Can Ocado shares find some good news in upcoming first-half results?

When is Ocado’s earnings date?

Ocado publishes first-half earnings on 6 July 2021.

Ocado earnings – what to expect

Ocado is expected to report revenue of £1.3 billion, and a pre-tax loss of around £70 billion. Having benefited from the imposition of lockdowns across the UK the firm will now have to endure the opposite reaction, as shopper go out more and reduce their reliance on online grocery delivery. While sales are expected to have grown overall, the trend between the two quarters will be down, while will do little for a share price that has struggled since the beginning of the year.

Ocado now needs to focus attention on its global technology business once more, after a year in which it has been happy to concentrate on the performance of its original business.

What do the brokers say?

Of the analysts covering the stock, seven have ‘buy’ recommendations, with six ‘holds’ and seven ‘sells’. This even spread of views captures the uncertainty around Ocado as it looks to move on from the pandemic and back to winning technology mandates abroad.

Ocado share price – technical analysis

Covid 19 lockdowns proved to be the salvation of a flagging Ocado share price, taking it from £10 to a remarkable £29 by August 2020. But since then the wheels have come off; a second huge rally from October to the middle of January 2021 saw the price revisit £29, but it has been almost all downhill from there.

It does not take a technical analysis whizz to see that the shares remain weak, with rallies in March/April and June of this year both hitting lower highs and then falling once again, with lower lows also in place since February. The current bounce from £18.00 is in danger of reversing back below the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) at £19.72, which will bring £18.00 back into view once again.

Can international growth revive Ocado?

Ocado has underperformed the FTSE 100 all year, and needs something big to revive the troubled share price. Unlike other tech stocks around the globe it has reversed most of the 2020 gains, and is still searching for a catalyst to revive the rally. At present the lack of any consistent profit hinders the shares, with Ocado viewed as an expensive and unprofitable play in a highly-competitive global food and technology sector.