Biggest Earnings Week of the Season: Key Stocks to Watch
The week of January 30th is arguably the most critical week of this earnings season. Some of the names reporting this week include energy, biotech, and mega-cap tech stocks. Below, we highlight some of the most watched EPS reports of the week:
Tuesday 1/31 (Before Market Open):
Exxon Mobil XOM is set to report earnings before the market opens today. The oil juggernaut is a bellwether in the energy space and will provide investors with clues about how much is left in the tank for the energy group. The stock has been a top performer amid geopolitical events in Ukraine and higher oil prices. XOM has surprised to the upside for two straight quarters.
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Pfizer PFE, the giant behind the COVID-19 vaccine, is one of the major beneficiaries of the pandemic. In 2022, the biotech reported record earnings numbers. However, recently, the company has been facing growing scrutiny after the Director of Research and Development divulged to an undercover journalist that the company is weighing purposely mutating the COVID-19 virus in the name of profits. The stock is on a five-week losing streak, and multiple insiders have sold seven figures worth of stock in recent months. Watch how management addresses the recent scrutiny and monitor how the stock reacts post-earnings.
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Tuesday 1/31 (After Market Close):
Advanced Micro Devices AMD is a semiconductor leader and one of the strongest challengers to Nvidia’s NVDA dominance in the graphic processing unit (GPU) market. Semiconductors are on the mend in recent months as the recent popularity of ChatGpt, and other AI platforms are expected to help boost earnings.
Snap SNAP is the creator of Snapchat, a mobile video application that helps people to communicate through short videos called Snaps. Snap has been on a free fall as Chinese-based ByteDance has taken market share with its competing short video-sharing platform Tiktok. However, there is renewed interest in the stock after Josh Hawley announced he would introduce a bill to ban Tiktok in the United States amid national security concerns. Monday, SNAP showed bucked the market trend and rose. Shares are trying to emerge from a multi-month price structure.
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Wednesday 2/1 (After Market Close):
Meta Platforms META, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is slated to kick off a slew of mega-cap tech earnings Wednesday. Like Snap, Meta shares stand to benefit from a potential Tiktok ban. Investors will also be watching what CEO Mark Zuckerberg has to say about the bold bet the company is making on the metaverse. Investors have punished shares of META over the past year as the company focuses more on the metaverse and less on its core social media business. Meta has a robust Zack’s Earnings Expected Surprise Prediction (ESP) of 13.39%, suggesting that the social media giant is likely to beat earnings expectations.
Thursday 2/2 (After Market Close):
From a tech perspective, Thursday marks the biggest day of earnings season. Amazon AMZN, Apple AAPL, and Alphabet GOOGL are set to report. Just how big of a bearing do these three names have on tech? The three tech monsters have a combined market cap of over $4 trillion and account for roughly 25% of the Nasdaq 100 ETF QQQ. All three names are approaching the underside of their 200-day moving averages – a critical price zone to monitor in the short-term.
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Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Apple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) : Free Stock Analysis Report
NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Invesco QQQ (QQQ): ETF Research Reports
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Snap Inc. (SNAP) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) : Free Stock Analysis Report
