Earnings Expectations for the Week of November 14

Much of the focus this week will be on retailers. The wave started with last week's strong results from Dillard's DDS, Kohl's KSS and Macy's M. Nordstrom JWN posted solid results as well. On the schedule for this week are Abercrombie & Fitch, ANF, Home Depot HD, Walmart WMT and many others. Also, Dell DELL leads off a handful of tech company results. The world's largest retailer, Walmart, is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results on Tuesday. Analysts are looking for the company to post per-share earnings that are 8% higher year over year, or $0.98. And for the three months during which the retailer announced a $13 billion global capital expenditure plan for next year, revenues are expected to total $107.9 billion. That would be an increase of 5.9% from a year ago. Analysts so far predict that full-year EPS will be up more than 9% and sales more than 5% higher. Note that EPS have been better than expected in the past three quarters. The share price is more than 18% higher than three months ago and the stock is trading near the 52-week high. Over the past six months, the stock has outperformed competitors Costco COST and Target TGT. Home Depot was one of Jim Cramer's picks last week. When the big-box home improvement store operator posts its third-quarter results on Tuesday, it is expected to offer up $0.58 per share earnings on $17.1 billion in revenues. A year ago, earnings were $0.51 per share and revenues totaled $16.6 billion. In the past five quarters, Home Depot earnings have topped consensus estimates by a penny or three per share. EPS are forecast to grow more than 13% over the next five years. The share price is almost 22% higher than three months ago and approaching the 52-week high. Over the past six months, the stock also has outperformed competitor Lowe's LOW, as well as the broader markets. The consensus forecast for Abercrombie & Fitch, which recently saw shares sink on news of sluggish overseas sales, calls for $0.71 per share earnings in Wednesday's report. That would be 21.1% higher than in the third quarter a year ago. Revenues are expected to have jumped 21.1% to $1.1 billion for the period. Note that analysts have underestimated Abercrombie's per-share earnings in the past five quarters. The long-range EPS growth forecast is 20.4%. The share price is more than 17% lower than a month ago but still more than 25% higher than a year ago. Because of the recent pullback, the stock has underperformed competitors such as Aeropostale ARO and the Gap GPS over the past six months. Other retailers expected to post earnings growth this week include America's Car-Mart CRMT, Ann ANN, Children's Place PLCE, Dick's Sporting Goods DKS, Dollar Tree DLTR, Foot Locker FL, GameStop GME, Lowe's LOW, PetSmart PETM, Ross Stores ROST, Shoe Carnival SCVL, Staples SPLS, Target TGT, TJX Companies TJX and Williams-Sonoma WSM. Analysts expect earnings to be lower for the Gap GPS and Urban Outfitters URBN. And Bon-Ton Stores BONT, JCPenney JCP and Sears Holdings SHLD are expected to post a net loss. Fiscal third-quarter results from Dell will highlight this coming week's tech results. During the three months that ended in October, the computer maker's board authorized an additional $5 billion in share buybacks, and the company completed its acquisition of Fource10 Networks. On Tuesday, the Texas-based company is expected to post $0.47 per share earnings for the quarter, on revenues of $15.6 billion. That compares to earnings of $0.45 per share and $15.4 billion in revenues a year ago. EPS have topped consensus estimates in recent quarters, but only by a penny per share in the second quarter. The full-year forecast calls for EPS up 20.9% and revenues up only 1.7%. The share price has pulled back about 6% in the past month but is still more than 14% higher than a year ago. Over the past six months, the stock's performance had been in line with the Nasdaq, but it has underperformed IBM IBM. This week, analysts are also looking for earnings growth from Agilent Technologies A, Autodesk ADSK, NetApp NTAP and NetEast.com NTES. Earnings from Applied Materials AMAT, Marvell Technology MRVL and Salesforce.com CRM are expected to have slipped year over year, while Intuit INTU is expected to post a net loss. Other companies scheduled to report this week include J.M. Smucker SJM and H.J. Heinz HNZ, both of which are anticipated to report marginal growth in EPS from a year ago.