Looking Ahead On Wall Street: MU, BBBY, FDO

By Carly Forster

The New Year is finally here and many companies are preparing to release earnings from the most recent quarter. What should investors look for this week?

Micron Technology:

Micron Technology NASDAQ:MU) is set to announce their first quarter fiscal 2015 earnings report on Tuesday, January 6th, after market close. The company is expected to post $0.92 earnings per share, up from $0.77 earnings per share the same quarter a year ago.

Micron did well in 2014, posting their highest recorded revenue of $16.4 billion, highest net income of over $3 billion, and highest free cash flow of $2.6 billion. The company’s stock price has jumped from around $6 a share two years ago to around $35 a share today. About 80% of Micron’s revenue growth in 2014 can be attributed to Elpida, the company it acquired back in 2013.

Micron is currently in a good position to take advantage of the improving industry dynamics due to the company’s varied memory product portfolio across multiple end-market segments.

On average, the top analyst consensus for Micron Technology on TipRanks is Strong Buy.

Bed Bath and Beyond:

Bed Bath and Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) is scheduled to announce their third quarter earnings report on Thursday, January 8th, after market close. The company is expected to post $1.19 earnings per share, up from $1.12 earnings per share the same quarter last year.

Bed Bath and Beyond hit a bit of a rough patch this year due to the negative housing market. However, the company has been diligently working to turn things around.

Currently, Bed Bath and Beyond has modeled their growth outlook to 20 stores per year. With that said, investors will be looking for an update on store expansion and same-store sales growth. Bed Bath and Beyond has delivered impressive same-store sales growth over the last five years, though the last few years have started to slowed down.

In addition, Bed Bath & Beyond has also opened up a new distribution facility to help drive direct-to-customer and store fulfillment.

On average, the top analyst consensus for Bed Bath and Beyond in TipRanks is Hold.

Family Dollar:

Family Dollar (NYSE:FDO) is set to announce their first quarter earnings report on Thursday, January 8th, after market close. The company is expected to post $0.60 earnings per share, down from $0.68 earnings per share the same quarter a year ago.

Earlier this year, Dollar Tree presented an offer to acquire Family Dollar for $8.5 billion. Family Dollar also received an offer from Dollar General for $9.1 billion, but rejected it. Shareholders need to vote on the merger with Dollar Tree, but Family Dollar recently delayed a shareholder vote on the offer by one month.

In addition, Family Dollar has come up with new strategies to attract more customers, such as widening their focus on daily values and major price points and boosting its cross merchandising efforts for their discretionary and consumables categories to grow sales.

On average, the top analyst consensus for Family Dollar on TipRanks is Hold.

All in all, it will be interesting to see how these factors will play in to each company’s earnings reports and how it will ultimately affect their stocks coming into 2015.