April earnings reports may offer signs of recovery

The financial community will get a better gauge of the current economic recovery when Arkansas’ publicly traded companies began issuing first quarter financial reports this week.

Besides Wal-Mart and Dillard’s effect on the retail sector, Arkansas’ trucking, food, banking, and oil and gas industries serve as "market bellwethers" for large segments of the U.S. economy.

Lowell-based trucking giant J.B Hunt Transport Services Inc. will kick off the quarterly earnings period April 14. Wall Street analysts expect the Arkansas trucking firm to report earnings of 26 cents per share on sales of $789 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

Many investors are betting the trucking and transport sector will provide the leading edge of the economic rebound in 2010 as companies report signs of growing volume. Van Buren-based USA Truck Inc. will report earnings April 22, with Fort Smith-based Arkansas Best Corp. (ABF Freight System) following on April 23.

Also, Fort Smith-based Baldor Electric Co. will release earnings April 28. Results from the nation’s leading producer of electric motors will provide some insight into the health of the manufacturing sector.

The 1Q earnings period will also provide the first glimpse into how Arkansas and other publicly traded companies with handle charges related to the recent passage of federal health care reform.

AT&T and Verizon Communications, two corporate telecom giants with thousands of employees in Arkansas, have both said they would each take about a $1 billion charge in the first quarter of 2010 to cover changes in U.S. health care law.

Staying in the health care sector, Health Management Associates will report earnings April 26. The Naples, Fla.-based company owns Sparks Health System in Fort Smith and Summit Medical Center in Van Buren.

Pine Bluff-based Simmons First National Bank said it expects to release its first quarter profits report prior to market opening on April 15. Wall Street expects the Arkansas regional bank to see earnings of 34 cents per share, down 3 pennies from the previous year.

Financial conglomerate Bank of America, which has dozens of offices and branches across the state, will present first quarter 2010 financial results on April 16.