Chicago, IL – January 22, 2025 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include, Walmart Inc. WMT, Marvell Technology, Inc. MRVL and Amphenol Corp. APH.
Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:
Earnings Season Scorecard and Analyst Reports for Walmart, Marvell and Others
Today's Research Daily features the real-time scorecard for the ongoing Q4 earnings season and new research reports on 16 major stocks, including Walmart Inc., Marvell Technology, Inc. and Amphenol Corp. These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today.
You can see all of today’s research reports here >>>
Ahead of Wall Street
The daily 'Ahead of Wall Street' article is a must-read for all investors who would like to be ready for that day's trading action. The article comes out before the market's open and attempts to make sense of that morning's economic releases and how they will affect that day's market action. You can read this article for free on our home page and can actually sign up there to get an email notification as this article comes out each morning.
You can read today's AWS here >>>Pre-Markets Start Trading in the Green
Q4 Earnings Season Scorecard
Including this morning's releases, we now have Q4 results from 48 S&P 500 members. Total earnings for these 48 index members are up +21.3% from the same period last year on +6.8% higher revenues, with 83.3% beating EPS estimates and 70.8% beating revenue estimates.
This is a notably better showing relative to what we have seen from this group of 48 S&P 500 members in other recent periods, both in terms of the growth pace as well as beats proportions.
Looking at Q4 as a whole, combining the actual results from the 48 index members with estimates for the still-to-come companies, total S&P 500 earnings are expected to be up +8.6% on +4.8% higher revenues.
For full-year 2025, the expectation is for S&P 500 earnings are expected to be up +13.7% on +5.4% higher revenues. This will be the first time since 2018 when all 16 Zacks sectors are expected to enjoy posiitve earnings growth, with 10 of the 16 Zacks sectors expected to have double-digit earnings growth.
Our earnings analysis reflects bottom-up expectations, with the Zacks Consensus estimates for each S&P 500 member aggregted to the respective sector and index level.
In terms of the 'index-level EPS', the +13.7% aggregate earnings growth in 2025 works out to $263.75 per 'index share'. This compares to the top-down consensus of sell-side strategists of $274.50, with a range of $285 per share on the high side and $270 on the low side. What this shows you is that the Zacks bottom-up estimate for 2025 earnings is below even the lower end of the top-down consensus.
For more details about the ongoing Q4 earnings season and evolving expectations for the coming periods, please check out our weekly Earnings Trends report here >>>>Q4 Earnings Season Kicks-off Strong
Today's Featured Research Reports
Walmart shares have outperformed the Zacks Retail - Supermarkets industry over the past year (+74% vs. +68.4%). The company is benefiting from its diverse business model that spans multiple segments, channels and formats. The company's strong omnichannel strategy has boosted traffic across physical stores and digital platforms.
Its emphasis on improving delivery services has been successful, contributing to steady grocery market share gains. Upsides like these, along with growth in the advertising business, fueled third-quarter fiscal 2025 results, wherein the top and bottom lines grew year over year, and e-commerce sales surged.
However, Walmart is experiencing adverse currency movements and margin pressures from shifts in product mix. While raising its fiscal 2025 guidance, the company’s implied fourth-quarter view for revenues and operating income reflects a slowdown from the reported third-quarter figures.
(You can read the full research report on Walmart here >>>)
Shares of Marvell Technology have outperformed the Zacks Electronics - Semiconductors industry over the past year (+93.3% vs. +58.5%). The company is benefiting from the strong demand environment across the data center end market.
In Q3, its data center end market revenues increased 98% year over year and 25% sequentially, propelled by strong revenue growth across artificial intelligence (AI)-driven demand for PAM products and ZR electro-optics. Completion of inventory digestions is likely to aid growth across the enterprise networking and carrier infrastructure end markets.
However, weakening consumer spending amid the protracted high inflationary conditions and still-high interest rates is likely to hurt its sales across the Consumer segment. Enterprises are postponing their large IT spending plans amid the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties. This is likely to hurt its performance in the near term.
(You can read the full research report on Marvell Technology here >>>)
Amphenol shares have gained +4% over the past six months against the Zacks Electronics - Connectors industry’s gain of +5.2%. The company is benefiting from its strong portfolio of solutions, including high-technology interconnect products. Expanding spending on both current and next-generation defense technologies bodes well for APH’s top-line growth.
Apart from Defense, Amphenol’s prospects ride on strong demand for its solutions across Commercial Air, Industrial, and Mobile devices. APH expects sales in the defense market to increase moderately on a sequential basis. For 2024, it expects mid-teens increase in sales from the Defense market.
Amphenol’s diversified business model lowers the volatility of individual end markets and geographies. Strong cash flow generating ability is noteworthy. Amphenol expects to deliver strong cash flow despite slight rise in capital expenditure.
(You can read the full research report on Amphenol here >>>)
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Note: Sheraz Mian heads the Zacks Equity Research department and is a well-regarded expert of aggregate earnings. He is frequently quoted in the print and electronic media and publishes the weekly Earnings Trends and Earnings Previewreports. If you want an email notification each time Sheraz publishes a new article, please click here>>>
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
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