Stocks to watch next week: LULU, BOX, AFRM, MDB, CRM, OKTA

American stocks rose for the third consecutive week as focus shifted to macro events. The Federal Reserve published minutes of the last meeting on Wednesday while Jerome Powell will talk at the Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday.

At the same time, several important companies like Palo Alto Networks, Lowe’s, TJX, Intuit, and Workday published their quarterly results.

Looking ahead, more companies are expected to publish their results next week. Nvidia (NVDA), the third-biggest company by market cap, will be the one to watch when it releases its numbers on Wednesday. Here are some of the top stocks to watch next week.

Lululemon Athletica | LULU

Lululemon Athletica stock price will be in the spotlight when it releases its results on Thursday. These numbers will come at a time when the company’s growth has slowed and its stock has crashed by more than 48% from its all-time high this year.

Lululemon is facing major challenges as competition from companies like Gap, Nike, Adidas, and On Holding. It also has little room to expand, especially in China, where it has a presence in major tier-1 cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

Analysts expect its revenue figure to come in at $2.41 billion and its earnings per share to be $2.94.

Box | BOX

Box, the cloud storage company, has been a boring stock for a long time. It has risen by just 9.9% this year and fallen by over 6.6% in the last 12 months.

Box’s revenue has grown from $696 million in 2019 to over $1.03 billion last year and has now turned profit. A likely reason for its underperformance is that investors don’t see any alpha in the company because the storage industry is not expected to keep growing.

Box will publish its financial results on Tuesday. Analysts expect the numbers to show that its revenue rose to $269 million in Q2 while its EPS rose by 15% to $0.40.

Affirm | AFRM

Affirm, a leading player in the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) industry, will also be in focus as it releases its results on Wednesday.

As it has done before, its revenue growth is expected to have accelerated by 35% in the last quarter to $603 million. Analysts also expect it to narrow its loss from 69 cents per share in Q2’23 to 51 cents.

These results may help the company boost its stock, which has dropped by almost 40% this year.

MongoDB | MDB

MongoDB stock price has dropped by almost 40% this year as concerns about its growth have continued. Its biggest single-day decline happened on May 30th when it published weak financial results.

Therefore, the company will likely use the upcoming results on Thursday to change the narrative about its business.

Still, analysts have low expectations on the stock. The average estimate is that its earnings per share dropped from 93 cents in Q2’23 to 49 cents this year. Analysts see the revenue to come in at $464 million.

Salesforce | CRM

After having a spectacular year in 2023, Salesforce is not doing well this year. Its stock has dropped by 1.79% and is down by over 18% from its highest level this year. Most of this decline happened in May when it retreated by 20% after its weak earnings.

These numbers showed that Salesforce’s revenue rose to $9.33 billion from $8.24 billion in the same period in 2023. It also issued a weak forward guidance as its efforts on artificial intelligence faltered.

Salesforce will publish its numbers on Wednesday and analysts expect its revenue to come in at $9.22 billion and its EPS to be $2.36.

Okta | OKTA

Okta, a company that offers security solutions, has risen by 7.2% this year. It remains 15.25% below the highest point in 2023 as concerns about its growth trajectory continue.

Analysts see the company’s revenue being $632 million and its earnings per share rising to $0.61. For the year, its revenue forecast is $2.54 billion, a 13.2% increase from 2023.