Meredith Corporation (MDP), one of the leading media and marketing companies with interests in publishing, broadcasting, integrated marketing and interactive media, is slated to report its first-quarter fiscal 2015 results on Oct 23. In the last quarter, it posted a positive surprise of 4.8%. Let’s see how things are shaping up prior to this announcement.

Factors Affecting This Quarter

With advancing technology, the print media is on a decline. Shift of more readers to online has heavily burdened Meredith’s magazine portfolio. Though the company is focusing on the expansion of its digital presence, it will take some time the metamorphosis to complete, which in turn will put tremendous pressure on the company’s revenues.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively project Meredith as likely to beat earnings this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), #2 (Buy) or #3 (Hold) for this to happen. This is not the case here, as you will see below.

Zacks ESP: ESP for Meredith is 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 63 cents.

Zacks Rank: Meredith carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), which combined with 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.

We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 and 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into an earnings announcement, especially when the company is witnessing negative estimate revisions.

Other Stocks to Consider

Here are some other companies you may want to consider as our model shows these to have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat:

L Brands, Inc. (LB) has an Earnings ESP of +3.13% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Under Armour, Inc. (UA) has an Earnings ESP of +2.50% and a Zacks Rank #2.

The Home Depot, Inc. (HD) has an Earnings ESP of +0.89% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Read the Full Research Report on MDP
Read the Full Research Report on HD
Read the Full Research Report on UA
Read the Full Research Report on LB


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