COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus that was first identified late last year in Wuhan, China, was a dominant theme in the earnings releases and conference calls of S&P 500 companies in the recent earnings season as investors press for answers on how it will impact their financials.
There are now more than 101,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 3,400 deaths, according to a tally of cases published by the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering’s Centers for Systems Science and Engineering.
With the December earnings season now all but over, many companies are having to review their guidance to incorporate the effect the virus is having on supply chains in Asia, as well as on consumer behavior across the globe. While most companies are still saying it’s too early to assess the full impact, many are attempting to offer some evaluation of lost sales or hits to earnings.
This is what companies have been saying:
• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF, +10.37% expects an adverse impact of $60 million to $80 million on sales this year as a result of the outbreak. It has also lost $4 million “primarily from store closures in mainland China due to the coronavirus.” Abercrombie’s Asia-Pacific region made up less than 10% of 2019 sales, and its total manufacturing exposure to China was 22% in fiscal 2019. “We’ve given ourselves some provision I guess I would say on the European tourism business to continue to suffer a little bit as the travel restrictions get more and more intense,” CFO Scott Lipesky said during an earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript.
• Agilent Techonologies Inc. A, +3.05% expects earnings of 72 cents to 76 cents a share on revenue of $1.28 billion to $1.32 billion “after factoring in the potential impact” of the coronavirus. The lab instruments maker anticipates a $25 million to $50 million hit in the first half as a result of the virus; a $10 million loss in revenue in the first quarter and an estimated $15 million to $40 million impact in the second quarter. “Our performance was impacted by the extension of the Lunar New Year holiday due to the coronavirus,” CFO Robert McMahon said. “This reduced the number of shipping days in China.”
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• Alcoa Corp. AA, +6.56%, which makes aluminum products, said it is seeing supply chain bottlenecks in China for bauxite, caustic and coal gas that are lowering production. “It’s driving a shortage of alumina inside of China, which is then starting to see the Chinese alumina price increase and you see the knock-on impact in the rest of the world with prices also increasing, pricing up by about $20 per ton over these last few weeks,” CEO Roy Harvey told investors.
• American Airlines Group Inc. AAL, +15.25% is reducing international and domestic capacity through the summer peak season as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. The airline is cutting international capacity by 10%, including a 55% reduction in trans-Pacific capacity. In the U.S., the airline is cutting capacity by 7.5% in April.
• Analog Devices Inc. ADI, +5.06% updated its guidance for second-quarter revenue of $1.35 billion, plus or minus $50 million. “While the effects of the coronavirus are difficult to estimate and the situation remains dynamic, we have reduced our revenue guidance by $70 million to account for its potential impact,” the company said in a statement.
• Apple Inc. AAPL, +7.20% is not expecting to meet second-quarter financial guidance because production has slowed or been halted in China due to the COVID-19 outbreak. “Work is starting to resume around the country, but we are experiencing a slower return to normal conditions than we had anticipated,” the company said in a statement on Monday. Apple generates about 15% of its revenue from China, and many of its products are manufactured there.
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• Best Buy Inc. BBY, +4.86%, which sources a lot of its consumer electronics products from China, said it assumes that most of the impact from the coronavirus will happen during the first half of the year. “Therefore, we view this as a relatively short-term disruption that does not impact our long-term strategy and initiatives,” Chief Financial Officer Matt Bilunas said in a statement. “Our guidance ranges for both Q1 and the full year reflect our best estimates of the impacts at this time.” On the company’s earnings call, executives stressed that it was still a fluid situation and they are attempting to gauge when factories will be fully back up and running and whether global vendors have sufficient inventory.
• Boston Scientific Corp. BSX, +3.20%, which has a $600 million business in China, is expecting a “negative first-half impact” on expectations that Chinese patients will push back elective medical procedures during the outbreak. The company lowered its quarterly sales guidance for the first quarter of 2020. The device maker now anticipates a “preliminary negative sales impact estimate of $10 million to $40 million.”
