After Beyond Meat and Apple start off the week, Big Oil wraps it up
Beyond Meat Inc. will be the earnings appetizer for the coming week, with Apple Inc. as the main course, chips on the side and Big Oil as dessert.
Beyond Meat BYND, +5.40% will report earnings Monday afternoon after the market closes, following an astonishing early run on the public markets for the meat-alternative company. After selling shares at $25 apiece in an early-May initial public offering, Beyond Meat has exploded higher, closing Friday at $234.90, more than nine times higher than the IPO price.
Beyond Meat is now worth more than $14 billion, over twice as much as its most recently announced partner, Dunkin’ Donuts parent company Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. DNKN, +1.66%, which reports earnings Thursday. Beyond Meat’s valuation will be tested with its second-quarter results, but the company has already taken one run through the earnings gauntlet and emerged fresh on the other side: Shares jumped nearly 40% after first-quarter earnings were announced in early June.
See also: Beyond Meat has hit the ‘short-squeeze trifecta’ as borrow fees keep soaring
The next day, fruit is on the menu, along with a much larger valuation. Apple AAPL, +0.35% will report earnings Tuesday afternoon to wrap up Big Tech’s earnings season after Facebook Inc. FB, -0.48% , Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +9.62% GOOG, +10.45% and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -1.56% reported last week. All the Big Tech companies that have reported so far have treated the current antitrust probes differently: Facebook disclosed the larger investigation and its own independent inquiry, while Google mentioned only the larger Justice Department inquiry and Amazon said nothing. Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.82% has stayed out of the headlines after surviving its own antitrust inquiry two decades ago.
This will likely be the final report for Apple before it unveils the next iteration of the iPhone, an event that usually takes place in early September before sales start later that month. Apple is on pace for only the second year of negative sales growth since 2001, and hopes for the next generation of iPhones aren’t that high, as analysts expect a 5G version that could spark a larger refresh in 2020. Apple seemed to get a head start on that last week by agreeing to buy out Intel Corp.’s INTC, -1.09% smartphone-modem business.
Beyond Apple, tech earnings in the coming week will be dominated by chips. After Intel Corp. gave off mixed signals in its report last week, rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, +1.04% will report on Tuesday amid more optimism. AMD launched its new Ryzen 3000 products earlier this month, so the company’s second-half forecast could suggest whether AMD’s 85% stock increase so far in 2019 is warranted.
Qualcomm Inc. QCOM, -0.17% reports Wednesday, after Apple officially announced its move into smartphone modems with the Intel unit’s acquisition, a move that had been rumored heavily since Qualcomm and Apple called off their worldwide fight. It will be the first report since Qualcomm was found by a judge to be in violation of antitrust law, a ruling the company is appealing. Other chip companies on the docket this week include equipment maker Lam Research Inc. LRCX, +0.00% , memory specialist Western Digital Corp. WDC, -0.82% and NXP Semiconductors NV. NXPI, +0.58%
For dessert on Friday, investors get an early-morning taste of Big Oil. Chevron Corp. CVX, -1.52% and Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, -0.16% will report before the bell, with an eye on acquisition of shale assets and U.S. oil demand. ConocoPhillips COP, -0.49% could give a hint about what to expect when it reports on Tuesday.
While a step down from the busiest week of earnings season, the coming week will have the second largest crowd of companies reporting this quarter. Seven of the 30 Dow Jones Industrial DJIA, +0.19% components are scheduled to report — including Apple, Chevron and Exxon — and about 170 S&P 500 index SPX, +0.74% companies are expected to release results, according to FactSet, including a flood of pharmaceutical and tech companies.
Two of the Dow components expected to report this week are large drug companies that will drop results on Tuesday: Pfizer Co. PFE, +0.98% and Merck & Co. Inc. MRK, -0.39% They are far from the only pharmaceutical giants set to report, as there are three more scheduled on the same day in Amgen Inc. AMGN, +0.71% , Eli Lilly & Co. LLY, +0.42% and Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD, +0.90% , with Mylan NV MYL, +0.11% and Humana Inc. HUM, +0.89% set to join the next day.
Early results from drug makers has been strong despite concerns for the sector heading into earnings season. Last week, Abbvie Inc.’s ABBV, +1.65% struggling stock received a boost after its earnings report, cancer treatment Opdivo helped boost Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s BMY, -0.07% results, and Biogen Inc. BIIB, +0.00% beat expectations.
Too busy to get around to mentioning GE
There are plenty of tech earnings beyond Apple and semiconductor companies this week. Like Beyond Meat, Pinterest Inc. PINS, +0.18% will report earnings for a second time following a closely watched IPO. Dow component Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, +1.28% and videogame companies Electronic Arts Inc. EA, +0.39% and Zynga Inc. ZNGA, +1.41% are also expected to report, along with a host of commerce-related tech companies in Square Inc. SQ, +2.24% , Shopify Inc. SHOP, +0.96% , Etsy Inc. ETSY, +3.10% and Wayfair Inc. W, +2.58%
Other big-name reports to watch for include General Electric Co. GE, +0.77% , General Motors Co. GM, +0.05% , Yum Brands Inc. YUM, +1.00% , Proctor & Gamble Co. PG, +1.74% , Mondelez International Inc. MDLZ, +0.74% , Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. MO, +0.54% , Molson Coors Brewing Co. TAP, -0.14% and U.S. Steel Corp. X, -0.59% .