ArcelorMittal SA (ADR) (NYSE: MT) has reported the net profit of $1.21 billion in the third quarter of FY 17, almost doubling the prior year result of $680 million and exceeding an analyst consensus from FactSet of $770 million. The sales grew more than 21% to $17.08 billion from $14.52 billion a year earlier. The company was able to increase local sales due to the implementation of the safeguard measures aimed at limiting steel imports. Therefore, the local sales grew 6% in the third quarter, mainly due to higher local demand for flat steel products after the government implemented import duties on hot-rolled coil products. The stock sentiment is strong today, which rose over 5% on November 10th, 2017 (as of 9:43AM EST; Source: Google finance) The Export sales grew 48.5%, with flat steel products increasing by 22,000 tonnes and long steel products by 44,000 tonnes. The steel shipments were up 6.9% at 21.7 million metric tons, while the iron ore shipments has increased 8.1% to 15 million metric tons. The company also has booked a foreign exchange gain of $132 million, compared with a $223 million loss a year earlier. Income tax expenses fell $75 million on the year. The company also raised concerns about the costs of electricity and rail, which would affect the viability of some its plants. MT’s steady performance during the third quarter is due to the recovery taking hold in the global steel sector, after a sharp collapse in prices for the grey metal two years ago triggered by oversupply that hit producers hard in many countries. This had dragged MT into large losses and forced the company to tap shareholders for capital last year. MT has also unveiled a plan aimed at boosting its core profits by $3bn by 2020, through a mixture of cost-cutting, increased production and a focus on higher-value forms of steel. Despite the improving market conditions, the industry expert say that a global surplus of steel factories, particularly in China, still poses a threat to the health of the wider industry. The US and the European Union have imposed a number of trade tariffs on steel imports from China and other countries that are deemed to be dumped, meaning sold below the cost of production or domestic market prices. The EU regulators this week has opened a full-scale investigation into whether ArcelorMittal’s proposed €1.8bn acquisition of Europe’s largest steel plant, Ilva in Italy, will reduce competition. ArcelorMittal stock has fallen 58.4% in the last six months (source: Google Finance).

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Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) stock rose over 4.3% in the pre-market session of Feb 10th, 2021 (Source: Google finance) after the company posted better than expected results for the fourth quarter of FY 20, however the company failed to meet Wall Street’s user growth expectations. The company reported 27% increase in Monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) to 192 million vs. 193.5 million expected, according to StreetAccount. TWTR grew total ad revenue 43% sequentially. On a year-over-year basis, US ad revenue rose up 27% and international ad revenue was up 35% compared to 11% and 20% respectively in Q3. Advertiser demand was stronger than expected throughout the quarter outside of the short period bracketing the US elections on November 3. The company has made significant progress with new ad formats, stronger attribution and improved targeting in Q4 and that momentum continues in Q1 with the launch of the rebuilt MAP offering and website clicks objective. These improvements allows the company to serve the TR advertisers of all sizes with better performance. TWTR in the fourth quarter of FY 20 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 38 cents, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 31 cents, according to forecast by Refinitiv. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 28 percent to $1.29 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 20, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $1.19 billion. Going forward, the company expects revenue to grow faster than expenses in 2021, assuming the pandemic continues to improve and taking into account an expected “modest impact” from Apple’s upcoming privacy changes to iOS 14. However, the company warned it projects headcount growth of more than 20% this year, with overall expenses increasing more than 25%. The company expects revenue to be in the range of $940 million and $1.04 billion in the first quarter. Analysts were expecting guidance of $965 million on average, according to Refinitiv. The company expects to see mDAU growth of approximately 20% year over year in the first quarter as the increase in average absolute mDAU through the end of January was above the historical average. On the other hand, the company has permanently suspended President Donald Trump’s account, which had about 88 million followers, after the world leader’s fanning of conspiracy theories about voter fraud and election theft spurred thousands of his supporters to lay siege to the Capitol.