• Brown-Forman Corp. BF.B, -1.09%, the parent company of the Jack Daniel’s whiskey brand, lowered guidance to reflect global uncertainty and the effect of the coronavirus. The company is now expecting full-year earnings per share of $1.75 to $1.80, below the $1.82 FactSet consensus.
• Capri Holdings Ltd. CPRI, +3.27%, which owns luxury brands Jimmy Choo and Versace, said it now expects annual revenue of $5.65 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $4.45 to $4.50 as the virus eats into sales. That’s below the FactSet consensus for revenue of $5.78 billion and per-share earnings of $4.87.
Read also: How much will COVID-19 hurt the U.S. economy? It’s anyone’s guess right now
• Carnival Corp. CCL, +10.49% said there could be a fiscal 2020 earnings-per-share impact of 55 cents to 65 cents if all operations are suspended in Asia through the end of April. If that comes to pass, according to Carnival, there would be a material impact on the business from suspended cruises in Chinese ports; cancellations in other parts of Asia; and the impact on bookings, which is determined by the length of time that an event influences travel.
• The Coca-Cola Company KO, +3.47% said it is still expecting to reach its full-year guidance though COVID-19 will likely weigh on first-quarter results. Coca-Cola said it currently estimates an approximate 2- to 3-point impact to unit case volume, 1- to 2-point impact to organic revenue, and 1- to 2-penny impact to earnings per share for the first quarter. The Chinese market makes up 10% of Coca-Cola’s global volume, the company said in January. “China’s economy was in a different place when SARS happened,” CEO James Quincey said in January. “It’s worth noting that China’s economy is [now] much bigger, and this could become more connected to the rest of the world.” In its 10-K filing with the SEC, the company also said it has seen delays in the production and export of ingredients used in nonnutritive sweeteners. It doesn’t expect a hit to its full-year results for now.
• Crocs Inc. CROX, +4.82% expects first-quarter revenue to be hurt by $20 million to $30 million due to disruptions in Asia from the coronavirus. The casual shoe maker said many of its sellers in China remain closed, with those that are open seeing reduced operating hours and traffic, with traffic declines expanding throughout Asia.
• Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL, +4.48% is reducing capacity by 15 points, implementing a hiring freeze, offering voluntary leave, and deferring spending as it struggles with the fallout from the coronavirus. The airline said it is cutting international capacity by 20% to 25% and domestic capacity by 10% to 15%.
• Domino’s Pizza Inc. DPZ, +2.16% said that fewer than 20 of its stores are closed in China and the outbreak is slowing down the openings of new stores in that market. Last year, Domino’s opened 80 net new stores in China.
• Ecolab Inc. ECL, +3.81%, a water technology company, said it anticipates a 5 cents hit to EPS as a result of the outbreak. CEO Douglas Baker told investors that if COVID-19 becomes seasonal, like the flu, it may change some behaviors. “If you think if you go back to H1N1, that was really the advent of all the hand sanitizers you see in lobbies of all commercial buildings,” he said, on an earnings call. “Before that, it didn’t exist. So it clearly changed the demand permanently for hand sanitizing products, etc. You may well see that kind of outcome as a consequence of the coronavirus, too.”
• Eli Lilly and Co. LLY, +4.03% doesn’t expect any shortages of medicine, including insulin, as a result of the coronavirus. The company has been monitoring its supply chain for potential impact, and doesn’t source active pharmaceutical ingredients from China and insulin manufacturing sites in the U.S. and Europe have not been affected.
• The Estée Lauder Cos. EL, +5.33% said the third quarter will be most impacted by the sales decline of luxury beauty products in China. The company updated its sales outlook for the second half of the year, saying it now predicts an increase of up to 1%, compared with the same period a year ago.
