Acxiom (ACXM) To Report Q4 Earnings: What's In The Cards?

Acxiom Corporation (NASDAQ:ACXM) is set to release fourth-quarter fiscal 2017 earnings on May 16. In the last quarter, the company reported a positive earnings surprise of 128.57%.

We note that that the company delivered positive earnings surprises in each of the last four quarters, at an average surprise of 147.14%.

Revenues of $223.3 million also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $218 million.

However, shares of Acxiom have slightly underperformed the broader Zacks Computer IT Services on a year-to-date basis. While the industry was up 9.8%, the stock gained 5.7%.

Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors to Consider

Acxiom is a formidable player in the field of marketing services and technology. The company has been taking many strategic steps of late to position itself better in the omnichannel marketing space.

We expect that the availability of Acxiom Audience Cloud and IdentityLink solution will significantly expand the company’s customer base. Moreover, partnerships with the likes of Verve, DataXu, Viant, IgnitionOne, Netmining, Cision, and Freckle IoT are positives for the company’s results.

However, a competitive landscape with low barriers to entry is a concern for the company and could adversely affect its earnings growth.

Earnings Whispers?

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Acxiom is likely to beat earnings this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here, as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: Acxiom’s Earnings ESP is 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are pegged at 6 cents per share. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Acxiom carries a Zacks Rank #3, which when combined with a 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.

We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 and 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies that you may want to consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat:

Angie's List, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANGI) has an Earnings ESP of +37.5% and a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) , has an Earnings ESP of +1.32% and a Zacks Rank #2.

DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE:DST) has an Earnings ESP of +0.64% and a Zacks Rank #2.

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