Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Q3 Earnings Mixed

Read MoreHide Full Article

The only expected economic data for today comes after the opening bell this morning: PMI Manufacturing and Services, both for the current month. We also look for New Home Sales figures for September after the bell this morning, with an expected dip from last month’s read of 629K sales of new homes.

But as we enter the thick of earnings season, we focus here for our data — as well as our fortunes in the stock market:

Pre-market futures swung from negative to positive directly following Q3 earnings results from Boeing Corp. (BA - Free Report) , which handily beat estimates by 3.77% to $3.58 per share. Revenues of $25.15 billion in the quarter represented a positive surprise of 6%. At this hour, Boeing is single-handedly keeping the Dow Jones in the green, with shares up 3.8% so far in the pre-market.

The aerospace major was already up nearly 19% year to date, well outperforming the S&P 500 over that time period. The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company (with Zacks Style Score of A) may be looking at upwardly revised estimates for full-year 2018, which would push up its Zacks Rank (stay tuned). The company has only missed earnings estimates twice since Q2 2016. For more on BA’s earnings, click here.

On the flip side, AT&T (T - Free Report)  completed its Q3 with an earnings miss by 3 cents to 90 cents per share. This is well up from the year-ago 74 cents per share, and revenues narrowly eked out a beat to $45.74 billion. Though the quarter felt the pressure from AT&T’s major acquisition of Time Warner for $85 billion in the quarter, this is also the company’s third miss in its last five quarters. Shares are down 3.8% in the pre-market. For more on T’s earnings, click here.

Even things out a bit, delivery and logistics giant United Parcel Service (UPS - Free Report)  met earnings estimates of $1.82 per share. Revenues of $17.44 billion in the quarter represent a “beat” of 0.2%; call this a meet across the board. UPS has only missed earnings estimates once since Q2 2014. In the pre-market, shares are trading down 4.2%, basically matching the -4.1% for the stock year to date. For more on UPS’ earnings, click here.

Defense major Northrop Grumman (NOC - Free Report) , on the other hand, blew away estimates on the bottom line: $6.54 per share walloped the $4.35 expected for a 50% beat. This is also an impressive earnings gain of 77.7% year over year. Revenues of $8.09 billion also outpaced estimates by a full percentage point. And pre-market traders are rewarding its strong Q3 results, pushing the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock up 2.2% ahead of the bell. For more on NOC’s earnings, click here.

And Boston Scientific (BSX - Free Report) , a big player in the MedTech segment, released a mixed earnings report this morning, topping earnings estimates by a penny to 35 cents per share on sales of $2.39 billion which barely missed the Zacks consensus by 0.6%. Combine this with the company’s imnpressive 45.3% gains year to date, and it’s not hard to see why shares are down 2.86% at this hour of the pre-market. For more on BSX’s earnings, click here.

Published in