This week marks one of the busiest for the earnings season with hundreds of companies in the S&P 500 reporting quarterly results before or after market close. This includes five of the Magnificent Seven stocks, which will report quarterly results on Wednesday and Thursday after market close.
Here’s a look at recent earnings estimates, what to watch and how five of the largest companies reporting earnings within 24 to 48 hours of each other could impact the market.
Magnificent Week For Earnings
Investors will be paying close attention to the following stocks, with earnings tracked on Benzinga Pro.
- Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT): Wednesday, April 29, after market close
- Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN): Wednesday, April 29, after market close
- Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META): Wednesday April 29, after market close
- Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL): Wednesday, April 29, after market close
- Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL): Thursday, April 30, after market close
Together, the five stocks make up 24.1% of the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY), with the following weightings:
- Apple: #2, 6.5%
- Microsoft: #3, 5.1%
- Amazon.com: #4, 4.2%
- Alphabet: #5, 3.3% (GOOGL), #7, 2.6% (GOOG)
- Meta: #8, 2.4%
This means that the five stocks reporting on Wednesday and Thursday make up nearly one quarter of the assets of the S&P 500, one of the most widely recognized stock market indexes.
Three of the five stocks are also holdings in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with Microsoft, Amazon and Apple included in that market index. Those three stocks make up around 12% of the State Street SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE:DIA).
The five earnings reports could have a big impact on the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, technology ETFs and several overall sectors, with the earnings and guidance potentially making technology, semiconductor and other sectors volatile.
What Investors Should Expect
“Considering we are dealing with the top market caps in the world — which make up roughly 25% of the S&P 500, their price impact will move the markets,” Freedom Capital Markets Chief Market Strategist Jay Woods said in a weekly newsletter.
Woods said the recent theme for the megacaps, such as these five stocks, has been that “good is not good enough.”
“It’s about the guide and magnitude of the beat.”
Woods said all five of the above stocks have rallied ahead of earnings, which could mean good news is already baked into shares.
Meta Earnings
Woods said the top items to watch are the company’s CapEx spending and recent news of more layoffs.
“Has their current AI spend started to see a return on its investment?” Woods asks.
The company has beaten analyst estimates for earnings per share in 12 straight quarters and beaten revenue estimates in 14 straight quarters.
Microsoft Earnings
Woods said investors will be looking at Azure growth and Copilot.
“Azure growth has been solid, but not strong enough to keep investors’ recent disdain for software stocks at bay,” Woods said
The company has beaten analyst estimates for earnings per share in 14 straight quarters and beaten revenue estimates in 12 straight quarters.
Amazon Earnings
Woods said Amazon stock has fallen after four of its last five quarterly reports.
“Watch their e-commerce and consumer trends. This will give a better gauge to see if new spending habits are impacting the bottom line as expectations of tariffs remain a concern,” Wood said.
The company missed estimates for earnings per share in the most recent quarter, but has beaten estimates in nine of the past 10 quarters overall. For revenue, the company has beaten analyst estimates in six straight quarters and in nine of the past 10 quarters overall.
Alphabet Earnings
Woods said a key to watch is Google Cloud growth and if this segment is seeing AI demand and its investments are turning into real revenue.
The company has beaten analyst estimates for earnings per share in 12 straight quarters. For revenue, Alphabet has beaten estimates in four straight quarters and in nine of the past 10 quarters overall.
Apple Earnings
Woods said investors will be watching iPhone and Services growth, along with potential weakness from China and a lack of updates on AI strategies and monetization efforts. The market expert said questions about new CEO John Ternus could dominate the conference call, with analysts trying to gauge future products and AI plans.
Apple has beaten analyst estimates for earnings per share in 12 straight quarters and beaten revenue estimates in 12 straight quarters.
Magnificent Seven Stock Performance
Here are the current year-to-date and one-year stock performances for the five Magnificent Seven stocks reporting this week, as of Monday morning:
- Microsoft: YTD -11.2%, 1-Year +7.4%
- Amazon.com: YTD +16.2%, 1-Year +40.2%
- Meta: YTD +4.0%, 1-Year +23.0%
- Alphabet: YTD +9.3%, 1-Year +114.5%
- Apple: YTD -1.4%, 1-Year +27.2%
Image via Shutterstock
Recent Comments