A slate of companies with a track record of beating Wall Street’s expectations is teed up to report next week. In all, 94 companies within the S & P 500 are scheduled to report next week. It will also mark the halfway point of the quarter’s earnings season. Of the companies that have already reported, about 74% have exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. Investors are anticipating results from a host of companies across different sectors next week, including media, chipmakers, pharmaceuticals and consumer products. A beat on earnings or better forward guidance can boost a stock, while a report that falls short of analysts’ estimates can snowball into a sell-off. Against this backdrop, CNBC Pro analyzed data from Bespoke Investment Group to find stocks with a history of beating their earnings expectations at least 75% of the time and subsequently rising an average of 1.5% or more after earnings were released. Burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill was one stock that made the list. The company has historically beaten earnings expectations 76% of the time and has risen 1.66% afterward. Shares of Chipotle have climbed 5.3% in 2024. The company is slated to post fourth-quarter results after the bell Tuesday. Earlier this month, AllianceBernstein named Chipotle one of its top restaurant stock picks for 2024 , with analyst Danilo Gargiulo raising his price target by $100 to $2,400 per share. Similarly, Citi analyst Jon Tower hiked his price target to $2,699 from $2,292. “We expect 4Q earnings will continue to paint a picture of clear, controllable [same-store sales] drivers from here, including: thruput initiatives that will be further helped by an easing labor environment, investments to improve the off-premises/delivery business, and a strong digital platform with growing 1-1 marketing capabilities,” Tower wrote. Cybersecurity firm CyberArk , slated to post results before the market opens next Thursday , has historically beaten earnings 97% of the time. The stock has on average popped 2.89% following each report. CyberArk stock has already climbed 6.6% this year. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of CyberArk to equal weight from overweight earlier in January, citing limited room for upside in the short term. “We think the company has improved its position with a higher mix of recurring SaaS [Software as a Service] revenue in recent years. However, nearer term, we think the setup is more difficult and outperformance in CYBR shares is unlikely,” wrote analyst Hamza Fodderwala. However, Fodderwala also lifted his price target to $240 from $195. Sportswear maker Under Armour was another company on the Bespoke list. Historically, the company has beaten analyst expectations 88% of the time, subsequently popping 1.83% on the back of quarterly results. Shares of Under Armour have tumbled 11.5% this year. The Baltimore-based company also is expected to report fiscal third-quarter earnings results before the market opens next Thursday. — CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
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