Stock Market Futures Extend Losses As Federal Reserve Policy Update Looms
U.S. stock futures are edging lower in early morning trading on Tuesday this week. Accordingly, this seems to be the case as investors continue to monitor several notable fronts this week. On one hand, there is the Russia-Ukraine war that continues to impact global economies. On the other hand, the Federal Reserve is set to release its latest monetary policy update tomorrow. Between the two, investors will likely be more focused on the latter as an interest rate hike is likely in the cards.
Weighing in on this is Bankrate’s chief financial analyst, Greg McBride. He argues, “All signs point to a quarter-point interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve when their meeting concludes Wednesday.” McBride continues by saying that the key questions now are how many more rate hikes are incoming and how quickly they will be coming in.
According to the analyst, “The war in Eastern Europe gives the Fed reason to act more cautiously, but they will still be working to corral what is already the highest inflation in 40 years.” All in all, there seems to be no shortage of stock market news to keep investors on their toes today. As of 6:10 a.m. ET, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq futures are trading lower by 0.38%, 0.33%, and 0.23% respectively.
GitLab Jumps Following Overall Solid Quarterly Earnings Report
Front and center on the earnings news front today is software development firm GitLab (NASDAQ: GTLB). While tech stocks look to recover from yesterday’s sizable losses, GTLB stock appears to be on the rise. For the most part, this could be a result of the company’s latest financial update. In it, GitLab raked in quarterly revenue of $77.8 million. For reference, this is versus Wall Street estimates of $70.3 million. Regarding year-over-year comparisons, GitLab’s revenue is up by a solid 69%. Moreover, the company appears to be making improvements in terms of earnings as well.
Namely, GitLab reported a loss per share of $0.32 for the quarter. Sure, at face value this may seem like a negative. However, it marks a massive recovery from a $2.31 loss per share in the same quarter last year. Explaining things in further detail is GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij. He says, “This growth was broad-based, driven by strong customer additions across all company sizes. We believe these results demonstrate that the market is moving from DIY DevOps composed of different tools to a DevOps Platform. This shift enables organizations to accelerate the time-to-market of their most important software and applications, providing them with a distinct competitive advantage.”
On top of all that, GitLab is also seeing robust growth in terms of Dollar-Based Net Retention (DBNR). According to the company, its DBNR is up by 152% year-over-year. The company cites its continuous success in upgrading and bringing on new clients to its top tier of services, Ultimate. After considering GitLab’s current momentum, investors could be tuning in to GTLB stock today.
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AT&T In Focus After Clarifying Strategy During Investor Day Conference; Sees Positive Analyst Updates
In other news, AT&T (NYSE: T) appears to be kicking into high gear across the board now. Overall, this is apparent from the series of recent notable updates from AT&T’s presentations across its Investor Day and a Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) conference. To begin with, AT&T now has a growth roadmap following its ongoing WarnerMedia merger with Discovery (NASDAQ: DISCA). By the company’s estimates, it could see a free cash flow in the $20 billion range by 2023.
With the company’s entertainment arm spinning off, AT&T is looking to focus on its core markets. The likes of which would see the company ramp up investments in its 5G and fiber offerings. Additionally, the company also reiterated its guidance for 2022 and introduced guidance for 2023 as well. Secondly, speaking about the fate of the company’s dividends post-merger is AT&T CFO, Pascal Desroches. At a Deutsche Bank conference yesterday, Desroches said that “the dividend is not only safe,” but also provides AT&T more financial flexibility.
Following all of this, Wall Street appears to be somewhat bullish on T stock. Among the recent key updates would be from the likes of Cowen (NASDAQ: COWN), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), and Citi (NYSE: C). Analysts over at Cowen raised their price target for T stock from $29 to $32 while BofA reiterated its $36 price target. At the same time, both BofA and Citi argue that the company’s existing telecom offerings post-merger remain a “deeply discounted asset.” As such, I could see T stock gaining attention at today’s opening bell.
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Vail Resorts Posts Sizable Year-Over-Year Gains In Latest Quarterly Financial Update
Elsewhere, Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN), a leading mountain resort operator, is also coming into focus today. This would be thanks to the company posting its latest quarterly financials after yesterday’s closing bell. Diving in, Vail saw a total revenue of $906.5 million for the quarter, adding up to a respectable 32.4% year-over-year increase. Furthermore, the company also posted an earnings per share of $5.47, up by 51% over the same period. In the larger scheme of things, it seems like Vail’s ski resort business continues to recover as pandemic impacts lessen.
Despite all of this, the company’s overall financials are still short of consensus estimates. It notes that there have been issues with staffing due to the pandemic. To address this, Vail is planning to invest further in wages to bolster its overall staff count. In fact, the company is currently raising its starting wage for the next ski season to $20 an hour. Not to mention, Vail is also raising its quarterly cash dividend to $1.91 per share. For investors looking to invest in leisure names ahead of the post-pandemic rush, MTN stock would be an option.
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Top Earnings To Note In The Stock Market Today
Not forgetting, there are also plenty of companies to consider that are reporting earnings today. In the pre-market, we have Citi Trends (NASDAQ: CTRN), Dole (NYSE: DOLE), Sovos Brands (NASDAQ: SOVO), and Janus Henderson (NYSE: JHG) on tap. Alternatively, for those eyeing earnings in the post-market hours, we also have notable names lined up today. They are SentinelOne (NYSE: S), Smartsheet (NYSE: SMAR), Caleres (NYSE: CAL), and Atlas (NYSE: ATCO).
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