stores in Canada will offer the Beyond Meat, Cheddar and Egg Sandwich on their menus.
Shares of Beyond Meat have surged a whopping 55% so far in 2020 and have outperformed the broader market’s 1% decline during the same time period.
Economic calendar
On the economic calendar for Thursday: GDP annualized quarter on quarter, second print 4Q19 (2.2% expected, 2.1% prior); personal consumption, second print 4Q19 (1.8% expected, 1.8% prior); core personal consumption expenditures, second print 4Q19 (1.3% prior); Durable goods orders, January preliminary (-1.5% expected, 2.4% prior); Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, January preliminary (0.2% expected, -0.8% prior); Initial jobless claims, week ended February 22 (211,000 expected, 210,000 prior); Continuing jobless claims, week ended February 15 (1.726 million prior); Pending home sales month on month, January (2.0% expected. -4.9% prior); Kansas City Manufacturing Activity Index, February (-1 expected, -1 prior)
Other notable earnings reports scheduled for Thursday include the following: Cronos Group (CRON), Crocs (CROX), AB InBev (BUD), JCPenney (JCP), Sage Therapeutics (SAGE), and TD Ameritrade (AMTD) before market open; iQIYI (IQ) Workday (WDAY), Dell Technologies (DELL), Autodesk (ADSK), VMWare (VMW), AMC Entertainment (AMC) are set to report after market close
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Heidi Chung is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @heidi_chung.
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