Sandy Rearranges Earnings Calendar

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Earnings reports seem pretty trivial when compared to 60 million people being in the path of an almost unprecedented “superstorm”. Luckily, quite a few companies agreed with that notion.

A number of big-name companies scheduled to report third-quarter earnings either today or tomorrow have postponed on account of Hurricane Sandy. Considering the giant storm already forced the shutdown of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday and Tuesday, the postponements are no surprise.

Here’s a list of the companies that postponed earnings today – and when they rescheduled for:

  • Pfizer (PFE): Postponed until Thursday
  • Entergy (ETR): Postponed until November 5
  • Office Depot (ODP): Postponed until November 6
  • NRG (NRG): Postponed until Friday
  • Sirius XM radio (SIRI): Postponed until Thursday
  • Thomson Reuters (TRI): Postponed until Friday
  • Avon Products (AVP): Postponed until Thursday

Not all companies pulled the plug on their earnings reports. Burger King (BKW) reported earnings this morning, getting a 1.77% boost after its adjusted earnings outpaced low analyst expectations.

Valero Energy (VLO) is proceeding with its earnings call tomorrow as planned.

With markets closed today and tomorrow, companies that do report aren’t going to get the same post-earnings activity they usually get. Few people are trading in the “off hours” as Hurricane Sandy barrels down on Wall Street.

Reporting earnings when no one’s looking could be a good thing for companies with lousy earnings reports. That’s probably why Burger King went ahead and reported – despite beating analyst estimates on an adjusted earnings basis, net income at the fast-food chain dropped 83% year-over-year.

Valero is probably reporting earnings tomorrow because it had a bad quarter too.

You can get away with a bad quarter when investors are focused on an event that’s far more important.

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