More Stuffing for Earnings Season

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz
November 20, 2009 | Comments (0)

Recs

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The earnings reports keep on coming!

I just reviewed seven companies that analysts see posting lower quarterly results next week than they did a year earlier. The economy may be bouncing back, but some companies are still not ready to do a turnaround dance.

Well, unfortunately, there are a lot more than seven companies pegged to post year-over-year declines on the bottom line.

Let's go over a few more.

Company

Latest Quarter's EPS (Estimated)

Year-Ago Quarter's EPS

Analog Devices (NYSE: ADI)

$0.26

$0.49

BJ Services (NYSE: BJS)

$0.02

$0.57

Frontline (NYSE: FRO)

($0.12)

$1.77

H.J. Heinz (NYSE: HNZ)

$0.69

$0.87

American Eagle (NYSE: AEO)

$0.21

$0.30

WSP Holdings (NYSE: WH)

$0.19

$0.29

The9 (Nasdaq: NCTY)

($0.46)

$0.61

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

These are companies in vastly different industries, from ketchup to mall haunt, from high-tech to oilfield services. A healthy cross-section of sectors is still smarting these days.

Some of these stocks are even fallen growth darlings. The9 was growing quickly in China's booming online-gaming industry until it lost a major licensed franchise to a larger rival. BJ Services and Frontline were doing great when oil-price speculation was a gusher, but things have settled down considerably over the past year.

It's not too late for any of these seven companies to get their mojo back. Turnarounds happen all the time. However, if analysts know their stuff, none of these seven companies will be posting higher earnings next week than they did a year ago.

Thankfully, analysts have been known to underestimate companies quite a bit.

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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz wonders whether his contrarian heart will ever be happy. He owns no shares in any of the companies in this story and is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Related Tickers

2/10/2010 10:30 AM
AEO $15.79 Down -0.27 -1.68%
American Eagle Out… CAPS Rating: ****
ADI $26.95 Down -0.17 -0.63%
Analog Devices, In… CAPS Rating: ***
FRO $26.13 Down -0.48 -1.80%
Frontline Ltd. (US… CAPS Rating: ****
WH $2.71 Up +0.04 +1.50%
WSP Holdings CAPS Rating: *****
BJS $20.53 Down -0.23 -1.11%
BJ Services Compan… CAPS Rating: ***
HNZ $43.38 Down -0.29 -0.66%
H.J. Heinz Company CAPS Rating: ****
NCTY $6.73 Up +0.08 +1.20%
The9 Limited (ADR) CAPS Rating: ****

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