Earnings season is starting to wind down but there are still a number of key companies due to report in the coming week.
In the world of tech, US cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks (PANW) is set to release its latest earnings on Tuesday, with investors keeping an eye out for progress on its ongoing “platformisation” strategy.
Another tech name reporting in the week ahead is silicon chip marker Analog Devices (ADI). Investors will be looking at the earnings for clues on the health of broader US economic activity, given the range of sectors its serves.
On the London market, much focus will be on how Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) is faring in the aftermath of a recent cyber attack, when it reports its full-year results.
Greggs (GRG.L) is another British high-street favourite due to report in the coming week, though the bakery chain has faced challenges more recently with a slowdown in sales.
Meanwhile, investor optimism over recent US trade agreements and an easing of economic concerns, offers a more positive backdrop of market sentiment for when airline easyJet (EZJ.L) reports on Thursday.
Here’s more on what to look out for:
Shares in Palo Alto Networks (PANW) hit an all-time high on the back of its second quarter earnings in February, with the company guiding to another strong set of numbers in its latest results.
Palo Alto (PANW) generated $2.26bn (£1.7bn) in total revenue in the second quarter, which was up 14% year-on-year, and topped its own guidance of $2.22bn to $2.25bn.
Diluted earnings per share came in at $0.81, which was up 11% on a year earlier, and also beat its guidance of $0.77 to $0.78 per share.
Dipak Golechha, chief financial officer of Palo Alto Networks (PANW), said that the company’s “platformisation” strategy – which refers to the consolidation of its products and services on a unified platform – drove its second quarter results.
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“As we drive leverage from our scale and see early benefits from AI-related efficiency initiatives, we again delivered profitable growth,” he said.
As a result of this growth, Golechha said that Palo Alto (PANW) was raising its operating margins and earnings per share guidance for the year.
The company said it expected its operating margin to be in the range of 28% and 28.5%, diluted net income per share to be between $3.18 and $3.24. Total revenue is expected to come in between $9.14bn and $9.19bn.
Palo Alto (PANW) also shared guidance for the third quarter, projecting total revenue of $2.26bn to $2.29bn, which would represent year-on-year growth of 14% to 15%. Diluted net income per share is expected to be between $0.76 and $0.77 for the quarter.
Chipmaker Analog Devices (ADI) is considered as a valuable barometer of economic activity in the US and globally.
It specialises in analogue, mixed-signal processing and power management chips, serving more than 100,000 customers across diverse sectors and offering more than 75,000 products. Nearly half of its revenues come from industrial markets, nearly a third from the automotive sector, with the remainder coming from communications and consumer applications.
The company’s first quarter results beat expectations, with revenue of $2.4bn coming in ahead of analysts’ estimates of $2.36bn, according to a Reuters report.
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Vincent Roche, CEO of Analog Devices (ADI), said: “ADI delivered first quarter revenue, profitability, and earnings per share above the midpoint of our outlook, despite the challenging macro and geopolitical backdrop.
“Our recovery is being propelled by improving cyclical dynamics and numerous new wins across our franchise converting to revenue.”
For the second quarter, Analog (ADI) forecasted revenue of $2.5bn, plus or minus $100m, which Reuters reported would be ahead of estimates of $2.46bn.
The company is expecting adjusted earnings per share to come in at $1.68, plus or minus $0.10. That would be an increase on the $1.63 it reported in the first quarter and ahead of estimates of $1.66, according to Reuters.
In April, Marks & Spencer (MKS.L) was hit by a cyber attack, which left some shelves in its stores empty and online orders suspended.
Shares in M&S (MKS.L) have slumped 12.5% over the past month, as it continues to deal with the fallout of the incident.
AJ Bell’s (AJB.L) investment experts Russ Mould, Danni Hewson and Dan Coatsworth said that there is a “danger … the results for the year to March 2025 are largely overlooked as analysts look to chief executive Stuart Machin and the board for a steer on when M&S’s online shopping and stock management systems will be fully operational once more”.
“The FTSE 100 index constituent is unlikely to rush, as it will not want to be reopen for business only to find the hackers have something buried deep in the system waiting to wreak more havoc, but the costs will be piling up.”
They said that “some analysts have quantified the potential hit to profits at £15m per week, with food taking the brunt of it, thanks to the complexity of supply chains and the risk of wastage, although the company does reportedly have cyber-attack insurance cover”.
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AJ Bell’s investment experts said that shareholders may bear this figure in mind when assessing the retailer’s full-year results.
For the year to March, they said that the analysts forecast a 5% increase in total group sales to £1.38bn, while adjusted pre-tax income is expected to come in at £850m, versus £716m a year ago.
“Whether Mr Machin and chief financial officer Jeremy Townsend feel able to offer any guidance for the year to March 2026 is open to doubt (and Mr Townsend is due to retire this month as he makes way for Alison Dolan),” they said.
Before the cyber attack, consensus forecasts looked for a 5% increase in total group sales to £14.3bn and adjusted pre-tax income of £900m.
