Pre-Christmas Earnings Coming From Nike, Micron And Few Others

• Wall Street is looking for solid quarterly results from Nike this week.
• Expectations are lower for earnings from Micron Technology.
• ConAgra Foods and Paychex are on deck ahead of the holiday too.

In the holiday shortened week, there are just a few earnings reports of note on the calendar.

The most prominent are Nike Inc NKE and Micron Technology, Inc. MU, though the consensus expectations for them from Wall Street analysts are very different. Solid growth on the top and bottom lines is forecast for the sportswear giant, but earnings and revenue at the tech company are believed to have tumbled from a year ago.

Also on tap this week are the latest quarterly results from ConAgra Foods Inc CAG and Paychex, Inc. PAYX. Here too, Wall Street expectations for the packaged foods giant and the payroll services company are quite different.

Below is a quick look at what is expected from these reports and a peek at what's coming up.

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ConAgra Foods

Wall Street's fiscal second-quarter forecast for this maker of Chef Boyardee, Peter Pan and many other brands calls for earnings per share to have ticked down by a penny year-over-year to $0.60. And 15 Estimize respondents predict it will be another penny lower still at $0.59 per share.

Revenue fell well short of consensus forecasts in the previous period. This time, Estimize is looking for $3.43 billion, a bit more optimistic than the $3.34 billion Wall Street expects, a more than 19 percent drop year-on-year. ConAgra is scheduled to report Tuesday morning.

Micron Technology

In its report late Tuesday, this semiconductor maker is expected to report that EPS came to $0.32 for the three months that ended in November, according the consensus of 56 Estimize estimates. That would be a big drop from the $0.97 per share in the year-ago period. Wall Street is only looking for $0.23 EPS.

The Estimize consensus sees revenue totaling $3.63 billion for the fiscal first quarter, which would be more than 20 percent lower, relative to the same period of last year. Note that Wall Street is more pessimistic here too, with a consensus forecast of just $3.46 billion.

Nike

This sportswear giant will post EPS of $0.89 for its fiscal second quarter, if Estimize's consensus forecast is accurate. That would be more than 13 percent higher than a year ago. The Wall Street EPS forecast is $0.03 less, though Nike handily topped estimates from both Wall Street and Estimize last quarter.

The 209 Estimize respondents believe revenue for the three months that ended in November will be about $7.84 billion. Wall Street is a little more negative here too, and again they both underestimated revenue in the previous period. Nike will post its financial results after Tuesday's closing bell.

Paychex

When this HR services provider shares its results early Tuesday, the consensus forecasts of Wall Street and Estimze are that it will show a profit of $0.51 per share for the fiscal second quarter. That would be up from $0.47 EPS in the same period of last year. Its earnings topped expectations in the first quarter.

The company's revenue for the three months that ended in November will be $726.34 million, or up more than 7 percent year-over-year, if 17 survey respondents are correct. Note that Paychex revenue has grown sequentially in six of the past seven periods.

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And Others

This week, at least some growth on the bottom line is coming from Cal-Maine Foods, Cintas and Steelcase, if Wall Street expectations come true. Piedmont Natural Gas is expected to post a net loss.

No earnings of note are scheduled for the week after Christmas, but watch for upcoming quarterly reports from Bed Bath & Beyond, Monsanto, Walgreens and more after the beginning of the new year.

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