Daily Earnings Reports
📊 Earnings Recap — Thursday, August 20, 2026
🔔 The Big Picture
Thursday’s earnings slate delivered a sharp split between strong reported numbers and weak market reactions.
The premarket group was led by Walmart, Alibaba, Deere, Advance Auto Parts and NetEase, while the after-close session featured Ross Stores, Flowers Foods, Flux Power and OSI Systems. The clearest themes were:
- 🟢 Deere: major upside surprise and stronger full-year outlook
- 🟢 Ross Stores: standout retail report with a major guidance increase
- 🟡 Walmart: earnings beat, but weak consumer trends and cautious near-term guidance triggered a major selloff
- 🟡 Alibaba: cloud/AI growth was exceptional, but massive AI investment crushed near-term profitability
- 🔴 Advance Auto Parts: EPS beat, but revenue miss and weak sales trends overwhelmed the result
- 🔴 NetEase: revenue beat but profit missed, sending shares lower
- 🔴 Flowers Foods: revenue, EPS and volume weakened, forcing a guidance cut
- 🔴 OSI Systems: EPS essentially met expectations, but revenue missed badly and FY2027 guidance disappointed
The day’s results reinforced an important earnings-season lesson: a headline EPS beat is not enough when guidance, margins or operating trends disappoint.
☀️ PREMARKET EARNINGS — AUGUST 20
The major premarket earnings group included WMT, BABA, DE, AAP and NTES, with additional reports from companies such as Futu, Daqo New Energy, Autohome and others.
🛒 Walmart — WMT
Result: 🟡 Beat, but guidance disappointed
| Metric | Actual | Consensus | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adjusted EPS | $0.81 | $0.74 | 🟢 Beat |
| Revenue | $187.9B | $186.75B | 🟢 Beat |
| Global e-commerce | +23% | — | 🟢 Strong |
| Advertising | +38% | — | 🟢 Strong |
| Membership revenue | +17% | — | 🟢 Strong |
| U.S. comparable sales | +2.6% | ~3.8% | 🔴 Miss |
Walmart delivered a strong headline quarter, with revenue up 5.9% and adjusted EPS up roughly 19%. E-commerce and advertising remained major growth engines. (Walmart Nachrichten & Führung)
The problem was the consumer and the forward outlook.
U.S. comparable sales grew only 2.6%, the slowest pace in roughly six years. Walmart also guided Q3 adjusted EPS to approximately $0.62–$0.64, below the market’s expectation of roughly $0.67. (Investopedia)
The company nevertheless raised full-year FY2027 guidance to sales growth of 4%–5% and adjusted EPS of $2.80–$2.87. Walmart also expects roughly $2.9 billion of tariff refunds, much of which it intends to use to support lower prices. (Walmart Nachrichten & Führung)
Market reaction: 🔴 Shares fell sharply, at one point down more than 8%–9%.
Investment takeaway:
Walmart remains structurally strong in e-commerce, advertising and higher-income customer acquisition, but the quarter raised a much more important question: is the U.S. consumer beginning to slow?
🤖 Alibaba — BABA
Result: 🟡 Revenue beat / major profitability miss
Alibaba generated approximately RMB269 billion of quarterly revenue, up about 9% year over year. (Investing.com Canada)
The real story was AI.
| Metric | Q1 FY2027 |
|---|---|
| Revenue | RMB269B |
| Revenue growth | +9% |
| Cloud external revenue | +45% |
| AI-related product revenue | RMB12.4B |
| Adjusted EBITDA | RMB27.3B |
| GAAP net income | RMB10.4B |
| CapEx | RMB67.7B |
| Free cash flow | -RMB44.7B |
Alibaba Cloud external revenue accelerated 45%, while AI-related product revenue continued triple-digit growth. (Investing.com Canada)
But the cost of that growth was enormous.
Capital expenditure surged to approximately RMB67.7 billion, and adjusted EBITDA fell about 30%. GAAP net income plunged roughly 75% year over year. (Reuters)
Market reaction: 🔴 BABA fell as investors focused on the profitability/capex trade-off.
Investment takeaway:
This was arguably one of the most strategically important reports of the day.
Alibaba’s AI business is accelerating dramatically — but monetization has not yet caught up with infrastructure spending.
