Earnings preview: Verizon seen doing well; ALU to miss guidance

It's Q2 earnings season, and the analysts are busy predicting what may or may not be said when the big telcos and their vendors bare their financials to the world. First up, among the major carriers, is Verizon (NYSE: VZ), which will tell all July 19 and, Wall Street Cheat Sheet suggests, should meet analysts' expectations.

"The average analyst estimate is for net income of 64 cents per share, a rise of 12.3 percent from the company's actual earnings for the year-ago quarter," the stock watcher said. That's in line with an estimate that actually moved up from 63 cents in the past three months so it seems Verizon is doing all right—according to WSCS, of course.

Analysts are also waiting to see if a trend of "four straight revenue increases" in past quarters continues, the site said. Verizon revenue "rose 2.8 percent in the second quarter of the last fiscal year, 5.4 percent in the third quarter of the last fiscal year and 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year before increasing again in the first quarter" where it was up 4.6 percent. For this quarter, the analysts expect a rise of 3.7 percent.

Meanwhile, Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is already dispensing some earnings news prior to its second quarter release July 26. The company, according to a CNET posting, said that "it no longer expects to achieve its adjusted operating margin guidance for the full year, which it had anticipated would be higher than the 3.9 percent recorded in 2011."

The "difficult macro-economic environment" is to blame for the lowered expectations, the story continued.

ALU told the publication that its figures "reflect good sequential sales growth with all geographies and divisions growing, but a slower than expected business mix improvement." Overall, ALU "expects its second half to be better than its first," the story said.

For more:
- Wall Street Cheat Sheet has this story
- Telecompaper has this story

Related articles:
Report calls AT&T, Verizon top U.S. 'investment heroes'
Verizon makes progress with Eastern region wireline service restoration
Switching and routing market to grow 4.4% in 2012, breaking stagnant Q1