Maintenance and repair supplier W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW) will be reporting results this Friday before the bell. Here’s what to expect.
W.W. Grainger beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 0.6% last quarter, reporting revenues of $4.55 billion, up 5.6% year on year. It was a slower quarter for the company, with full-year EPS guidance slightly missing analysts’ expectations and a miss of analysts’ EPS estimates.
Is W.W. Grainger a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.
This quarter, analysts are expecting W.W. Grainger’s revenue to grow 5.7% year on year to $4.64 billion, improving from the 4.3% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $9.95 per share.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings.
Looking at W.W. Grainger’s peers in the maintenance and repair distributors segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. MSC Industrial delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 2.7%, beating analysts’ expectations by 1.5%, and Fastenal reported revenues up 11.7%, in line with consensus estimates. MSC Industrial traded up 1.1% following the results while Fastenal was down 6.7%.
Read our full analysis of MSC Industrial’s results here and Fastenal’s results here.
There has been positive sentiment among investors in the maintenance and repair distributors segment, with share prices up 2.3% on average over the last month. W.W. Grainger’s stock price was unchanged during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $1,043 (compared to the current share price of $958.97).
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