In mid-morning trading Monday, the Dow Jones industrials were up 0.04%, while the S&P 500 traded down 0.53% and the Nasdaq down 1.24%. A decent start at the opening bell deteriorated into a mega-cap-led downturn.
Before markets opened, GE Healthcare reported better-than-expected earnings per share (EPS) and revenue for its fourth quarter. The newly public company also issued upside fiscal 2023 EPS guidance, ranging from $3.60 to $3.75, well above the current consensus of $3.28. Shares traded down about 5.2% Monday morning.
Alliance Resource Partners easily beat consensus estimates for both revenue and EPS. The coal producer also raised its quarterly distribution to shareholders by 40% to $0.70 per common unit. Shares were up nearly 11%.
Li-Cycle missed estimates on both the top and bottom lines. In its press release, the lithium battery recycler did say that it had “progressed significantly towards meaningful debt financing” and expects to release further details during the current quarter. Shares traded about 0.4% Monday morning.
SoFi Technologies posted a smaller-than-expected per-share loss and higher-than-expected revenue. SoFi also issued downside revenue guidance for the first quarter and in-line guidance for the full fiscal year. The stock traded up about 14%.
After markets close on Monday, NXP Semiconductors is set to report quarterly results. The following morning, look for reports from Caterpillar, Exxon Mobil, McDonald’s, Pfizer and UPS. Then, AMD and Snap are on share their results later on Tuesday.
Here are previews of four firms expected to post quarterly results first thing Wednesday morning.
Altria
The maker and U.S. distributor of Marlboro cigarettes, Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), has managed to reverse a two-quarter decline in its share price, but the stock still trades down about 12.3% for the past 12 months. The company’s massive dividend makes up for a lot of sins, however, and the stock has outperformed the S&P 500 index for five straight years.
Last week, e-cigarette maker Juul was reported to be in talks with Altria, its sister company Philip Morris and Japan Group about an acquisition. Altria paid $12.8 billion in 2018 for a 35% stake in Juul and has since marked that down to a value of just $ billion. The SEC is trying to unwind the Juul acquisition, and the FDA has ordered the company to stop U.S. sales, but Juul was granted a stay pending its appeal. The short version of the story is that, in the near term, Altria looks good. In the longer term, maybe not so much.
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