• Expedia Group Inc. EXPE, -0.43% is expecting a $30 million to $40 million impact on adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter as a result of the outbreak. It also expects “some impact beyond [the first quarter] in 2020 as well,” CEO Barry Diller told investors. “But the exact amount will depend on how long it takes for travel trends to normalize.”
• Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. FDP, +2.39% CEO Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh said port closures in China led to a slowdown in trucking and goods were left stacked up at ports over the extended Lunar New Year shutdown. He doesn’t expect the outbreak to fade away before April. “Usually these viruses, they don’t subside until the weather starts warming up, and then we will see the situation getting improved,” Abu-Ghazaleh told investors.
• General Electric Co. GE, +7.80% expects first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 10 cents, below the FactSet consensus of 13 cents, and negative free cash flow of about $2 billion. GE said while COVID-19 is an “evolving variable,” it currently expects a negative impact on first-quarter free cash flow of about $300 million to $500 million, and on operating income of $200 million to $300 million. The impacts are included in GE’s 2020 outlook.
• General Mills Inc. GIS, -0.09% said half of its Häagen-Dazs shops in greater China are closed, and the shops that remain open have “severely restricted hours.” Greater China makes up 4% of General Mills’ net sales, 40% of its sales in the region are at Häagen-Dazs shops and other restaurants. The company told investors it can’t yet share how the closures will affect its numbers for fiscal 2020.
• Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD, -1.61% is working with Chinese authorities to test its investigational antiviral remdesivir as a treatment for people with the new coronavirus. The drug maker plans to conduct a randomized, controlled trial in China as part of those plans, saying that remdesivir has shown “in vitro and in vivo activity in animal models against the viral pathogens” Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and SARS, both of which are also coronaviruses.
• Hasbro Inc. HAS, +1.54% continues “to have office and third-party factory closures” in China as a result of the outbreak. The company said that China is responsible for about two-thirds of its global sourcing. “The biggest unknown right now is how quickly the manufacturing factories can get their production ramp back up,” said Hasbro CFO Deborah Thomas. “Travel is limited, [and] places are still closed.”
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. HPE, +4.54% told investors it no longer expects revenue to grow in fiscal 2020, with one executive telling MarketWatch that he blames a 16% year-over-year decline in compute revenue ($3 billion) and 9% decline in total revenue on “microenvironment” issues such as supply-chain disruption and the coronavirus.
• Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. HLT, +4.80% said about 150 hotels, totaling approximately 33,000 rooms, are closed in China as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
• Hormel Foods Corp. HRL, +0.81% expects its international business to have a “very difficult” second quarter as a result of COVID-19. The company said Thursday there has been a slowdown in sales in China, with many restaurants closed, but sales of pantry items like Skippy peanut butter and canned pork Spam have increased. “Similar to other companies in China, all aspects of our in-country supply chain are operating more slowly and at higher cost than normal,” CEO James Snee told investors.
• HP Inc. HPQ, +5.36% said it expects a “negative impact to our top line, bottom line and [free cash flow],” citing delayed production and manufacturing timelines. The technology giant said when taking into account the outbreak, it now anticipates earnings per share of 46 cents to 50 cents and adjusted EPS of 49 cents to 53 cents.
• HSBC Holdings PLC HSBC, +4.01% expects a weaker first-half performance in 2020, due to the downturn in Hong Kong and virus-related credit losses in the first quarter, it said. “The most extreme downside scenario in there I would say makes an assumption that the coronavirus is still continuing in the second half of this year,” an executive said on an earnings call. “If you look at that and that was to become the central scenario, there would be about $600 million of additional loan losses provisions required.”
• InterContinental Hotels Group PLC IHG, +4.30% said 160 hotels are closed in China or closed to new guests. The company’s fee business is expected to take a $5 million hit in February in China, as a result of the outbreak. Its Chinese operations make up less than 10% of group operating profit. CEO Keith Barr told investors that the postponement and cancellation of conferences will have an impact on its operations, too. “What I saw during H1N1 and other times in China, the key thing to remember is the Chinese government’s ability to stimulate economic growth and activity is unlike any other country,” he said, on an earnings call.
