Q4 Earnings Roll On, Government Remains Shut: HAL, UBS, NFLX

Monday, January 22, 2018

Pre-market indexes are down slightly to kick off a new week as the U.S. government remains closed for now a third straight day. A Senate meeting today at noon ET will hopefully bring at least a near-term compromise to re-open the government until February 8th, while bigger issues related to immigration policies remain to be hashed out.

Furloughs for federal employees are expected, and we will look for clarity on who in the government are considered “essential” federal employees. As it relates to the stock market directly, we will keep an eye on the defense contracting space, which figures to see a negative affect as the government shutdown continues.

Thankfully, Q4 earnings results continue unabated this morning, even if your U.S. mail remains delayed. Here are some key results this morning:

Zacks Rank #3 (Hold)-based Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) , a global oilfield services giant based in both Houston, TX and Dubai, U.A.E., reported another bottom-line earnings beat while easily surpassing top-line estimates for its fiscal Q4. Earnings of 53 cents per share outpaced the 46 cents Zacks analysts had been looking for, on $5.94 billion in revenues — much stronger than the consensus estimate of $5.57 billion and the year-ago total of $4.02 billion.

Beating earnings expectations is nothing new for Halliburton. In fact, the company has outperformed estimates in its 14th straight quarter this morning. Results were similarly strong for Halliburton’s main competitor, Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) , which reported earnings last week. For more info on HAL’s earnings, click here.

Swiss banking giant UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) also performed well in its Q4, reporting results ahead of today’s opening bell, demonstrating 25% growth in net profit for shareholders, year over year. This comes after a one-time tax write-off that translates to $2.23 billion (U.S.). Full-year net profit reached 23.3%. For more info on UBS’s earnings, click here.

After today’s closing bell, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) will be releasing its Q4 results. The streaming content leader is expected to bring in 41 cents per share (42 cents in the Zacks ESP), on $3.28 billion in quarterly revenues. Should these numbers come in as expected, they would represent 173% growth on the bottom line and 32.4% from revenues, year over year.

However, Netflix has missed estimates in its last two successive quarters. The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company also has a negative Zacks Style Score of F (Value: F, Growth: F, Momentum: A). So while the company is expected to post strong growth figures from a year ago, we shall see if they can reach the lofty estimates in the Zacks consensus.

Mark Vickery
Senior Editor

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