Earnings Previews: Amazon, Apple, Intel, T-Mobile, US Steel

All but two of 51 analysts covering Amazon stock have a Buy or Strong Buy rating. Of the holdouts, one rates the shares at Hold and the other at Strong Sell. At a recent price of around $120.60 a share, the upside potential based on a median price target of $168.10 is 39.4%. At the high price target of $270.00, the upside potential is about 124%.

Analysts are looking for third-quarter revenue of $127.49 billion, which would be up 5.2% sequentially and 15.0% higher year over year. Adjusted EPS are expected to be $0.21, compared to a loss of $0.20 per share in the prior quarter. That is down by about a third year over year. For the full 2022 fiscal year, EPS are expected to come in at $0.03, down 99%, on sales of $520.76 billion, up 10.8%.

Amazon stock trades at about 52.6 times expected 2023 EPS and 31.  times estimated 2024 earnings of $2.29 per share. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $101.26 to $188.11. Amazon does not pay a dividend. Total shareholder return over the past 12 months was negative 27.4%.

Apple

Of all the so-called tech mega-caps, only Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is showing a share price increase for the past year. And it is a bump of just 2.5%. For the year to date, the share price is down by nearly 14%.

On Tuesday, the company raised prices for its Apple Music and Apple TV+ subscription services and made changes to its advertising policies in the App Store. Apple also tightened requirements for NFTs and crypto apps that put the digital assets squarely under the same fee structure as any other app. This change, while it may help offset so-so sales of iPhone 14, may set regulators in the United States and Europe on the company’s trail again for anti-competitive practices.

Of 44 analysts covering Apple, 35 have a Buy or Strong Buy rating and another eight rate the shares at Hold. At a share price of around $152.30, the upside potential based on a median price target of $185.00 is about 21.5%. At the high price target of $220.00, the upside potential is 44.5%.

Analysts expect the Dow component to report fiscal 2022 fourth-quarter revenue of $88.77 billion, up 7% sequentially and by 6.5% year over year. Adjusted EPS are expected to come in at $1.27, up 5.8% sequentially but down 7.7% year over year. For the full fiscal year that ended in September, analysts expect the company to report EPS of $6.11, up 8.9%, on sales of $392.78 billion, up about 7.4%.

Apple stock trades at aabout 24.9 times expected 2022 EPS, 23.6 times estimated 2023 earnings of $6.44 and 22.3 times estimated 2024 earnings of $6.84 per share. The stock’s 52-week range is $129.04 to $182.94. Apple pays an annual dividend of $0.92 (yield of 0.6%). Total shareholder return for the past 12 months was 3.1%.

Intel

Shares of Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) have dropped by more than 44% over the past 12 months. Chipmakers are having a tough time persuading investors that the decline in PC sales is not life-threatening. After the boost in sales from the pandemic, almost anything would look bad.

Sales have been trailing lower since late 2020, however, and analysts are looking for a year-over-year decline of some 15% in Intel’s total revenue, in line with IDC’s report of a September quarter drop in industrywide PC sales of 15%.

The company raised around $860 million Wednesday morning with the IPO of its Mobileye self-driving unit.

Of 40 analysts covering the stock, just nine have a Buy or Strong Buy rating. There are 20 Hold ratings and 11 ratings of Sell or Strong Sell. At a share price of around $27.40, the implied upside based on a median price target of $32.00 is about 16.8%. At the high target of $72.00, the implied upside is about 163%.