The bull case is increasingly about 2027–2029 AI/cloud economics rather than current-quarter earnings.
🚜 Deere — DE
Result: 🟢 Major beat
Deere delivered one of Thursday’s strongest reports.
| Metric | Actual | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| EPS | $5.10 | ~$4.69–$4.79 |
| Revenue | $12.61B | ~$10.81B |
| Net income | $1.379B | — |
Worldwide sales and revenues increased 5%, while net sales reached approximately $11.0 billion. (PR Newswire)
The biggest surprise came from Construction & Forestry, where sales jumped approximately 18%. Small Agriculture & Turf also grew about 12%, while Production & Precision Agriculture declined roughly 6%. (The Wall Street Journal)
Deere raised the lower end of its FY2026 net-income outlook, now expecting $4.75B–$5.00B, versus a prior $4.5B–$5.0B range. Management also reiterated that 2026 could represent the bottom of the agricultural equipment cycle. (PR Newswire)
Market reaction: 🟢 Strong rally, with shares gaining roughly 7%–9% at various points.
Investment takeaway:
This was much more than an earnings beat.
Deere is increasingly benefiting from data-center construction, infrastructure investment and construction-equipment demand, helping offset weakness in traditional agriculture.
🔧 Advance Auto Parts — AAP
Result: 🟡 EPS beat / revenue miss
| Metric | Actual | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Adjusted EPS | $1.03 | $0.81 |
| Revenue | $2.00B | ~$2.04B |
Adjusted EPS increased from $0.69 a year earlier and beat consensus by roughly 27%. (Zacks)
But revenue declined slightly year over year and missed expectations. The company’s sales performance was not strong enough to convince investors that the turnaround is progressing quickly enough. (Seeking Alpha)
Market reaction: 🔴 Severe selloff — shares fell more than 20%.
The reaction also pressured peers such as AutoZone and O’Reilly Automotive. (24/7 Wall St.)
Investment takeaway:
AAP is a classic example of why EPS alone can be misleading.
Margins improved substantially, but investors wanted evidence of sustainable top-line growth and stronger comparable sales.
🎮 NetEase — NTES
Result: 🟡 Revenue beat / EPS miss
NetEase reported Q2 revenue of approximately RMB30.1 billion ($4.4B), up 7.9% year over year. Games and related services revenue increased approximately 9.7% to RMB25.0 billion. (Quiver Quantitative)
However, non-GAAP earnings declined, with adjusted EPS reported around $1.77, below expectations. (Pluang)
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Revenue | RMB30.1B |
| Revenue growth | +7.9% |
| Games revenue | RMB25.0B |
| Adjusted EPS | ~$1.77 |
| Adjusted net income | RMB7.7B |
Market reaction: 🔴 Shares fell sharply.
Investment takeaway:
NetEase continues to generate solid gaming growth, but investors are becoming more demanding about profit conversion and earnings quality.
🌙 AFTER-CLOSE EARNINGS — AUGUST 20
The principal after-close group was ROST, FLO, FLUX and OSIS. (Earnings Whispers)
🛍️ Ross Stores — ROST
Result: 🟢 Outstanding
Ross was the standout after-hours winner.
| Metric | Actual | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| EPS | $2.66 | ~$1.73–$1.94 |
| Revenue | $6.26B | ~$6.0B |
| Comparable sales | +10% | — |
Sales increased approximately 13%, while comparable-store sales surged 10%, driven largely by customer traffic. (TradingView)
Ross also benefited from approximately $253 million of tariff refunds, contributing roughly $0.60 to EPS. Importantly, however, operating margin expansion excluding the tariff benefit was still stronger than management had planned. (PR Newswire)
The company raised FY2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $8.61–$8.77, from $7.50–$7.74 previously. It also expects Q3 comparable sales growth of 6%–7%. (The Wall Street Journal)
Ross now plans to open approximately 115 stores during the year.
Market reaction: 🟢 Shares jumped roughly 7%–8% after hours.
Investment takeaway:
This was one of the strongest consumer-retail reports of the week.
Ross is gaining customers through value, merchandise assortment and traffic, positioning the company particularly well if consumers remain price-sensitive.
