Earnings Previews: Activision Blizzard, Devon Energy, Invitae, Lyft, Skillz

More than 1,500 publicly traded companies are scheduled to report March quarter earnings this week, with heavy representation from energy exploration and production companies. Other top brands like Google, Ferrari, Pfizer, and T-Mobile are on deck as well.

Looking at companies reporting earnings following Monday’s closing bell and before markets open again Tuesday morning, we have previewed Ballard Power, CVS, Pfizer, SolarEdge and Under Armour.

The five companies previewed in this story are scheduled to report earnings after Tuesday’s closing bell.

Activision Blizzard

Game developer Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) posted a share price increase of 57.3% last year, but the price has dipped by less than 1% so far in 2021. Analysts at Jefferies recently maintained their Buy rating on the stock and a price target of $120. The medium-term future may be even brighter, according to Jefferies: “For the first time in a decade, we expect to see several consecutive years of top line growth and an even faster bottom line rate.”

Analysts, in general, are upbeat on the stock, with 20 of 27 rating the shares a Buy or Strong Buy. At a recent trading price of around $91.70, the stock’s upside potential is 23.6% at a consensus price target of $113.29 and 37.4% at a high target of $126.

Analysts expect Activision to post March quarter earnings per share (EPS) of $0.70, which is up more than 20% year over year, on a sales hike of 16.9% to $1.78 billion. For the full 2021 fiscal year, the consensus forecast calls for EPS of $3.65 (up 5.2%) on sales of $8.55 billion, or 1.5% higher.

At the current trading price, Activision trades at 24.9 times expected 2021 EPS, 21.3 times estimated 2022 earnings and 20.0 times estimated 2023 earnings. The stock’s 52-week trading range is $65.23 to $104.53, and the company pays an annual dividend of $0.47 (yield of 0.52%). Average daily trading volume is 5.8 million shares.

Devon Energy

One of the country’s 10 largest independent oil and gas producers, Devon Energy Inc. (NYSE: DVN) updated its first-quarter guidance in late March, noting that it expected to take a hit to production of about 8% due to the impact of the freezing weather in Texas. Devon also will not include the effect of an asset sale nor the effects of an acquisition that occurred prior to the January 7 closing. Expenses were forecast to rise by 5% as well.

Analysts had mostly priced all this in, along with higher oil and gas prices, of course. Of 32 brokerages covering the firm, 23 rated the stock a Buy or Strong Buy. The stock trades at around $23.35, about 32% below the consensus price target of $30.77 and 88% below the high target of $44.

Consensus estimates call for EPS of $0.33 and revenue of $2.21 billion, up about 61% and 5.8%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of last year. For the full year, Devon is forecast to post EPS of $1.94, sharply higher than the loss per share of $0.09 in 2020.

Devon’s stock trades at 12.2 times expected 2021 EPS, 9.0 times estimated 2022 earnings and 8.4 times estimated 2023 earnings. The stock’s 52-week range is $7.73 to $26.13. Devon pays an annual dividend of $0.63 (yield of 2.62%). Average daily trading volume is 11.6 million shares.

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