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AutoZone, Costco and JPMorgan are part of Zacks Earnings Preview

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – March 7, 2022 – Zacks.com releases the list of companies likely to issue earnings surprises. This week’s list includes AutoZone (AZO - Free Report) , Costco (COST - Free Report) and JPMorgan (JPM - Free Report) .

Previewing the Q2 2022 Earnings Season

The ongoing Ukraine crisis adds to the market’s existing worries about inflation and supply-chain challenges that have been recurring themes in recent months. The addition of geopolitical tensions to the mix has direct implications for the inflation outlook through higher prices for energy and other commodities.

We knew all along that earnings growth was expected to decelerate significantly in the current and coming quarters, after remaining very strong in the preceding periods. But the outlook for earnings had started easing even before the recent geopolitical developments. We saw this in the revisions trend, which had been mixed at best.

The expectation currently is for 2022 Q1 earnings to be up +3.7% from the same period last year on +9.6% higher revenues. In other words, current bottom-up estimates reflect compression in margins, which is in line with the aforementioned inflationary trends.

Estimates for the Energy sector have been positive, reflecting the rise in oil prices. Had it not been for the positive revisions to the Energy sector, the overall revisions trend for Q1 would be negative. In fact, Q1 earnings growth for the S&P 500 index would be -1.1% on an ex-Energy basis.

For Q1, margins are expected to be below the year-earlier level for 9 of the 16 Zacks sectors, with strong margin gains for three sectors (Energy, Transportation and Basic Materials).

As you can see in the table above, the growth picture has shifted materially for the Finance and Technology sectors, the two biggest earnings contributors to the index. Total Finance sector earnings are expected to be down -16.9% from the same period last year on +2.4% higher revenues, while Tech sector earnings are expected to be down -0.7% in Q1 on +7.5% higher revenues.

The Q1 Earnings Season Scorecard

The Q1 earnings season will really get going when the big banks start reporting their March-quarter results in mid-April. But the early reports have come out already. In fact, the AutoZone and Costco reports in recent days for their fiscal quarters ending in February qualify as early Q1 reports.

We will have seen such Q1 results from almost two dozen S&P 500 members by the time JPMorgan comes out with quarterly results on April 13th.

For a detailed look at the overall earnings picture, including expectations for the coming periods, please check out our weekly Earnings Trends report >>>> Looking Ahead to the 2022 Q1 Earnings Season 

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) - free report >>

Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) - free report >>

AutoZone, Inc. (AZO) - free report >>

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