Media, consumer-based company earnings to test stock rally

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch)—As peak earnings season starts winding down, media companies will figure heavily this week along with results from other consumer-focused companies, testing the fortitude of last week's rally.

Following the Federal Reserve's end of quantitative easing and the Bank of Japan starting its own stimulus plan stocks finished the week at record levels with the Dow Jones Industrial Average












DJIA, +1.13%










and the S&P 500 index












SPX, +1.17%










 reaching new highs, the Nasdaq Composite Index












COMP, +1.41%










 hitting its highest level since March 2000.

So far, quarterly results are going well. With about three-fourths of the S&P 500 having already reported, the blended earnings growth rate is tracking at 7.3%, and 78% of companies have beaten the Wall Street earnings consensus, the highest rate since the second quarter of 2010, according to John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet.

Also, investors are more prone to rewarding those beats than punishing misses, Butters said. On average, companies who have beat this season see their stock up about 2.8% two days later, while companies who miss are seeing their stock down 0.6% in the same period. Over the past five years, earnings beats have been rewarded with a 0.9% gain in stock price, while misses have been punished with a 2.4% decrease, according to FactSet data.

Only one Dow component reports on the week, Walt Disney.

Media companies reporting earnings this week

Report Date	Company/Ticker (FactSet estimated EPS / revenue)
Nov. 4	21st Century Fox Inc. FOXA, -0.23%  (37 cents / $6.25 billion) Discovery Communications Inc. DISCA, -1.64%  (43 cents / $1.59 billion)
Nov. 5	Time Warner Inc. TWX, -0.23%  (94 cents / $6.16 billion) CBS Corp. CBS, +0.61%  (73 cents / $3.32 billion) MarketWatch parent News Corp NWSA, -0.06%  (3 cents / $2.09 billion)
Nov. 6	Walt Disney Co. DIS, +1.29%  (88 cents / $12.36 billion) DirecTV DTV, +1.65%  ($1.30 / $8.3 billion) Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. SNI, +0.93%  (84 cents / $651.5 million) Cablevision Systems Corp. CVC, -0.69%  (18 cents / $1.61 billion)

Some analysts are cautious about media companies going into earnings season.

"We remain cautious on big media space due to worsening fundamentals," said Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz in a recent note. "Most notably, we now believe that digital media is pulling advertising dollars away from national TV. However, most big media stocks have recently pulled back."

Disney may be the most healthy of the bunch since its the most diversified given its theme parks, consumer products and studio assets that help stem worsening TV economics, Creutz notes. Then again, that could also already be baked into Disney's stock price given its one of the best performer in the space this year.

Just over 80 S&P 500 companies report this week with about of a quarter of those companies either in the consumer discretionary or consumer staples sectors.

Consumer staples have kept pace, discretionary not so much.

Both consumer sectors are expected to see the worst earnings growth of the season year-over-year compared with other sectors. The consumer staples sector is expected to see earnings growth of 1.7%, while the consumer discretionary sector is expected to grow by 1.4%, when one excludes home builder PulteGroup, which had a huge gain a year ago from a deferred tax asset valuation allowance, according to FactSet data.

On the revenue side, the sectors stack up a little better with the fifth- and sixth-best expected gains. Revenue for the consumer discretionary sector is expected to rise 3.4%, while consumer staples revenue is projected to rise 3.3%.

Other notable earnings reports this week

Report Date	Company/Ticker (FactSet estimated EPS / revenue)
Nov. 3	Sysco Corp. SYY, -0.08%  (51 cents / $12.38 billion) Herbalife Ltd. HLF, +3.76%  ($1.51 / $1.32 billion) American International Group Inc. AIG, +1.21%  ($1.09 / $8.79 billion) Sprint Corp. (loss of 10 cents / $8.81 billion)
Nov. 4	CVS Health Corp. CVS, +0.30%  ($1.13 / $34.72 billion) Priceline Group Inc. PCLN, +5.20%  ($21.08 / $2.83 billion) TripAdvisor Inc. TRIP, +2.72%  (60 cents / $348.9 million) Liberty Media Corp. LMCA, +2.13%  (29 cents / $1.19 billion) Burger King Worldwide Inc. BKW, +2.00%  (27 cents / $281.4 million) Time Inc. TIME, +0.89%  (36 cents / $817.6 million) Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. KORS, +0.89%  (89 cents / $978.3 million)
Nov. 5	Whole Foods Market Inc. WFM, +1.44%  (32 cents / $3.26 billion) Qualcomm Inc. QCOM, +1.47%  ($1.31 / $7.03 billion) Mondelez International Inc. MDLZ, +0.30%  (39 cents / $8.38 billion) Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA, +1.27%  (break-even / $894.6 million) Actavis PLC ACT, -0.19%  ($3.11 / $3.62 billion)
Nov. 6	Prudential Financial Inc. PRU, +1.20%  ($2.41 / $11.33 billion) First Solar Inc. FSLR, +4.99%  (63 cents / $1.05 billion) Molson Coors Brewing Co. TAP, +2.00%  ($1.48 / $1.17 billion) Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. LGF, +0.15%  (13 cents / $522.8 million) Wendy's Co. WEN, +0.12%  (9 cents / $514.7 million)
Nov. 7	Humana Inc. HUM, +1.22%  ($2.01 / $12.27 billion) Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.B, +0.44%  ($1.71 Class B shares / $51.33 billion)

Here's what to look for in from earnings from AIG, Michael Kors, Priceline, and Tesla Motors.