Earnings Preview: PFE, CHK, MA, GM, KFT

Published on Monday, 30 April 2012 20:53 Written by Todd Shriber

New York, April 30^th (TradersHuddle.com) – With the big A’s, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), out of the way along with well over 100 other S&P 500 companies that reported quarterly results last week, investors might be thinking there are no noteworthy earnings reports to monitor this week. Indeed, earnings season is winding down, but there are still some marquee reports to be scrutinized by the investment community.

Here’s a smattering of what’s on tap on the earnings front for the rest of this week.

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE):

As investors have started to embrace less risky stocks, shares of Dow component Pfizer have benefited. With a decent yield of 3.8%, shares of the Viagra maker are trading at multi-year highs. Analysts expect a first-quarter profit of 56 cents a share on revenue of $15.5 billion with a similar second-quarter forecast. That may not sound too impressive, but it pays to remember analysts have missed on Pfizer’s EPS on the downside in the previous eight quarters. Pfizer reports before the bell Tuesday.

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK):

Given the seemingly never-ending fall in natural gas prices, Wall Street is expecting Chesapeake, the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer, to post year-over-year declines when it reports Tuesday. Chesapeake’s results won’t be the most important of its conference call.

The company’s reputation and that of CEO Aubrey McClendon has been tarnished in the wake of news reports that the McClendon took loans out to purchase stakes in Chesapeake shale wells using the wells as collateral. Those loans were not disclosed to analysts and shareholders until Reuters broke the story a couple of weeks ago. As natural gas prices have fallen over the past few years, so have Chesapeake’s shares, but the debt load has risen. Investors will want to know what the company is doing to raise cash and rein in McClendon’s erstwhile ways.

MasterCard (NYSE: MA):

Shares of MasterCard have surged almost 22% year-to-date and are also found resting at multi-year highs. Analysts are expecting first-quarter EPS growth of almost 19% to $5.29 on revenue growth of 15.1% to $1.7 billion. New York-based MasterCard has topped Wall Street EPS estimates in six consecutive quarters. The company reports on Wednesday. Rival Visa (NYSE: V) also delivers fiscal second-quarter results on Wednesday.

General Motors (NYSE: GM):

The second-largest U.S. automaker by market value delivers first-quarter results Thursday and analysts are expecting EPS of 85 cents on sales of $37.5 billion. While the EPS estimate is lower than the profited posted by GM a year earlier, it has been rising in recent weeks. GM disappointed Wall Street by missing estimates in the fourth quarter. Ford (NYSE: F) is the largest U.S. automaker by market cap.

Kraft (NYSE: KFT):

Earnings reports from Dow stocks aren’t over this week as Pfizer and Kraft step into the earnings confessional. Analysts expect Kraft, the largest U.S. food company, to earn 56 cents a share on $13.0 billion in sales. A year earlier Kraft posted a profit of 52 cents per share and sales of $12.6 billion.