Monday, July 20, 2020
We’ve got a busy week in store for the markets, as some of the top tech names like Microsoft MSFT and Twitter TWTR report Q2 earnings, but we start off relatively quieter. We don’t see any major economic reports until Thursday’s weekly Jobless Claims data hits the tape. And while earnings season does heat up this week, after the bell today the headline company is IBM IBM, which always modestly beats estimates but has become something of a dinosaur among tech firms.
Chevron CVX finally gets its coveted assets in the Texas Permian with its buyout of Noble Energy NBL, worth a total enterprise value of $13 billion — $5 billion in assets and the remainder in company debt — and a buyout price under $11 per share. Considering Noble had been trading upwards of $80 per share just a few short years ago, but the high leveraged position put the stock in a troubled position. Chevron is only up a few pennies in the pre-market, while Noble suitably grew more than 10% on the news.
Lawn mower gas engine maker Briggs & Stratton BGG has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, moving its assets to KPS Capital Partners. In August of last year, the Milwaukee-based industrial firm missed its earnings estimate badly, slashed its dividend yield and closed a manufacturing plant. From that point forward it’s been tough for the company, whose shares had been trading down since the early February selloff ahead of the pandemic hitting the U.S. Shares are down 29% in the pre-market.
For Q2 earnings news ahead of Monday’s open, oilfield services major Halliburton HAL swung to a positive 5 cents per share from an expected -0.11 cents, though revenues of $3.20 billion came in a bit shy of the Zacks consensus. This marks the 8th straight positive earnings surprise for the company on its mixed Q2 results. Shares are up more than 6% in today’s pre-market on the earnings release. For more on HAL’s earnings, click here.
HVAC giant Lennox Industries LII posted solid numbers on its Q2 report: $2.97 per share was well ahead of the $2.62 expected, on $941.3 million that easily surpassed the $882.7 million consensus. However, these numbers are well off the year-ago pace of $3.74 per share on $1.1 billion in sales. Lennox is now trading roughly dead even with its stock price at the start of 2020. For more on LII’s earnings, click here.
Employment services specialist ManpowerGroup MAN put up mixed numbers in its Q2 earnings season, beating on the top line by 5 cents to 18 cents per share on $3.74 billion in revenues, a little under the $3.8 billion expected. Both figures are way down from the year-ago quarter, and shares had been down 25% year to date. For more on MAN’s earnings, click here.
Mark Vickery
Senior Editor
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