Two more “Magnificent 7” companies are set to report in the week ahead, along other key players in tech, in another jam-packed week of earnings.<\/p>\n
Tech companies’ levels of capital expenditure has remained in the spotlight this earnings season, as investors are focusing on whether this spending \u2013 particularly on AI \u2013 is paying off.<\/p>\n
That’s likely to continue to be in focus when Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG<\/a>, GOOGL<\/a>) and Amazon (AMZN<\/a>) report in the coming week.<\/p>\n Another major tech company due to report is Palantir (PLTR<\/a>), with the company expecting to report further growth in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n In Europe, Danish pharmaceuticals giant Novo Nordisk (NOVO-B.CO<\/a>) is set to release its full-year results, with shares on the rise following the launch of its Wegovy weight-loss pill in the US.<\/p>\n On the UK’s FTSE 100 (^FTSE<\/a>), Shell (SHEL.L<\/a>) is set to release its fourth quarter results, with the company having already flagged weaker oil trading performance.<\/p>\n Here’s more on what to look out for:<\/p>\n Shares in Alphabet are hovering around an all-time high, ahead of the company’s fourth quarter and full-year results, due out after the market close on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The company hit a $4tn (\u00a32.9tn) market valuation in mid-January, after shares rose on the back of Google and Apple (AAPL<\/a>) announced<\/a> that they had entered into a “multi-year collaboration”. Under the deal, the companies said Apple Foundation Models would be based on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology.<\/p>\n Investors cheered Alphabet’s third quarter results<\/a>, released at the end of October, as quarterly revenue topped $100bn for the first time and beat expectations.<\/p>\n Read more: Stocks that are trending today<\/a><\/p>\n Looking to the company’s fourth quarter results, revenue is expected to rise to $111.38bn, up from $102.35bn reported in the previous quarter, according to Refinitiv data provided by Interactive Investor. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) are anticipated to fall to $2.63 from $3.10 in the third quarter.<\/p>\n Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: “Google Cloud is facing stiff competition in the AI arms race against other dominant AI infrastructure platforms like Microsoft\u2019s Azure.<\/p>\n “Amid the AI hype, particular focus in Alphabet\u2019s earnings will be on its capital expenditure, cloud numbers and any guidance around AI investment and demand.”<\/p>\n The company said in its third quarter results that it expected capex to be in the range of $91bn to $93bn for the year.<\/p>\n Shares in Amazon (AMZN<\/a>) soared following the release of its third quarter results<\/a> in late October, as it beat forecasts on the top and bottom lines, as well as reporting faster than expected growth in its cloud business.<\/p>\n Amazon posted EPS of $1.95 on revenue of $180.2bn, which was better than analysts’ expectations of EPS of $1.58 and revenue of $177.8bn.<\/p>\n The company’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud business brought in $33.01bn in revenue versus an anticipated $32.4bn.<\/p>\n AWS growth will remain focus when Amazon reports its fourth quarter results on Thursday.<\/p>\n Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Markets are pencilling in growth of around 21%, which would mark a third consecutive quarter of acceleration, and investors will be listening closely for any update on supply and demand dynamics. Last time around, demand was still running ahead of available capacity as new infrastructure struggled to keep up.”<\/p>\n More broadly, Amazon has said that it expects net sales in the fourth quarter to be between $206bn and $213bn, which would represent between 10% and 13% growth on the same period a year earlier. Meanwhile, operating income is expected to be between $21bn and $26bn, compared to $21.2bn for the fourth quarter of 2024.<\/p>\n Software analytics company Palantir beat Wall Street forecasts in the third quarter<\/a>, reporting revenue of $1.18bn versus estimates of $1.09bn. Adjusted EPS of $0.21 was also ahead of expectations of $0.17.<\/p>\n The company’s fourth quarter guidance was also better than analysts expected<\/a>. Palantir said it expects revenue to be between $1.327bn and $1.331bn, which was ahead of the $1.2bn projected by analysts at the time of the third quarter results.