U.S. Bancorp (USB) To Report Q3 Earnings: What’s In Store?

U.S. Bancorp (USB – Free Report) is scheduled to report third-quarter 2017 results on Oct 18, before the opening bell. The bank’s revenues and earnings are anticipated to be up year over year.

Why a Likely Positive Surprise?

Our proven model shows that U.S. Bancorp is likely to beat on earnings in the third quarter. This is because the company has the combination of the two key ingredients for a possible earnings beat — a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or at least 3 (Hold).

You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks ESP: The Earnings ESP for the stock is currently pegged at +0.26%. This is a very significant and leading indicator of a likely positive earnings surprise for the company.

Zacks Rank: The combination of U.S. Bancorp’s Zacks Rank #3 and a positive ESP makes us confident of an earnings beat.  

Conversely, we caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into an earnings announcement.

Notably, U.S. Bancorp delivered positive earnings surprises in three of the four trailing quarters, with an average beat of 1.23% as depicted in the chart below:

U.S. Bancorp Price and EPS Surprise

Regarding the stock’s performance, shares of the company gained around 3.2% for the three-month period ended Sep 30, 2017, underperforming growth of 3.9% recorded by the industry.

Factors to Influence Q3 Results

Expenses Might Trend Higher:While the absence of considerable legal expenses is a positive, increased investments in technology to improve digital offerings might escalate costs moderately.

Slight rise in net interest income (NII) on modest loan growth: Improvement in loan demand, particularly commercial and industrial, and consumer loans during the to-be-reported quarter will likely support the company’s NII.

Consumer Revenue Growth: It is anticipated that an improving economy will spur consumer activity, which will help both payments businesses and consumer lending businesses. An improved economic backdrop will also lead to a rise in business spending on development and capital investments.