• Interpublic Group of Companies Inc. IPG, +3.35% and Meredith Corp. MDP, +7.47% separately told investors that the advertising is seeing a small slowdown. “We’ve seen a slight pullback in luxury advertising related to the travel category, a couple of airlines, not domestic airlines, but actually international airlines pulled back a little bit,” Meredith’s CEO Thomas Harty said at an investor conference. IPG’s Michael Roth said at the same event that the ad giant has “seen cutbacks before on the project side of the business.” He also noted that the temporary move to a work-from-home culture may lead to additional business. “Clients are going to need our expertise in allocating media dollars where the clients are, whether they’re working at home or whether the consumers are working at home, and how you address the marketplace that’s different,” he said.
See: Coronavirus is disrupting tech conferences across the globe — what to know
• IQVIA Inc. IQV, +5.50%, which runs clinical trials, including in China, said it expects a $25 million impact in the first quarter as a result of the outbreak. “The patients who are enrolled in a trial are simply not going to visit the hospitals where all the sites are in China because that’s kind of the more dangerous spot right now,” CEO Ari Bousbib told investors.
• ITT Inc. ITT, +9.43% updated its 2020 guidance, providing a downbeat outlook that included an estimated impact from the outbreak. For 2020, the manufacturer currently expects adjusted EPS of $3.87, and offered a wider range of $3.72 to $4.02, compared with the FactSet consensus of $3.99.
• JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU, +8.81% said it will halt change and cancel fees for new flight bookings starting Thursday through March 11 for travel completed by June 1. “The policy is designed to give customers confidence that they will not be charged any JetBlue fees for changes or cancellations later given evolving coronavirus concerns,” the airline said in a statement. The move will apply to all fares offered by JetBlue, including its cheapest fares, which generally do not allow for any changes or cancellations.
• Johnson & Johnson JNJ, +3.81% expects a “modest impact” on sales of its skin care products as “people [are] buying less.
• Lululemon Athletica Inc. LULU, +2.18% said that the majority of its 38 stores in China have been closed since Feb. 3. The yoga gear seller said it continues to “monitor the situation” and will provide an update on the expected financial and operational impact during its fourth-quarter post-earnings conference call in late March.
• Lyft Inc. LYFT, +0.24% reported its “biggest week in our history in terms of both revenue and rides,” potentially driven by fear of the contracting the coronavirus on public transportation, CFO Brian Roberts said at a technology summit.
• Marriott International Inc. MAR, +5.56% said while it could not “fully estimate the financial impact” from COVID-19, it would be “material to first quarter and full-year 2020 results.”
• Mastercard Inc. MA, +7.08% said it expects to shave 2 to 3 percentage points from its first-quarter revenue guidance because of the impact of COVID-19 on “cross-border travel and, to a lesser extent, cross-border e-commerce growth.”
• Medtronic PLC MDT, +4.29% told investors that there are closures and slowdowns in factory production of its products as well as a delay in medical device procedures in China as the Chinese health care system focuses on containing the virus. “We do expect this to have a negative impact on our fourth-quarter financial results,” CEO Omar Ishrak told investors, later adding: “Even now, even in places like Beijing and others, procedures are only just beginning.” China makes up 7% of Medtronic’s global business.
• Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +6.84% warned that it will not meet guidance for its fiscal third quarter due to COVID-19. Microsoft in late January guided for fiscal third-quarter sales for its More Personal Computing segment of $10.75 billion to $11.15 billion, which “included a wider-than-usual range to reflect uncertainty related to the public health situation in China.” While there’s “strong” demand for Windows in line with the company’s expectations, the supply chain “is returning to normal operations at a slower pace than anticipated. All other components of its Q3 guidance remain unchanged, Microsoft said.
