Earnings Preview: Walt Disney, Virgin Galactic, Shopify—Investor Sentiment Is Positive For Two Of These Stocks

Wednesday is set to witness several high-profile earnings from the entertainment, spaceflight and e-commerce sectors. While retail investors are bullish on Walt Disney and Shopify, they are maintaining caution on Virgin Galactic. Let’s take a look at what Wall Street and Main Street expect from these three highly followed firms.

1. Walt Disney Co: The mass media and entertainment conglomerate is scheduled to report its third quarter earnings on Wednesday before the opening bell. Analysts estimate earnings per share (EPS) to come in at $1.19 versus $1.04 in Q3FY23 and revenue at $23.09 billion compared to $22.33 billion in the same quarter last year.

Investors will be watching to see if the firm continues to deliver robust earnings from its theme parks and whether the Entertainment direct-to-consumer business will face any major headwinds given the company had guided for “softer results” for the segment in Q3.

Ahead of earnings, retail investor sentiment has shifted into the ‘extremely bullish’ territory (77/100) from the neutral zone.

2. Shopify Inc: Analysts expect the Canadian e-commerce firm to report revenues of $2.01 billion and EPS of $0.20 when it reports earnings before market opening on Wednesday. Both revenue and EPS are expected to gain on an year-over-year basis. Investors are focused on where the firm’s gross margins land following its guidance for a 50 basis points QoQ decline.

Shopify had provided an upbeat outlook for the second quarter saying it expects revenue to grow at a high-teens percentage rate on a year-over-year basis. Retail is seemingly paying closer attention to the company’s revenue outlook than margins right now, with sentiment entering ‘bullish’ territory (69/100) from the ‘neutral’ zone.

3. Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc: The spaceflight company is scheduled to report its second quarter earnings post market hours on Wednesday. Analysts expect the firm to post revenues of $3.34 million and an earnings loss of $4.80 compared to a loss of $9.20 in the same quarter last year. Investors are watching closely to see if the firm meets its own revenue expectations of $3.50 million for the quarter.

Ahead of earnings, retail sentiment continues to remain in the ‘neutral’ territory (45/100) compared to a day ago.