Highlights on the earnings front this week will include quarterly reports from retailers Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST), Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) and RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH). Analysts expect each to tell a very different story.
Expectations are high for the results from home builder Toll Brothers Inc (NYSE: TOL), but less so from communications networking giant Ciena Corporation (NYSE: CIEN) when they share their latest quarterly reports this week.
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Ciena
The fiscal fourth-quarter forecast for this telecommunications networking equipment supplier calls for earnings per share (EPS) to have slipped from $0.16 in the year-ago period to $0.13. Revenues for the period that ended in October are expected to have inched up 1 percent to $589.44 million in Thursday morning's report.
For the full year, analysts are looking for $0.76 per share earnings on revenue of $2.29 billion. That would be up nicely from the $0.54 per share and $2.08 billion Ciena posted in the previous year. So far, EPS are expected to be flat, both sequentially and year-over-year, in the current quarter.
Costco
The forecast for this warehouse club retailer calls for a profit of $1.09 per share and for revenue to come to $26.90 billion for its most recent quarter. In the year-ago period, the company posted EPS of $0.96 and revenue totaled $25.02 billion. That consensus EPS estimate is three cents higher than 60 days ago, but note that Costco missed consensus EPS forecasts in three of the past four quarters.
For the current quarter, there will be gains on both the top and bottom lines, sequentially as well as year-over-year, if analysts are correct. Look for Costco to release its quarterly results Wednesday before the opening bell.
Lululemon
In its report early Thursday, this Canadian purveyor of yoga apparel is expected to say that earnings retreated more than 15 percent from the year-ago quarter to $0.38 per share for the three months that ended in October. Note that EPS beat consensus estimates by almost 14 percent in the previous quarter.
Revenues for the fiscal third quarter are predicted to be almost 12 percent higher to $424.64 million, relative to the same period last year. So far the consensus forecast for the current quarter has revenue up almost 14 percent, but with a marginal slip in per-share earnings.
RadioShack
Analysts expect this struggling specialty retailer to report a net loss of $1.01 per share in its most recent quarter. That would compare to a $1.11 net loss per share in the year-ago period. Revenues are forecast to come in at $718.37 million for the three months that ended in October.