Makeovers, turnovers, and leftovers will play bit parts in the week of news that is waiting to happen.
Monday
Shareholders of CMGI (NASDAQ:CMGI) have seen their company shoot to the frothy moon and back. The company was a hot dot-com firecracker, soaring on its strength as a venture-capital incubator of young dot-coms. But good times became gone times, and the stock crashed when the market's demands changed. Dot-coms were a dime a dozen. Where was the profitability?
These days, CMGI is playing a game that is less glamorous but more dependable. Specializing in e-business and fulfillment services, CMGI has reported three straight profitable quarters. That's a sharp contrast to its lumpy mix of steep losses and one-time gains. Will CMGI make it four in a row? Find out on Monday.
Tuesday
It hasn't been easy for Intraware (NASDAQ:ITRAD). Shares of the Web-based delivery solutions specialist for publishers are trading for less than a third of where they were a year ago. That's adjusted for a 1-for-10 reverse stock split that went into effect a few days ago.
Reverse splits are the polar opposite of conventional stock splits. In Intraware's case, with its stock fetching little more than a quarter apiece before the split, every 10 shares were exchanged for a new share at 10 times the price. It's a zero-sum game, though it presses a company to justify its decision to go ahead with the split. Intraware gets that chance on Tuesday, when it reports its fiscal second-quarter numbers.
Wednesday
Taco Bell. KFC. Pizza Hut. Most of the country associates those names with affordable fast-food dining institutions. Investors, meanwhile, can connect the dots to realize that they are the three workhorse properties behind Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM). The PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) spinoff with the embarrassing name raised its earnings guidance back in July. Now we will see whether it will deliver as promised.
Thursday
Warehouse clubs have been havens for great deals on everything from bulk toilet paper to health insurance. The name that most people associate with these big boxes is Costco (NASDAQ:COST). As a lean operator, working on thin margins that it makes up in volume, Costco has been passing the savings on to its shoppers and the stock gains to its investors. One of Wall Street's biggest winners in the 1990s, the company has slowed down a bit on this side of the millennium, although it's still beating the market since being recommended in the May 2002 issue of Motley Fool Stock Advisor. Costco wraps up its fiscal year when it reports its fourth-quarter results on Thursday.
Friday
When Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) decided to partner with Mexican retailer Cifra in 1991 to take its department-store concept south of the border, few figured that Wal-Mart de Mexico (NQB: WMMVY) would grow into one of that country's leading retailers. Well, it has. We wrap up the week with the Mexican retailer letting us know how Sam Walton's chain is holding up there.
Want to learn more about the companies waiting to report earnings this week? Check out:
Until next week, I remain,
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz doesn't mind the palletized aisles at Costco -- as long as he can nibble away at the sampling stations. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. T he Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