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Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) stock rose over 4.3% in the pre-market session of Feb 10th, 2021 (Source: Google finance) after the company posted better than expected results for the fourth quarter of FY 20, however the company failed to meet Wall Street’s user growth expectations. The company reported 27% increase in Monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) to 192 million vs. 193.5 million expected, according to StreetAccount. TWTR grew total ad revenue 43% sequentially. On a year-over-year basis, US ad revenue rose up 27% and international ad revenue was up 35% compared to 11% and 20% respectively in Q3. Advertiser demand was stronger than expected throughout the quarter outside of the short period bracketing the US elections on November 3. The company has made significant progress with new ad formats, stronger attribution and improved targeting in Q4 and that momentum continues in Q1 with the launch of the rebuilt MAP offering and website clicks objective. These improvements allows the company to serve the TR advertisers of all sizes with better performance. TWTR in the fourth quarter of FY 20 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 38 cents, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 31 cents, according to forecast by Refinitiv. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 28 percent to $1.29 billion in the fourth quarter of FY 20, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $1.19 billion. Going forward, the company expects revenue to grow faster than expenses in 2021, assuming the pandemic continues to improve and taking into account an expected “modest impact” from Apple’s upcoming privacy changes to iOS 14. However, the company warned it projects headcount growth of more than 20% this year, with overall expenses increasing more than 25%. The company expects revenue to be in the range of $940 million and $1.04 billion in the first quarter. Analysts were expecting guidance of $965 million on average, according to Refinitiv. The company expects to see mDAU growth of approximately 20% year over year in the first quarter as the increase in average absolute mDAU through the end of January was above the historical average. On the other hand, the company has permanently suspended President Donald Trump’s account, which had about 88 million followers, after the world leader’s fanning of conspiracy theories about voter fraud and election theft spurred thousands of his supporters to lay siege to the Capitol.

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Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.62 in the third quarter of FY 17, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.49. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 92 percent to $5.57 billion in the third quarter of FY 17, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $5.4 billion. The revenue is 20 percent higher than the second quarter of fiscal 2017. The revenue grew due primarily to a 14 percent increase in DRAM average selling prices and a 17 percent increase in trade NAND sales volumes. The company’s overall consolidated gross margin for the third quarter of fiscal 2017 was approximately 10 percentage points higher compared to the previous quarter primarily due to increases in DRAM average selling prices and manufacturing cost reductions for both NAND and DRAM. The revenue from cloud-computing customers has rose fourfold in one year. Overall, the profits poured in, totaling to $1.65 billion in the third quarter, compared with a $215 million loss in the comparable 2016 quarter. As a result, the stock rallied over 2.2% in the pre-market session on June 30th, 2017 (As of  8:41AM EDT; Source: Google finance) Micron Technology has delivered strong operational performance in the third quarter with free cash flow nearly double from last quarter, which enabled the company to retire $1 billion in debt. MU’s third quarter results reflect solid execution of the cost reduction plans and ongoing favorable industry supply and demand dynamics. Furthermore, the global trends taking shape, including the machine learning and big data analytics, are exciting and create significant opportunities for MU. MU is focused on positioning the company to realize these opportunities by investing in technology and products while also strengthening the balance sheet. The strong industry demand is expected to continue in 2018 Additionally, the Investments in capital expenditures, net of amounts funded by partners, were $1.27 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2017. The company ended the third quarter of fiscal 2017 with cash, marketable investments, and restricted cash of $4.90 billion. Micron Technology stock has risen 138.23% in the last one year (source: Google Finance). According to tipranks.com, 18 analysts has covered the stock while recommend a “Strong Buy”. Micron Technology has an average price target of $38.27, which is a further upside of 21.61%.

