Week Ahead: CoreWeave, Cisco and Applied Materials Headline the Earnings Calendar
Earnings season is winding down, but the week of August 10-14 still carries weight for one of the market's dominant themes: artificial intelligence infrastructure. Nine S&P 500 companies, including one Dow component, are on the calendar this week, according to FactSet, and the marquee names all sit somewhere along the AI supply chain.
The week opened Monday with Monday.com, Ferguson Enterprises and International Seaways before the bell, where analysts looked for earnings of $1.11, $3.30 and $5.50 per share respectively, per Kiplinger's calendar. After Monday's close came Simon Property Group, with a $3.22 consensus, alongside AAON, and expected losses at Plug Power and Rocket Lab of $0.08 and $0.06 per share.
The most closely watched report lands Tuesday after the close, when AI cloud provider CoreWeave posts second-quarter results. Wall Street is looking for revenue of roughly $2.55 billion to $2.56 billion, which Kiplinger notes would represent year-over-year growth of about 110.7%, alongside a wider per-share loss than a year ago. Oppenheimer analysts, cited by Kiplinger, acknowledge investor concerns about industry overbuild and capacity delays but argue those worries are overblown.
Beyond the headline numbers, TipRanks highlights three metrics for CoreWeave watchers: the backlog, capital spending and customer mix. The company's remaining performance obligations reached $99.4 billion in the first quarter, up nearly fourfold from a year earlier, and management has guided to $31 billion to $35 billion of capital expenditures this year. That spending has compressed adjusted operating margins to about 1% in the first quarter from 17% a year before, per TipRanks, and investors want evidence the company can broaden its customer base beyond anchor clients such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI. Management has previously indicated that roughly 36% of the backlog should convert to revenue over two years and about 75% over four, per TipRanks, though power constraints and delays in bringing new chips online are cited as execution risks. Analysts tracked by TipRanks rate the stock a Moderate Buy, with 13 Buy ratings, four Holds and one Sell, and an average price target of $129.63, implying more than 40% upside from recent levels.
Tuesday is busy elsewhere too. Cardinal Health, Sea Limited, Tencent Music and On Holding report before the open, with consensus per-share estimates of $2.42, $0.82, $1.55 and $0.34 respectively, according to Kiplinger's calendar. After the bell, Super Micro Computer and Lumentum join CoreWeave, with analysts penciling in $0.92 and $2.97 in earnings per share.
Wednesday belongs to Cisco Systems, the week's lone Dow name. Analysts expect earnings of $1.17 per share, up 18.2% from a year ago, on revenue of $16.83 billion, a 14.7% increase, per Kiplinger. UBS analysts quoted in the same calendar say demand for AI infrastructure has accelerated, which should support networking revenue and product orders. Brinker International and Kontoor Brands report Wednesday morning.
Thursday brings the semiconductor-equipment test. Applied Materials is expected to earn $3.39 per share, up 36.7% year over year, on revenue of $9.01 billion, up 23.4%, according to Kiplinger. Stifel analysts anticipate the company can grow revenue above those estimates amid what they describe as a strong AI expansion and investment phase. JD.com, Tapestry and YETI round out Thursday's morning slate.
The setup is demanding. FactSet's latest update shows 86% of S&P 500 companies beating earnings estimates this season, and recent sessions have shown that even strong results can be punished when guidance fails to clear elevated expectations. For the AI names reporting this week, the bar is less about the quarter just ended than about what management says comes next.
