7 Reasons to Worry About Next Week

The investing universe feels a little emptier without Steve Jobs at the helm of the tech world's most valuable company.

I'd feel better about it if there weren't so many other companies with even bigger problems than transitioning to a new CEO.

There are still plenty of companies posting lower earnings than they did a year ago. Let's go over a few of the names that are expected to go the wrong way on the bottom line next week.

Company	Latest Quarter EPS (estimated)	Year-Ago Quarter EPS	My Watchlist
CNinsure (Nasdaq: CISG  )	$0.29	$0.37	Add
Winn-Dixie (Nasdaq: WINN  )	$0.12	$0.25	Add
Immunomedics (Nasdaq: IMMU  )	($0.06)	$0.01	Add
SAIC (NYSE: SAI  )	$0.35	$0.42	Add
Shanda Interactive (Nasdaq: SNDA  )	$0.26	$0.40	Add
Finisar (Nasdaq: FNSR  )	$0.18	$0.31	Add
Zale (NYSE: ZLC  )	($1.15)	($1.13)	Add

Source: Thomson Reuters.

Clearing the table
There will likely be more companies posting lower earnings next week, but these are just a few of the names that really jump out at me.

CNinsure is a Chinese provider of life insurance. Given the nature of China's booming economy and the steady performance of actuary tables, this would seem like a growing industry. Sadly, it's not. It's not just CNinsure. China's largest life insurance player hit a new 52-week low this week after posting disappointing quarterly results.

Winn-Dixie is the supermarket operator with 484 retail grocery stores throughout the Southeast. This should be a stable industry, especially for a company that cleaned up its balance sheet after emerging from bankruptcy reorganization five years ago, but earnings are going the wrong way.

Immunomedics is an upstart biotech, trying to push its epratuzumab treatment through stringent clinical trials. Biotechs can be lottery tickets during the drug development phase, so it isn't really a surprise to see Immunomedics burning through more of its cash.

SAIC is a military contractor. Sure, it's easy to see defense budgets getting whacked as government spending is cut. However, SAIC continues to land new contracts -- including a $45 million Navy deal that was announced yesterday.

All five of the pure online gaming plays in China have delivered reasonable growth this earnings season, but pioneer Shanda Interactive -- which spun off one of those five companies a couple of years ago -- isn't doing so well. Analysts see earnings falling sharply this time around. The silver lining here is that the Chinese dot-com is still expected to post a healthy 32% year-over-year pop in revenue.

Inventory hiccups and softness in China have stung Finisar lately. It's been a dramatic reversal for the optical networking company that was one of last year's hottest stocks. After more than tripling in price through 2010, Finisar is now trading at a little more than a third of its February highs.

Finally we have Zale. Pushing high-priced jewelry isn't a very compelling retailing niche these days, but should Zale's losses be widening during this seasonally sleepy quarter? Its larger rivals didn't have a problem posting healthy profitability earlier this month.   

Why the long face, short-seller?
These seven companies have seen better days. The market has rewarded many of these stocks with reasonable gains over the past year, but they still haven't earned those upticks.

The good news here is that Wall Street already expects these companies to deliver shrinking bottom lines. In other words, the bad news is already baked into the shares.

The more I think about it, the less worried I become.