(By Rich Bieglmeier) We had some success with our trading earnings picks this week. Check out Expedia (EXPE) today, and Illumina Inc. (ILMN) did fairly well on Tuesday. Let's see if we can carry the momentum into next week. Check out all of our iEstimates for next week.
Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. (NUS) is expected to report earnings on Tuesday. Wall Street anticipates Nu Skin will earn $0.76 for its 3rd quarter. iStock expects the consumer goods company will report earnings that will exceed Wall Street's consensus number. The iEstimate is $0.79 – a 3 cents upside surprise.
NUS is a direct-selling company that distributes more than 200 premium-quality anti-aging products in both the personal care and nutritional supplements categories that operates in 53 international markets.
In the last four years, the anti-aging stock practiced anti-gravity in 13 of 16 quarterly earnings announcements as the stock made average gains of 8.68 percent in the days surrounding earnings. The price lost an average of 9.23 percent three times the stock priced slumped.
During the past four years, Nu Skin produced 12 bullish and 3 bearish earnings surprises, and one came in on target. Strangely, on the tripod of misses, the stock price jumped by 15.8 percent, 14.1 percent, and 9.10 percent. NUS shareholders must be the only people in the world who are hoping for the company to fall short of Wall Street's expectations. It looks as if you can add Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) to that mix.
The stock price has been under pressure since late April, falling from $60 to $40 on earnings and guidance that didn't thrill traders. Since the start of May, shares have been as high as $51 and as low as $36.20. The chart is showing some negative signs with a bearish MACD cross-under, and the 12-day and 26-day moving averages are starting to trend lower. With one brief exception in the middle of September, $40 has been a steady support level for NUS for the last six months.
Options traders appear to a slight bullish position on Nu Skin's earnings as 55 percent of November's open interest is on the call side. The largest position is the November "45 call" with open interest of 3,845, although nearly all of today's light volume is on the put side.
In Nu Skin's last quarterly report, profits and sales rocked higher thanks to expansion and limited offers in China. Sales in China were up 152 percent. While it is impossible to keep up with that pace, iStock expects the trend in China to continue. On September 21, the company announced plans to expand aggressively in China using the strategies that have been successful, so far.
We also expect NUS management to offer up solid guidance. The consumer goods company "plan(s) to introduce our ageLOC Galvanic Body Spa and related products in Japan through a limited-time offering in the fourth quarter of this year, which we currently believe will have a positive impact on our results."
With the stock price settling near support at $40, a positive earnings surprise could push the stock price to resistance near $44. On the flip side, if guidance is limp, then a return trip to the 52-week low is what Nu Skin Enterprises' stock chart shows.