Earnings season is starting to wind down but there are still a number of companies due to report in the coming week.
Elsewhere, guidance for financial performance in 2025 will be the focus for investors when Adidas (ADS.DE) releases its full-year results.
However, it appeared that this didn't match up to investor's lofty expectations, as they digested the earnings on Thursday.
Cody Acree, managing director and senior research analyst at Benchmark Company, told Yahoo Finance that Nvidia's (NVDA) margin outlook of 71% is "a little concerning".
Kirsten Spears, chief financial officer (CFO) at Broadcom (AVGO), said in the fourth quarter results that the company was increasing its quarterly common stock dividend by 11% to $0.59 per share for the fiscal year 2025.
"The target fiscal year 2025 annual common stock dividend of $2.36 per share is a record, and the fourteenth consecutive increase in annual dividends since we initiated dividends in fiscal 2011," she said.
NasdaqGS - Nasdaq Real Time Price • USD As of 1:22:59 PM EST. Market Open.
Markets are highly sensitive to any signs that economic uncertainty – as inflationary pressures persist – could be impacting companies, particularly in the retail sector.
US inflation came in higher than expected in January, with consumer prices index rising 3% year-on-year, versus economist estimates of 2.9%. There are concerns that US president Donald Trump's trade tariffs could drive inflation higher domestically, adding to pressure on consumers already weary from rises in prices over the past few years.
Shares in Walmart (WMT), one of the world's largest retailers by sales, fell after it issued cautious guidance for the year ahead. The retailer offered conservative guidance for the 2026 fiscal year, projecting between 3% and 4% net sales growth.
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John Rainey, CFO at Walmart (WMT), said: "Our outlook assumes a relatively stable macroeconomic environment, but acknowledges that there are still uncertainties related to consumer behaviour and global economic and geopolitical conditions."
Wholesale retailer Costco's (COST) latest earnings, due out on Thursday, will be another set of results that investors look at closely to help get a sense of the health of the US consumer.
In the first quarter, Costco (COST) beat estimates, posting revenue of $62.15bn, versus expectations of $61.98bn. Adjusted earnings per share of $4.04, also came in ahead of estimates of $3.81.
Gary Millerchip, CFO at Costco (COST), said in an earnings call at the time that trade tariffs were "not something that we see as a positive in general".
"We believe that our merchants and buyers are equipped ... [to] work through and navigate and manage that situation," he said.
Costco's (COST) shares were muted after the release of those first quarter results in December, though the stock is still up 37% over the past year.
NasdaqGS - Nasdaq Real Time Price • USD As of 1:22:43 PM EST. Market Open.
Asia markets were down on Friday, with the Hong Kong's Hang Seng index down 3.3%, after Trump said on Thursday that the US would impose an addition 10% tariff on China. That's on top of the 10% duties that were imposed on its exports to the US earlier this month.
Shares in Chinese e-commerce company JD.com (9618.HK, JD) fell nearly 4% on Friday, though the stock is still up 18% year-to-date.
However, its shares are lagging behind the performance of rivals Alibaba (9988.HK) and Temu-owner PDD Holdings (PDD), which are up 54% and 26% year-to-date, as competition remains fierce in China's e-commerce industry.
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JD.com (9618.HK, JD) is now looking to compete in another area, as it launched its JD Takeaway food delivery platform earlier this month.
Investors will be looking to the company's full-year results on Thursday for any further information on this new part of the business.
In the third quarter, JD.com (9618.HK, JD) posted net revenue of CNY260.4bn (£28.4bn), an increase of 5% year-on-year. The company attributed this to a rebound in growth of electronics and home appliances, as well as sustained momentum in general merchandise.
JD.com (9618.HK, JD) said income from operations came in at CNY12bn in the third quarter, which was up nearly 30% year-on-year.
Shares in Adidas (ADS.DE) climbed after the sportswear brand shared better-than-expected preliminary results for the fourth quarter in January.
The company said revenues grew 24% in the final quarter to €5.97bn (£4.93bn), while operating profits reached €57m for the quarter, compared with an operating loss of €377m for the same period in 2023.
In its guidance for unaudited preliminary numbers for the full year, Adidas (ADS.DE) said revenues were up 11%, reaching €23.6bn. Meanwhile, operating profit is set to have increased to €1.3bn, marking significant growth from the €268m the company reported in 2023.
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Bjørn Gulden, CEO of Adidas (ADS.DE), said: "There is a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty right now, but we clearly have the goal to again grow double-digit with the adidas brand and use that growth to continue to improve our operating profit and make further progress towards our 10% margin target."
Adidas (ADS.DE) is due publish its final set of financial results for 2024 and issue financial guidance for 2025 on Wednesday 5 March.
