Earnings Previews: Ciena, Express, GameStop

Express

Apparel retailer Express Inc. (NYSE: EXPR) has seen its share price fall by 61% over the past 12 months. Last week, the company announced a refinancing that reduced the interest rate on its $290 million revolving credit facility and its $90 million term loan. The refinancing deal boosted the company’s access to liquidity, helped the balance sheet and improved its capital structure. All were sorely needed. Express reports quarterly results early Thursday.

The stock gets little coverage from brokerage houses. Just two have ratings and they are evenly split between Buy and Hold. At a share price of around $1.35, the implied upside based on a median price target of $5.50 is more than 300%.

For the third quarter of fiscal 2023, Express is expected to report revenue of $451.77 million, down 2.8% sequentially and 4.2% lower year over year. Analysts expect an adjusted loss per share of $0.29, compared to EPS of $0.10 in the prior quarter and EPS of $0.11 in the year-ago quarter. For the full fiscal year ending in January, the loss per share is forecast at $0.17, better than the loss per share of $0.23 in fiscal 2022. Sales for the year are forecast to rise by 4.4% to $1.95 billion.

The multiple to estimated 2024 EPS is 10.8. No other estimates are available. The stock’s 52-week range is $1.04 to $4.93, and Express does not pay a dividend. Total shareholder return in the past year was negative 61.1%.

GameStop

Video gaming retailer GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) has watched its share price fall by more than 38% over the past 12 months. It has been worse. In mid-March, the stock traded down by nearly 55%. Shares received some of that old meme-stock action following that March plunge but have only been able to hang on to a small portion of it. GameStop reports quarterly results on Tuesday afternoon.

On Monday, CEO Matt Furlong notified staff that the company was firing an unspecified number of employees, including many software engineers working on the company’s blockchain wallet. Now may not be the best time to deepen the company’s involvement in the cryptosphere.

Just two analysts have had anything to say on the stock. One has a Sell rating and the other has a Hold rating. At a share price of around $25.50, the stock trades well above its median price target of $16.00. At the high target of $26.00, the upside potential is nearly 2%. More than 21% of GameStop’s shares are sold short, and the current borrow fee is around 7.5%.

Third-quarter revenue is forecast at $1.35 billion, up 19.3% sequentially and by 3.8% year over year. Analysts expect GameStop to report an adjusted loss per share of $0.44, compared to the prior quarter’s loss of $0.52 and the year-ago loss of $0.28, less than the $0.35 per-share loss posted in both the prior and year-ago quarters. For the full 2023 fiscal year ending in January, analysts forecast an adjusted loss per share of $1.37 compared to the prior-year loss of $1.14 per share, and sales of $6.27 billion, up 4.3%.

GameStop is not expected to post a profit in either fiscal 2023 or 2024. Based on estimates of GameStop’s enterprise value ranging between $6.5 billion and $6.7 billion for the two fiscal years, the enterprise value to sales multiple is around 1.2. The stock’s 52-week range is $19.39 to $49.85, and GameStop does not pay a dividend. Total shareholder return for the past year was negative 38.8%.

Originally published at 24/7 Wall St.

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