Earnings Preview: Arkansas stocks enter second quarter uncertain about economy

Van Buren-based USA Truck and Lowell-based J.B. Hunt Transport Service hope to shift gears next week when the Northwest Arkansas trucking concerns kick off the second-quarter earnings period for 16 local stocks monitored by The City Wire and Talkbusiness.net.

Even after reporting getting a bounce from better-than-expected first quarter earnings, most of Arkansas’ publicly traded concerns ended the month of June with heavy losses and sagging stock prices. Nine of the 16 stocks monitored by Talkbusiness.net and The City Wire have lost ground to their closing stock prices on Jan. 4.

USA Truck will kick off the second quarter earnings period on Monday (July 12), hoping to continue its momentum from first half of 2010. Despite top level changes in the company’s executive ranks, the trucking company’s stock rose an impressive 25.7% during the first half of the year.

Wall Street expects USA Truck to report "flat" second quarter earnings, still a marked improvement compared to losses of 11 cents per a share, or $1.1 million for the same period of 2009. Consensus revenue estimates, on average, are expected to top $109 million — 18% better than year ago sales of $92.4 million.

On Thursday (July 15), all eyes will be on J.B. Hunt, which many analysts and investors cite as a market bellwether for the industrial sector. Although the Arkansas trucking giant easily beat Wall Street’s first quarter targets, J.B. Hunt shares have fallen from $37.05 on April 14 to $34.03 on Thursday (July 8), a bearish decline of 8.15%.

Trucking analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect J.B. Hunt to report second quarter earnings of 30 cents per share on revenue of $911 million, compared to year ago earnings of 23 cents per share on sales of nearly $737 million.

On the following week, Fort Smith-based Arkansas Best Corp. and Arkansas regional banks Simmons First National and HomeBancshares will issue their second-quarter  earnings reports. Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Dillards Inc., Murphy Oil Corp., and Tyson Foods Inc. will all release their second quarter financial reports in August.

Below is the July earnings calendar for Arkansas’ publicly traded companies and stocks of state interest:

Arkansas stocks
USA Truck — July 12
J.B. Hunt — July 15
Arkansas Best — July 19
Simmons First — July 22
Home Bancshares — July 22
Acxiom Corp. — July 26 (1Q)
Baldor Electric — July 29

Stocks of state, regional interest
Bank of America — July 16
Halliburton — July 19
Whirlpool — July 19
IberiaBank — July 19
AT&T — July 22
BancorpSouth — July 22
Verizon Communications — July 23
Health Management Associates —  July 26
Atlantic Tele-Network — July 26
Regions Financial — July 28
International Paper — July 29
Weyerheauser — July 30