• Mondelēz Inc. MDLZ, +1.80% told investors to expect “an impact on both revenue and margins” as China is a high-margin business for the snacks maker. It is also reporting additional transportation costs as a result of a shortage of trucks in China. “I’m quite comfortable saying that there is nothing that taints really the full year at this point in time for us, pending maybe a bigger impact of the coronavirus, which quite frankly we don’t see at this point,” CFO Luca Zaramella told investors.
• Nike Inc. NKE, +4.98% has closed about half its stores in China, while the remaining stores are reporting lower-than-expected retail traffic. The athletic-apparel maker said it plans to provide an update about the impact of the virus on its third-quarter earnings call.
• Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. NCLH, +3.48% expects the virus to shave off 75 cents from earnings per share in 2020. The cruise operator has canceled cruises in Asia — that’s 40 total — through the end of the third quarter of 2020.
• OneSpaWorld Holdings Ltd. OSW, -2.38%, which provides on-board spa services to cruises, said in an earnings statement that it expects to lose $5 million in revenue and $2 million in adjusted EBITDA as a result of 141 canceled or modified voyages and lower revenue at its resort spas in Asia.
• ON Semiconductor Corp. ON, +8.76% issued a revenue warning for the first quarter, due to the change in business conditions being created by the coronavirus. The Apple supplier now expects revenue to range from $1.275 billion to $1.325 billion, compared with prior guidance of $1.355 billion to $1.405 billion, issued on Feb. 3. “We saw soft order trends in China in the weeks following Lunar New Year holidays, but orders have since picked up, and we have not seen any significant cancellations of orders,” CEO Keith Jackson said in a statement.
• L’Oréal LRLCY, +3.60% said the impact from the outbreak will be temporary, based on the cosmetics maker’s experience with the outbreaks of SARS in 2003 and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2015. What is different about this outbreak, however, is L’Oréal’s e-commerce sales of beauty products in China are stronger so far in February than they were this month last year. “This crisis will even strengthen the position of the e-commerce players in China,” CEO Jean-Paul Agon told investors at an analyst conference.
• Papa John’s International Inc. PZZA, +5.67% said it has closed about 50 franchised stores in China as a result of the outbreak. Although the pizza company said the impact of the store closures isn’t currently material to its earnings, uncertainty about the spread of the virus could “lead to lower sales [and] widespread store closures or delays in our supply chain, which could have a negative impact on our business and operating results.”
• PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL, +7.98% expects the coronavirus to have a negative revenue impact of 1 percentage point for the March quarter and is expecting revenue for the quarter to fall toward the low end of its guidance of $4.78 billion to $4.84 billion. “Stronger performance quarter-to-date across our diversified business is partially offsetting this one percentage point negative impact,” PayPal said.
• Procter & Gamble Co. PG, +3.87% expects the outbreak to materially impact earnings for the January to March quarter in China and for the overall company, given that China is the consumer goods giant’s second-largest market. The company has 387 suppliers in China that ship to it globally more than 9,000 materials, impacting about 17,600 different finished products.
• PVH Corp. PVH, +3.40%, owner of the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, said that 20% of its global sourcing comes from greater China, which also made up 7% of its 2019 revenue. Most PVH-owned stores in China remain closed. Still, the company reaffirmed its adjusted earnings-per-share guidance of $1.79 for the fourth quarter and at least $9.45 for the full year.
• Qorvo Inc. QRVO, +6.73% cut its revenue outlook, citing the estimated impact the coronavirus outbreak is having on the smartphone supply chain. The Apple Inc. supplier said it now expects fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of about $770 million, which is $50 million below the midpoint of the guidance range provided on Jan. 29 of $800 million to $840 million
• Ralph Lauren Corp. RL, +4.13% said fiscal 2020 sales could be hurt by up to $70 million and operating income in Asia could take a $35 million to $45 million hit as a result of the outbreak. Two-thirds of the luxury retailer’s mainland China stores have been closed for a week, and about half of its stores were closed another week.
