The three major U.S. equity indexes tumbled Friday following Fed Chair Powell’s eight-minute speech at the Fed’s Jackson Hole conference. The Dow Jones industrials fell by 4.03%, the S&P 500 dropped 3.73% and the Nasdaq slumped by 3.94%. All 11 sectors ended the day with losses, led by tech (4.3%) and consumer cyclicals (3.8%). The energy (1.2%) and utilities sectors (1.5%) posted the smallest losses. All three indexes were trading lower in Monday’s premarket, but the damage thus far was limited to around 1%.
The next big market-moving data point comes out Friday, when the nonfarm payrolls report for August is released. The current consensus forecast calls for 300,000 new jobs, down from July’s total of 528,000. The headline unemployment rate is expected to remain at 3.5%.
After markets closed on Friday, Jinko Solar reported that it missed earnings per share (EPS) estimates but more than doubled revenue, compared to the year-ago quarter. The stock traded down about 2% in Monday’s premarket.
Pinduoduo beat estimates on both the top and bottom lines. The company is preparing to expand to the United States, according to a Reuters report. On Friday, U.S. and Chinese authorities concluded a deal that allows U.S. regulators to inspect the audit reports of Chinese firms traded on U.S. stock exchanges. Pinduoduo shares traded up more than 11% Monday morning.
Before U.S. markets open on Tuesday, Baidu and Best Buy are on deck to report quarterly results.
Here is a preview of five companies set to report results after Tuesday’s close.
ChargePoint
Electric vehicle charging network provider ChargePoint Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CHPT) has seen its stock price drop by more than 28% over the past 12 months. The stock has declined by almost 50% since its March 2021 SPAC initial public offering. A convertible share offering in April did not help.
What did help was the recent federal commitment to spend more than $300 billion on fighting climate change. California’s announcement last week that it will stop selling fossil-fuel-only vehicles beginning in 2035 implies that many more charging stations will need to be built in the state and, if history is any guide, in other states as well.
Analysts are bullish on the stock, with 14 of 20 brokerages having a Buy or Strong Buy rating and the other six rating the stock at Hold. At a recent price of around $15.30 a share, the stock’s implied upside based on a median price target of $20.00 is about 30.7%. At the high price target of $46.00, the implied upside is 200%.
Revenue is forecast to reach $103.03 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2023, which would be up 26.2% sequentially and by 83.6% year over year. Analysts are expecting a loss per share of $0.20, compared with the prior quarter’s loss of $0.21 per share and worse than the year-ago loss of $0.13 per share. For the full fiscal year ending in January, ChargePoint is expected to post a loss per share of $0.72, worse than the prior year’s per-share loss of $0.61. Forecast full-year revenue of $471.12 million is up 94.4% from last year’s actual revenue.
The company is not expected to post a profit in 2024 or 2025. One analyst has forecast a profit of $0.11 per share in 2026. ChargePoint’s enterprise value to sales multiple for 2023 is 10.5, dipping to 6.6 in 2024 and 4.4 in 2025. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $8.50 to $28.72, and the company does not pay a dividend. The total shareholder return for the past year was negative 28.5%.
Sponsored: Find a Qualified Financial Advisor
Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to 3 fiduciary financial advisors in your area in 5 minutes. Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests. If you’re ready to be matched with local advisors that can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
