In mid-morning trading Friday, the Dow Jones industrials were down 0.6%, the S&P 500 down 0.36% and the Nasdaq 0.62% lower. The Census Bureau’s report on March retail sales came in worse than economists were expecting, and the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment index reading for April came in hotter than forecasts.
Before markets opened on Friday, JPMorgan reported solid beats to the consensus estimates for first-quarter earnings per share (EPS) and revenue. Net interest income was up 49% year over year, thanks to interest rate hikes, and non-interest revenue rose 5%. The nation’s largest bank added $2.3 billion to its loan-loss provision. CEO Jamie Dimon cautioned that economic “storm clouds” remain and that “financial conditions will likely tighten as lenders become more conservative, and we do not know if this will slow consumer spending.” Shares traded up 7.3% Friday morning.
BlackRock also reported top-line and bottom-line results that beat expectations. Tempering enthusiasm was a decline in assets under management by 5% year over year to $9.09 trillion. Shares traded up 3.2% Friday morning.
Citigroup reported top-line and bottom-line results that exceeded consensus estimates, and it raised revenue guidance for fiscal 2023 to a range of $78 billion to $79 billion. Shares traded up 3.2% on Friday.
Wells Fargo followed the fold with beats on both the top and bottom lines. The bank set aside $643 million as a loan-loss provision, citing concerns about commercial real estate loans, credit card debt and auto loans. Shares traded down 0.3%.
UnitedHealth Group also topped consensus EPS and revenue estimates, and it issued in-line EPS guidance of $24.50 to $25.00. Shares traded 2.5% in mid-morning trading.
Before U.S. markets open on Monday, Charles Schwab, M&T Bank and State Street are on deck to report quarterly results. Look for Bank of America, BNY Mellon and Goldman Sachs to report first-quarter earnings first thing Tuesday morning.
Here is a look at three non-financial companies also set to report first-quarter results early Tuesday.
Ericsson
Stockholm-based network equipment maker Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has seen its share price drop by about 35% over the past 12 months. Since early April of last year, the stock retreated to a 52-week low in October and flirted with that level again less than a month ago. When Ericsson reported fourth-quarter results in January, it warned that profit margins in its network business would trend lower for the first half of 2023 and that adjusted operating profits would be lower than in the first quarter of 2022.
Of 24 analysts covering the stock, eight rate Ericsson as a Buy or Strong Buy. There are 10 Hold ratings as well. Based on a median price target of $6.71 and a recent share price of around $6.00, the upside potential is 11.8%. At the high price target of $10.30, the upside potential is 71.7%.
Analysts expect the company to report fiscal first-quarter revenue of $5.92 billion, which would be down 28.1% sequentially but up 1.2% year over year. Adjusted EPS are forecast at $0.07, down 67.1% sequentially and by 30.0% year over year. For the full fiscal year, analysts are looking for EPS of $0.58, down 2.9%, and revenue of $27.54 billion, up 5.8%.
Ericsson stock trades at 10.5 times expected 2023 EPS, 8.7 times estimated 2024 earnings of $0.69 and 8 times estimated 2025 earnings of $0.76 per share. Ericsson’s 52-week trading range is $5.16 to $8.99, and the company pays an annual dividend of $0.24 (yield of 4.08%). Total shareholder return over the past 12 months is negative 34.23%.
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