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Covanta & Nokia 4Q19 schedules, plus Orange France deal ?3

08:30 31-Jan-20


Covanta has scheduled its fourth quarter report to be published after market close on Thursday, February 20th.  The average estimates from a half dozen analysts are for 7 cents of EPS from $480M of revenue, which is expected to decline seasonally to $459M this quarter.

I've repeatedly gone out of my way to emphasize that low natural gas prices make for a challenging environment for Covanta.  One interesting note from yesterday's Shell call was that they don't see that reversing anytime soon, and thus are going to continue holding off on shale purchases.  Recent contact with Covanta also affirms that it is looking to sell steam to nearby facilities, as will be done at Earls Gate, rather than electricity to the grid wherever possible.  Even so, energy hedging numbers and associated guidance will be important for this report, along with TAPS progress.

Separately, Nokia has signed a 5G  deal with Orange for France.  While I don't bother mentioning many other Nokia deployments, Orange is a big enough customer to make this noteworthy.  However, the software-first approach reinforces my fears about a chronically slow pace of progress in Europe.  Nokia's report, in a week, should be one of the more interesting ones for the first quarter, as discussed here.  The fourth quarter is always the biggest, as shown by the 14 cent EPS average estimate from 8 analysts and $7.5b to $5.8b QoQ revenue expectations.