American Staples Earnings Preview: Low Expectations For Coca-Cola, Disney

• Two more Dow components are scheduled to report earnings this week.
• Both of them are expected to show a decline in earnings from a year ago.
• Only one of them has regularly exceed consensus earnings estimates in the past few quarters.

Most of the Dow Jones Industrial Average components have already reported their most recent earnings, but two more will be taking their turns in the spotlight this week: The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO) and Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS).

The Wall Street consensus forecasts call for earnings that are smaller than a year ago from both companies. This was for the period when Coca-Cola announced that CEO Ahmet Muhtar Kent would step down, and Disney's new Star Wars movie performed well at the box office.

Coke

When Coca-Cola shares its fourth-quarter results, analysts on average predict that its earnings per share will have dropped by a penny from a year ago to $0.37. Also, the $9.14 billion in expected revenue would be more than 8 percent lower. Note that this Atlanta-based company has exceeded consensus EPS estimates by a penny or so in the past five quarters.

The forecast from 50 Estimize respondents is essentially the same, with EPS expected to come in at $0.37. That would be the lowest figure in the past two years. The consensus revenue estimate for the three months that ended in December is $9.16 billion, which would likewise be the lowest level in two years.

Disney

Wall Street's consensus forecast for Disney calls for EPS to have slipped from $1.63 in the same period of last year to $1.50. Note that the entertainment giant has fallen short analysts' EPS expectations in two of the past four quarters. The 144 Estimize respondents have a consensus estimate of $1.51 per share for the three months that ended in December.

Estimize underestimated revenue in the previous quarter, and this time the respondents are looking for $15.32 billion, which would be the highest reading in the past eight quarters. It compares with the Wall Street consensus forecast for the fiscal first quarter of $15.26 billion, which would be essentially flat year over year.

Disney is scheduled to report its latest results after the closing bell on Tuesday, while Coca-Cola is expected to share its numbers first thing Thursday morning.

Best Of The Rest

Plenty of other consumer favorites are expected to report this week, even as the earnings season begins to wind down. Wall Street anticipates smaller earnings from Activision Blizzard, Buffalo Wild Wings, CenturyLink, Coty, General Motors, Goodyear Tire, Hasbro, Regal Entertainment, Twitter, Viacom, Vista Outdoor and Whole Foods Market as well.

Pandora Media will report a net loss, if the analysts are correct.

However, at least some growth on the bottom line is expected at CVS Health, Dunkin' Brands, Expedia, Kellogg, Michael Kors, Mondelez International, Newell Brands, O'Reilly Automotive, Pilgrim's Pride, Take-Two Interactive Software, Time Warner, Twenty-First Century Fox, Tyson Foods, Yelp and Yum Brands.

Quarterly reports due out the following week include those from Campbell Soup, CBS, Cisco, Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo and T-Mobile.

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