Sherwin Williams: Betting On The Long-Term Amid Short-Term Headwinds

Sherwin Williams (SHW) beat 1Q18 sales and profit expectations, but unexpectedly reduced 2018 consolidated earnings guidance from $19.05 to $18.65 reflecting new investments in an expanded partnership with Lowe’s. SHW expects to recoup the entire $0.40 2018 EPS impact in 2019, noting that the incremental investment would be accretive to sales and profits next year. […]

Alphabet: Expense Growth Overshadows Revenue Upside But It Is Money Well Spent

Alphabet (GOOG/GOOGL) reported mixed results relative to consensus expectations for 1Q18.  The results also contained a lot of noise due to accounting requirements.  The key takeaways for Northlake are that the company is still growing quite rapidly given its size, while the cost of sustaining the growth is rising.  We emphasize the long-term opportunity over […]

Conservative Guidance Sets Up Nexstar to Outperform

Nexstar Media Group (NXST) reported good 4Q17 earnings with strength in political and digital advertising offsetting slightly worse than expected growth in retransmission fees.  Guidance for 2018 and 2019 was limited to average annual free cash flow.  At $600 million per year, it was below street expectations.  The culprit appears to be timing of renewals […]

MGM Clears Hurdle to Resume Uptrend

MGM Resorts (MGM) reported 4Q17 results in line with to slightly better than expectations.  Due to a variety of factors including poorly communicated guidance in 2016, a delayed opening for the company’s new casino in Macau, the tragic shooting at Mandalay Bay on October 1st, a shift in metrics away from industry standard revpar, and […]

Expectations Closer to Reality at Liberty Global

Liberty Global (LBTYK) reported a mixed quarter to end 2017.  Rebased revenue grew 3%, a nice acceleration, albeit to a still low level of growth.  Rebased operating cash flow grew just shy of 5%, basically meeting guidance for “around 5%.”  Northlake has been waiting a couple of years for LBTYK to show growth acceleration on […]

CBS Successfully Navigating Challenging Environment

CBS reported better than expected 4Q17 results but in what has been a consistent pattern for several years, the shares did not respond favorably.  There has been a long list of issues for CBS shares mostly focused on the changing consumption of television as viewers migrate to services like Netflix and Hulu and younger viewers […]

Activision Blizzard Resets the Bar Lower for 2018

Activision Blizzard (ATVI) once again beat expectations upon announcing 4Q17 and 2017 results. However, guidance for 1Q18 and 2018 were mixed, with full year guidance generally in line with expectations while 1Q18 guidance appeared a bit light. ATVI has demonstrated a consistent pattern of issuing conservative guidance and then outperforming each quarter. Northlake believes ATVI […]

Sherwin Williams Successfully Integrating Valspar Acquisition

Sherwin Williams (SHW) reported solid 4Q17 results slightly above consensus sales and earnings estimates. Heading into 2018, SHW expects earnings per share between $18.80 and $19.30 excluding Valspar acquisition-related expenses of $3.45. Importantly, SHW noted that most of the remaining costs to achieve the estimated $385-$415 million of annual acquisition synergies will be booked in […]

Parks and Resorts Strong at Disney

Disney (DIS) reported mixed results with the headline EPS number getting a big boost from a tax rate well below estimates.  Parks and Resorts was the positive standout with 13% revenue growth accompanied by operating leverage that boosted operating income growth to 21%.  The rest of the company’s divisions all reported flat to lower year […]

No Apple Super Cycle But Super Financial Strength

Apple (AAPL) reported strong growth but mixed results relative to expectations for its 1Q18 ending December 31st.  iPhone unit sales fell short of still high expectations but higher than expected average selling prices allowed revenue growth to match or exceed Wall Street estimates.  Specifically, iPhone unit sales fell a little short of the 80 million […]