<\/p>\n Stocks: Create your watchlist and portfolio<\/a><\/p>\n The defence tech firm said it expects to report adjusted operating income of $695m and $699m for the fourth quarter, which was also higher than the roughly $575m expected.<\/p>\n In addition, Palantir raised its guidance for the year, saying it expects revenue to be between $4.39bn and $4.4bn, up from its previously guided range of $4.14bn to $4.15bn.<\/p>\n However, Palantir shares fell following the release of the results, as some analysts raised concerns that the company’s performance and guidance failed to justify its valuation.<\/p>\n The stock is yet to recover from that fall but is still up more than 90% over the past year.<\/p>\n Shares in Novo Nordisk are up 14.5% since the start of year, buoyed by the launch of its Wegovy weight-loss pill in the US.<\/p>\n The pill had a strong debut week, as the drug was prescribed more than 18,000 times in the US in its first full week following its launch, according to a Reuters report<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, the stock is still trading well below highs reached in 2024, as last year proved challenging amid increasing competition in the weight-loss treatment space.<\/p>\n Derren Nathan, head of equity analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Investor sentiment towards Novo Nordisk bottomed out following another downgrade to revenue and profit guidance at its third-quarter update in November.”<\/p>\n Read more: Bank of England outlines UK stablecoin and tokenisation plan<\/a><\/p>\n He said that Novo’s full-year revenue is now expected to have risen 8% to 11%, ignoring exchange rate moves, while operating profit growth is expected to come in at 4% to 7%.<\/p>\n “But it\u2019s been a promising start to 2026, with take-up of the company\u2019s recently launched Wegovy pill for weight management helping to claw back some US market share from arch-rival, Eli Lilly (LLY<\/a>),” said Nathan.<\/p>\n He said that attention will then turn to Novo’s outlook for this year, with focus likely to be on pricing and insurance coverage.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s a complex picture, but, on balance, we think there could be some upside to consensus forecasts of a small fall in 2026 sales,” added Nathan. “Of course there can be no guarantee, but recent strength in the valuation suggests we\u2019re unlikely to be alone in this view.”<\/p>\n Oil major Shell has already given investors a idea of what to expect from its performance in the fourth quarter in a trading update<\/a> published in early January.<\/p>\n In the update, Shell said that results from trading for its chemicals and products division are expected to be “significantly lower” than the third quarter.<\/p>\n This comes as oil prices have continued to see a longer term decline over concerns about oversupply in the market, despite recent rises owing to heightened geopolitical tensions and risks of disruption to supply.<\/p>\n Read more: What are share buybacks?<\/a><\/p>\n Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: “Despite heightened geopolitical tensions, Shell is now undergoing more conservative capital expenditure, thus underpinning shareholder returns. In addition, its diversity of operations across oil, gas, chemicals, and retailing regularly allows one area of strength to counter another of weakness.”<\/p>\n “Management\u2019s previous estimate that the dividend could be sustained even with the oil price as low as $40 per barrel … is noteworthy, while a focus on reducing costs continues,” he said.<\/p>\n Shell shares are up just 5% over the past year, though Hunter pointed out this “rates as outperformance”, given that gain was achieved despite the fall in the oil price in that time. In addition, he said that overall returns have been boosted by a dividend yield of 3.9% and the company’s share buyback<\/a> programme, currently running at around $3.5bn per quarter.<\/p>\n “Some investors are unwilling or unable to invest in oil stocks on ethical grounds,” he said. “Even so, the company remains a core constituent of many traditional portfolios alongside the old adage of ‘never sell Shell’ and remains the preferred play in the sector over BP.”<\/p>\n Monday 2 February<\/p>\n The Walt Disney Company (DIS<\/a>)<\/p>\n Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (8411.