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Banks Continue Q4 Earnings Strength, Netflix After the Bell

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Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Q4 earnings season continues before the bell today with more results from the finance sector. Typically kicking off each earnings season and with an outsized level of revenues of the S&P 500 index overall, closely monitoring banking stocks’ earnings is an essential way to track how any particular earnings season is transpiring in the early going.

Following strong numbers from JPMorgan (JPM - Free Report) last week and Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) yesterday, Goldman Sachs (GS - Free Report) , Citigroup (C - Free Report) and US Bancorp (USB - Free Report) have all reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings. Goldman blew the doors off expectations at $5.08 per share on $8.17 billion in revenues ($4.76 per share and $7.43 billion were expected). Citi’s $1.14 per share beat estimates by 2 cents while US Bank’s 82 cents per share topped by a penny. USB also beat revenue estimates by reporting $5.44 billion ($5,35 billion expected), whereas Citi’s $17.0 billion was in-line with the Zacks estimate.

The banking sector remains among the top-rated in the Zacks Industry Rank, and most of the high-profile stocks within are Zacks Rank Buys (#1 or #2). That said, in the wake of the months-long Trump Rally (ahead of the incoming president’s inauguration this Friday), the Zacks Style Scores for these companies have plummeted. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley currently have Value/Growth/Momentum scores of D, while JPMorgan and US Bank are rated F. Only Citigroup has a passing grade of B.

After the bell today, Netflix (NFLX - Free Report) begins Q4 earnings reportage of the FANG stocks. A fellow stock that has seen a major boost in share price since Trump’s surprise election victory, the streaming entertainment service major also holds a Zacks Style Score of F ahead of its earnings report. The Zacks consensus (accounting for stock-based compensation and other before-nonrecurring-items) is for 13 cents per share and $2.47 billion in sales for Q4.

If you’re interested in options plays to make on Netflix’s earnings, Zacks Strategist Dave Bartosiak’s video on the company is something you should not miss: check it out here.

Mark Vickery
Senior Editor

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