🍞 Flowers Foods — FLO
Result: 🔴 Clear miss
Flowers Foods had one of the weakest reports of the session.
| Metric | Actual |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.193B |
| Revenue growth | -4.0% |
| Net income | $40.7M |
| GAAP EPS | $0.19 |
| Adjusted EPS | $0.21 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | $111.3M |
Volume fell 5.8%, while branded retail volume declined 7.6%. Adjusted EBITDA fell approximately 19.2%. (PR Newswire)
The company cited a difficult consumer environment, changing purchasing behavior, competitive pressure, higher labor costs, freight costs and increased marketing spending.
Market reaction: 🔴 Shares fell roughly 4%.
Investment takeaway:
Flowers is showing the opposite side of the consumer story from Ross.
Consumers are still spending, but food volume and purchasing patterns remain under pressure, particularly where consumers can trade down, switch brands or reduce discretionary food purchases.
🛡️ OSI Systems — OSIS
Result: 🟡 EPS okay / revenue and outlook disappointing
OSI Systems produced record full-year FY2026 results but the quarter contained a significant warning.
Q4 non-GAAP EPS came in at approximately $3.78, essentially matching the ~$3.76 consensus. Full-year revenue reached approximately $1.79 billion. (Investing.com Nigeria)
However, Q4 revenue was only about $484.1 million, well below expectations around $529 million. The shortfall was partly related to security-system deliveries delayed by Middle East conflicts. (tradingkey.com)
The company also introduced FY2027 guidance that appeared softer than investors wanted.
Market reaction: 🔴 Shares dropped more than 10% after hours.
Investment takeaway:
The underlying business remains strong, with a record backlog around $1.9 billion, but investors were looking for stronger forward growth after the stock’s previous run.
🔋 Flux Power — FLUX
Result: 🔴 Miss
Flux Power reported:
| Metric | Actual | Estimate |
|---|---|---|
| EPS | -$0.11 | -$0.037 |
| Revenue | $8.25M | $11.75M |
EPS missed by approximately $0.07 and revenue was dramatically below expectations. (Investing.com)
The company entered the report with elevated financial risk after Q3 revenue had fallen to only $6.6 million and cash reserves had become extremely limited.
Market reaction: 🟡 Initial after-hours reaction was modestly negative, although the stock’s subsequent trading became highly volatile.
Investment takeaway:
FLUX remains a high-risk turnaround/speculative situation, with liquidity and revenue execution more important than headline EPS.
📋 AUGUST 20 EARNINGS SCORECARD
| Company | Timing | EPS | Revenue | Guidance | Market Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WMT | Premarket | 🟢 Beat | 🟢 Beat | 🔴 Near-term weak | 🔴 Bearish |
| BABA | Premarket | 🔴 Miss | 🟢 Beat | 🟡 Heavy AI investment | 🔴 Bearish |
| DE | Premarket | 🟢 Beat | 🟢 Beat | 🟢 Raised | 🟢 Bullish |
| AAP | Premarket | 🟢 Beat | 🔴 Miss | 🟡 Mixed | 🔴 Bearish |
| NTES | Premarket | 🔴 Miss | 🟢 Beat | 🟡 Mixed | 🔴 Bearish |
| ROST | After close | 🟢 Major beat | 🟢 Beat | 🟢 Raised | 🟢 Bullish |
| FLO | After close | 🔴 Miss | 🔴 Miss | 🔴 Cut | 🔴 Bearish |
| OSIS | After close | 🟢/🟡 Beat | 🔴 Miss | 🔴 Soft | 🔴 Bearish |
| FLUX | After close | 🔴 Miss | 🔴 Miss | 🔴 Risk | 🟡/🔴 |
🔎 What August 20 Earnings Tell Us
🛒 1. The Consumer Is Becoming More Uneven
Walmart’s 2.6% U.S. comparable-sales growth versus Ross Stores’ 10% comp growth is particularly revealing.
This does not necessarily mean consumers have stopped spending.
Instead, it suggests consumers are becoming more selective about where they spend.
Value-oriented retailers are benefiting while broader discretionary and general-merchandise trends are becoming more mixed.
🤖 2. AI Spending Is Moving From Narrative to CapEx
Alibaba’s quarter illustrates the next stage of the AI investment cycle.
Cloud revenue grew 45%, but capex reached roughly RMB67.7 billion and free cash flow turned sharply negative. (Investing.com Canada)
The question for investors is no longer simply:
“Who is winning AI?”
