A customer enters the new Apple store, which is the world's largest, on its opening day at Covent Garden in London, in this August 7, 2010 file photograph.SUZANNE PLUNKETT/Reuters
Continuing with the subject of earnings beats, market data firm StarMine has put out a list of companies it believes are likely to beat or miss analysts' consensus expectations in the second quarter. A few familiar names are on its list - including a couple of Canadian names and a tech phenomenon.
Canadian forest-products firm Domtar Corp. tops StarMine's predictions for earnings beats in the quarter, on a list that also includes U.S. tech giant Apple Inc. On the other side of the ledger, Canadian gold miner Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. is among the companies StarMine predicts could come in well short of expectations.
StarMine - an arm of Thomson Reuters that, among other things, has a rating system for the accuracy of equity analysts' forecasts - has devised its predictions by looking at individual analysts' earnings targets for the companies, but assigning greater weight to the latest estimates from the analysts that rank high in its rating system.
StarMine estimated that Domtar will beat consensus by 9.7 per cent when it releases its results July 28. The consensus estimate is $2.77 a share, but StarMine is predicting $3.04, pointing to well-above-consensus targets published by high-rated analysts Stephen Atkinson of BMO Nesbitt Burns and Daryl Swetlishoff of Raymond James.
The market-data firm also predicted that Apple would post earnings of $5.82 (U.S.) a share, 2 per cent above the Street consensus, pointing to the bullish views of Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank and Shebly Seyrafi of FBN Securities.
StarMine pegs Agnico-Eagle's quarterly earnings at 42 cents a share, 9.9 per cent lower than the consensus estimate of 47 cents. It cited TD Newcrest analyst Greg Barnes's well-below-consensus call of 39 cents, on worries about disappointing gold production and rising costs.
David Parkinson