Drugstores, trading cards, and pop stars will play bit parts in the week of news that is waiting to happen.
Monday
Over the years, your neighborhood pharmacy has gone corporate. These days, it's CVS (NYSE:CVS) and Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) filling prescriptions and providing you with everything from digital print processing to aspirin.
Walgreen kicks off the new week with its fiscal fourth-quarter results, and the company's consistency so far has been noteworthy. We're talking about a company that has hiked its dividend for 72 consecutive years. It has also posted higher annual earnings 30 straight times. More of the same? It would be just what the doctor ordered.
Tuesday
Regrets? How about not taking that paycheck from Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) years ago and plunking it down on some shares? That's because you could have picked up stock in the payroll processor for a mere split-adjusted $0.23 in January of 1990. The stock is a 142-bagger today.
On Tuesday, Paychex will be disclosing its fiscal first-quarter numbers. Will you make the same mistake and not give the company some credit and attention over the next 15 years?
Wednesday
Hoping to give its shareholders a stick of gum wrapped in its latest quarter, trading card specialist Topps (NASDAQ:TOPP) leads the pack of reporters in the middle of the week. Just last week, Topps announced that it was no longer interested in selling its confectionary business. That's a good thing, too, because the company's flagship trading card business wasn't doing so well, and the Topps candy lines, including Bazooka bubble gum and Baby Bottle Pop suckers, were about the only segment showing signs of growth.
That doesn't mean that I have given up on my master plan to save Topps. Yes, that's right, I'm talking about market guru trading cards. Can you just imagine folks trying to swap their Jim Cramer and Suze Orman for a David Gardner in mint condition?
Thursday
The biggest name in a relatively quiet reporting week is PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP). Everyone knows about the company's namesake soft drink business. It's a distant second to Motley Fool Inside Value pick Coke (NYSE:KO), but it's pretty much a race between the two pop stars. However, Pepsi also has its salty snack business going for it. Frito-Lay makes many of the chips that you will find yourself curling up with on a couch-potato Sunday during football season or snacking on at your nephew's birthday party.
The company also had an ingenious plan of growing its syrup distribution reach by owning popular fast food concepts. It has since spun off Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM), but I dare you to walk into a KFC, Taco Bell, or Pizza Hut and ask for a Diet Coke.
Friday
Yes, Fridays can get awfully quiet down Wall Street. Unless you fancy the overseas companies that brave the news waters, go ahead and get an early start on the weekend. You've earned it.
Want to learn more about the companies waiting to report earnings this week? Check out:
- Walgreen's Prescription for Success
- The Next Homerun Stock
- Say It Ain't So, Bazooka Joe!
- A Stock to Snack On
Until next week I remain,
Coca-Cola is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick. For access to more invaluable value stock picks, click here for a 30-day free trial.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has gone into the Coca Cola Museum in Atlanta and asked for a Pepsi. 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.