See: Large wave of new diagnoses said to have harmed confidence in China
• Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. RCL, +7.04% canceled 18 cruises in Southeast Asia and modified several itineraries as a result of the virus. The cruise-line operator said it expects an impact of 65 cents per share on its 2020 financial performance. If it has to cancel cruises in Asia through April, doing so would impact the company’s 2020 financial performance by an additional 55 cents a share.
• Sabre Corp. SABR, +16.37% said the coronavirus will have a “material impact” on its 2020 results, as the outbreak has weighed on travel bookings so far this year. The company said the estimated impact for the first quarter of earnings per share of 14 cents to 23 cents and for revenue of $100 million to $150 million.
• Sanderson Farms Inc. SAFM, +1.55% said the outbreak of African swine fever in China should eventually boost the poultry market in the U.S., but COVID-19 is now disrupting markets in China, depressing demand, hurting shipping and supply chain logistics and slowing China’s economic growth rate. The chicken meat producer said the Chinese lifting of the ban on chicken from the U.S. had led to orders for about 18 million pounds of chicken products.
• Skechers USA Inc. SKX, +7.60% said the impact of COVID-19 had worsened since it last updated investors when it reported earnings on Feb. 6. Skechers offered guidance at that time for first-quarter sales of $1.400 billion to $1.425 billion, and earnings per share of 70 cents to 75 cents. “Things definitely have deteriorated to a degree,” CFO John Vandemore told investors at a UBS conference. He also said the big change is now coming in European countries that have experienced clusters of the illness, with Italy closing schools and universities.
• Southwest Airlines Co. LUV, +4.45% CEO Gary Kelly told employees that he will take a 10% pay cut, as the company faces the worst downturn in decades as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
• Spirit Airlines Inc. SAVE, +5.00% told investors they shouldn’t rely on its 2020 financial guidance given the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The discount air carrier said at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference that it has seen “significant pressure” on fares since the end of February and “modest” pressure on load factor.
• Stanley Black & Decker Inc. SWK, +8.81% expects the outbreak to “cause some pressure for us in March and April from a revenue perspective,” according to remarks made by CFO Donald Allan at an investor conference. The company generates about $250 million in annual revenue in China and runs 10 plants there, which are operating at about 50% to 60% capacity, as of last week.
• Starbucks Corp. SBUX, +5.70%, the Seattle-based coffee chain, said it was already “showing early signs of recovery” in China and that U.S. sales are still strong despite the coronavirus. “To date, there are no perceptible signs of COVID-19 impact on our U.S. business, which accounted for approximately 65% of total consolidated revenues in the first quarter of fiscal 2020,” the coffee chain said in a financial filing. The company’s shareholder meeting will be “virtual only” this year due to the coronavirus.
• TripAdvisor Inc. TRIP, -2.04% said it may see a low-single-digit percentage impact on its financial results. “We do see some unexpected or new cancellation levels in Asia, but we’re not that exposed to Asia as an overall part of our business,” CEO Stephen Kaufer told analysts.
• Tyson Foods Inc. TSN, +3.09% has restarted some operations in China, but CEO Noel White said the company will face short-term impacts from the outbreak, even if the fallout eventually helps support government efforts in China to “decrease” the number of wet markets. Researchers believe that the virus, common to bats, may have been transmitted to humans via another animal sold at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, a wet market in Wuhan. “We’ll continue to see modern grocery continue to grow in China,” White said. “The combination of [African swine fever] and coronavirus would expedite that transition.”
• Under Armour Inc. UA, +3.83% expects to lose between $50 million and $60 million in sales to the coronavirus outbreak.
