3 Stocks To Watch In The Coming Week: Walmart, NVIDIA, Alibaba
Investing.com | Aug 16, 2020 03:40AM ET
With the S&P 500 having fully recovered its losses since the March dip, investors are now searching for new catalysts that could continue to fuel this unprecedented rally.
There's likely more upside for US stocks as investors factor in American economic growth prospects and the COVID-19 vaccine outlook, according to Goldman Sachs Group. Equities closed higher last week, as the S&P 500 flirted with record levels that had been hit in February. The benchmark index ended the week up 0.6% at 3,372.
According to Bloomberg data, it took just 175 days for the index to go from peak to trough to peak, a recovery that has come faster than any comparable one in the past.
Next week, even with some high profile companies releasing earnings, US-China tensions and coronavirus updates will likely grab the spotlight. Nonetheless, here are three stocks worth keeping on your radar:
h2 1. Walmart/h2America’s largest retailer, Walmart (NYSE:WMT), will report Q2 earnings on Tuesday, Aug. 18 before the market opens. Consensus anticipates EPS of $1.25 on revenue of $135.29 billion.
The retailer is getting a major boost from the current, coronavirus environment, where consumers are mostly working from home, consuming more groceries and household essentials. Factors like these have helped push Walmart's same-store sales up 10% in the first-quarter with the average expenditure higher by 16%.
Walmart's large brick-and-mortar presence, along with its rapidly expanding e-commerce positioning is also helping the retailer to further expand its appeal during the coronavirus pandemic. Walmart’s e-commerce sales in the US surged 74% in the first quarter, which ended April 30.
With the expectation the Bentonville Arkansas-based retailer will report strong quarterly earnings and growing online sales, investors have pushed WMT shares up 12% this year. The stock closed up 0.6% on Friday at $132.60.
h2 2. NVIDIA/h2One of the world's largest chipmakers, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), reports Q2 2021 earnings on Wednesday, Aug. 19 after the market close. Analysts are expecting EPS of $1.98 a share on revenues of $3.65 billion.
After soaring 76% in 2019, shares of NVIDIA continued to rise this year despite the threat of a deep recession.
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The stock hit a record high of $468.78 on Thursday, after almost doubling in value this year, hugely outperforming the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which has gained barely 17% as of close of trade last week. NVDA shares finished Friday at $462.56 after gaining about 1.06% during the session.
While the chipmaker is unlikely to escape some demand slowdown from cyclical industries like autos, analysts are focusing on the company’s supplies to gaming and data center clients.
NVIDIA, based in Santa Clara, California, is the biggest maker of graphics chips used in personal computer gaming. Over the past few years, the chipmaker has successfully adapted its technology for the Artificial Intelligence market, creating a new multi-billion-dollar business.
h2 3. Alibaba/h2The Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) will report its fiscal 2021, first quarter results before the market opens on Thursday, August 20. Analysts anticipate $13.82 EPS on sales of $148.06 billion.
The latest earnings from Alibaba will provide some insight on Chinese consumer spending as the world’s second-largest economy recovers from the pandemic which pushed growth into a negative territory this year.
In its last earnings report, released in May, Alibaba posted sales and earnings that topped estimates, helped by its core commerce business and its customer management unit.
Alibaba shares are up 20% for the year. They closed Friday at $253.97. Like US counterparts including Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) among others, who are aiming to expand their presence in the growing cloud computing segment, Alibaba is also investing heavily to expand its business in this arena.
The company plans to invest 200 billion yuan (USD $288M) on cloud infrastructure such as data centers over the next three years, a major effort to extend one of its fastest-growing businesses to more countries.
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