Big Day For Retail Earnings: HD, KSS, JCP & More

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

It’s a slow day for new economic data this morning — and we’ve yet to hear anything newly definitive regarding the U.S.-China trade war at this point today — but there are plenty of new quarterly earnings results from a number of retailers. Interestingly, the following stocks all currently carry Zacks Style Scores (Value - Growth - Momentum) of A.

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) beat earnings estimates yet again this morning, posting $2.27 per share as opposed to $2.16 expected (and 9% above the year-ago quarter’s $2.08 per share). The home improvement giant has not missed any earnings estimates for at least the past 5 years.

The company reaffirmed earnings and sales guidance for the full fiscal year, though slowing growth in certain areas stem from a colder-than-expected spring across much of the U.S. Shares are down slightly in today’s pre-market for the Zacks Rank #4 (Sell)-rated company. For more on HD’s earnings, click here.

Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) has disappointed investors in its fiscal Q1 earnings report this morning, posting 61 cents per share on its bottom line as opposed to 67 cents expected (and 64 cents reported in last year’s Q1). Revenues of $4.09 billion was 2.76% light of estimates and down from $4.21 billion in the year-ago quarter. Sales growth fell worse than expected, and profit forecasts have been cut. Shares are down another 10% this morning.

Zacks Rank #2 (Buy)-rated specialty retailer AutoZone (NYSE:AZO) topped expectations easily on the company’s bottom line in its fiscal Q3 earnings report ahead of the bell: $15.99 per share zoomed past the $15.23 expected and the $13.42 posted in the year-ago quarter. This marks 8 straight beats for the company, which lifted 5% in pre-market trading to an even $1000 per share. For more on AZO’s earnings, click here.

Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell)-rated J.C. Penney (NYSE:JCP) also missed its fiscal Q1 bottom-line estimate — -46 cents per share compared with -36 cents expected (and -22 cents a year ago) — on revenues in the quarter of $2.56 billion, which outperformed the Zacks consensus by 0.22% (down $2.67 billion in Q1 last year). Shares had been up 10% year to date, but they are giving this all back in this morning’s pre-market. For more on JCP’s earnings, click here.

After the closing bell this afternoon, more earnings reports are expected, including from Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) , Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) and homebuilder Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL) . Of these, Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters also carry a Zacks Style Score of A into their earnings announcements.

Mark Vickery
Senior Editor

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