Disney - Tuesday
Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) showed strong financial results in its fiscal 2014. The entertainment company increased its yearly earnings per share by 28%. Revenues improved too. Sales climbed 8% compared to the company’s previous year.
Disney has been dazzling investors with broad success across its different businesses. Last year’s segment results were lead by its film studio business which more than doubled operating income. Frozen was the largest driver of growth there, but Disney’s film pipeline remains robust. Disney is expected to launch the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise at the end of the year and Marvel movies are showing sustained popularity. This quarter analysts on Estimize are forecasting earnings of $1.10 per share and revenue of $12.900 billion, which is moderately higher than Wall Street consensus of $1.08 EPS and $12.357 in total sales.
NXP Semiconductors - Wednesday
NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) co-developed the near field communication (NFC) technology used by Apple Pay. Close proximity communication technology has been around for 10 years or so, but has failed to muster mainstream adoption. Apple Pay may finally be the catalyst that gets the ball rolling.
Since its inception NFC technology has faced off against a chicken vs. the egg problem. One can not expect merchants to invest in building NFC terminals if no consumers use NFC payments. At the same time if no merchants have terminals users won’t care about NFC or bother adopting the technology.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is attempting to get mobile payments into gear by pressuring retailers into building Apple Pay terminals. Apple Pay has some momentum out of its launch and Apple will attempt to reconstruct the payments industry in the same way that iTunes reinvented the music industry.
This quarter the Estimize community predicts that NXP will report 37% earnings growth and a 24% revenue increase. If those numbers come through EPS expansion will be down sequentially from 59% in the third quarter and revenue growth will rise slightly from 21%.
Twitter - Thursday
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) will report on Thursday expectations from contributing analysts on Estimize are as low as they’ve ever been relative to the Wall Street consensus. This quarter the Estimize community forecasts that Twitter will come in-line with Wall Street expectations, rather than beat by a few cents per share as investors have gotten used to.
Last quarter Twitter stock dropped 13% as the company posted an earnings miss against the Estimize consensus and disappointed with its scrutinized monthly active user (MAUs) guidance.
The caution in the estimates this quarter may be a positive for Twitter as they were for Facebook last week. Conservative estimates may mean that a small earnings beat could be a catalyst to the upside rather than a formality that the market had already priced in.
Analysts on Estimize are looking for 88% revenue growth this quarter which is down from the triple digit gains Twitter has posted since its IPO. Meanwhile earnings are expected to come in at an all time high of 6 cents per share.
Buffalo Wild Wings - Thursday
Buffalo Wild Wings (NASDAQ:BWLD) is projected to report 19% revenue growth when it announces quarterly results for the meaty part of the football season, the company’s best period of the year historically.
One of the things to keep on Thursday is how the price of chicken wings affects Buffalo Wild Wing’s profitability. In last quarter’s conference call management noted that the average price of chicken wings had increased 32% from the previous 3 month period. The company told us those prices would remain elevated in the fourth quarter of 2014 and may remain costly heading into the new year. A small price hike may partially offset the rise in prices, but chicken costs remain a headwind for now.
This quarter the Estimize community expects earnings to increase by 5 cents per share (5%) while revenue grows 19%. Analysts on Estimize are right in-line with the Street on revenue, but more optimistic on the bottom line.
Outerwall - Thursday
The maker of Redbox DVD rentals and CoinStar change counting machines is scheduled to report on Thursday. 2 weeks ago Outerwall Inc. (NASDAQ:OUTR) CEO Scott Di Valerio resigned, sending the stock reeling. Di Valerio’s resignation comes on the back of news that yearly revenue growth is expected to grind to low single digits, DVD rental volumes have been inversely affected by a raise in price, and Verizon has canceled its streaming partnership with Outerwall after it failed to gain traction.
Outerwall’s online streaming video aspirations have been crushed by Amazon's Prime (NASDAQ:AMZN), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) and HBO Go. Those services are also weighing on Redbox’s core DVD rental product as their competition in cyberspace has lead to the availability of higher quality content and compelling original programming. Investors will look for an update on the Redbox strategy as the outlook is appearing austere.