Earnings Previews: Lucid, Palantir, Paramount Global

After U.S. markets closed on Thursday, Apple beat consensus estimates for both earnings per share (EPS) and revenue, but revenue dipped by 1.4% year over year, the third consecutive quarter to see an annual dip in sales. Despite that, the company said that its installed base of iPhones and other devices reached an all-time high. For Apple’s fourth quarter ending in September, the company guided revenue down again year over year, while iPhone and services revenue will rise. Shortly after Friday’s opening bell, shares traded down 2.8%.

Amazon hammered EPS forecasts by about 85%, and revenue beat the forecast by 2.2% and rose nearly 11% year over year. Revenue at the company’s cloud-computing division, AWS, nearly doubled compared to last year. Shares traded up 9.3%.

Airbnb also beat estimates on both the top and bottom lines. Revenue rose 18.1% year over year. The company issued in-line EPS guidance for the current quarter and said it expects full-year adjusted EBITDA margin to be somewhat higher than in 2022. The stock traded about flat.

Block beat Wall Street’s top-line and bottom-line estimates on the strength of its Cash App business. Net revenue was up 26% year over year, but the outlook for adjusted EBITDA disappointed investors. Shares traded down about 11%.

Coinbase Global also topped estimated EPS and revenue totals, but revenue fell by more than 12% year over year. That likely is due to an SEC lawsuit filed in June alleging that the company is trading unregistered securities (crypto tokens). Shares traded down 1.9%.

Livent beat the consensus EPS estimate by 8.5% but missed on revenue, even though revenue rose by nearly 8% year over year. The company reiterated fiscal year revenue guidance in a range of $1.025 billion to $1.125 billion. Shares traded up 1.1%.

No notable reports are due out Friday afternoon or Monday morning. Here is a preview of what to expect from three companies reporting results after U.S. markets close on Monday.

Lucid

Electric vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc. (NASDAQ: LCID) continues to have a terrible year. The stock has lost about 66% of its value over the past 12 months, adding less than 1% to its share price to date in 2023. Price cuts to Tesla vehicles in the first quarter of this year hurt competitors like Lucid more than they did Tesla.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign Public Investment Fund owns about 61% of the firm, and a rumor in January that the fund would acquire the remaining shares sent the stock soaring briefly. What Lucid has to say about its future production and sales is likely to carry a lot of weight with investors.

Of 11 analysts covering the stock, four have a Buy or Strong Buy rating and six more rate it at Hold. At a recent share price of around $7.00, the upside potential based on a median price target of $8.00 is 14.3%. Based on the high target of $12.00, the upside potential is 71.4%.

Analysts expect the company to report 2023 second-quarter revenue of $205.01 million, which would be up 37.2% sequentially and up from $97.34 million in the year-ago quarter. The consensus forecast calls for an adjusted loss of $0.33 per share, somewhat better than the prior quarter’s loss of $0.39 per share and equal to the loss in the year-ago quarter. For the full 2023 fiscal year, the loss per share is forecast at $1.36, down from last year’s loss of $2.25 per share, on sales of $900.29 million, up 48%. At the end of the first quarter, the consensus revenue estimate was $1.36 billion.

Lucid is not expected to report a profit in 2023, 2024 or 2025. The enterprise value to sales multiple is expected to be 16.7 in 2023. Based on average estimated sales of $2.46 billion and $4.94 billion for 2024 and 2025, respectively, the multiple is 6.1 for 2024 and 3.0 for 2025. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $5.46 to $19.71. Lucid does not pay a dividend. Total shareholder return for the past year is negative 66.49%.