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Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST) stock rose over 0.3% on 21st May, 2021 (as of 12:02:09 UTC-4 · USD ; Source: Google finance) as the company posted better than expected results for the first quarter of FY 21. The comparable store sales grew 13% in the quarter, driven by a larger average basket. While traffic was down slightly compared to 2019, it accelerated significantly compared to the fourth quarter. Operating margin had expanded slightly to 14.2% compared to 14.1% for the same period in 2019. Cost of goods sold levered 35 basis points in the first quarter. Merchandise margin had expanded 85 basis points and occupancy levered by 60. These improvements were partially offset by higher freight costs of 75 basis points, mainly due to the ongoing industrywide supply chain congestion. SG&A for the quarter delevered by 25 basis points, mainly due to the operating expenses associated with the pandemic and higher incentive costs, given our better-than-expected first quarter results. Total net COVID-related expenses for the period were about 35 basis points, the vast majority of which impacted SG&A. ROST in the first quarter of FY 21 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.34, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 90 cents, according to the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The company had reported the adjusted revenue of $4.52 billion in the first quarter of FY 21, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue by 15.24%. Additionally, the company authorized a new program to repurchase up to $1.5 billion of its common stock through fiscal 2022, with plans to buy back $650 million this year and $850 million in 2022. The same store sales are expected to be up 5% to 7% for the 13 weeks ending July 31, 2021 versus the same period in 2019. Second quarter 2021 earnings per share are expected to be in the range of $0.80 to $0.89, versus $1.14 in fiscal 2019. For the 52 weeks ending January 29, 2022, the company expects annual comparable store sales gains to be in the range of 7% to 9% versus 2019 and earnings per share expected to be in the range of $3.93 to $4.20.The company expects to open 30 stores during the second quarter consisting of 22 Ross and eight dd’s DISCOUNTS.

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Williams-Sonoma, Inc.(NYSE: WSM) stock surged over 2.8% this morning ( as of 9:46AM EDT; Source: Google finance) as the group reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.55 in the fourth quarter 2016, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.51. But, the company had reported the adjusted revenue fell 0.3 percent to $1.582 billion in the fourth quarter 2016, missing the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $1.61 billion. The comparable brand revenue in Q4 16 has decreased 0.9% compared to 0.8% growth in Q4 15. On the segments front, the e-commerce net revenues in Q4 16 increased 2.2% to $809 million from $792 million in Q4 15 and the retail net revenues in Q4 16 has decreased 2.7% to $773 million from $794 million in Q4 15. The company has posted the revenues of over $5 billion, which included another year of double-digit growth across West Elm, the newer businesses Rejuvenation and Mark and Graham, and the company-owned global operations. Williams-Sonoma has increased 5% the quarterly dividend and it has increased from $0.37 to $0.39 per common share and is payable on May 26th, 2017 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 28th, 2017. During FY 16, Williams-Sonoma has repurchased 2.9 million shares of common stock at an average cost of $52.68 per share and a total cost of approximately $151 million. As of January 29th, 2017, there was approximate $411 million remaining under the company’s current stock repurchase program. Williams-Sonoma has updated its FY17 earnings guidance and expects the earnings per share to be in the range of $3.45-3.65 for the period, compared to the analysts’ consensus estimate of $3.39. The company expects the revenue in the range of $5.17-5.27 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $5.11 billion for FY 17. In addition, for FY 17 WSM expects the comparable brand revenue growth 1% – 3%, capital spending in the range of $200 million – $220 million and operating margin in the range 9.4% – 9.6%. Williams-Sonoma has also updated its Q1 guidance for the earnings per share, and expects it in the range of $0.45-0.50, whereas the analysts are expecting the earnings per share of $0.54. The comparable brand revenue growth is expected in a range of down 1% – up 2% for the first quarter, while the analysts are expecting the revenue of $1.12 billion.

