Investors will continue to hear earnings results from a number of companies this week including Starbucks (SBUX) and Motorola (MOT), just to name a few. On Wednesday, investors will also get their first peak at how well the economy fared in the first-quarter, when advanced gross domestic product is released.
Baidu.com (BIDU) is due to report first-quarter results after the close on Monday. Analysts expect China’s top Internet search company to report earnings of $0.75 per share, up from $0.60 a year ago, on revenue of $115.2 million. Shares have gained 63% since the beginning of the year as advertising sales start to pick up. On April 17, the company it had seen a significant rise in advertising since late January, as business sentiment improved in the world’s third largest economy
Baidu is one for longs to watch as the stock has shown a strong tendency in the near-term to widen its next-day share move following its post-earnings share performance in the preceding evening session. It’s done so four out of the last four quarters MidnightTrader.com has tracked. Three out of four of those move were to the upside. On February 18, shares rose 0.7% in the after-hours and widened the next day, ending up 3.5%.
Akamai Technologies (AKAM) releases its first-quarter results after the close of trading Wednesday. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $0.40 per share, down from $0.41 a year ago, on revenue of $208.3 million.
AKAM has recorded more aggressive next-day closing levels following 16 of its last 21 after-hours earnings events. In fact, the stock has seen wider next-day moves in 13 of its last 15 earnings periods and in the last four out of five quarters. On February 4, the stock rose 7.4% in after-hours action and widened its move the next regular session, ending up 18.1%.
Stocks ended their sixth straight week with gains, but a number of financial companies, including Bank of America (BAC) and U.S. Bancorp (USB) still have yet to report results. Aside from banks, technology companies will also dominate earnings this week as investors hear from IBM (IBM), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD).