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Simon Property Group, Inc. (SPG<\/a>)<\/p>\n NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXPI<\/a>)<\/p>\n Teradyne, Inc. (TER<\/a>)<\/p>\n Tyson Foods (TSN<\/a>)<\/p>\n Rambus (RMBS<\/a>)<\/p>\n Tuesday 3 February<\/p>\n Alumasc (ALU.L<\/a>)<\/p>\n Nintendo (7974.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Mitsubishi Electric (6503.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Toyota Industries (6201.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Japan Airlines (9201.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Adani Enterprises (ADANIENT.NS<\/a>)<\/p>\n Publicis (PUB.PA<\/a>)<\/p>\n Kinnevik (KINV-A.ST<\/a>)<\/p>\n Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD<\/a>)<\/p>\n Merck & Co. mrk (MRK<\/a>)<\/p>\n PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP<\/a>)<\/p>\n Amgen Inc. (AMGN<\/a>)<\/p>\n Pfizer Inc. (PFE<\/a>)<\/p>\n Eaton Corporation plc (ETN<\/a>)<\/p>\n Chubb Limited (CB<\/a>)<\/p>\n Emerson Electric Co. (EMR<\/a>)<\/p>\n Mondelez International (MDLZ<\/a>)<\/p>\n PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL<\/a>)<\/p>\n Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG<\/a>)<\/p>\n Electronic Arts Inc. (EA<\/a>)<\/p>\n Corning (GLW<\/a>)<\/p>\n Super Micro Computer (SMCI<\/a>)<\/p>\n Clorox (CLX<\/a>)<\/p>\n Skyworks (SWKS<\/a>)<\/p>\n Cirrus Logic (CRUS<\/a>)<\/p>\n Harley-Davidson (HOG<\/a>)<\/p>\n Capri (CPRI<\/a>)<\/p>\n Wednesday 4 February<\/p>\n DCC (DCC.L<\/a>)<\/p>\n Mitsubishi UFJ (1348.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Sumitomo (8053.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Rohm (6963.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Novartis (NOVN.SW<\/a>)<\/p>\n Banco Santander (BNC.L<\/a>)<\/p>\n UBS (UBSG.SW<\/a>)<\/p>\n Equinor (EQNR.OL<\/a>)<\/p>\n Credit Agricole (ACA.PA<\/a>)<\/p>\n Infineon Technologies (IFX.DE<\/a>)<\/p>\n Svenska Handelsbanken (SHB-A.ST<\/a>)<\/p>\n Carlsberg (CARL-B.CO<\/a>)<\/p>\n OMV (OMV.VI<\/a>)<\/p>\n UPM-Kymmene (UPM.HE<\/a>)<\/p>\n Stora-Enso (STERV.HE<\/a>)<\/p>\n Soitec (SOI.PA<\/a>)<\/p>\n AbbVie (ABBV<\/a>)<\/p>\n CostCo (COST<\/a>)<\/p>\n Qualcomm (QCOM<\/a>)<\/p>\n Uber (UBER<\/a>)<\/p>\n Boston Scientific (BSX<\/a>)<\/p>\n ARM (ARM<\/a>)<\/p>\n Hess (HESM<\/a>)<\/p>\n Yum Brands (YUM<\/a>)<\/p>\n Yum China (YUMC<\/a>)<\/p>\n Snap (SNAP<\/a>)<\/p>\n New York Times (NYT<\/a>)<\/p>\n Eli Lilly and Company (LLY<\/a>)<\/p>\n Thursday 5 February<\/p>\n Compass (CPG.L<\/a>)<\/p>\n Anglo American (AAL.L<\/a>)<\/p>\n Vodafone (VOD.L<\/a>)<\/p>\n Gattaca (GATC.L<\/a>)<\/p>\n Sony (6758.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n NTT (8956.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n NTT Data (3850.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Suzuki Motor (7269.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Nippon Steel (5401.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Nikon (7731.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n SMIC (0981.HK<\/a>)<\/p>\n BNP Paribas (BNP.PA<\/a>)<\/p>\n UniCredit (UCG.MI<\/a>)<\/p>\n Zurich Insurance (ZURN.SW<\/a>)<\/p>\n Vinci (DG.VI<\/a>)<\/p>\n BMW (BMW.DE<\/a>)<\/p>\n Siemens Healthineers (SHL.DE<\/a>)<\/p>\n Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO<\/a>)<\/p>\n AP M\u00f8ller-Maersk (MAERSK-B.CO<\/a>)<\/p>\n Saab (SAAB-B.ST<\/a>)<\/p>\n Philip Morris (PM<\/a>)<\/p>\n Linde (LIN<\/a>)<\/p>\n KKR (KKR<\/a>)<\/p>\n ConocoPhillips (COP<\/a>)<\/p>\n Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY<\/a>)<\/p>\n Barrick Mining (B<\/a>)<\/p>\n Cummins (CMI<\/a>)<\/p>\n Thomson Reuters (TRI<\/a>)<\/p>\n Roblox (RBLX<\/a>)<\/p>\n Microchip (MCHP<\/a>)<\/p>\n Hershey (HSY<\/a>)<\/p>\n Estee Lauder (EL<\/a>)<\/p>\n Ralph Lauren (RL<\/a>)<\/p>\n Illumina (ILMN<\/a>)<\/p>\n Tapestry (TPR<\/a>)<\/p>\n Warner Music (WMG<\/a>)<\/p>\n News Corp (NWSA<\/a>)<\/p>\n Friday 6 February<\/p>\n Toyota Motor (TM<\/a>)<\/p>\n Tokyo Electron (2760.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Honda Motor (7267.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Mazda Motor (7261.T<\/a>)<\/p>\n Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 G\u00e9n\u00e9rale (GLE.PA<\/a>)<\/p>\n Kone (KNEBV.HE<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u00d8rsted (ORSTED.CO<\/a>)<\/p>\n Coloplast (COLO-B.CO<\/a>)<\/p>\n Telenor (TELO.OL<\/a>)<\/p>\n