It is increasingly:
“Who can monetize AI fast enough to justify the infrastructure spending?”
That distinction will become increasingly important as the 2026 earnings season progresses.
🏗️ 3. AI Is Also Driving the Physical Economy
Deere provided one of the most interesting second-order AI signals of the quarter.
The company isn’t an AI software company, yet its Construction & Forestry division grew 18%, with demand supported by infrastructure and data-center construction. (Reuters)
That means the AI investment cycle is spreading into:
AI → Data Centers → Power → Construction → Equipment → Infrastructure
Deere is a useful example of the picks-and-shovels economy surrounding AI infrastructure.
📉 4. Guidance Is Beating the Headline EPS
August 20 produced several examples of companies that beat earnings but sold off.
Walmart: EPS beat → stock down
Advance Auto Parts: EPS beat → stock down
Alibaba: revenue beat → stock down
OSI Systems: EPS essentially met → stock down
Meanwhile:
Deere: beat + stronger outlook → stock up
Ross Stores: beat + raised outlook → stock up
The pattern is clear:
The market is paying more attention to forward earnings quality than backward-looking EPS.
🏆 Best Earnings Reports
🥇 Deere — DE
Best combination of earnings beat + revenue beat + improved outlook.
The agricultural cycle may finally be approaching a trough while construction demand provides an additional growth engine.
🥈 Ross Stores — ROST
Best consumer-retail report.
Strong traffic, 10% comps, higher earnings and increased full-year guidance.
🥉 Walmart — WMT
Best operational quarter with the worst stock reaction among the major reports.
The underlying business remains impressive, but the consumer outlook created a valuation problem.
⚠️ Biggest Earnings Warnings
🔴 Alibaba — BABA
Massive AI investment is producing impressive cloud growth but substantial near-term cash-flow pressure.
🔴 Advance Auto Parts — AAP
Margin recovery is encouraging, but investors are demanding proof that sales can stabilize.
🔴 NetEase — NTES
Revenue growth remains respectable, but earnings conversion disappointed.
🔴 Flowers Foods — FLO
Volume weakness is becoming a major issue, with management forced to reduce its outlook.
🔴 OSI Systems — OSIS
Record backlog and long-term demand remain attractive, but near-term revenue timing and margins disappointed.
📈 StockInsight™ Earnings Signal
August 20 produced a very important earnings-season signal:
🟢 Strongest
DE · ROST
🟡 Mixed / Watch
WMT · BABA · NTES · OSIS
🔴 Weak
AAP · FLO · FLUX
The strongest setups were companies that combined earnings beats with improving forward expectations.
The weakest setups were companies where investors could look past the EPS number and identify slower sales, weaker margins, higher spending or softer guidance.
💡 Investor Takeaway
August 20’s earnings reports suggest that the market is entering a higher-dispersion phase.
The overall economy isn’t simply “strong” or “weak.”
Instead:
Value retail → strong
Traditional retail → mixed
AI infrastructure → accelerating
AI monetization → still developing
Agriculture → potentially bottoming
Consumer volume → increasingly selective
Margins → critical
For investors, this favors company-specific stock selection over broad sector assumptions.
The biggest lesson from Thursday:
A beat is only the beginning. The real trade is in the guidance, margins, cash flow, demand trends and management’s outlook.
🗓️ What Comes Next
Friday’s notable premarket earnings slate includes BEKE and BJ’s Wholesale (BJ), while the market will also be digesting Thursday’s consumer and AI spending signals. (Earnings Whispers)
The next major earnings wave begins Monday with XPeng (XPEV) and PDD Holdings (PDD), followed by another significant group on Tuesday, including Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) and Intuit (INTU). (Earnings Whispers)
📌 StockInsight™ Bottom Line
August 20 was a classic “quality of earnings” session.
🟢 DE and ROST showed accelerating fundamentals.
🟡 WMT and BABA demonstrated strong businesses facing difficult investor expectations.
🔴 AAP, FLO, NTES and OSIS showed how quickly the market can punish weakness in sales, margins or forward guidance.
For the remainder of earnings season, investors should focus less on “beat or miss” and more on:
Revenue → Margins → Free Cash Flow → Guidance → Demand → Valuation
That is where the next major winners and losers are likely to emerge.
