Earnings Review: Solid Results This Week

Published on Saturday, 28 April 2012 07:02 Written by Todd Shriber

The week ending April 27 saw roughly a third of the S&P 500 companies deliver earnings updates and while many analysts, pundits and so-called experts argued prior to the start of earnings season that the bar had been low, approximately three-quarters of the companies reporting thus far have topped those low estimates. So that can’t be too bad, right? It might also be one reason why the broader market index was able to notch an almost 3% gain on the week.

Well, the impact of 99% of this week’s earnings reports is up for debate because one particular company that dominates the broader market. That being...

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL):

Apple, the world's biggest publicly-traded company by market capitalization, posted a fiscal second-quarter profit of $11.6 billion on sales of $39.2 billion, results that once again enabled the iPad maker to thrash Wall Street estimates. That means on a year-over-year basis, Apple’s profit nearly doubled. Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones and 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, increases of 88% and over 150%, respectively. Apples shares had been stumbling leading up to its earnings report. It’s fair to say the stock is stumbling no more.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN):

E-commerce giant Amazon reported net income of $130 million or $0.28 per share, compared to $201 million or $0.44 per share, crushing the seven cents Wall Street expected. Net sales for the quarter were up 34% to $13.19 versus $9.86 billion in the comparable period. Amazon’s guidance was iffy at best, but the shares still surged 16%.

Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT):

Dow component Caterpillar, the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment, first-quarter earnings of $2.37 a share on revenue of $15.98 billion, but the stock slid a bit as analysts were expecting $2.13 a share on $16.22 billion. Full-year guidance of $9.50 a share also missed the $9.54 analysts are expecting, but the company appeared bullish on global demand.

Boeing (NYSE: BA):

Investors more warmly received this Dow component’s first-quarter results, and the order backlog numbers were quite bullish. Boeing posted first-quarter earnings of $1.22 a share on sales of $19.4 billion, easily beating expectations of 94 cents on $18.37 billion. The company also boosted its full-year guidance to 4.15 a share to $4.35 from $4.05 to $4.25. 

Chevron (NYSE: CVX):

The second-largest U.S. oil company, fell slightly after the company said its first-quarter profit climbed to $6.47 billion, or $3.27 a share, up from $6.21 billion, or $3.09 a share, a year earlier. During the quarter Chevron’s, production fell 4.7%, a decline that is in line with the decreases posted by rivals such as Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP). The good news might just be that Chevron’s refining margins were solid and the company is less exposed to natural gas than Exxon and other rivals.