BlackBerry, Micron, TUI, H&M and Costco [Video] #UKFinance

Interest rates decisions have occupied much of the market’s focus recently, and while the earnings calendar is looking a little lighter, there are still a number of companies reporting in the coming week.

In the US, investors will be looking to see if BlackBerry, formerly the maker of the iconic smartphone, will report continued performance improvement with its focus now on cybersecurity.

Markets will also be keeping an eye on full-year results from memory chipmaker Micron, as one of the stocks considering to be powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.

In Europe, investors will be looking to see if holiday company TUI is set to deliver on profit targets.

Meanwhile, in the world of high-street fashion, H&M Group’s quarterly update should give an idea as to whether the retailer is on course to meet its operating margin target.

Read more: Funds set to benefit from falling interest rates

Back in the US, investors will be looking to see if Costco can continue its run of strong performance as consumers seek out value for money on everyday essentials.

Here’s what to look out for:

BlackBerry (BB) — Reports second quarter results on Thursday 26 September

Shares in BlackBerry popped following the release of its first-quarter results in June, so investors will be looking to this latest set of quarterly figures to see if the tech company has continued to see improved performance.

BlackBerry’s first-quarter revenue of $144m (£108m) beat estimates, with 18% growth year-on-year in its internet of things (IoT) division. It did report a loss of $0.03 per share but said this beat previously-provided guidance.

“The company is making significant progress towards operational independence for our IoT and cybersecurity businesses, as well as towards profitability,” said John J Giamatteo, BlackBerry CEO.

Read more: Bank of England holds interest rates at 5%

BlackBerry said it expected revenues to come in at between $136m and $144m for the second quarter and between $586m and $616m for the full-year 2025.

In an investor update back in February, BlackBerry said it planned to make further layoffs in its cybersecurity division as it looked to reduced costs, on top of the 200 job cuts the company had announced in the previous quarter.

Despite stronger company performance more recently, BlackBerry’s share price has continued to slump, down 32%.

The stock has failed to return to its highs of 2008, as BlackBerry’s iconic smartphone famously fell out of favour with users as touch screen smart phones came onto the market. BlackBerry stopped manufacturing its own phones in 2016 and has since focused on cybersecurity.

The company became a favourite of the meme stock craze, in which some investors piled into unloved stocks after they gained popularity on social media.

Micron (MU) — Reports full-year results on Wednesday 25 September

Memory chipmaker Micron Technology has slid since June, when it shared an outlook that disappointed analyst expectations, with shares up just 5% year-to-date.

In its third-quarter results, Micron reported figures that topped Wall Street estimates, as it reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.62 versus the estimate of $0.50. Adjusted revenue of $6.81bn topped the estimated $6.67bn.

“Robust AI demand and strong execution enabled Micron to drive 17% sequential revenue growth, exceeding our guidance range in fiscal Q3,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO of Micron Technology.

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Micron is considered one of the stocks powering the AI boom, as it provides memory solutions for these chips. In fact, its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips are used in Nvidia’s (NVDA) graphic processing unit (GPU).

Shares fell earlier in the month after BNP Paribas warned the stock would continue to underperform against AI peers, according to a Bloomberg report.

Analyst Karl Ackerman downgraded the stock to underperform from outperform, cutting his price target on Micron to $67 from $140.

He said that a capacity oversupply of HBM chips would result in a “faster than anticipated market correction” in average selling prices of dynamic random-access memory chips.

TUI (TUI1.DE) — Releases trading update on Tuesday 24 September

Shares in Europe’s biggest holiday company TUI have ticked higher over the last month after it posted a third-quarter earnings that beat expectations, thanks to strong summer travel demand.

TUI’s underlying earnings before interest and tax came in at to €232m (£195m) for the three months to 30 June, up 37% from €169m for the same period last year. Revenues rose by nearly 10% to €5.8bn, driven by a 5.5% increase in Q3 passenger numbers from 5.5 million to 5.8 million.

Net debt also fell from €3.1bn in the second quarter to €2.1bn.

TUI reiterated its guidance for the full financial year 2024, expecting an increase of at least 10% in revenue versus the previous year. The company said it expected underlying earnings before interest and tax to be at least 25% higher than in 2023.

Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Demand in the near term looks solid, but a challenging economic backdrop means it’s difficult to accurately map the demand picture further out.”

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“Net debt levels have been trending lower and further progress could move the company a step closer to resuming dividends,” he added.

Despite TUI reconfirming its outlook, Chiekrie said strong booking momentum for the summer period “wasn’t enough for an upgrade to guidance.”

However, he said: “Next week’s trading update should give some insight into where full-year profits will land, with the full-year operating profit growth target of 25% looking well within reach.”

Shares in the holiday company are nearly 7% in the red year-to-date.

H&M (HM-B.ST) — Reports third-quarter results on Thursday 26 September

Shares in Swedish fashion retailer H&M Group tumbled following the release of its first-half results in June after it warned that it expected sales for that month to have fallen by 6% versus the same period last year.

The high-street favourite said “unstable weather in many of the H&M group’s large markets at the start of June 2024 had a negative impact on sales, but sales recovered as the weather normalised at the end of the month.”

H&M said sales rose 1% in the first half of the year to 113bn Swedish krona (£8.3bn), while operating profit increased to 9.2bn Swedish krona, equating to an operating margin of 8.1%.

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“We achieved our best results for many years in the second quarter, showing once more the H&M group’s strength and robust financial position, with strong cash flow as well as improved profitability and sales,” said Daniel Ervér, CEO.

H&M Group said that given its “sharp” increase in profitability for four consecutive quarters, the company was “well on the way to achieving our long-term goal of profitability exceeding 10% over time”.

The retailer said it was sticking to its goal of achieving an operating margin of 10% for the full-year 2024.

H&M Group said it was increasing its pace of investment in the second of year, with new stores formats in cities such as Paris, Stockholm and Berlin.

The company said it had also tested an updated online store that it would launch in larger markets during the autumn.

Year-to-date H&M Group shares are up nearly 2%.

Costco (COST) — Reports quarterly earnings on on Thursday 26 September

Wholesale retailer Costco is up 37% year-to-date, as the business has continued to deliver strong performance as consumers looked for value for money on everyday essentials.

In its third-quarter results, released in May, Costco reported net sales of $58.52bn, compared to estimates of $57.98bn. Its adjusted earnings of $3.78 also beat estimates of $3.70.

It reported a 20.7% jump in e-commerce sales in the third quarter, led by purchases of appliances, as well as gold and silver bullions.

The wholesaler also saw a 32% increase in downloads of its mobile app. Meanwhile, membership fees, which is a key revenue stream for the company, were in line with estimates at $1.12 billion, a 7.6% increase compared to a year ago.

Yahoo Finance reported that it Costco continued to lead footfall growth among bigbox, wholesale retailers in the US.

“We’re definitely winning in consumables, as we see the food business and dining away from home has softened up a bit,” CEO Ron Vachris, who stepped into the role in January, said on a call with investors.

Other companies reporting next week include:

Monday 23 September

Alphawave IP (AWE.L)

Tuesday 24 September

Smiths Group (SMIN.L)

AG Barr (BAG.L)

Card Factory (CARD.L)

Boku (BOKU.L)

SThree (STEM.L)

AutoZone (AZO)

Wednesday 25 September

Jefferies Financial Group (JEF)

Thursday 26 September

CVS Group (CVSG.L)

Halma (HLMA.L)

Pennon (PNN.L)

Accenture (ACN)

Carnival (CCL)

You can read Yahoo Finance’s full calendar here.

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