Profit Growth in U.S. May Hit 5-Year Low on Housing
Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Profit in the U.S. may grow at the slowest rate in more than five years this quarter as the housing slump hurts results at companies from IndyMac Bancorp Inc. to Target Corp.
Earnings of Standard & Poor's 500 Index members may rise an average of 2.7 percent from a year earlier, breaking a 20- quarter streak of gains exceeding 10 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Since Aug. 20, at least 52 financial and consumer discretionary companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index have issued third-quarter forecasts that met or fell short of analysts' estimates, compared with 10 that said earnings would be higher than forecast.
``The consumer is feeling the impact of lower housing prices,'' said Timothy Ghriskey, who manages $1 billion as chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management in Bedford Hills, New York. ``Any consumer discretionary industry is affected, whether it's restaurants, cruise ships, automobile sales.'' Consumer confidence dropped to the lowest level in almost two years in September after home sales weakened in August, the Conference Board said on Sept. 25. The housing slump is the biggest in the U.S. in at least 16 years.
New-home sales dropped 8.3 percent in August to the lowest in seven years, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. Sales of previously owned homes fell 4.3 percent, the National Association of Realtors said Sept. 25.
Pools to Packages
U.S. companies that cited housing as they trimmed forecasts in recent weeks include Pool Corp., the biggest U.S. distributor of swimming-pool equipment; Masco Corp., the maker of Behr paint and Delta faucets; Knight Transportation, a short-haul trucking company; FedEx Corp., the second-largest U.S. package delivery company; and CarMax Inc., the biggest U.S. car dealer. Third-quarter estimates for the S&P 500 have declined in the last month. During the same period before the first and second quarters, estimates were little changed or increased.
Earnings in the second quarter exceeded estimates by 5.7 percentage points, and first-quarter profits beat estimates by 6.8 percentage points.
Pasadena, California-based IndyMac Bancorp, the second- biggest U.S. mortgage company, said on Sept. 7 it may post a loss for the first time in at least eight years. Loan origination probably will fall 20 percent in the third quarter from the second, the company said.
Target, the second-largest U.S. discount chain, slashed its projection for this month's sales on Sept. 24. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, last month reported profit below analysts' estimates and cut its third-quarter forecast. `Snowballing' Risk
``There is a distinct risk of things snowballing'' said Dirk van Dijk, director of research at Zacks Investment Research in Chicago. ``While the consumer does seem to be slowing a little bit, it doesn't seem to be so far en masse.'' The International Council of Shopping Centers Inc. lowered its estimate for U.S. retail sales growth in September after sales fell 1 percent last week. Lowe's, the second-biggest home-improvement retailer after Home Depot Inc., said on Sept. 25 that profit this year may be at the low end or slightly below an Aug. 20 forecast.
Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell 3.9 percent in the 12 months through July, according to the S&P/Case Shiller home-price index, the most since the measure began in 2001. The index declined in January for the first time and has receded every month since then.
Home Depot said on Sept. 10 it doesn't see improvement in the housing market until late next year.
Financial Companies
Merrill Lynch & Co., the third biggest U.S. securities firm, may post losses of as much as $4 billion on writedowns of mortgages, corporate loans and collateralized debt obligations, resulting in the lowest quarterly earnings in almost six years, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst William Tanona said on Sept. 26. He cut his full-year profit estimate by 25 percent.
The housing slowdown may be cited in some earnings reports to cover other weaknesses, Ghriskey said. ``We certainly saw some companies use this as an excuse in the second quarter, and we're probably going to see it as an excuse in the third quarter,'' Ghriskey said.
The U.S. housing plight and a weak dollar may curb earnings abroad at companies with a high proportion of U.S. sales. Vantaa, Finland-based Uponor Oyj, the largest supplier of plastic pipes for housing in Europe and North America, lowered its forecast for annual sales growth to six percent from 10 percent on Sept. 25.
Short Interest
Wolseley Plc, the world's biggest distributor of plumbing and heating equipment, reported its first decline in full-year profit in six years. The company, based in Reading, southern England, gets about half its sales in North America. ``If you're going abroad to sort of hide from the currency woes, make sure you're not buying foreign only by virtue of where a company's headquarters is located,'' Van Dijk said.
So-called short sellers increased their bets against homebuilders, home improvement retailers and mortgage real estate investment trusts in each of the past four months. The number of borrowed shares traded with the expectation of paying for them at a lower price in the future grew by 21 percent, 34 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
Short interest for the broader group of consumer discretionary companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange increased 2.7 percent in the last month. |