In a note published on Thursday, Bank of America analysts said: "The group intends to announce a credible financial guidance for 2025, reducing the risk of pre-releases during the year, and of ending the year with an EBIT [earnings before interest and tax] and an organic sales growth (OSG) at >2x the initial guidance (like what we saw in 2024).
"This does not mean, in our view, that management does not intend to leave room for some guidance upgrades and/or for the possibility to report (slightly) above guidance results."
Shares in Greggs (GRG.L) slumped in January, after it warned of higher costs this year, as well as noting a slowdown in sales growth.
In a January trading update, giving a glimpse into what it expected to report for the fourth quarter and full-year, Greggs (GRG.L) said total sales were up 11.3% to reach a record of more than £2bn ($2.52bn) for 2024.
However, like-for-like sales growth for the year of 5.5% came in below the 6.3% expected by analysts. For the fourth quarter, like-for-like sales grew 2.5%, which which was down from the 5% increase it reported in the third quarter. This was also down from the 9.4% growth the business posted for the same period last year.
Greggs (GRG.L) CEO Roisin Currie noted that "lower consumer confidence continues to impact high street footfall and expenditure" but believed that the company was well positioned to "meet the headwinds we expect to see in the year ahead".
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In its outlook for 2025, Greggs (GRG.L) warned that "employment costs will result in further overall cost inflation, although wage increases should provide support to consumers". A number of UK businesses have warned of higher employment costs on the back of increases to employer national insurance contributions and the national minimum wage, announced in the autumn budget.
Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.L), said Greggs (GRG.L) is expected to report an increase just shy of 12% in pre-tax profits for the year.
"Investors will have a few key priorities in focus," he said. "First, the 2025 cost outlook looms large, particularly how tax changes off the back of Rachel Reeve’s budget will affect margins. Next, consumer spending in the fourth quarter will be critical – especially with consumer goods firms already warning of a soft start to 2025, a trend Greggs (GRG.L) will likely echo."
"Finally, the company’s growth engines – store expansion, evening trade, and digital channels – need to show sustained progress to reassure markets that Greggs can keep pushing forward despite the sector headwinds," he said.
Monday 3 March
Bunzl (BNZL.L)
Senior (SNR.L)
Tuesday 4 March
Abrdn (ABDN.L)
Apax Global Alpha (APAX.L)
Ashtead (AHT.L)
Bakkavor Group (BAKK.L)
Beazley (BEZ.L)
Direct Line (DLG.L)
Fresnillo (FRES.L)
Inchcape (INCH.L)
Intertek Group (ITRK.L)
IWG (IWG.L)
Keller Group (KLR.L)
Oxford Nanopore (ONT.L)
Spirent Communications (SPT.L)
Weir Group (WEIR.L)
Aramco (2222.SR)
Prada (1913.HK)
Sea (SE)
Thales (HO.PA)
Lindt (LISN.SW)
Continental (CON.DE)
Davide Campari Milano (CPR.MI)
AutoZone (AZO)
Flutter Entertainment (FLTR.L)
BestBuy (BBY)
Macy’s (M)
Urban Outfitters (URBN)
Nordstrom (JWN)
Wednesday 5 March
Breedon (BREE.L)
Ibstock (IBST.L)
Quilter (QLT.L)
Dowlais (DWL.L)
SIG (SHI.L)
Ricardo (RCDO.L)
Netcall (NET.L)
Adidas (ADS.DE)
Bayer (BAYN.DE)
Sandoz (SDZ.SW)
Dassault Aviation (AM.PA)
AIB (A5G.IR)
Evonik (EVK.DE)
Marvell (MRVL)
Brown-Forman (BF-B)
Campbell Soup (CPB)
Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF)
Thursday 6 March
Admiral Group (ADM.L)
Coats Group (COA.L)
Elementis (ELM.L)
Endeavour Mining (EDV.L)
Entain (ENT.L)
Grafton Group (GFTU.L)
Harbour Energy (HBR.L)
Hunting (HTG.L)
Informa (INF.L)
ITV (ITV.L)
Lancashire Holdings (LRE.L)
Melrose Industries (MRO.L)
Pagegroup (PAGE.L)
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT.L)
Rentokil Initial (RTO.L)
Schroders (SDR.L)
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI.L)
Vesuvius (VSVS.L)
Robert Walters (RWA.L)
Funding Circle (FCH.L)
Dalata Hotels (DAL.L)
Coats (COA.L)
DHL (DHL.DE)
Universal Music (UMG.AS)
Zalando (ZAL.DE)
Lufthansa (LHA.DE)
Solvay (SOLB.BR)
Vivendi (VIV.PA)
Air France-KLM (AF.PA)
Kroger (KR)
HP Enterprises (HPE)
Gap (GAP)
Friday 7 March
Just Group (JUST.L)
You can read Yahoo Finance's full calendar here.
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