Q1 Earnings Tip-Off: Delta (DAL) And Fastenal (FAST)

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Q1 earnings season sees its first two big S&P 500 firms reporting this week: Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) and industrial and contraction supplies company Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) . Delta beat its bottom line estimate by 4 cents to 77 cents per share, on $9.15 billion in sales for the quarter, a twinge below the $9.16 billion expected.

Guidance improved for Q2 at Delta as well, as positive year-over-year comps gets closer for the airline major. Shares of DAL are up nearly 2.7% in the pre-market, though they’re still down roughly 5% year-to-date.

For Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) Fastenal, the company just met earnings expectations of 46 cents per share on better-than expected revenues of $1.05 billion. Average daily sales for Q1 rose to 6.2%. Shares are selling off on this news to the tune of 4.6%, but consider that Fastenal — an important cog in the wheel for domestic construction and infrastructure — is up more than 25% since the November 8 election, and this looks like profit-booking from this vista.

For a detailed look at Q1 earnings, please check out Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian’s latest Earnings Preview: Can Banks Get Their Mojo Back?

Looking for a stock with a big upswing this morning? BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) has zoomed up more than 16% in today’s pre-market following an announcement that an arbitration case has awarded the smartphone pioneer $815 million from Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) . That said, approaching $9 per share is still within the long tail of lowered valuation in this company’s trading history. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company had a Style Score (Value, Growth, Momentum) of C ahead of the arbitration decision.

March Import Prices have been released ahead of the opening bell today, with a -0.2% number month over month in-line with expectations. February’s headline figure doubled from +0.2% to +0.4%, though year over year is 4.2%, down from the 4.8% year-over-year read a month ago. Subtract petroleum prices and this number jumps to +0.2%; it was +0.3% a month ago, and has been left unchanged.

Export Prices also came in-line this morning at +0.2%, following an unrevised +0.3% for February. Both Imports and Exports hovering around a zero balance indicates overall equilibrium, and if we’d prefer to see one side hotter than the other it would be the Export side, which it is. A good report, but nothing earth-shattering.

Mark Vickery
Senior Editor

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