Earnings season is dying down, but three big names are slated to post their financial results this week. What should investors look for?
Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT):
Red Hat is slated to post its fourth quarter 2015 financial results on Wednesday, March 25th after the closing bell. The company is expected to post $0.41 Non-GAAP earnings per share, falling short of $0.42 per share from the same quarter a year prior. The company is also expected to post revenue of $457.30 million, marking a 14.2% year-over-year increase.
The computer software company has seen sequential growth for the past 51 consecutive quarters and has beaten analysts’ estimates for the past 4 consecutive quarters. Red Hat’s last quarter “billings” results excelled; however the company is not expected to shine as bright this quarter due to strong currency headwinds.
In addition, Red Hat’s margins have narrowed in recent quarters due to its investments in areas like the OpenStack cloud structure. The company faces serious competition in the cloud space with big players like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), so investors have been somewhat wary. The losses of the company’s CFO and CTO have also had a negative impact on the stock.
On average, the top analyst consensus for Red Hat on TipRanks is Strong Sell.
Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU):
Lululemon is set to announce its fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2014 earnings results on Thursday, March 26th before the market opens. The company is expected to post earnings of $0.72 a share, down from $0.75 a share the same quarter last year.
The athletic retailer updated its Q4 guidance back in January following strong holiday sales. The company expects its net revenue to range from $595 million to $600 million, compared to their previous guidance of $570 million to $585 million. This increase in the company’s net revenue guidance stems from a total comparable sales growth expectation between 6%-7% on a constant dollar basis. In addition, Lululemon also raised their diluted earnings per share forecast to $0.71 to $0.73 from $0.65 to $0.69.
New management has been diligently working to make positive changes on Lululemon’s image, reputation, and performance. These efforts appear to be paying off as the company is seeing a positive response from customers for both men’s and women’s products.
On average, the top analyst consensus for Lululemon on TipRanks is Hold.
BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY):
Blackberry is scheduled to announce its fourth quarter fiscal 2015 financial results on Friday, March 27th before the market opens. The company is expected to post a loss of -$0.01 a share, an improvement from -$0.08 a share the same quarter a year prior.
Blackberry has seen a huge positive turnaround since John Chen took over as CEO in November 2013. Since the change in leadership, Blackberry shares have risen over 60%. As a result, the company set expectations to become cash flow positive this year.
One of the reasons for Blackberry’s turnaround is due to its shift in focus from smartphones to software. In November, Blackberry launched its BES 12 platform that was designed for businesses that connects with all mobile devices, including all Blackberry phones. They even got 5.1 million licenses to sign up for a free trial of its platform until the end of January.
Despite Blackberry’s positive turnaround, investors fear the company will face challenges in driving in higher revenue.
On average, the top analyst consensus for Blackberry on TipRanks is Hold.