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The Earnings Story So Far & What To Watch During Q4 Report Season

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On today’s episode of Free Lunch, Ryan McQueeney recaps Netflix’s subscription price hike and earnings results from Delta, UnitedHealth, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan. Later, he chats with Dave Bartosiak about bank earnings and how investors can profit throughout the Q4 report season.

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Free Lunch is presented by Zacks Investment Research. It is streamed live, four times per week, and features breaking news and analysis from Zacks strategists. Free Lunch is available on YouTube, Twitter, and other major streaming platforms.

Several of Wall Street’s trendiest stocks were grabbing headlines this morning, including Netflix (NFLX - Free Report) . Shares of the video streaming company surged in early trading, as management announced that it is raising prices by roughly 15%. The move marks Netflix’s largest price increase in the video streaming era, and investors are clearly welcoming the hike as a way to fund content and pay down debt. Plus, in the past, price hikes have had little impact on subscriber growth and retention.

Exactly what type of impact Netflix’s increase will have on its financial results still remains to be seen, however. Right now, Wall Street is also busy dealing with a plethora of fresh data from companies that are reporting their actual Q4 earnings results.

Notably, Delta Airlines (DAL - Free Report) moved slightly lower after posting lower-than-expected sales and warning that the partial government shutdown hurt its January revenue as well. UnitedHealth (UNH - Free Report) , on the other hand, saw its stock move higher on the back of a solid earnings beat and reaffirmed 2019 guidance.

Results from big banks also continued to pour in on Tuesday morning, with JPMorgan (JPM - Free Report) and Wells Fargo (WFC - Free Report) joining the fray just one day after Citigroup (C - Free Report) managed to impress despite weaker fixed-income trading revenue.

Wells Fargo was able to beat bottom-line estimates by four cents at $1.21 per share in earnings, but the company announced that its Federal Reserve-mandated cap on growth would extend several months longer than previously expected. Meanwhile, JPMorgan faced its own issues, missing EPS estimate for the first time in 15 quarters thanks to choppy results in fixed-income and private equity.

On the first half of today’s show, Ryan recaps all of these major stories. Later, he is joined by Dave Bartosiak to further discuss the Q4 results we have seen so far as well as to prepare investors for the upcoming busy stretch of the reporting season.

Dave runs the Zacks Surprise Trader portfolio, which seeks to find stocks that are best positioned to beat estimates and move higher after their reports. He brings years of experience to the table and always prepares for earnings season with sound strategies that can help investors profit.

What is Dave expecting to see this time around? How can investors make money as hundreds of companies prepare to file their latest results? Make sure to check out today’s show to find out!

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