As first-quarter earnings reports start trickling in, market sentiment is largely looking to what happens in Q2 because that’s where the real pain takes hold. So far, there have been plenty of surprises, as tech equities get bolstered during the pandemic and other segments get crushed. The big day will be Thursday, with 54 S&P 500 stocks set to report.
The Good
Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT) was one of the biggest winners from our earnings highlights, beating estimates all around, with earnings (fiscal third-quarter) of $1.40 per share (adjusted and revenue of $35.2 million, up 15% year on year in the quarter. For the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, guidance expects revenue of $35.85 billion to $36.8 billion.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), which had initially reported a drop in advertising revenues in March which then balanced out in the first half of April, reported Q1 per-share earnings of $1.71, with revenues of $17.74 billion.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) didn’t disappoint, even amid a pandemic. Wall Street’s expectations were for ~$6 billion in revenue for Q1 with losses of about 32 cents per share. Tesla reported $5.985 billion in revenue, mostly in line with Wall Street. But in terms of per share losses, there weren’t any. In fact, Tesla posted a 9 cent per share profit, but no guidance updates for the rest of the year.
MasterCard (NYSE:MA) reported an earnings surprise of 6.40%, with quarterly earnings of $1.83 per share, beating estimates.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) reported revenue up 7% year-over-year, to $5.21 billion, with diluted EPS up 14% at 88 cents per share, 10 cents higher than Wall Street estimates. For the next quarter, the company predicts a ~30% drop from earlier expectations in handset shipments.
Related: Coronavirus And The Coming Financial Revolution
We’ll save Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), the parent company of Google, for last because it’s good and bad news. Google experienced a “significant slowdown in ad revenues”, but that didn’t stop shares from climbing this week on revenues, which were $6.84 billion for Q1, up from $6.66 billion a year ago, for a jump of $9.50 per share.
The Bad
Ford (NYSE:F) this week delivered Q1 earnings that missed Wall Street estimates of a loss of 6 cents a share, coming in instead at a loss of 23 cents per share.
Ford’s sales for the quarter were reported as $34.3 billion, compared to $40.3 billion Q1 2019, and the auto giant reported a loss of $2 billion under the weight of factory shutdown and decimated sales.
With the real focus on next-quarter guidance, Ford is in a bind because it is expecting to lose some $5 billion on an operating basis.
So far this year, Ford shares are down about 42%.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) reported Q1 losses of $641 million, revenue of $16.91 billion and an EPS loss of $.170. It will aslo slash payroll by 10% through voluntary and involuntary layoffs.
In the dismal oil patch, Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) reported net profit (net income attributable to shareholders on a CCS basis) of $2.9 billion for Q1, down from $5.3 billion a year ago. In other words, Shell just reported a 46% drop year on year. That still managed to narrowly beat some estimates; however, Q1 dividends will be slashed by 66%, to 16 cents per share.
By Michael Kern for Safehaven.com
More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:
