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With earnings still trickling in and one major stock still left to report, investors may want to focus on stocks with a track record of higher-than-expected share price gains. While the majority of S&P 500 companies have reported fourth-quarter results, there are still some highly anticipated stocks that investors are keeping an eye on, including blockbuster chipmaker Nvidia and financial technology company Block. Stocks have had a strong run this year, with the S&P 500 currently above the 5,000 level, but fell this week amid continued concerns about persistent inflation. CNBC Pro used data from Bespoke Investment Group to screen for stocks expected to report quarterly earnings that meet the following criteria: Average earnings per share beat ratio of 75% or higher. Stock prices typically rise by more than 1.5% on average after earnings are announced. Nvidia, which is scheduled to report Wednesday, has beat analysts’ earnings per share estimates 85% of the time, and its stock rose about 1.9% after the quarter. So far this year, Nvidia has soared more than 40% and on Wednesday became the third-largest U.S. company by market capitalization, surpassing Google’s parent company Alphabet. On the more bullish side, UBS raised its price target on Nvidia from $580 to $850 and maintained a buy rating in a note on Tuesday. The company expects Nvidia to report quarterly revenue of $22.95 billion, far ahead of Wall Street’s estimate of $20.23 billion. UBS says this is being driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence computing power, and believes NVIDIA will significantly outperform data center revenue forecasts, at least in the short term. Travel company Booking Holdings Inc. tends to beat consensus expectations with a 90% success rate. The stock has typically risen about 2.2% since the news, making it a solid bet for investors. The company is scheduled to report quarterly results on Thursday. Analysts on average rate the stock Overweight, with a consensus price target of $3,760.28, which is not much higher than Thursday’s closing price of $3,750.66. Booking Holdings’ stock price has risen about 5.7% since the beginning of the year. Deutsche Bank expects the company to report inline results, but said there may be risks to overnight booking growth in the first quarter. Still, the company reiterated its buy rating and price target of $3,960. “Travel demand remains strong and BKNG remains confident in its long-term growth algorithm with booking growth above all-time highs.” [high single-digit] “We believe there is a clear path to sustainable EPS growth of close to 20% over the medium term, which is why we place a modest premium on BKNG,” analyst Lee Horowitz said in a February 6 note. We believe we will allocate a multiple that represents a premium.” Block, which is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, was also selected. The company’s fintech business, which includes Square, CashApp and Afterpay, is known to beat earnings estimates 78% of the time, but the company’s stock price, benchmarked by Block Inc. The company has started reporting and said it has a “path to profitability” in sight, and the stock price has fallen more than 10% since the beginning of the year, but is up about 7% in the past month. Analysts’ average price target suggests Block could rise 15.1% over the next 12 months, according to FactSet. Names that will soon be reported include cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks and restaurant chain Wingstop.
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