Earnings Expectations for the Week of March 18

Here is a quick look at what analysts expect to see from FedEx FDX, Oracle ORCL, Nike NKE and some of the other most prominent quarterly reports scheduled for this week. FedEx Third-quarter fiscal 2013 earnings from this ostensible economic bellwether are expected to come to $1.39 per share, on revenues of $10.85 billion. In the same quarter of the previous year, the delivery and freight services giant exceeded consensus earnings per share (EPS) estimates when it posted $1.55 per share and $10.56 billion in revenue. The consensus EPS estimate for the third quarter has not changed in the past 60 days. Note though that earnings fell short of analysts' expectations in the second quarter, ending a six-quarter streak of earnings beats. The company is scheduled to share its results Wednesday before the markets open. Oracle For its third quarter of fiscal 2013, Oracle, the third largest software maker by revenue, is expected to post earnings of $0.66 per share, while revenues totaled $9.38 billion. That would be up from EPS of $0.62 and $9.06 billion in sales the company posted in the same quarter of last year. Here too, the consensus EPS estimate not changed in the past 60 days. Oracle's EPS fell short of consensus expectations in just one of the past 10 quarters. The beat in the second quarter was by almost 10 percent. Look for the earnings report Wednesday afternoon. Nike Fiscal third-quarter earnings from Nike are forecast to come to $0.67 per share in Thursday afternoon's report. In the same quarter of last year, the company topped EPS estimates when it posted $0.60 per share. The third-quarter estimate is unchanged from 60 days ago, and Nike fell short of analysts' expectations in just one of the past six quarters. Quarterly revenues from the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel are predicted to total $6.23 billion. That would be more than six percent higher than in the same period of last year. And so far, analysts expect sequential and year-over-year revenue growth in the current quarter. Tiffany Per-share earnings of $1.35 per for the fourth quarter and $3.21 per share for the full year are anticipated when luxury goods purveyor Tiffany TIF shares its results Thursday before the opening bell. That would be down year-over-year by about two percent for the quarter and more than 10 percent for the year. And note that analysts overestimated Tiffany's earnings in the past four quarters. Revenues are forecast to have grown year-over-year, more than five percent to $1.25 billion for the quarter that included the holiday shopping season, and more than four percent to $3.80 billion for the full year. General Mills In its report Wednesday morning, General Mills GIS is expected to say that its fiscal third-quarter earnings rose more than three percent from the year-ago period to $0.57 per share. That consensus estimate is unchanged from 60 days ago, but analysts underestimated the company's per-share earnings in the previous three periods. Quarterly revenues from the company behind Betty Crocker and the Jolly Green Giant are forecast to total $4.36 billion, which would be almost six percent higher than a year ago. So far, sales for the current quarter are forecast to be about the same as in the third quarter, while they are expected to be up about six percent for the year. Darden Restaurants Darden Restaurants DRI, which operates the Red Lobster, Olive Garden and other chains, is expected to report Friday morning that for its fiscal third quarter it saw a profit of $1.01 per share on revenue of $2.26 billion. That compares to the EPS of $1.25 and sales of $2.16 billion reported in the same period of the previous year. However, the company has not fallen short of consensus EPS estimates in the past ten quarters. In addition, so far the full-year forecast calls for a decline in earnings but revenue growth of more than six percent, relative to the previous year. Lennar Miami-based home builder Lennar LEN is expected to report early Wednesday that for its first quarter of fiscal 2013 it had a profit of $0.16 per share. That would be up from $0.08 per share in the same period of the previous year, but it is less than the consensus first-quarter estimate of $0.20 per share from 60 days ago. Analysts on average expect quarterly revenues for the period that saw strong signs of a housing recovery to total $897.99 million. That would be a jump of almost 24 percent from the same period a year ago. And Others Other companies scheduled to report this week include Ross Stores ROST, Silver Wheaton SLW and Williams-Sonoma WSM, which are forecast to post year-over-year EPS growth, as well as Adobe Systems ADBE, Cascade CASC, Guess GES and Jabil Circuit JBL, which are expected to say their earnings declined.