Earnings season has delivered plenty of surprises so far, with Consumer Staples titans utilizing their pricing power and big tech injecting positive sentiment into the market.
And it seems reasonable to expect more surprises to come, with a wide variety of companies slated to reveal results in the coming weeks.
Still, it’s worth highlighting several of the positive surprises we’ve seen so far, including those from Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG – Free Report) , HCA Healthcare (HCA – Free Report) , and Microsoft (MSFT – Free Report) .
All three companies impressed the market with their results, sending shares soaring post-earnings. Can the momentum carry through? Let’s take a closer look.
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Chipotle Mexican Grill posted an impressive print, exceeding the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate by nearly 20%. Quarterly revenue totaled $2.4 billion, ahead of expectations and improving roughly 16% from the year-ago quarter.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
As we can see from the chart below, shares saw quite a positive move post-earnings, reflecting a much different reaction than its prior release.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Analysts have raised their earnings expectations across the board following the release, helping land CMG into a favorable Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
HCA Healthcare
HCA Healthcare also posted results that pleased the market, exceeding our consensus EPS estimate by more than 20% and delivering a modest 2% top line beat. Earnings saw year-over-year growth of 19%, whereas revenue saw growth of 4.3%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Buyers came out to play following the release, with HCA shares closing nearly 4% higher. In fact, HCA shares have been notably strong since the beginning of March, up almost 17% since and reflecting notable relative strength.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
In addition, the company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.60 per share, payable on June 30th, 2023. HCA’s annual dividend currently yields 0.8%, below the Zacks Medical sector average by a fair margin.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Microsoft
Everybody highly awaited Microsoft’s results, and the company delivered. Microsoft reported earnings of $2.45 per share, handily exceeding the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate by more than 10%. Quarterly revenue also beat expectations, reported at $52.9 billion and growing 7% year-over-year.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Microsoft’s results helped buoy the market, as we can see illustrated by the chart below. Investors have been impressed by big tech so far in earnings season.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The company’s Cloud strength helped drive the better-than-expected results, with Intelligent Cloud revenue growing 16% year-over-year to $22.1 billion.
Bottom Line
As we continue wading through earnings season, more surprises will come.
And so far, all three companies above – Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG – Free Report) , HCA Healthcare (HCA – Free Report) , and Microsoft (MSFT – Free Report) – have delivered results that had buyers lined up post-earnings.
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Original Article: https://www.zacks.com/commentary/2087105/3-stocks-that-popped-post-earnings?art_rec=home-home-trending_topics_latest-ID04-txt-2087105
