Stocks To Watch: Eyes On Tesla, Micron And The Suez Canal

Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Stocks to Watch - a preview of key events scheduled for the next week. Follow this account and turn the e-mail alert on to receive this article in your inbox every Saturday morning. A podcast of Stocks to Watch is also available on Sundays on Seeking Alpha, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify (click the highlighted links).

The energy and shipping markets take center stage next week as the drama in the Suez Canal continues to play out and OPEC meets over two days to discuss output targets. Investor events are on tap for Kroger (NYSE:KR) and XPeng (NYSE:XPEV), while Micron (NASDAQ:MU) is set to report earnings. The global chip shortage will impact the deliveries reports due out from Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Nio (NYSE:NIO). Analysts expect Tesla to report about 162K deliveries for Q1 (down from a prior mark of 183K), while Nio has already reduced its quarterly guidance to 19.5K vehicles from a prior range of 20K to 20.5K vehicles. In D.C., President Joe Biden is expected to unveil a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan.

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Earnings spotlight: Cal-Maine Foods (CALM) on March 29; McCormick (MKC), Chewy (NYSE:CHWY), Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU) and Blackberry (BB) on March 30; Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA) and Micron (MU) on March 31 and CarMax (NYSE:KMX) on April 1.

IPO watch: IPOs expected to start trading this week include Compass (COMP), Frontier Group (NASDAQ:ULCC), Coursera (COURS), Kaltura (KLTR), Karooooo (KARO), Muliang Viagoo Technology (OTC:MULG) and Flora Growth (FLGC). Quiet periods expire on Oscar Health (OSCR) and Innovage (INNV) on March 29, while IPO lockups expire on Chindata Group (CD), Yalla Group (YALA), Boqii Holding (BQ), Pulmonx (LUNG), Mission Produce (NASDAQ:AVO) and Lixiang Education Holding (LXEH).

Projected dividend increases (quarterly): The list of companies expected to increase their dividend payouts includes Invesco Mortgage (IVR) to $0.09 from $0.08, Watsco (WSO) to $1.95 from $1.775 and Bank OZK (OZK) to $0.28 from $0.2775.

M&A tidbits: Watford Holdings (WTRE) shareholders vote on the Arch Capital Group (ACGL) deal on March 30 and Magellan Health (MGLN) holders vote on the Centene (NYSE:CNC) buyout on March 31. The go-shop period on the Boingo Wireless (NASDAQ:WIFI)-Digital Colony deal expires on April 2. Keep an eye open for more developments with the WeWork (NYSE:WE) SPAC deal with BowX Acquisition (BOWXU).

Corporate spotlight: Major events next week include a new product launch from Xiaomi (OTCPK:XIACF) and update from XPeng (XPEV) on its autonomous driving expedition across China. There also Investor/Analyst Day events for Nordson (NASDAQ:NDSN), Kroger (KR) and ShotSpotter (NASDAQ:SSTI) to watch. Check out Seeking Alpha's Catalyst Watch for a detailed list of events to watch.

Lululemon earnings preview: Lululemon (LULU) reports earnings on March 30 with analysts expecting revenue of $1.66B and EPS of $2.48 to be reported. Oppenheimer thinks the recent weakness in Lululemon is largely market driven and not reflective of underlying fundamental weakness at the company. "We are optimistic that forthcoming, positive data points from the company should underpin a gradual recovery in LULU back toward recent highs. LULU continues to represent one of our preferred re-opening plays across consumer. As we increasingly look toward prospects for post-COVID-re-opening in the US and elsewhere, we are hard-pressed to envision a better consumer play than LULU, given prospects for improving demand for clothing and now even more heightened tendencies for consumers to dress more casually and shop online," notes the firm.

Conferences rundown: The JPMorgan 10th Annual Napa Valley Forum 2021 will feature presentations by Jazz Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ), Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS), BioMarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN) and Revolution Medicines (RVMD) on 3/30, as well as Kodiak Sciences (KOD), Black Diamond Therapeutics (BDTX), BioNTech (BNTX) and United Therapeutics (UTHR) on March 31. Other conferences running during the week include the Bank of America 11th Annual Global Automotive Summit 2021, the Guggenheim Healthcare Talks, Genomic Medicines & Rare Diseases Conference and the UBS Virtual Summit on Cloud & Infra Security Convergence 2021. Check out Seeking Alpha's Catalyst Watch for a detailed list of events to watch.

Office time: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will begin bringing workers back to its suburban Seattle global headquarters on March 29 as the tech giant starts to reopen more facilities it largely shuttered during the pandemic. In a post Monday on the company’s blog, MSFT indicated that it was monitoring local health data and will give the 50K headquarters workers the choice to return to the office, continue working remotely or do a combination of both. Uber (UBER) is also opening its San Francisco offices next week to limited capacity.

U.S. auto sales: U.S. auto sales reports will be released by some automakers next week. TrueCar forecasts total new vehicle sales will soar 42% on an adjusted basis in March to 1,460,820 units. The month's seasonally adjusted annualized rate for total light vehicle sales is an estimated 16.4M units. Excluding fleet sales, TrueCar expects U.S. retail deliveries of new cars and light trucks to be 1,260,416 units, an increase of 53% from a year ago and an increase of 10% from February. Sales by manufacturer - BMW (OTCPK:BMWYY) +80% (adjusted) to 30,562 units; Daimler (DDAIF) +13% to 21,875 units; Ford (NYSE:F) +13% to 198,748 units; General Motors (NYSE:GM) +32% to 232,535; Honda (HMC) +75% to 140,062 units; Hyundai (OTCPK:HYMLF) +82% to 68,370 units; Kia (OTCPK:HYMLF) +23% to 57,908; Nissan (OTCPK:NSANY) +31% to 105,897; Stellantis (STLA) +24% to 164,111 units; Subaru (OTCPK:FUJHY) +87% to 63,277; Tesla (TSLA) +76% to 24,513; Toyota (NYSE:TM) +68% to 231,965 and Volkswagen (OTCPK:VLKAF) +61% to 56,673.

Stimulus bets: Credit and debit card data suggest that stimulus checks are boosting sales in certain retail categories. A list of companies named by Cowen as potential beneficiaries from stimulus spending includes Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), Tapestry (NYSE:TPR), Boot Barn (NYSE:BOOT), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), Nike (NYSE:NKE) and Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS). Digital advertising platforms like Facebook (FB), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Snap (NYSE:SNAP) and Twitter (TWTR) are also expected to see more brands advertising aggressively to capture stimulus money.

Barron's mentions: With yields on many traditional income investments near historical lows, the publication does the work of finding ten stocks for investors looking to build a retirement income stream for the long term. The long-term dividend stock list includes AT&T (T), Coca-Cola (KO), Consolidated Edison (ED), International Business Machines (IBM), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Kellogg (K), Procter & Gamble (PG), SL Green Realty (SLG), U.S. Bancorp (USB) and Verizon (VZ). Welbilt (WBT) and H&R Block (HRB) also land positive articles.

Sources: EDGAR, Bloomberg, CNBC, The Verge, Renaissance Capital