• United Airlines Holdings Inc. UAL, +12.36% rescinded its annual revenue guidance for 2020, saying the outbreak is too unpredictable to ensure that the forecast it issued two months ago will hold up. The airline will cut flight capacity by 10% domestically and 20% internationally in April due to the coronavirus outbreak. Executives Oscar Munoz and Scott Kirby will forego their base salaries, effective immediately through June 30, and the company has withdrawn its first-quarter guidance.
• Vail Resorts Inc. MTN, -2.25% said earnings and revenue were lower than analysts expected and rescinded its annual guidance as it sees business declining. “In the week ended March 8, 2020, we saw a marked negative change in performance from the prior week, with destination skier visits modestly below expectations,” Chief Executive Rob Katz said in a news release. “We expect this trend to continue and potentially worsen in upcoming weeks.”
• VF Corp. VFC, +4.44%, which owns the sneaker brand Vans, has closed 60% of its owned and partner stores in China. The shops that have remained open are reporting “significant” declines in retail traffic.
• ViacomCBS Inc. VIAC, +7.09% is delaying the release of the “Sonic the Hedgehog” move in some Asian markets because of the outbreak, while MGM and Universal Studios said Wednesday that “No Time to Die,” the release of the next iteration of the James Bond movies, will be postponed until November.
• Visa Inc. expects the outbreak to result in fiscal second-quarter revenue that is about 2.5 to 3.5 percentage points lower than the previously issued range of “low double-digit net revenue growth in constant dollars” that Visa gave with its latest earnings report in January. The company said the virus was having a “significant impact” on Asia-related travel that has caused a “sharp slowdown of our cross-border business” for both card-present and card-not-present travel spending.
• Walmart Inc. WMT, +2.24% anticipates a financial impact in the first quarter and potentially the second quarter to its China business as a result of COVID-19. “Due to the current sales mix slanted heavily toward food and consumables, as well as some increased expenses related to the outbreak, we could see a couple of cents negative impact in Q1,” Walmart CFO Brett Biggs said on an earnings call. While many retailers have had to close some of their stores in China, Walmart said all of its stores are open, although the majority have restricted hours and some limited operations.
• Walt Disney Co. DIS, +6.81% said if its shuttered Shanghai and Hong Kong theme parks remain closed for months, it would shave $175 million off operating income in the current quarter. Disney’s movie-studio business could also take a hit, as cinemas are closed in China and Disney is preparing to launch the live-action “Mulan” reboot in March.
• Wolverine World Wide Inc. WWW, +2.77% provided a downbeat full-year outlook, citing the negative impact of the coronavirus outbreak on its shoe brands, which include Hush Puppies, Sperry, and Stride Rite. The company reported a net loss of $900,000, or 1 cent a share, in the latest quarter, after earnings of $39.3 million, or 39 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
• Workday Inc. WDAY, +5.13% said it has pulled the plug on an internal sales conference in Orlando, Fla., set for next week that was expected to draw more than 3,000 people. The decision was made because of the spread of the coronavirus.
• Yum China Holdings Inc. YUMC, +1.70%, which operates fast-food brands including KFC and Pizza Hut, has closed 30% of its restaurants. For those that are still open, same-store sales have declined up to 50% since the Lunar New Year. The outbreak is causing “significant interruption,” said Yum China Holdings CEO Joey Wat. Pizza Hut sales have struggled more than those of KFC, which has a stronger delivery business, as more Chinese customers are opting for takeout at home, the company said.
• Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. ZBH, +6.34% said the number of elective procedures in China, which makes up about 5% of global revenue, fell by up to 90% in February, and CFO Suketu Upadhyay expects that to continue through March “at a minimum.” There are also now early signs that procedures are slowing down in South Korea.
• Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM, -4.62%, which has seen its stock jump as more employers talk about having their workers work from home to prevent the spread of the virus, said all employees at its headquarters in San Jose, Calif., have been told to work from home. “We have definitely seen an uptick in usage, but a lot of that is on the free side,” Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg said during an earnings call.
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