Here’s the biggest calls of the day that we’re watching:
“We continue to view Home Depot as a best-in-class operator and believe its 2019 EPS guidance is achievable, given the company’s good execution track record, flexibility in the model, and potential to drive productivity improvements… However, we came away from the earnings call concerned that the company’s 5% comp guidance for 2019 could prove optimistic, given a housing market that is slowing, albeit still positive, and as it already bakes in benefits from its strategic initiatives… We believe Home Depot tried to remain within the 4.5%-6.0% annual sales growth target through 2020 it provided at its December 2017 analyst day; however, housing has since slowed and the lower end of the range at ~4.5% sales growth seems more realistic at this later stage in the cycle… As such, after being positive on the stock since 2012, we are downgrading our rating on HD to Market Perform from Outperform…”
“The PMI valuation hinges on its heated tobacco proposition, iQOS… We use a quantitatively derived framework and a proprietary, 40 market global tobacco model to size the opportunity… Based on this, we expect iQOS net revenue to grow from $4 billion in 2018 to $10.6 billion by 2021… With easy comparisons and a benign tax environment for 2019 in key markets, we upgrade to Buy…”
“We are lowering our estimates of UW-rated Weight Watchers and adding it to the US Equity Analyst Focus List as our top short idea after the company issued 2019 EPS guidance of $1.25- $1.50 that was well below even our bearish estimate of $2.50 going into the print… We believe 2019 revenue guidance may be at risk as it embeds: (1) recruitment trends improve from current levels following the Spring marketing campaign and easy 2H compares; (2) retention rates improve to over 10 months during 2019 vs. 9-10 months currently; and (3) limited marketing re-investments beyond 1Q19, which will likely constrain recruitment efforts…”
“Mylan reported decent quarter, meeting top-line and missing modestly on high SG&A… Guidance was roughly as we expected on the top line with new product driving solid growth… This is where the good news ends…Our thesis for Mylan was that 2019 will be the breakthrough year for the company… We had that right, but didn’t see the margin compression. At the guidance level, we do not see the compelling argument for buying the stock… We are downgrading here and we will come back to it either at lower price or more clarity that the execution is being delivered…”
“DECK‘s management of its brands and the company’s results continue to improve… However, the majority of those improvements appear to be baked into the stock price… There is ~9% upside based on the current stock price to get to our new price target of $161 ($150 prior), which reflects 18x our FY21 EPS estimate. We remain positively inclined regarding DECK, but the upside is below Susquehanna’s threshold to maintain our Positive rating…”