Machinery Stocks Q1 Earnings Roster For May 8: SNHY, MTW

The Machinery industry, which is broadly grouped under the Industrial Products sector (one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors), had logged growth of 6% in fourth-quarter 2016. For first-quarter 2017, 86.4% of the S&P 500 members in the industrial products sector have reported their numbers as of May 3, putting up a 24.4% growth in earnings driven by a 10% rise in revenues. Taking into account all the S&P 500 sector participants that are yet to report in the sector, an earnings growth of 21.8% is anticipated for the sector owing to 8% increase in revenues. (Read more: Impressive Growth in Q1 Earnings Season)

Looking at the broader picture, of the 358 S&P 500 members that have reported across all sectors, that constitute 78.2% of the index’s total market capitalization, earnings has gone up 12.9% for the first quarter. Considering all the companies that are yet to report, the S&P 500 is expected to register growth of 11.9% in the quarter, outperforming the 7.4% growth witnessed in the fourth quarter. It is worth mentioning that the earnings growth trajectory had entered the positive territory in third-quarter 2016, after five quarters of back to back declines.

Industrial production rose 0.5% in March, following a 0.1% move in February. Industrial production had dipped 0.3% in January. The increase in March was driven by a jump of 8.6% in the output of utilities, the largest in the history of the index as the demand for heating returned to seasonal norms after being suppressed by unusually warm weather in February. For the first quarter as a whole, industrial production rose at an annual rate of 1.5 %.

It will be interesting to see how some of the machinery stocks fare when they release first-quarter 2017 numbers on May 8. Apart from beats and misses, focus will also be on their outlook.

Sun Hydraulics Corporation (NASDAQ:SNHY) , is scheduled to report financial results after the closing bell. The company designs, manufactures, and sells screw-in cartridge valves, manifolds, and integrated fluid power packages and subsystems used in hydraulic systems to industrial and mobile customers worldwide. In the last reported quarter, the company reported a 37% drop in earnings despite a 13% increase in revenues.

Sun Hydraulics Corporation Price and EPS Surprise