Will Lower Revenues Affect CommScope (COMM) Q1 Earnings?

CommScope Holding Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:COMM) is scheduled to report first-quarter 2019 results before the opening bell on May 9. In the last reported quarter, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 18.6%.

CommScope is likely to report lower revenues owing to the challenging macroeconomic environment and seasonality issues.

Let’s find out how things are shaping up prior to the announcement.

Factors to Consider

During the quarter, CommScope collaborated with Nokia (HE:NOKIA) to develop passive-active antenna solutions that enable operators to optimize tower space usage, increase cell site capacity and lay the groundwork for 5G compatibility. This would likely help the operators to cope up with increased subscriber demand for mobile broadband with extensive 5G deployment across the globe.

The company also introduced new 3.5 GHz-capable antennas for macro and small cell densification to boost network capacity and offer seamless migration to 5G. With operators moving toward converged or multi-use network structures, combining voice, video and data communications into a single network, CommScope is developing solutions to support wireline and wireless network convergence for the success of 5G technologies.

During the quarter, CommScope inked a strategic partnership with INWIT, Italy’s largest provider of neutral host services, to deliver superior mobile voice and data services with 5G readiness. CommScope is specialized to support comprehensive solutions across museums, stadiums, conference centers, train stations and other historical landmarks within the country through its existing product lines and intelligent antenna platforms. All these initiatives are likely to be reflected in the upcoming results.

Top-Line Contraction

Despite avant-garde solutions to meet the rising demand for bandwidth, CommScope is likely to record year-over-year lower revenues in the to-be-reported quarter owing to secular declining trends particularly in North America. Moreover, the first quarter has been seasonally softer compared to other quarters. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for total revenues stands at $1,082 million, indicating a decline from $1,121 million reported in the year-earlier quarter.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not show that CommScope is likely to beat earnings 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. This is not the case here as you will see below:

Earnings ESP: Earnings ESP, which represents the difference between the Most Accurate Estimate and Zacks Consensus Estimate, is 0.00% with both pegged at 44 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: CommScope sports a Zacks Rank #1. While this increases the predictive power of ESP, we need to have a positive ESP to make us confident of an earnings beat.

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

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies that you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter:

Box Inc. (NYSE:BOX) has an Earnings ESP of +3.85% and a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Momo Inc. (NASDAQ:MOMO) has an Earnings ESP of +1.21% and a Zacks Rank #3.

Agilent Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:A) has an Earnings ESP of +2.10% and a Zacks Rank #2.

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