JD.com Inc Q3 2020 earnings preview

$JD.com Inc(JD.US)$ is scheduled to announce its Q3 2020 earnings result premarket on Monday, November 16.

JD.com Inc is a Chinese e-commerce company headquartered in Beijing. It is one of the two massive B2Conline retailers in China by transaction volume and revenue, a member of the Fortune Global 500, and a major competitor to Alibaba-run Tmall.

• According to Bloomberg, analysts are forecasting earnings per share of $2.72 (30.9% YoY), on revenue of $170.49 billion (26.4% YoY).

• In the past 2 years, JD.com Inc has beaten EPS estimates 100% of the time and has beaten revenue estimates 88% of the time.

• 45 of 49 analysts have Buy ratings on JD.com Inc, while 3 analysts have a Hold or the equivalent rating. Only one analyst rates JD.com Inc as a sell. The average analyst price target is $88.12 implying a 4.3% downside.

JD.com's 3Q sales may continue to highlight a greater shift online following the pandemic and pent-up discretionary demand in China. The company's accelerated user growth in lower-tier cities and their rising adoption of online e-commerce may support 3Q sales. Consensus expects sales growth of 26% while non-GAAP operating profit may expand to 3.6 billion yuan, which is 21% higher than the same quarter the previous year but 36% lower sequentially. The company's plans to step up investments deferred in 1H may cap overall profitability gains.

-Vey-Sern Ling and Tiffany Tam, Bloomberg analyst

• JD.com Inc will hold the conference call at 7:00 AM EDT Monday, November 16

Baidu Inc Q3 2020 earnings preview

$Baidu Inc(BIDU.US)$ is scheduled to announce its Q3 2020 earnings result on Monday, November 16 after the market closed.

Baidu Inc is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products and artificial intelligence(AI), headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District.

• According to Bloomberg, analysts are forecasting earnings per share of $13.46 (6.7% YoY), on revenue of $27.52 billion (-2.0% YoY).

• In the past 2 years, Baidu Inc has beaten EPS estimates 88% of the time and has beaten revenue estimates 88% of the time.

• 27 of 39 analysts have Buy ratings on Baidu Inc, while 11 analysts have a Hold or the equivalent rating. Only one analyst rates Baidu Inc as a sell. The average analyst price target is $154.03 implying a 6.2% upside.

Baidu's sales growth may stay weak as advertising demand from industries such as travel, financial services, healthcare and franchising remains low. Consensus expects 3Q sales to contract 2%, within the company's guidance range of minus 6% to 2%. Baidu's focus on cost control may continue to drive operating profit expansion. Operating margin at its core business jumped 16 percentage points to 34% in 2Q as the company cut traffic acquisition costs and marketing spending. Consensus is looking for a 27% increase in 3Q non-GAAP operating profit.

-Vey-Sern Ling and Tiffany Tam, Bloomberg analyst

• Baidu Inc will hold the conference call at 8:15 PM EDT Monday, November 16

iQIYI, Inc Q3 2020 earnings preview

$iQIYI, Inc.(IQ.US)$ is scheduled to announce its Q3 2020 earnings result on Monday, November 16 after the market closed.

iQIYI is currently one of the largest online video sites in the world, with nearly 6 billion hours spent on its service each month and over 500 million monthly active users.

• According to Bloomberg, analysts are forecasting earnings per share of -$2.335 (53.7% YoY), on revenue of $7.19 billion (-2.7% YoY).

• In the past 2 years, iQIYI has beaten EPS estimates 50% of the time and has beaten revenue estimates 88% of the time.

• 14 of 29 analysts have Buy ratings on iQIYI, while 13 analysts have a Hold or the equivalent rating. Only two analyst rates iQIYI as a sell. The average analyst price target is $23.20 implying a 13.1% downside.

IQiyi may deliver weak sales and continued operating losses in 3Q as Covid-19 maintains its drag on both its revenue streams, online advertising and membership services. Advertising demand could stay weak as offline business activity has yet to fully recover in China. The membership business received a boost in 1Q due to more users staying at home but lost 12% of its subscriber base in 2Q when China's lockdown eased. The company's content pipeline may continue to face production delays, which would hurt both ads and subscriptions. Consensus expects sales to contract 3% and operating loss to widen to 1.8 billion yuan.

-Vey-Sern Ling and Tiffany Tam, Bloomberg analyst

• iQIYI, Inc. will hold the conference call at 7:00 PM EDT Monday, November 16

Palo Alto Networks Inc Q1 2020 earnings preview

$Palo Alto Networks Inc(PANW.US)$ is scheduled to announce its Q3 2020 earnings result premarket on Monday, November 16.

Palo Alto Networks is an American multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California.

• According to Bloomberg, analysts are forecasting earnings per share of $1.33 (26.8% YoY), on revenue of $926.61 million (20.0% YoY).

• In the past 2 years, Palo Alto Networks has beaten EPS estimates 100% of the time and has beaten revenue estimates 88% of the time.

• 28 of 37 analysts have Buy ratings on Palo Alto Networks, while 9 analysts have a Hold or the equivalent rating. No analyst rates Palo Alto Networks as a sell. The average analyst price target is $297.44 implying a 15.0% downside.

While Palo Alto's product sales may remain under pressure as the company pivots to its subscription offerings, we believe a strong cybersecurity spending environment could help the company maintain at least low- to mid-teens billings growth. Product sales could decline in low-single digits, while subscription sales growth may stay above 30%. Maintenance and support sales gains could be in the mid- to high teens amid steady retention at its enterprise customer base.

We believe Palo Alto is still ahead of peers such as Cisco, Fortinet and Check Point in pivoting to the cloud, which could aid its competitive positioning against pure-play cloud providers including CrowdStrike and Zscaler. Palo Alto's operating-margin improvement will be limited by changes to its sales-force incentives for shifting to subscriptions.

-Mandeep Singh, Bloomberg analyst

• Palo Alto Networks will hold the conference call at 7:00 PM EDT Monday, November 16