Eaton (ETN) To Report Q1 Earnings: What's In The Cards?

Eaton Corporation (NYSE:ETN) is slated to report first-quarter 2018 financial results, before the market opens, on May 1. The power management company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 3.20% in the last quarter. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this earnings season.

Factors to Consider

Eaton expects first-quarter earnings in the range of $1.00-$1.10 per share and organic revenues to expand 4%. The company expects that negative revenue impact from JV will wipe out gains derived from currency movement.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for total revenues of $5,089 million for the quarter reflects a 2.4% drop sequentially. Electric Products segment is a major contributor to Eaton’s total revenues. The Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1,789 million for this segment’s revenues projects a drop of 1.8% sequentially.

Eaton is expected to gain from its restructuring initiatives and share repurchases, completed in the last two years.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not show that Eaton is likely to beat estimates this quarter, as it does not possess the key components. A stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. However, that is not the case here as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: The company’s Earnings ESP is -0.82%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate of $1.05 is a penny lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.06 per share.

You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Eaton’s Zacks Rank #2, when combined with a negative Earnings ESP makes a beat unlikely this quarter.

Note that we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing a negative estimate revisions momentum.

Stocks With Favorable Combination

Eaton does not have the right mix, but one can consider some companies from the Zacks Industrial Products sector that have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter.

Timken Company (NYSE:TKR) has an Earnings ESP of +2.79% and a Zacks Rank #2. It is expected to report first-quarter 2018 earnings on May 1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Kennametal (NYSE:KMT) has an Earnings ESP of +1.73% and a Zacks Rank #2. It is expected to report third-quarter fiscal 2018 earnings on May 3.

Tenaris S.A. (NYSE:TS) has an Earnings ESP of +3.57% and a Zacks Rank #2. It is expected to report first-quarter 2018 earnings on Apr 26.

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