This week will be a focus week for retail earnings for the S&P 500, as nine of the 43 companies in the index scheduled to report earnings are retailers. As of today, which retailers in the S&P 500 have reported or are projected to report the highest earnings growth for the fourth quarter?
In terms of year-over-year earnings growth, 10 of the 13 retail sub-industries in the S&P 500 have reported or are predicted to report growth in earnings for the fourth quarter, led by the General Merchandise Stores (32.8%) and Home Improvement Retail (18.0%) sub-industries.
Within the General Merchandise Stores sub-industry, Target is predicted to be the largest contributor to earnings growth for the sub-industry. The mean EPS estimate for the company for Q4 2014 is $1.46, compared to year-ago EPS of $0.90. Excluding Target, the earnings growth rate for the sub-industry falls to 4.5% from 32.8%. Target is scheduled to report earnings for Q4 on February 25.
Within the Home Improvement Retail sub-industry, both Home Depot and Lowe’s Companies are projected to report double-digit growth in EPS. The mean EPS estimate for Home Depot for Q4 is $0.89, compared to year-ago EPS of $0.73. The mean EPS estimate for Lowe’s Companies is $0.43, compared to year-ago EPS of $0.31. Both companies are schedule to report earnings for Q4 this week. Home Depot is scheduled to release results on February 24, while Lowe’s Companies is scheduled to release results on February 25.