Analysts See Better Earnings Coming By Land Or By Air?

• Two transportation giants are expected to report their latest quarterly results this week.
• Wall Street analysts are looking for earnings growth from only one of them.
• Some big banks are scheduled to report earnings this week as well.

The new earnings season kicks off this week, and among the earliest to report their first-quarter results will be transportation giants CSX Corporation CSX and Delta Air Lines, Inc. DAL. Wall Street analysts expect strong bottom-line results from the Atlanta-based airline, but a modest earnings decline from the Florida-based rail giant, judging by the consensus forecasts. However, top-line weakness is expected from both of them. Below is a glance at what analysts expect from the reports of CSX and Delta Air. That is followed by a quick peek at some of the week's other most prominent earnings reports.

CSX

Wall Street's consensus forecast for this transporter of agricultural, consumer and industrial products and much more calls for earnings per share (EPS) to have slipped eight cents from the year-ago period to $0.37. The consensus of 17 Estimize respondents sees two cents more, though Estimze has overestimated EPS in the past few quarters. Estimize predicts that revenue will total around $2.71 billion, which would be more than 11 percent lower than in the same period of last year. Wall Street is a bit more pessimistic, expecting the lowest quarterly revenue in the past two years. CSX is scheduled to report after the closing bell on Tuesday. See also: Big Banks In The Spotlight As New Earnings Season Begins

Delta Air

When one of the oldest operating airlines shares its results early Thursday, the Wall Street forecast is that it will post EPS of $1.30 for the most recent quarter. That would be up from $0.45 per share in the same period of last year, and it is in line with the consensus expectations of 44 Estimize respondents. However, note that both Wall Street and Estimize slightly overestimated earnings in the previous period. Revenue for the three months that ended in March will total $9.26 billion, which would be less than 2 percent lower year over year, if the Wall Street analysts and Estimze estimate are correct. That also would be the lowest quarter revenue results in the past year and a half.

And Others

Other companies that Wall Street analysts expect to show at least some earnings growth when they report this week include Fastenal, Infosys and Progressive. On the other hand, EPS at Alcoa, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan, PNC Financial and Wells Fargo will be smaller than a year ago, if the consensus forecasts are correct. In the following week, the new earnings season ramps up, with results expected from American Express, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, General Electric, General Motors, Google, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald's, Microsoft, Netflix, PepsiCo, Philip Morris, Starbucks, Verizon, Yahoo and many more. At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities. Keep up with all the latest breaking news and trading ideas by following Benzinga on Twitter.