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Williams-Sonoma, Inc.(NYSE: WSM) reported a revenue as well as comp growth of 6.2% and 5.4% respectively during the fourth quarter of 2017. Revenue rose 4.1% during the year surpassing the guidance, while the comp revenues enhanced 3.2%, boosted by a 450 basis point acceleration in Pottery Barn, a 190 basis point rise in Williams-Sonoma, and another year of double-digit comp growth in West Elm and in their newer businesses, Rejuvenation and Mark and Graham. The stock rose over 5.3% in the after-hours session on March 14th, 2018 (Source: Google finance) For Fiscal year of 2017, the group delivered a net revenue growth of 4.1%, including comparable brand revenue growth of 3.2%, which was an acceleration of 250 basis points year-over-year. Pottery Barn also returned to growth with revenue comps enhancing 450 basis points year-over-year post the group’s aggressive efforts to revitalize the brand. The Williams-Sonoma brand revenue comp on the year of 3.2% has more than doubled from last year mainly boosted by a thriving e-commerce business and the strong momentum in Williams-Sonoma Home. West Elm performance was also solid with >$1 billion revenue threshold in 2017 which is the eighth consecutive year of double-digit comp growth at 10.2%. The group’s newer businesses, Rejuvenation and Mark and Graham, along with their company-owned global businesses, all generated another year of double-digit profitable growth. E-commerce revenues accelerated almost 100 basis points to 5% growth, expanding to 52.5% of their total revenues. Their retail channel also improved, accelerating over 400 basis points from a negative 3.2% comp last year to a positive 0.9% comp this year despite a nationwide decline in mall traffic of 7.3%. The group continues to penetrate their international presence wherein they entered South Korea and Ireland in 2017, launched e-commerce presence in Canada and expanded their presence in the current markets. Their global presence rose almost by 40% as compared to last year to a total of 128 selling locations. For 2018, the group intends to open new West Elm locations in the U.K., both company-owned as well as with current partners. They introduced Pottery Barn Kids to the U.K. market through their John Lewis Partnership, as well as enhanced their retail presence which would drive growth in their fast growing U.K. e-commerce business. Their current franchise partners are planning to open over 20 locations during 2018, and over the next 3 to 5 years. The group continues to focus on multi-channel expansions into larger-sized market, particularly Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, which have a combined addressable market of approximately $350 billion.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc(NYSE: WMT) stock rose 4.5% today (as of 12:09PM EDT on October 10th, 2017; Source: Google finance) leading to a total rise of 7.7% returns in the last five days. The group forecasts of better online sales coupled with their better returns process drove the stock momentum. The group forecasts their U.S. e-commerce sales to enhance 40% by the fiscal year of 2019 driven by their online investments. This retail giant is finally trying to catch up with the online e-commerce giant -Amazon.com Inc. Wal-Mart Stores intends to incur capital expenditures of over $11 billion for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. They would be mainly focusing on store remodels and digital experiences over new stores. The group expects their eCommerce investments to improve supply chain capabilities. Walmart International intends to invest more in fulfillment capabilities. Wal-Mart Stores forecasts a global unit growth of over 280, including new, expanded and relocated units, for each of the fiscal years 2018 and 2019. The retail store forecasts to open less than 15 Supercenters and fewer than 10 Neighborhood Markets in the fiscal year 2019. But Walmart Internationalis targeting to open over 255 new stores mainly focusing on major markets like Mexico and China. Wal-Mart Stores net sales are forecasted to rise at or above 3% in the fiscal year of 2019 boosted by comp-sales and eCommerce growth. They forecast to add 1,000 online grocery locations in Walmart U.S. The group is combining the accessibility of their stores with eCommerce to offer new and exciting ways for customers to shop. The group recently focused their attention on returns, by launching Mobile Express Returns – an innovative, industry-first experience which would combine Walmart’s more than 4,700 locations with the Walmart app to make returning an item fast and easy. This is another major move by the firm showing their efforts to cope up with Amazon. The new simplified returns process would start in early November for items sold and shipped by Walmart.com, followed by store purchases in early 2018. The group also intends to create a similar streamlined returns process for items sold by third-party sellers on Walmart.com.

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