In terms of shareholder payouts, the AJ Bell team said that prior to the cyber attack analysts expected a “hefty hike” in the final dividend to 3.8p per share from 2p in its 2024 fiscal year, which would take the full-year total up to 4.8p from 3p.
“It remains to be seen whether management chooses to be more circumspect in light of the current difficulties, even if they are being well handled and will ultimately prove to be temporary,” they said. “M&S has not run a buyback scheme of any magnitude since 2015 and before that in 2007 and it seems unlikely to launch one now.”
Shares in Greggs (GRG.L) fell in March after the food-on-the-go retailer reported a further slowdown in sales at the start of the year, with the stock down nearly 27% year-to-date.
In its preliminary full-year results, Greggs (GRG.L) said that like-for-like sales increased 1.7% in the first nine weeks of 2025, slowing from 2.5% in the fourth quarter. The food-on-the-go retailer cited challenging weather conditions in January but said trading had improved.
Greggs’ (GRG.L) total sales for 2024 topped £2bn ($2.65bn) for the first time, while pre-tax profit was up 8% to £203.9m.
Rosie Currie, CEO of Greggs (GRG.L), also warned that a rise in employment taxes would “significantly” increase the company’s wage bill and said that Greggs would recover this cost inflation through “careful pricing activity”.
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Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Greggs (GRG.L) has had a tough time of late, with the valuation coming under pressure in 2025 as the group flagged slowing sales growth and rising costs.
“Bad weather has been partly to blame, putting off some customers that Greggs’ (GRG.L) conveniently located stores would lure in. Trends were improving in February and investors are cautiously optimistic that the second half of the year will bring some more favourable conditions.”
He said that analysts “don’t expect to hear a change of tack from management in next week’s trading update. Greggs (GRG.L) has plans for between 140-150 net new openings in 2025, and markets are keen to hear how fast these new stores are being rolled out.”
“Slowing sales growth and a tricky cost environment are challenges that Greggs (GRG.L) now needs to overcome, but investors are not seeing any reason to be concerned about its underlying strengths just yet,” Britzman added.
Fears that US president Donald Trump’s trade war could lead to a recession had weighed on investor sentiment towards the travel sector, due to concerns that an economic slowdown would result in consumers spending less on holidays.
However, US agreements with the UK and China over the past week have eased investor concerns.
Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that airline easyJet (EZJ.L) will be “looking to show markets it’s on the right flight path when it announces half-year results next week. There had been talk of weaker pricing over the second quarter, and investors are keen to hear how much of an impact that’s had on the bottom line.”
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He said that markets are forecasting first half pre-tax losses to widen by nearly 5% to £366m. In the first quarter, easyJet (EZJ.L) posted a headline loss before tax of £61m, though this was an improvement of £65m year-on-year.
The airline said it had a positive outlook for the full year, consistent with consensus, and was on track to achieve its medium-term target of over £1bn profit before tax.
“First-half losses aren’t surprising given the cyclical nature of easyJet’s (EZJ.L) business,” said Chiekrie. “Much more important is commentary around the outlook for the important summer season.”
“Falling oil prices have the potential to boost profits, given they’re such a significant chunk of airlines’ costs,” he added. “But markets are also keen to hear just how much of an impact uncertainty around tariffs is having on bookings and business, and if plans to expand its capacity by 3% this year remain on track.”
Monday 19 May
Big Yellow Group (BYG.L)
Kainos (KNOS.L)
Diageo (DGE.L)
Ryanair (RYA.IR)
Tuesday 20 May
Vodafone (VOD.L)
LondonMetric Property (LMP.L)
Cranswick (CWK.L)
Diploma (DPLM.L)
SSP (SSPG.L)
Topps Tiles (TPT.L)
Smiths Group (SMIN.L)
Wienerberger (WIE.VI)
Home Depot (HD)
Amer Sports (AS)
Toll Brothers (TOL)
Wednesday 21 May
Severn Trent (SVT.L)
Great Portland Estates (GPE.L)
Helical (HLCL.L)
Avon Technologies (AVON.L)
Currys (CURY.L)
Coats (COA.L)
Regional REIT (RGL.L)
Baidu (9888.HK)
Lowe’s (LOW)
Medtronic (MDT)
Snowflake (SNOW)
Target Corporation (TGT)
Best Buy (BBY)
Urban Outfitters (URBN)
American Eagle (AEO)
Macy’s (M)
Thursday 22 May
BT (BT-A.L)
British Land (BLND.L)
QinetiQ (QQ.L)
Bloomsbury Publishing (BMY.L)
Tate & Lyle (TATE.L)
Investec (INVP.L)
Intertek (ITRK.L)
ConvaTec (CTEC.L)
Hill & Smith (HILS.L)
Generali (G.MI)
Dollar Tree (DLTR)
Ralph Lauren (RL)
You can read Yahoo Finance’s full calendar here.
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